How a football cup run helped unite the town of Macclesfield

For a club rooted in non-league football, Macclesfield’s recent FA Cup run didn't just connect those on the pitch, but a whole community

For a club rooted in non-league football, Macclesfield’s recent FA Cup run didn't just connect those on the pitch, but a whole community

When Macclesfield were drawn against Crystal Palace , few outside the town gave them a chance. Palace were not only an established Premier League side, they were the holders of the FA Cup, arriving with international players, a global fanbase and the financial muscle that separates the top flight from the rest of the pyramid. Macclesfield meanwhile sit in the middle of the seventh tier of the English football pyramid.

What unfolded was one of those rare FA Cup evenings that makes the Cup exciting. Macclesfield beat the team sitting 116 places above them, and were rewarded with another home game against another multimillion pound Premier league side in Brentford, who ended their cup run on Monday.

The impact on the town cannot be measured purely in gate receipts or bar takings, though both surged. Local pubs were packed, shop windows filled with blue and children who had drifted towards ‘superclubs’ suddenly had heroes on their doorstep. For a place that has known economic uncertainty and the collapse of its former club, the run brought new life to the community.

Positive News sent photographer Orlando Gili to meet the locals who serve the community, the volunteers who paint the stands, the staff who juggle day jobs with match day duties, and the players who train at night because they have work in the morning.

“It’s the biggest deal we’ve had here for a long time,” says Nick Carter, a Macclesfield butcher who used to sell pies to the club. The cup run is “great promotion of the town and great for the younger sport enthusiast,” he says.

A group of local supporters congregate outside a fan-favourite pub, the Lord Byron. They’re in an excitable mood as they meet up before heading up to the stadium to watch the 4th round FA Cup tie against Brentford.

A merchandise seller has arrived to sell commemorative scarfs and other items, outside Macclesfield’s stadium before kick off.

“It’s a big thing. It’s part of your life when you work here for as long as I have,” says Groundsman Jim, who has worked as the groundsman for over four decades. “Like most of the people that work here, I work here because I am a fan.”

“When I was 7 years old, I was a paperboy at the shop on top of the hill on Coronation Street. A former owner of the shop was the director of the club and he used let me go to the games for free.”

John Rooney, the manager of Macclesfield FC, sits nervously in the dressing room before the game. His foot tapping, hands slightly shaking. A few moments earlier his young children had been posing in the changing room with the FA Cup. The former midfielder, and brother of England international Wayne Rooney, started his footballing at Macclesfield as a youth aged just 12 in 2002, remaining with the club until a move to the US in 2011.