Macclesfield

Ground: Moss Rose

Visits: 1

Date: 3rd April 2013

Match: Macclesfield - Grimsby 1-3 (Conference Premier)

Attendance: 1 776

It has been a cold winter in England and for that reason there has been plenty of postponed matches, especially in the lower leagues. One of the postponements was Macclesfield vs Grimsby in Conference Premier. Conference Premier is the 5th tier of English football and the "last" of the national leagues. At first I was planning to go home on Wednesday morning but when Macclesfield vs Grimsby was rescheduled for Wednesday evening I decided to attend this match as well. Macclesfield is close to Manchester airport and I decided to stay at an airport hotel for my last night in England. My train from Middlesbrough arrived at the airport around 1.45pm and I then went to my hotel to check-in. An hour later I was in the city centre of Manchester for a late lunch before finding an internet café. I then boarded a train bound for Macclesfield and by 5.45 I was at Macclesfield station. 20 minutes later I was outside Moss Rose, the home of Macclesfield Town FC. Moss Rose is another old-style English football ground. It has a main stand with around 500 seats and in front of the seats there is a terrace as well. The home end (Star Lane End) is made up of both seats and terrace (behind the seats). The newest addition to Moss Rose is the Henshaws (West) Stand. This all-seated stand was opened in 2001. The left part of this stand is for away supporters. Away fans can also choose to stand in the uncovered terrace in the north end of the ground. Moss Rose is a mix of different stands and has an overall capacity of 6 300.

I was waiting for Andreas outside the main stand and after some delays (bad traffic) he arrived around 6.30pm. We walked around the ground taking pictures before buying our tickets. We decided to sit in the Henshaws Stand. As we were about to enter the turnstiles another friend of Andreas showed up. That was Swedish groundhopper Kim. He has been to more than 600 grounds in England (I guess I have some catching up to do!). Once inside the ground I was surprised to see so many Grimsby supporters. In total around 500 away fans made the 200 km journey from Grimsby this Wednesday evening, impressive to say the least. The match started with an early Grimsby goal, perfect for neutrals. This turned out to be a much better game than I had expected. It ended 3-1 to Grimsby and they confirm their place in the promotion play-off zone. The result mean Macclesfield´s season is more or less over but I enjoyed my visit and wish the club every success next year. After the match Andreas drove me and Kim to the train station. On my way to the airport I could look back on a great week in England. Six matches, five new grounds and I have now been to 70 grounds in England (64 of the 92). Hopefully I will be able to visit England again as early as the first weekend of August when the 2013/14 season get underway.

macclesfield town fc