United went down to their sixth successive league defeat at Macclesfield but for an hour you would never have thought that the Gulls were going to throw this one away. They dominated possession and produced the better chance along with actually taking the lead through Elliot Benyon early in the second half. The home side had produced very little for an hour but sloppy defending by United gave Macclesfield the chance to equalize and they never looked back.
Paul Buckle made three changes to the side that started against Grimsby last weekend: Lee Hodges came in for Kevin Nicholson, Wayne Carlisle replaced Marvin Williams and Tim Sills returned to the line-up in place of Scott Rendell who dropped to the bench with Nicholson and Williams.
United made a positive start to the match and within the first six minutes had created three decent sights at the Macclesfield goal via a coupe of attempts by Elliot Benyon and a header from Wayne Carlisle. Shortly after, Danny Stevens found himself in a good position on the edge of the home penalty area but Brown did well to block his effort as United dominated.
Macclesfield had done very little in an attacking sense but from a corner Brown powered a header to ward the United goal but it hit someone in a yellow shirt and was scrambled clear and to safety. Benyon again found himself bearing down on the home goal after good work from the impressive Chris Hargreaves but Brain in the Macclesfield goal produced a good save to deny the Gulls' striker and keep the scores level. Last week's star performer for United, Mark Ellis, even had an effort on the home goal after Wayne Carlisle had done some very good defensive work to win back some lost possession and find his centre half on the edge of the Macclesfield area but Ellis' shot was deflected wide for a corner.
Tim Sills and Chris Hargreaves were leading by example by providing huge levels of effort but to be fair the whole United team were fighting hard and were having the better of things by far, it was just a goal that was missing for their efforts.
At the break things were looking very positive for United, dominant in possession, a clean sheet and creating far more chances but could they finish the job in the second half.
Half-Time: 0-0
The first event of any note in the second period was a booking for United's Wayne Carlisle for a foul but a far more positive moment wasn't long in coming for the Gulls. In the 51st minute Tim Sills produced some excellent chasing down the left and forced Brown into a poor clearance which went straight to Danny Stevens, the ball quickly ended up at the feet of Elliot Benyon who had his shot from 12 yards deflected but it didn't matter as Brain was beaten low down and the lead was grabbed.
Goal: Macclesfield 0 United 1 (Benyon 51)
Macclesfield looked bereft of ideas and if anything the impression was that United would increase their lead at some point. Unfortunately, when results aren't going your way little else does and from a situation that looked rosy things took a nosedive for no apparent reason. Just after the hour mark, from open play, United had more than one chance to clear their lines but dithered and suffered badly as Bencherif turned and hit a shot against the underside of the crossbar from close range and despite United clearing the ball the assistant confirmed that the ball had crossed the line.
Goal: Macclesfield 1 (Bencherif 61) United 1
The situation was still one that was in United hands as long as they could repeat their work of the previous hour but the home side had a head of steam up now and the introduction of John Rooney (yes, it is his younger brother!) seemed to give Macclesfield a new imputus. Tim Sills was providing a defensive effort to help his team withstand then waves of attack from the home team but eventually the pressure told. Another period of play where United struggled to clear the ball properly again finished with Macclesfield scoring, this time Bencherif again found himself close-in to the United goal and he beat Michael Poke low into the left hand corner.
A triple substitution by Bucks that saw Tyrone Thompson, Marvin Williams and Danny Mills (who was making his League debut) replace Nicky Wroe, Danny Stevens and goal scorer Elliot Benyon was bold but didn't really have the desired affect on the remainder of the match. Tim Sills tested Brain with a couple of headers but a clear cut chance to draw level was never created and we move on to next week and two very important home games.
Full-time: Macclesfield 2 United 1
