Macclesfield bowed out of the FA Cup as a Sam Heathcote own-goal earned Brentford a place in the quarter-final where they will face West Ham
Macclesfield’s historic FA Cup run came to an agonising conclusion as Brentford overcame the giant-killers 1-0.
The Bees avoided becoming the latest Premier League scalp at the hands of John Rooney’s side with Keith Andrews’ side scraping past the National League North side thanks to a Sam Heathcote own-goal.
The Irishman emphasised that they would not be underestimating the sixth-tier side but team selection didn’t quite back that up with their two top scorers, Igor Thiago and Kevin Schade, left out of the squad while club-record signing Dango Ouattara named on the bench.
Eleven years and seven months after their League Two meeting, the two sides locked horns after enduring contrasting fortunes. Less than six months after Macclesfield were wound up in the High Court, Brentford made history by earning promotion to England’s top-table for the very first time.
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Equipped with their tin-foil FA Cup trophies, half-and-half and newly-established bloodied head bandages from Paul Dawson’s heroics in January.
A walk in the park it was not. Brentford’s preparations saw them play on artificial pitches but it didn’t stop them struggling in the early exchanges. A string of misplaced passes from full-back Michael Kayode set the tone and it gave the underdogs a sense of impetus as they smelt trepidation for the visitors. Luke Duffy, a live-wire down the right-wing, fizzed a stinging effort over the bar.
Captain Dawson immortalised himself in FA Cup and Silkmen folklore with his performance in the last round. He came agonisingly close to opening the scoring inside 20 minutes after Vitaly Janelt pockets were picked. The Macclesfield skipper marauded forward but could only drill his effort the wrong side of Hakon Valdimarsson’s right-hand post.
After a slow start, Brentford did put Max Dearnley’s goal under pressure.. Dawson handed the set-piece kings an opportunity to deliver and the non-leaguers survived after a goalmouth scramble.
The Silkmen shot-stopper was then forced into his first save when Aaron Hickey’s hard-work down the left fashioned Reiss Nelson an opportunity but the former Arsenal man could only sting the palms of the 27-year-old.
As the minutes clocked on, the part-timer’s legs began to fade and the Bees found the sting in their tail. With Macclesfield down to 10 men as Luke Matheson prepared to come on for Lewis Fensome, the hosts capitalised with 20 minutes on the clock when primary school teacher, Sam Heathcote headed into his own net.
Romelle Donovan should have doubled their lead 10 minutes later but could only blaze over. The 19-year-old tricked his way around the Silkmen defender but couldn’t rubber-stamp their place in the quarter-finals against West Ham in March.
At the other end, the visitors were almost forced to rue their wastefulness when former Manchester United academy product D’Mani Mellor was twice denied by some desperate defending from the hosts.
Macclesfield will be brought back down to earth after the dizzying high of their FA Cup fourth round tie, which is predicted to score the club £400,000, as they chase a fourth promotion since rising from the ashes.
Brentford qualify for the fifth round of the FA Cup for just the third time in their history, and their first since 1989, but they will breathe a huge sigh of relief after escaping another Macclesfield FA-Cup giant-killing.
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