A TRIP to Shropshire awaits Keith Alexander’s men on Boxing Day, when they take on Shrewsbury Town.
This fixture, on the opening day of last season, saw Shrewsbury win 4-0 although Macc gained a measure of revenge with a 3-0 victory in the reverse fixture earlier this year.
Previous games between the Shrews and Macc have gone the way of the hosts in recent years, with the last away win coming for Macc in 2005.
Paul Simpson led Shrewsbury to the play-off final last season but defeat to Gillingham at Wembley consigned them to another season in League Two. This time around they remain in play-off contention and currently sit in 10th spot.
They took part in last Saturday’s only League Two game to go ahead but probably wish they hadn’t after losing 4-0 at Rochdale, and Simpson blasted his players’ "absolute rubbish performance," and will look for a response this weekend.
His squad has been hit by the news that striker Jake Simpson’s knee joint injury rules him out of action for around three months. He does still have top-scorer Dave Hibbert available, who has found the net nine times so far.
Simpson also has two former Moss Rose favourites to call upon in his midfield, Kevin McIntyre and Terry Dunfield. McIntyre netted nine penalties to top Macc’s scoring charts in 2006/07 before switching to the New Meadow in January 2008. Former Manchester City trainee Dunfield’s move a year later was a big blow to Macc’s form last season.
Macc host Crewe Alexandra in their final game of 2009.
Going into this game in 13th, Crewe have been marooned in mid-table after a patchy season, though they are on the back of a five-game unbeaten run, although they host Rochdale on Boxing Day. Crewe have struggled against high-fliers and have just one win from nine games against the current top 10.
It’s the first visit for Crewe in the league, and the previous clash, in September, was a 2-1 win for them.
Colin Daniel’s former club are once again managed by Dario Gradi, once the Football League’s longest serving manager. The much-respected Gradi has managed Crewe for more than 1,000 games and he took the reins after Gudjon Thordarson was sacked in October.
He has a potentially match winning strike force, with Calvin Zola and Clayton Donaldson having hit 17 between them so far, the lion’s share coming from Zola.
