YOU won’t generally find John Askey reaching for the panic button – and Macclesfield’s 3-2 defeat at Edgeley Park did nothing to change his ways.

Yes, it was a loss to local rivals County – now part-timers and plying their trade in the Conference North – but the Silkmen boss remains unperturbed.

Though there've been losses to Leek and their rivals from down the A6 the summer has also seen the Silkmen draw with Bolton and see off Crewe - and Askey wasn't getting carried away after those results. Similarly, he won't be in the depths of despair at defeat by sixth-tier Stockport.

The game also served as a testimonial for former Macc player Richard Landon - who scored the club's first winning goal back in 1997 and also their first strike on the road following promotion - and terming it a friendly would, at times, have seemed generous, given some of the challenges flying in.

Macc had taken the lead through Malachi Lavelle-Moore and netted the final one, Joe Mwasile forcing in 20 minutes from time.

And the fact that Stockport had scored three goals inbetween isn’t meaning sleepless nights in the Askey household.

“It’s been difficult this pre-season because of our situation and having to have a lot of trialists in,” he said following the loss. “We haven’t really got a side together yet and that makes it hard.

“Having said that, the three goals could all have been avoided, so I hope we’re getting them out of the way before the season starts, but I’m not too worried about pre-season.

“We’ve ended it on a low note but I can’t even remember what the results were in pre-season a year ago, and I’m sure our supporters can’t either.”

Bragging rights are all well and good but when the real business gets going this weekend outings like this – all about improving fitness, building players’ understanding and proving their abilities in the hope of earning a deal – will be no more than a vague memory.

Macc’s much-publicised money woes have seen Askey’s hand, or at least his cheque-signing hand, tied on many an occasion over the summer but the boss does seem cautiously optimistic ahead of Saturday’s opener at home to Braintree.

“Everyone could see today they (Stockport) looked more organised than we did because they’ve been together for a bit,” he added. “It is difficult when you keep changing personnel, but hopefully we’ll get someone in and they’ll make the difference.

“We’ve got players that are more than capable of playing at Conference level so come the start of the season we’ll see what we’re made of.”