It looked like Jonny Smith’s late goal would give the Latics all three points at Moss Rose but a very dubious penalty gave the Silkmen a point which could prove to be crucial at the end of the season. So too could the two points lost to the Latics after the referee adjudged that David Wheater had handled the ball which also resulted in his dismissal.
Head Coach, Dino Maamria, commented, “In the second-half we were tremendous. We boxed them in and it was hard for them to come out of their own half and rightly so we got the goal. We were on the front foot and were showing all the things we've not been doing in the last couple of games which was really pleasing to see. To be robbed for those two points it's really hard to take. He kind of apologised to me after the game. It's a series of errors leading up to decision though and it's obvious to see that Wheater clearly back heels the ball and with the referee far from the situation he initially waves play on, no penalty. Then Macclesfield gang up on him and he changes his mind and gives the penalty. I don't understand that. We can't do anything about it now, we've just lost two points and it's disgusting. I thought the linesman give it because they were speaking over the mics but he just said he changed his mind and apologised if he got it wrong. I try to keep my players away from referees. You get in trouble for ganging up on the referee to try and influence a decision but that seems to work. Because five or six Macclesfield players have run across the pitch to get him to change his mind. To give the penalty and then the red card for a situation he has not seen as well as the linesman who told me directly. The Macclesfield players got on top of him, he crumbled and he gave the penalty. I'm extremely angry, disappointed and upset that we dropped two points. I thought our team especially in the second-half were brilliant.”
“I thought our fans were fantastic, they came with numbers. But there's no consequences to the referee. He'll be refereeing another game next week but there is consequences for what we do. Looking at the pitch, the game was always going to be about those second balls. It's all about the ball going from back to front, with the wind as well it didn't help. I picked a team that would make sure they won their battles, duels and played on the front foot. I thought we did that in the second-half, not as much in the first but we matched them in that period with a couple of chances. Carl Piergianni was a man mountain. He was outstanding and was the man of the match. Jonny Smith was also back to his best again, so I thought we were really good going forwards. We need more numbers in the box though as we put a lot of crosses in and the second-half was one of our more better performances for a long time.”
“I told the players at the end of the game that our fans are quite loyal fans and they see the game how we see it. They want to see a team that fights for every ball, goes on the front foot and we did that. And it's good to see them together clapping them at the end of the game. Our fans can relate to a team like that. They won't be able to relate to the team that played at Cheltenham because that was nothing like what we did here. I know what our fans expect. They expect us to do the basics well and they appreciated that at the end of the game. I'm really disappointed for them we didn't come away with three points because I thought we deserved that.”
“Christian [N'Guessan] is a young lad and he's gone into the middle of the park and ended up at right back and done well. It was a brilliant debut for him. I'm disappointed with Mani [Dieseruvwe] as he's done his ankle and came off with that, so it was disappointing for him to not be able to show what he's capable of in this team. We'll take the positives from the second-half at the end of it, as we were on the front foot.”