Alfreton v Macclesfield

The Silkmen travel to Alfreton Town for a pre-season match against the FA Cup opposition from 2004.

This is expected to be a full senior squad, and will be the first full game for many players since facing Lisburn Distillery last week.

Matches since then have been predominantly young and fringe players, so Alexander is back to working on his starting XI for the coming season.

The Silkmen had four trialists with them as they faced Buxton earlier in the week, and these players may be involved at some point tonight. A trialist goalkeeper, reported to be Grant Carson, was supposed to be involved at Buxton and may play tonight as Keith Alexander continues his search for a young back-up player for Jon Brain.

Macc have, of course, played Alfreton before. In the FA Cup first round in 2004 where Danny Whitaker’s late goal looked to have avoided a banana skin only for Mark Sale to score at the death to earn a replay.

Fast forward 10 days to the Moss Rose and Jon Parkin and Mike Sheron his a goal each in a 2-0 win. The Silkmen went on to face Hull City and were beaten 4-0.

Alfreton are in the Conference North, where they finished 16th last season.