Full Season for Keith.

Macclesfield Town manager Keith Alexander took charge of his 46th League match for the Silkmen against Bradford City.

So a full season under his belt, how are we getting along?

Listen to many supporters, and look at the attendances, and you might think the answer is ‘not all that well`. But putting those 46 matches into one season, starts to look a little more respectable.

Taking up the reigns on the first of March last year, and with 12 games remaining, the Silkmen were in a dire position. 12 games to the end of the season and three points out of the bottom two both clubs below the Silkmen had games in hand. 23rd placed Mansfield had three more to play, whilst Wrexham, a point behind, had four.

And after an initial first draw with Notts County and painful defeat to Brentford it became a good start for the Silkmen`s new manager who went on to put five wins on the board in the final 10 games with two more draws making a total of 19 points. Unfortunately the honeymoon ended as soon as August arrived and a terrible spell saw four matches, conceding 14 goals and scoring none. But the first win against Luton heralded an improvement, three straight wins and only one defeat in seven. And that set the tone for a rollercoaster season peppered with good spells and bad spells.

Three straight home defeats (although all narrow and some might say unfortunate) were followed by three wins and two draws in six. But again it didn`t last and the Christmas spirit was dampened by heavy losses to Morecambe and Dagenham.

But once again the side rallied. What looked on paper a very tough run of four games including three of the top five yielded an impressive eight points.

But the ‘season` ended with its worst run. One in in eight matches, and a total of four points. True, the fixture computer could have given an easier ‘run in` with many games against the promotion hunting sides, but a final win against Shrewsbury at least gained some hope.

During the remainder of the 46 game ‘season` we have picked up 36 points leaving us with 55 for the ‘season`. Which would equal our second highest points totals since 2001/2!

And although the first two seasons of the millennium saw higher totals, they were only by one and three points, whilst the season after relegation from the Second Division saw 65 points. A decade, and the club have only managed a significantly improved tally on two occasions.

If this was a single season, then the cup runs would also come into play for the final reckoning of the overall campaign.

As with most seasons, the less said about the LDV the better (only Brian Horton has won a single game in that competition in the club`s history) but the Carling Cup saw a Championship side beaten and a Premier League opponent matched all the way over 90 minutes. The FA Cup was also a decent achievement. A lower League banana-skin sidestepped, a MASSIVE fellow League Two side dispatched away from home and another Premiership tie which saw a narrow 1-0 defeat to Everton.

This in itself was an unmentioned piece of history for the Silkmen.

It was the first time the club had ever faced two top flight clubs in the same season and (over 90 minutes at least) the club`s best performances against the illustrious opposition. No 7-0`s here.

Last season that would have seen the club in a relatively uninspiring position of 16th, which in itself would still be an improvement that season`s actual final position. Add to that a decent season in the cups and bringing through some young players and on paper it would actually be one of the club`s better campaigns of recent years.

Unfortunately, football isn`t played on paper, and it remains to be seen whether Keith Alexander can win back many of the supporters who seem to have turned their back on him.

But the season has been one of ups and downs. Rallies followed by collapses followed by rallies. Can we finish the season on more of a high?

The incredibly tough mid section of the season seems to come to an end against Darlington with supposedly easier ‘on paper` mid and lower table sides in the upcoming fixtures. Matching 19 points from the remaining games will be a tough proposition, but finishing this season as strongly as we finished the last would certainly help in restoring the optimism. But it starts with a tough old game at Darlington.