Rotherham 1-3 Macclesfield

The Silkmen fell to another 3-1 defeat midweek as they travelled to Rotherham and despite battling back from an early goal were beaten 3-1, but not without the intervention of the referee.

After the match, Silkmen manager Gary Simpson was fuming about the officials, with replays showing he had every right to feel aggrieved.

The Silkmen could even count themselves unlucky with the first goal. Carl Tremarco, making his first start since his injury looked to have injured his groin again, a crushing blow for the Silkmen in it`s own right. But as the Blues were waiting to replace him with Matt Lowe, the home side took advantage of their numerical advantage and opened the scoring with a long shot that skimmed off the wet surface.

But the Silkmen fought back and a Lee Bell shot was blocked only for the ball to the worked through to Ben Wright who made no mistake when one on one with the ‘keeper before half time.

The second half saw two golden chances for the Blues to take the lead. First Ben Wright was clean through but tackled well as he was about to shoot before the first refereeing incident that earned the ire of Simmo.

A nice move saw Lee Bell putting Emile Sinclair out wide and his low cross missed Ben Wright but seemed a tap-in for Ross Draper before he was caught from behind preventing him taking the shot.

But before long the Silkmen were behind. With the Silkmen never looking in any real danger the home side were gifted a goal. Adam Le Fondre used some good skill to get into the box and went down very softly. Sliding forward he seemed to have taken the ball out of play with Shaun Hessey watching for the goal-kick.

When it wasn`t given he attempted to play the ball off the Rotherham player for a goal-kick but the referee eventually gave a penalty after consulting with a linesman who had also not signalled a spot kick.

Moments later the home side made it 3-1 when Broughton scored into an open goal after Jon Brain had made a good save.

It was hard luck on the Silkmen who had battled well with a patched up side against the side now in third place.