Campbell: We fought really well but it just didn’t go our way
Posted Sunday, January 27, 2019 by PA
Sol Campbell refused to criticise his Macclesfield side after seeing them allow a two-goal lead to slip away in their 3-2 defeat against relegation rivals Cheltenham.
A third successive victory would have lifted the Silkmen out of the bottom two, but after taking an early lead they lost skipper Nathan Cameron to a red card in the 20th minute.
Macclesfield made it 2-0, but lost both Koby Arthur and Callum Evans to injuries during an eventful first period.
Second-half strikes from Luke Varney, Jacob Maddox and Charlie Raglan completed the turnaround as Cheltenham moved up to 18th.
“We started really well, but from the sending off things started to go wrong and we had to do more running and the organisation at the back went,” Campbell said.
“Cheltenham capitalised well on the spare man, used the ball really well and then we had two injuries as well.
“That hampered us on how we tried to play football, so it was hard having a man sent off and injuries in one half.
“But fair do’s to Cheltenham, they played the ball and used the ball really well and we didn’t have that extra bit of quality to keep the ball when we had it.”
Cameron was shown a straight red card for fouling Maddox on the edge of the box.
Despite having to play most of the match with a man less, though, Macclesfield almost snatched a point near the end but Scott Wilson missed a good chance to level in the 87th minute.
Campbell added: “I’ve not seen the red card incident yet, but he was the last man. Is it a free-kick? Is it a yellow? It’s academic now, but we fought really well and put everything into it and we had a chance to make it 3-3 with Scott Wilson putting it wide and it just didn’t go our way.”
Macclesfield were awarded a penalty in the 10th minute when Scott Flinders brought down Wilson.
Rose stepped up and saw his spot-kick hit the bottom of the right post and roll into the net off Flinders.
Macclesfield then lost defender Cameron but they made it 2-0 in the 23rd minute when Wilson took advantage of a Flinders mistake to net his sixth goal in seven games.
The home side pulled one back nine minutes after the break through Varney before Chelsea youngster Maddox the equalised in the 61st minute after Varney’s nod down.
Raglan then headed in a cross from Alex Addai in the 79th minute to seal the points for the hosts.
Cheltenham boss Michael Duff admitted it was a huge relief to come away with the points as his side ended a run of three successive defeats to lift their survival hopes.
“I could do without those kind of games, to be honest, but it’s a win,” Duff said.
“We can’t start like that because we’ve gifted them two goals.
“After that we were good, their goalkeeper (Kieran O’Hara) has had an absolute blinder and we’ve still scored three goals.
“It looked like it was going to be one of those days, but the sending off affected them. Even after that we’ve given them another goal.
“We can’t legislate for mistakes like that, but I was pleased with the reaction.
“We kept going, made a change at halt-time and then kept going, with people coming off the bench and affecting it.
“We just need to tune in and start turning up for 90 minutes.”
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