Daryl McMahon praises ‘fantastic’ Macclesfield squad after draw at Walsall

Macclesfield boss Daryl McMahon heaped praise on his “special group” after Town returned from their strike over unpaid wages to draw 1-1 at Walsall.

Town led for much of the game through Miles Welch-Hayes first professional goal but were pegged back by Wes McDonald’s second-half leveller.

Macclesfield hit the bar at 1-0 up through James Harris’ but were indebted to a string of late saves from on-loan Wigan goalkeeper Owen Evans.

The Silkmen remain 15th in League Two after a fourth successive draw but McMahon was delighted after a fortnight without a game due to strike action.

McMahon said: “We created numerous chances but didn’t manage to kill the game off. But the overall performance was very good.

“We could have been 2-0 or 3-0 up. For that first 60-70 minutes, I thought we were excellent.

“They had a lot of pressure but Walsall were a League One football club last year. It shows how far we have come as a team that we are disappointed with only a point.

“We can only focus on the changing room and making sure we prepare ourselves the best we can. We’ve got a fantastic group of players and staff here.

“It’s a special group of people – we all work really hard, we’re dedicated to the club and to each other and that shows in our performances.”

On his keeper, McMahon added: “Owen is different class – I think in the next couple of years you are going to see him on TV playing for Wales and playing in the Premier League.”

Walsall remained 17th but boss Darrell Clarke was left frustrated after Evans denied Mat Sadler, Elijah Adebayo and Josh Gordon, who also had an effort cleared off the line.

The Saddlers are League Two’s second lowest scorers and Clarke said: “It feels like two points dropped to be honest. The stats will tell you that.

“We had a disastrous start which gets the place edgy. We didn’t really recover from that for a while and for me it was an average performance, a frustrating performance, but a game we should win.

“We’ve had 33 attempts at goal, 13 corners, 64 per cent possession – if we play that game again, we win 3-1 or 4-1. I think their keeper has pulled off three or four world-class saves on the day.

“It was a tough watch at times. They had a couple of attempts on the counter but other than that it was one-way traffic without the quality we needed in the right areas at key times.

“Minus a disastrous October we would be right in the mix. That’s one defeat in nine (in all competitions) and we’ve just got to keep working away.”