Non-League Macclesfield delivered what will go down as the biggest FA Cup giantkilling ever recorded, beating holders Crystal Palace 2-1 at the third-round stage with 117 places of the English football pyramid separating the two clubs. It was the first time the cup holders had lost to non-League opposition since 1909, when Palace themselves, then in the Southern League, beat Wolves.
Captain Paul Dawson, sporting a bandage after an early clash of heads, headed the sixth-tier Silkmen in front two minutes before the interval, and Isaac Buckley-Ricketts doubled the lead on the hour. Yeremy Pino's 90th-minute free-kick set up a nervy six minutes of added time, but Macclesfield held on amid ecstatic scenes in front of a sell-out crowd of 5,348.
A Sixth-Tier Side Inspired by Loss
Macclesfield, reformed in 2020 after Macclesfield Town were wound up, played with the memory of their 21-year-old forward Ethan McLeod in mind. McLeod was killed in a car accident on December 16 as he returned from the club's match at Bedford Town, and John Rooney's part-time squad — built around players who hold down jobs in teaching, law and property — produced a performance full of spirit in his honour.