Second-half improvement means little for Bees

The home side can take some consolation from the fact that they won the second half 7-5 in yesterday's National League Two North clash at Wagon Lane.

But in truth the spirit and fight shown by Bradford & Bingley in the second half was irrelevant to the game’s outcome as Geoff Wappett’s Macclesfield side had ended the game as a contest in the first half.

The home side came off second best in every aspect of the game in that first 40 and the 31-point lead that former Bees coach Wappett's men built up was a fair measure of their dominance.

At the heart of everything that Macclesfield did was a masterclass in half-back play from Tom Eaton and Ross Winney, who both seemed to have an age to choose their options, which were invariably the right ones. The Macclesfield back row were also on top of their hosts and any attacking threat the Bees posed was stopped short of the visitors' line and possession usually turned over, allowing Winney to clear his lines with a booming kick.

Winney slotted three early penalties to establish an early momentum for his side but by the 20th minute scores from centre Richard Hughes and wingman Matthew O’Regan had the visitors 21 points to the good, with the Bees looking ragged.

A degree of composure was restored to the home side in the period running up to half-time, and indeed a number of promising breaks put the Bees within range of the Macclesfield line.

However, a dropped pass or an ill-advised kick thwarted the home side’s ambition on each occasion and it was the visitors who were able to add scores from Eaton and Evan Stewart to turn round 31 points in front.

Macclesfield made a number of substititions early in the second half, which may have disrupted their rhythm, but the Bees also shuffled their deck and the introduction of James McBirnie seemed to galvanise the home midfield as increasingly the Bees managed to cross the gain line and also retain possession.

The Bees' greater endeavour was rewarded on 53 minutes as Tom Davidson bounced off a tackle and spun into open field with a short gallop to the try line.

With the conversion added, the Bees increasingly took the game to Macclesfield and with Winney off the field, it was the turn on the home No 10 Tane Jericevich to start to run things.

Jericevich showed that he has several options in his armoury as he ran, passed and showed the odd sleight of hand to keep the Macclesfield defence on their toes.

For all his prompting though, the Bees just could not break down some very effective defence and the final score of the game came from a Macclesfield break as substitute William Robinson galloped in.

Star Man: Evan Stewart (Macclesfield)