FA Cup holders Crystal Palace crash out to non-league Macclesfield in HUGE upset

MACCLESFIELD 2-1 CRYSTAL PALACE: FA Cup holders Crystal Palace are out of the competition after one of the greatest upsets in the competition's long history

Thirty seconds. That is all it took for Paul Dawson to give blood for the Macclesfield cause.

In the first challenge between non-leaguer and Premier Leaguer, the captain cut open his head. Soon after, the big bandage came out.

Football fans of a certain age will know the one. The Terry Butcher one, Stockholm, 1989. Never mind the claret, strap it up, and get on with it.

And not just get on with it - lead by example, battle for everything, leave it all out there. It was as old school as the peaked cap worn by Max Dearnley in the Macclesfield goal.

And then, just before half-time, the moment the script demanded. A Luke Duffy free-kick and who gets there first to send home a header? Captain Courageous himself.

And it was a moment the 27-year-old will never forget. When a career that has taken in Morecambe, Lancaster City, Bamber Bridge and Macclesfield, comes to an end, he will have this.

The goal that set up one of the grand, old competition’s great giant-killing performances. And one of the most poignant, coming so soon after the tragic passing of Ethan McLeod, who died in a car accident just over three weeks ago.

To a man, woman and child, the young Macclesfield striker’s team-mates and club staff did him proud. Simple and as beautiful as that.

Macclesfield were sensational, the FA Cup holders were terrible. Silkmen two, sow’s ear one.

And don’t start thinking this was a triumph based purely on the sort of non-league grit and determination shown by Dawson.

That couldn’t be further from the truth. Dawson can play and so can his colleagues. The slicker attacking moves came from John Rooney’s side, the incisiveness came mostly from them, they were committed but composed.

But as good as Macclesfield were, it was an embarrassment for the holders.

And after Isaac Buckley-Ricketts had cleverly wrong-footed Palace keeper Walter Benitez to double Macclesfield’s lead around the hour mark, no wonder Oliver Glasner was to be seen slumped over an advertising hoarding.

There were 117 places between the two sides and, for a lot of the contest, you could not tell which one was the team 117 places higher than the other.

For Palace, only Adam Wharton showed anything like Premier League class in a first half that ended with Dawson’s header. It was no wonder Glasner made three changes at half-time, bringing on Tyrick Mitchell, Will Hughes and Brennan Johnson.

It did not bring an immediate uplift in performance from the full-timers, whose previous game in this competition had been in temperatures in the mid-20s, in front of 84,000 people and in one of the world’s most famous stadiums.

There were five and a half thousand inside the old Moss Rose and Torvill and Dean could have done a routine out in the middle.

I think it has been referred to as the magic of the FA Cup. It certainly felt magical when Buckley-Ricketts produced a finish the watching Wayne Rooney would have been proud of.

But while Dawson and Buckey-Ricketts will, rightly, take a lot of the acclaim, a word for keeper Dearnley. His wonderful save to deny Wharton, soon after the home side had gone two up, was as important as any Macclesfield moment in this epic victory.

And, in truth, after that save, Palace never looked likely to stage a decisive fightback.

Marc Guehi, a player who can take his pick of some of Europe’s greatest clubs, was here getting booked for a foul on Macclesfield’s D’Mani Mellor. It summed up Palace’s day.

In fact, it was a surprise when Yeremy Pino brought late home anxiety with a sweetly-struck free-kick.

But the day was not about Palace’s under-performance, it was about a tearful Wayne Rooney’s older brother, it was about owner Rob Smethurst resurrecting the club with his money, it was about Dawson and his team-mates.

And it was about honouring and treasuring the memory of Ethan McLeod. It was a very, very special day.

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