Following Saturday’s defeat at Maidenhead Paul Cox gave home debuts to new signings Lewis Freestone at full back, midfielder Simon Lenighan and striker Mike Fondop while the other new signing, winger Andy Haworth, was amongst the substitutes. Jonathan Maxted was also handed the goalkeepers gloves for the first time under the new managers reign.

And despite a battling performance the Lions were unable to stop in-form Macclesfield from going top of the pile after registering their third win on the bounce.

The home side started strongly with John Rooney going close as early as the third minute but they fell behind on 15 minutes when Scott Wilsons effort cannoned off the inside of the post to leave Danny Whitaker with the easiest of conversions.

Despite matching the visitors work rate the Lions had to wait until three minutes before the break to level matters through debutant Fondop who latched on to Will Hatfield’s astute through ball to draw Shwan Jalal and lift dink the ball over the prone keeper for a deserved equaliser.

The second half continued in much the same vein as the first with Mitch Hancox and Danny Whitehead going close for the Silkmen while Jalal did well to deny Rooney.

Fondop should also have done better when he muscled Danny Fitzpatrick off the ball but his rising shot always looked to be going over.

Then just as it looked as though the game would peter out into a draw Elliott Durell popped up in the right-hand channel to fire across Maxted into the far corner with just four minutes remaining.

Even then the home side had a couple of chances to grab a share of the spoils but Rooney put his free kick into the car park and substitute Reece Thompson headed over from a good position to leave Cox still looking for his first win.

Team:
1 Maxted
2 Brown
25 Atkinson
8 Hatfield
29 Freestone
5 Palmer
10 Rooney
28 Lenighan
11 Molyneux (Thompson 78)
19 Odejayi (Haworth 67)
30 Fondop

Subs:
4 Wesolowski
6 Lawlor
9 Thompson
18 Mulhern
31 Haworth

Paul Cox post match