Macclesfield Town 1-2 Torquay United

Macclesfield were served up a defeat sandwiched in between their FA Cup ties with Bolton and now have more injuries to contest with after George Donnelly limped off with a groin strain.

The manager, Gary Simpson, was left disappointed with his team’s ability to cope with set pieces, from which they shipped two goals.

Donnelly

“The most disappointing thing is that we have conceded again from two corners. I wanted my big players and my big defenders to come and deal with stuff and at the minute we’re not doing it,” he said.

Torquay broke the deadlock from a set piece through Ian Morris who headed home a looping header for The Gulls in the 52^nd minute to score his first goal for the club.

Macclesfield’s defence were caught out again from a set piece giving Mark Ellis the time to position himself correctly and fire an overhead kick into the back of the net less than 20 minutes later.

Simpson was sympathetic, he said: “I think sometimes it’s just how it goes and we struggled today. We have one or two struggling from injuries.

“I can’t fault the endeavour to try and get back into the game and we kept going and kept going,” said Simpson.

“We’ve got a few injuries, George had to go off because he’s got a groin strain and Sam [Wedgbury] is still struggling and we have had to cancel his operation,” he explained.

Super-sub Ian Morris

Macclesfield managed to claw one back through an arrowed header from Shaun Brisley after a cross from Elliot Hewitt on right hand side as The Silkmen pushed for a point from the game late on.

Torquay have now managed four league games unbeaten now and move up to 8^th place on 41pts, worthy of a play-off place.

Gulls’ Boss Martin Ling was pleased with his sides’ tough performance, he said: “It was pleasing to show that we have got a lot of credentials going forward and a lot of character.

“They’re strong, they get it forward quickly and we had to match that but you could just see that the gaps were starting to appear and we were always likely to pick them off.”

Ling was left with a potential selection problem in the wake of Ian Morris’ good form, he said: “I’m really pleased for Ian he puts it in day in and day out in training and he certainly does the job when he’s given the chance.”