Macclesfield

Macclesfield built its wealth on silk. What is now Macclesfield F.C. traces back to a side founded in 1874, one that spent most of a century in non-league football before, later, winning the National League in 2017–18. That climb ended on 16 September 2020, when a High Court winding-up order closed the original club over debts of more than £500,000, among them unpaid sums owed to HM Revenue and Customs and to former manager John Askey. The National League expelled the club the following month. Three weeks after the winding-up, on 6 October 2020, the local businessman Robert Smethurst bought the club's assets, Moss Rose included, and started again from the North West Counties Premier Division. The rebuild has moved fast by the standards of clubs starting from that level: the league title in 2021–22, promotion again the following season, and the Northern Premier League Premier Division title in 2024–25. Where the old club wore blue and white, the new one plays in white shirts with black shorts and socks. The FA Trophy the club lifted in 1970, beating Telford United 2–0, belongs to that earlier history, as does the run of Cheshire County League titles won across three decades. The rivalry with Crewe Alexandra, fought out as the Cheshire Derby, has carried through both versions of the club. Moss Rose has stayed constant throughout, still the fixed point for a town that lost its team once and did not let the closure be the end of it.