Last weekend’s unfortunate postponement against Carlisle United gave manager David Artell and his assistant, Kenny Lunt, a rare opportunity to see an up-coming opponent in action.

The Alex staff took a training session on Saturday morning before heading off to watch this weekend’s opponent Macclesfield Town take on Mansfield. The Stags ran out 3-1 winners but Lunt explains that the result did not reflect the entire story.

Assistant manager Lunt told crewealex: “We all wanted to play on Saturday because I think everyone was looking forward to the game against Carlisle but the weather beat us. It was unfortunate.

“The lads trained on Saturday morning and then myself and Dave went to watch Macclesfield at Mansfield. It was a good game and Mansfield probably deserved to win it but Macc had their chances. They were a bit unfortunate at 1-1 when they hit the post and Mansfield went up the other end and scored.

“Marsh had a chance to make it 2-2 and the same thing happened again and it became 3-1.

“Macclesfield certainly play a lot more football under Sol Campbell. They are well drilled and organised and they pass the ball out from the back. They are different from the side that we beat 3-0 earlier in the season because that team when from the back to the front a lot quicker.

Lunt added: “It was a good chance to see an opponent play because we don’t get that many chances to do that if we are playing on the same day. It was good to take in a game and even better that we had a chance to see who we play on Saturday.”