Martin Allen's Notts County side fell to defeat in their final senior pre-season game yesterday, suffering a 1-0 defeat the hands of League Two opponents Macclesfield Town. A single goal in the second half from former Doncaster Rovers striker Waide Fairhust with enough to seal the win, with Notts once again suffering from a lack of firepower upfront in a disjointed performance at Moss Rose.
Notts did start brightly and carved out the better chances early on, with Neal Bishop's long range effort taking a deflection and nearly wrongfooting Jose Veiga, whilst Craig Westcarr should've done better when the ball fell to him inside the area. Westcarr also forced a strong save out of Cape Verde Islands international Veiga and touched a Jeff Hughes cross wide as Notts dominated the opening stages.
This didn't last though and the hosts came back into the game, with Jon Bateson's thirty yard effort that clipped the post proving a catalyst for a physical Macclesfield side to get a hold of the game. Ben Tomlinson should've beaten Nelson from close range, whilst Krystian Pearce had to be well placed to clear Nat Brown's header off the line. Nelson also had to be alert to keep out efforts from former Notts man Matt Hamshaw and Tony Diagne as the Silkmen dominated the closing stages of the first half.
Notts got back into the game at the beginning of the second half, with Jeff Hughes firing wide and Westcarr unable to beat Veiga from close range, before Alan Sheehan forced a brilliant block out of young Shaun Brisley after some neat build up play. Yet again they failed to take their chances and continue to keep the pressure up though and Macclesfield were able to capitalise - Waide Fairhurst collecting the ball in the box after a defensive mistake and calmly slotting past Nelson. Things went from bad to worse for Notts as Neal Bishop was forced off by injury, with Craig Westcarr missing Notts' final chance with an off target overhead kick.