Lessons for the soccer community from FA Cup standout Macclesfield

MACCLESFIELD, England — On a chilly January morning, Sam Heathcote is on the field distributing training bibs. At 28 years old, he is well-acquainted with this routine, having spent his entire adult life as a footballer in the lower tiers of English soccer. His most significant achievement occurred recently when he played a crucial role in helping Macclesfield, a sixth-tier semiprofessional club, achieve an unexpected victory over Premier League team Crystal Palace in the FA Cup.

This match was one of those unforgettable moments in football — a true underdog tale — and it is difficult to overstate how remarkable that outcome was. When Macclesfield faced Palace on January 10, there was a staggering 117 places separating the two teams in the English football hierarchy, with Palace being the reigning champions of the tournament. In the 154-year history of the FA Cup, a competition renowned for its “David vs. Goliath” surprises akin to NCAA’s March Madness, this result was unprecedented. Fans rushed onto the pitch at the final whistle, and players were celebrated on shoulders. It was a moment that everyone associated with Macclesfield continues to cherish.

Heathcote’s thoughts were still on that remarkable day as he led a training session that morning, albeit in an unexpected setting. The practice took place on a concrete pitch at a primary school near Manchester, with all participants being just 10 years old. Many players from Macclesfield hold secondary jobs: among them are a property developer, a lawyer, a podcaster, and a gym owner. Their captain, Paul Dawson, earns extra income by packing boxes for a friend’s candle business.

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Heathcote, a 6-foot-2 center back known for his straightforward approach, is also a gym teacher, and on this particular morning, he was engaged in his teaching duties.

“Aubrey, everyone else has chosen red. You’ve picked orange,” Heathcote remarks to one of the children.

“I like the color orange!” Aubrey responds, seemingly oblivious to the strict two-color rule in soccer.

“Well, that’s fair enough,” Heathcote replies as Aubrey remains committed to his choice of orange. Life as a semiprofessional footballer can be unpredictable.

Macclesfield’s moment of glory is not yet finished. Their surprising win secured them a spot in the FA Cup fourth round, where they will face Premier League team Brentford on Monday (Stream live on ESPN+). The challenge now is whether they can replicate their earlier success.

Brentford has much to learn from Palace, whose manager, Oliver Glasner, remarked afterward that his players “never showed up.” But what insights can they and other teams gain from Macclesfield?

LESSON 1: Find a purpose

If anyone in the small town of Macclesfield were to conduct a seminar on resilience, the football club’s 48-year-old owner, Robert Smethurst, would be an ideal candidate. He acquired the club six years ago, just as it faced closure. The structure of English soccer can be unforgiving, and Macclesfield had been struggling for years, descending the league ladder as unpaid tax obligations and debts of £190,000 ($258,554 USD) accumulated, leading to player strikes.

Although he grew up just 8 miles from the club’s stadium, Moss Rose, Smethurst had never been a supporter of the team and had never attended a match. He was unaware of the extent of the issues: Debt collectors had seized nearly everything of value. There was no kitchen equipment left. Copper pipes had been removed. An air-conditioning unit was missing. The playing squad had departed. What motivated him to take this on?

In truth, Smethurst does not clearly recall the decision to purchase the club. While Macclesfield was in dire straits, he was also facing his own challenges. After selling his online car business for over £10 million ($13.6 million) a couple of years earlier, he felt a loss of direction.

“When you’re bored at noon, what do you do? I opened a bottle of wine,” Smethurst shares with ESPN. “For me, that spiraled into addiction. I was drinking increasingly and losing my sense of self.”

A friend of Smethurst’s noticed Macclesfield, which had recently gone out of business, listed on a real estate website called Rightmove. Without much contemplation — and under the influence of his alcoholism — he instructed his solicitor to submit a £500,000 ($680,267) offer.

“I can’t really recall it because I thought it was just a fun idea,” Smethurst explains, barely considering it until he received a call days later confirming the sale. That was when reality set in.

“I thought, ‘What on earth have I bought?'” he recalls. “When I finally regained my senses and visited the place — I had never even seen it before — I realized it had been devastated. The entire facility was in disarray.”

If the stadium’s condition was alarming, the club’s broader situation was even more dire. After going out of business, a club must be reestablished from the very bottom of the English football pyramid. Forget the sixth tier where they currently compete; Macclesfield Town was entered into the North West Counties Football League — the ninth and lowest tier — where attendance often hovers in the low hundreds.

Smethurst’s drinking problem persisted for another year. “I entered recovery,” he states. He followed the steps, gained insights into his drinking habits, and recognized that he had an unfulfilled purpose. Around this time, he was also diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

“I went into recovery and emerged with a positive mindset,” he says. “I was fighting for my life, but also eager to make a difference … Everything I have done with the club has been about: ‘How can I create something meaningful after recovery? How can I impact people’s lives?’

“I embarked on that journey. I invested about £4 million ($5.4 million) of my own funds to improve everything, including new pitches, new bars, and a gym for the community.”

Macclesfield achieved three promotions in four seasons, claiming three league titles along the way. The trophies are proudly displayed in the club bar. They accomplished this primarily by being the highest spenders in each of those divisions. Anyone you speak to in Macclesfield will readily attribute the club’s facilities and Smethurst’s financial support as the key factors in their rise from the ninth tier to defeating Crystal Palace.

Smethurst openly acknowledges that the club’s financial strength helped them navigate the first three divisions. Now that they have settled into the sixth tier, it is the unity of the town — along with external investment — that can propel them further.

“Fans can approach me and engage with me directly,” he states. “I’ve even gone out for coffee with supporters before. It’s a different dynamic. We are all in this together. I am accessible to everyone. If anyone wants to reach out to me, they can. If they have concerns, they can call me.”

LESSON 2: You always have each other

John Rooney should have been focused on the tactics board. With just an hour remaining before the FA Cup match against Palace, Rooney, brother of Manchester United icon Wayne Rooney, was instead preoccupied with a different concern as he embarked on his first managerial role at Macclesfield.

The team assembled in the home dressing room, but one player’s locker remained unoccupied. It was designated for their 21-year-old striker Ethan McLeod, who tragically lost his life in a road traffic accident on December 16 — merely a week after Macclesfield received the dream draw to face Palace, and less than a month before the crucial match.

Rooney had spoken with McLeod’s parents the night before the Palace game. McLeod’s father had wished the team well and mentioned they would be attending. Now, as the team approached kickoff, Rooney was concerned that relaying that message might impose too much pressure.

“I found myself questioning whether to inform them or not,” Rooney tells ESPN.

In the end, he opted not to share the news. The sorrow was still raw. Rooney understood that his players genuinely wanted to win for Ethan, whose image overlooks the pitch at Moss Rose and whose number has been retired. That message could wait until after the match.

The incident occurred on a Tuesday night following a last-minute 2-1 victory over Bedford Town FC. McLeod, who had just begun to establish himself in the team, was an unused substitute.

“One thing I will never forget, and that will stay with me for a long time, is his selflessness,” says striker Danny Elliott, Macclesfield’s leading scorer. “He was a striker, and I am a striker too. For most of the season, it’s fair to say he was somewhat in my shadow. That night against Bedford, he didn’t get on the pitch, but I scored a last-minute winning goal. As a 21-year-old striker, I would have likely felt disappointed not to play, but he was the first to come and celebrate with me. He was genuinely happy for me.”

Typically, McLeod would have returned with the rest of the squad on the team bus, but on this occasion, he opted to drive back to his hometown, Wolverhampton. He got into his car and left ahead of the bus, which departed minutes later but soon became stuck in heavy traffic. When they passed the scene of the accident, they realized it was a serious crash. They did not think much of it until Rooney, who returned home at 6 a.m. partly due to the traffic, received a call informing him that it was McLeod’s car involved in the fatal incident.

Rooney, who had been awake for nearly 24 hours, decided that his players should hear the news from him. He called each of them individually.

“The players were breaking down on the phone, and after that, I would pick up the phone, tell someone else — and then another,” Rooney recalls.

“I can’t imagine how challenging that must have been for him,” Elliott said of his manager. “I have the utmost respect for him. That was also his birthday, so I can’t fathom what that experience was like.”​

The following evening, the team gathered at their Moss Rose stadium in the club bar and spent hours together. “We sat in the room and cried together for a few hours,” Elliott shares. “But also, the beautiful aspect of football is that it goes on.”

Macclesfield postponed their game the following weekend to, as Elliott expressed, “grieve as a group.” They lost two of their next three matches. The FA Cup third-round match would be their fourth.

LESSON 3: Ignore the odds

All Crystal Palace’s players needed to do was glance to their left to see the warning sign. It was displayed on the side tunnel, the last thing they would have seen before stepping onto the field for the FA Cup match. It read, in capital letters: “DREAM. BELIEVE. ACHIEVE. AGAINST ALL ODDS.”

Perhaps the Palace players did not pay much attention. The pitch had recently thawed from a snowstorm days earlier. Macclesfield captain Dawson, in addition to his responsibilities at the candle company and youth coaching, took time to assist club staff in clearing snow from the pitch earlier that week for a league match — much to the displeasure of his manager, Rooney.

“I was shoveling snow until the gaffer called me,” Dawson recalls. “He wasn’t very pleased. I told him I had just been sitting on the tractor all day, which was not true. I just lied.”

Dawson’s efforts had paid off, but the pitch still fell short of the standards expected by Premier League teams. Before the match, Dawson walked onto the field and met his opposing captain, England international Marc Guéhi (who would later sign for Manchester City in January). Dawson later recounted to British radio station TalkSport: “Franny [our assistant coach Francis Jeffers] turned to Marc and asked, ‘Is the pitch okay for you?’ He replied, ‘Not at all.’ From that moment, I thought, ‘You know what? We have a chance here.’

As it turned out, Dawson was the one to score the opening goal of the match. He had been bleeding from his head just eight minutes into the game due to a clash with Palace defender Jaydee Canvot, resulting in him wearing a bandage around his forehead for the remainder of the match. When Macclesfield was awarded a free kick 30 yards from Palace’s goal, Heathcote assisted him in adjusting the bandage before the ball was sent into the box, which Dawson successfully headed into the net.

“To be honest, I’ve watched it several times. I don’t actually recall it happening,” Dawson admits. “When a significant moment like that occurs, it just vanishes from my memory. I don’t remember much of the game until I’ve seen it again.”

Scenes in the dressing room 🍾

Macclesfield FC players and staff sing Adele’s Someone Like You after their FA Cup victory over Crystal Palace 🎶 pic.twitter.com/by44M82ZFx

— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) January 10, 2026

What followed only added to the fairytale narrative. Macclesfield entered halftime with their astonishing 1-0 lead, and manager Rooney urged his team to remain composed: If they could avoid conceding in the second half, they would achieve the upset. The shock came when forward Isaac Buckley-Ricketts extended the lead to 2-0 in the 61st minute, nudging the ball past the Palace goalkeeper.

There was still time for Palace to disrupt the celebration. Macclesfield’s two-goal advantage was reduced after a free kick from Palace winger Yéremy Pino, whose £26 million ($35 million) transfer fee last summer is 26 times greater than Macclesfield’s total player expenditure. When that proved insufficient, the customary fan pitch invasion ensued. Soon, Dawson found himself lifted onto the shoulders of two supporters.

“The next moment, I was in the air. My calf cramped up!” he exclaims. “I was trying to stretch it, but everyone kept patting me and singing.”

Dawson reunited with his teammates in the locker room, where McLeod’s spot remained empty. They linked arms and sang Adele’s “Someone Like You.” McLeod’s parents joined in the celebrations, and Rooney conveyed the message he had wrestled with before the match.

“I will always remember that they were part of this day with us,” Rooney reflects. “Having his family there to share that day with us meant a great deal to me.”

Opta, the leading data provider in global soccer, maintains a live global power ranking of 13,000 teams across world football. Prior to that FA Cup match, Palace were ranked 19th; Macclesfield were positioned 6,879th — comparable to Mons Calpe, who are third in the Gibraltar Premier League, and similar to Ghanaian underdogs WaleWale Catholic Stars FC.

Next in their FA Cup journey is Brentford, another Premier League team that, at the time of writing, is ranked 13th in Opta’s system. Macclesfield became the first team to defeat a club five leagues above them. For it to happen again, lightning would need to strike twice.

But who would bet against it?

“I’m a football fan. My entire life has revolved around football, so the Premier League is what I always watch,” Rooney states. “We know a lot about them … We won’t be naïve. We’ll approach them like any other match, just as we did with Crystal Palace.

“As we do with teams in our own league, we treat every opponent with respect, and I am confident they will extend that same respect to us.”