Macclesfield FC’s story over the last several years reads like the stuff of footballing folklore—a tale of collapse, rebirth, heartbreak, and, most recently, unthinkable triumph. As the club prepares to host Premier League side Brentford at Moss Rose on Monday night, there’s a sense that the Silkmen are writing a new chapter not just in their own history, but in the annals of the FA Cup itself.
Just a few short years ago, Macclesfield Town, the club’s predecessor, was in ruins. The team that once played in the third tier of English football had gone bust, their beloved Moss Rose ground had fallen into disrepair, and the local community was left without a football club during the bleak days of the COVID lockdowns. Enter Rob Smethurst, a local entrepreneur who, by his own admission, was in the midst of personal turmoil when he stumbled across a listing for the club on Rightmove. “On one crazy, batshit night I ended up buying a football club,” Smethurst told FourFourTwo. What began as an impulse buy turned into a lifeline for both Smethurst and the town.
“I randomly, in the morning, made a phone call to my solicitor and said, ‘Look, I want to buy this football club.’ Didn’t have a business plan, had no idea, never even viewed it, never even been around it. But I thought, well, maybe I could do something good with it. And that’s how the story sort of started to unfold on one crazy, batshit night where I ended up buying a football club,” Smethurst recalled.
The reborn Macclesfield FC joined the North West Counties Football League Premier Division for the 2021/22 season and immediately set about climbing the non-league ladder. They finished that first season as champions, then repeated the feat in the Northern Premier League Division One West. Their third year ended with a second-place finish in the Northern Premier League Premier Division, but only the champions won promotion automatically. Undeterred, the Silkmen, under the stewardship of former Wales international Robbie Savage, stormed to the title the following season, racking up 109 points and 35 wins in 42 matches.
But success brought its own challenges. “The more successful you get, the worse it gets as an owner,” Smethurst admitted. “So, when we first started in the lower leagues, you would probably be looking at £150,000 player budget [per year]. It was a pay-as-you-play model, it was quite straightforward. What I soon started to realise was that was just coming out of my pocket.”
Determined to build a sustainable club, Smethurst invested heavily—not just in players, but in infrastructure. “I spent about £4 million of my own money—instead of going out and spending it all on players, [we spent] on an infrastructure that would then generate the income that we could use then to basically fund the players moving forward up the leagues. We needed bars, we needed restaurants. We needed to sweat the assets of the actual commercial property so it can become a seven-day operation that can generate income.”
That vision has paid off, both on and off the pitch. The club’s player budget has grown to about £1 million per year, funded by the revenue from their improved facilities and a swelling fan base. “We were really lucky with the unbelievable fanbase at Macclesfield—that has blown me away with the support and nearly getting 4,000 fans through the door when the old club used to only get 800 to 900 so this kind of believing in me really, and believing in what we’re trying to achieve, the whole town’s got behind it.”
On January 10, 2026, Macclesfield stunned the football world by knocking out Premier League and FA Cup holders Crystal Palace in the Third Round. The likes of Marc Guehi and Oliver Glasner, who had lifted the trophy at Wembley just months earlier, were sent packing by a side of part-time players. “We never thought we’d ever beat Crystal Palace. I think that was the David [versus] Goliath story of all time in the FA Cup. To beat the title holders with a bunch of lads that are part-time players is an amazing story. It was just something really special to give back to all the supporters,” Smethurst said.
That victory brought not just glory, but financial windfall—about £400,000 in prize money, with a similar sum expected from Monday’s Fourth Round clash against Brentford. “If we look across the cup run, we’ve probably brought in about £800,000 which, if you look at one year’s worth of the players budget of a million, we’ve nearly covered our whole players budget for one whole year, which is insane to think that’s happened.”
The FA Cup run has also been a boon for the town itself. “It goes wider than just the football club. It actually becomes about the town as well. The restaurants are busy, the bars are busy, the hotels are all packed and I think that’s what’s so nice about it. But to think that we’ve got another Premier League club coming on Monday night. It’s an unbelievable feeling of achievement for what we’ve actually done for the town,” Smethurst reflected.
Yet, the journey hasn’t been without heartbreak. Forward Ethan McLeod, just 21, tragically died in a car accident returning from a match in December 2025. The team dedicated their famous win over Crystal Palace to their fallen teammate. “I don’t think we’ll ever get over it. I don’t think we ever will. The shock of that day will be with me forever and for the players,” Smethurst said. Manager John Rooney echoed those sentiments, saying after the Palace win that McLeod was “looking down on them” that day. Goalscorers Paul Dawson and Isaac Buckley-Ricketts also dedicated the victory to McLeod.
Rooney’s own story is remarkable. At just 35, he is in his first managerial role, having replaced Robbie Savage in the summer of 2025 after being part of the squad that won the Northern Premier League title. “I’m brand new into the management scene and I have ambitions to manage as high as I can,” Rooney said. “If that wasn’t my ambition I’d be in the wrong role, but hopefully I can push Macclesfield on to where we think we can get to.”
Since that Palace win, Macclesfield have won five of their six National League North games, surging into the play-off places as of February 15, 2026. Rooney, who played with many of the current squad just last season, credits the players for their support during his transition to manager. “To come in and manage players who I played with last year and shared the changing room with can sometimes be really challenging but the lads have helped me in that sense and they’ve had my back when there have been little drops in our performances. Credit to the lads, they’ve been incredible for me.”
As Moss Rose braces for another night under the lights, with Brentford and a national TV audience watching, Macclesfield’s incredible journey continues. Win or lose, the Silkmen have already proven that belief, community spirit, and a bit of daring can move mountains—and, just maybe, topple giants.