Revenge mission for Worksop Town in tough opener against title favourites Macclesfield

Worksop's last game against Macclesfield was the play-off semi-final last April, where they lost 3-1 in a heartbreaking game for the Tigers.

But Worksop have new signings since then like Dan Bramall, Luke Shiels and Tommy Taylor to name just three that have improved the squad.

Boss Craig Parry has that game in April in the back of his mind going into the season's opener, saying: “We came across Macclesfield three times last year, twice in the league and the play-off semi-final.

“We know what they're about.

"They’ve got a strong squad and their ambitions will be to win the league, and they’ve set themselves up to do that.

“But make no bones about it, we want to be competitive this year as well.

"So we’re looking forward to the game and looking forward to try to get some revenge from the hurt of the semi-final.

“It’s the first game of the season so emotions will be high and we’re looking forward to taking the game to them.”

It's been a summer of change for Macclesfield as former boss Michael Clegg was sacked and the position was filled by former Premier League player and ex-pundit Robbie Savage, who was previously director of football.

But Macclesfield have recruited well in pre-season with Elliot Whitehouse, Danny Elliot and Danny Whitehead all being proven non-league players, and the Silkmen will be hoping to go one better than last season, after losing the play-off final 2-1 to Marine at the Leasing.com Stadium.

The game takes place at 3pm on Saturday at the Windsor Foodservice Stadium.

The Tigers finished their pre-season schedule last Saturday with a 1-0 home defeat against Scarborough, but Parry was happy with how it went.

"Pre-season has gone really well,” he said.

"We wanted the first couple of weeks to be extremely tough, with a lot of old-school running and fitness work and a lot of games near the end.

“Everyone’s had a lot of game time and everyone’s fit for the first game of the season.”