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‘It’s David Who Beat Goliath’—FA Cup Holders Condemned to 155-Year Humiliation

Records tumbled in Macclesfield fairytale victory over Crystal Palace on Saturday.

Grey Whitebloom

Non-League Macclesfield enjoyed the greatest day in the club’s short history.
Non-League Macclesfield enjoyed the greatest day in the club’s short history. / Darren Staples/AFP/Getty Images

Macclesfield became the first sixth-tier club in the 155-year history of the English FA Cup to defeat a top-flight side on Saturday afternoon. And it wasn’t just any Premier League outfit, it was Crystal Palace, the reigning FA Cup champions, who were condemned to a moment of indelible history this weekend.

Oliver Glasner made several changes for their trip to a side currently operating in the National League North, five divisions and 177 places below Palace in England’s footballing pyramid. However, the much sought-after club captain Marc Guéhi started, as did Adam Wharton and £26 million ($34.9 million) summer signing Yeremy Pino.

It would be Macclesfield skipper, Paul Dawson, to break the deadlock on the cusp of half time. Rising above his illustrious opponents in a crowded penalty area, the captain thrust his bandaged forehead at the ball, sending it bouncing beyond a helpless Walter Benítez.

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Glasner called up three more of his first-team regulars at the interval, including Palace’s record January signing Brennan Johnson, only to see Macclesfield double their lead through Isaac Buckley-Ricketts. The former Manchester City youth team player flung his heel forward on the hour mark, somehow conspiring to flick the ball into the bottom corner while facing the modest stands packed with fans giddy on a cocktail of utter disbelief.

“We want three,” the chant went around Moss Rose, Macclesfield’s home to 5,300 supporters with a 4G artificial pitch. Two would prove enough, even after Pino pulled one back for the visitors in the 90th minute.

That the Silkmen find themselves in the FA Cup third round, let alone authors of the greatest upset in the competition’s history, seemed unthinkable just five-and-a-half years ago. This iteration of the institution was only founded in October 2020 as a phoenix club for Macclesfield Town, which was wound up the month prior after 146 years of existence.

While Palace finished the 2021–22 season in their familiar position of 12th in the Premier League table, Macclesfield were winning the North West Counties Premier Division, the ninth tier of English football. Three promotions in four seasons have led the club into the National League North, where they currently lie in mid-table, but with a playoff spot in their grasp.

Every Non-League Team to Ever Beat a Premier League Team in FA Cup History

Lincoln City chairman Bob Dorrian (left) and Lincoln City manager Danny Cowley.
Lincoln City reached the FA Cup quarterfinals in 2017. / Chris Vaughan-CameraSport via Getty Images

Macclesfield achieved the unprecedented, but Kidderminster Town almost beat them to that feat in 2022, when they were a handful of seconds and one Declan Rice run away from knocking West Ham United out of the cup from the sixth tier.

Since the Premier League’s formation in 1992, only two fifth-tier teams have ever bested their top-flight counterparts in the FA Cup. Luton Town defeated a Norwich City side with a young Harry Kane upfront in January 2013. After three years of successive relegations, it was a sweet moment of redemption for the Hatters, who have made a habit of jumping up and down the divisions.

Lincoln City went all the way to the quarterfinals in 2017. The side led by Danny Cowley knocked out Championship opposition in the form of Ipswich Town and Brighton & Hove Albion before coming up against Sean Dyche’s Burnley in the fifth round. An 89th-minute winner, Lincoln’s only shot on target of the contest, was enough to see the Imps become the first non-league team in 103 years to reach the last eight of the competition.

Macclesfield still have two more rounds to navigate before they reach those heights, but they will surely be content with their moment of history secured against the reigning cup holders.

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Grey Whitebloom
GREY WHITEBLOOM

Grey Whitebloom is a writer, reporter and editor for Sports Illustrated FC. Born and raised in London, he is an avid follower of German, Italian and Spanish top flight football.

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