IT WAS suggested after the game that Saturday was the nadir if the season.

Even those who might have thought that this was something to do with CS Lewis's recently popularised Chronicles could not but agree that it had been a dismal display.

After the difficulties encountered last week in finding the ground, it would be an exaggeration to say that the team turned up this week.

It was a dark, miserable and depressing day. The weather was unattractive as well. All the progress that had been so encouraging at Flyde retreated like the tide on Blackpool beach.

Against a Macclesfield side that was enthusiastic and efficient, this was a display entirely without passion, purpose or precision.

Most of the first half was played without the ball, as a result of some wayward kicking and a follow-up pattern that resembled a join-the-dots puzzle.

The second half was a distinct improvement in terms of possession but, without any shape to the attack as the phases wore on, the ball repeatedly became a positive embarrassment as it arrived in the custody of carriers who were poorly positioned, vaguely intentioned and careless in execution.

It was neither pretty nor exciting, and the Macclesfield defensive line resembled the Berlin Wall in the face of an army of pea shooters.

It was an unpalatable dish, though, as is becoming usual, it was served with a side order of desperately bad luck. Richard Harryman had been sidelined with a hand injury likely to endure several weeks. His front-row partner, inspirational captain Billy Coxon, was rendered cruelly ineffective by an untimely recurrence of cardiac irregularity which could end his season.

Dan Bowman bravely struggled through to half time, before succumbing once more to a leg injury. The struggle to overcome the opposition is being superceded by the difficulty of ensuring that all 19 shirts are occupied simult-aneously.

So where do we go from here? There is nothing surer than the fact that there is no magic solution. Having endured the seven lean weeks of bad luck, we must hope that the plague and pestilence will relent and the seven fruitful weeks might follow in due course.

We shall expect some strengthening of our resources in the New Year, both from players returning from injury, and from newcomers to the ranks.

In the meantime, all that remains is the rolling-up of the sleeves, and a redoubled resolve to battle bravely against the odds. It is in times of difficulty that the game gives players the opportunity to show what they are made of. I remain confident that there is some sterner stuff to come.