Isaac Buckley-Ricketts was holding back tears after Macclesfield’s 2-1 win over Crystal Palace. The 27-year-old had scored what proved to be the winner in the greatest FA Cup upset of all time. But rather than revelling in his glory, he was thinking of one person.
“I was thinking about it when the final whistle went,” he said. “Ethan was here.”
Ethan McLeod passed away in a car accident on 16 December as he was travelling back from Macclesfield’s away match at Bedford Town where he was an unused substitute. The 21-year-old had played seven times for Macclesfield since joining them in the summer, having previously been part of the Wolves academy.
In an emotional statement released the day after, Macclesfield described McLeod as an “incredibly talented and well-respected member of our first-team squad” who had an “infectious personality”.
In a particularly tragic twist, the matchday bus had been caught up in the ensuing traffic jam following the crash with the team driving past without realising that their team-mate had been affected.
At their FA Cup third-round match, Macclesfield paid tribute to McLeod. His photo has been left up in the dressing room, and the club have already retired the No 20 shirt in tribute to him.
“That was for Ethan,” said captain Phil Dawson after the match. “I had a nice message off his dad last night and I was like: do I send it to the lads, or do I tell them before the game? But I didn’t really want to put that little extra bit of pressure on them with everything we’ve been through, so I thought I’d leave that till after the game.”
Macclesfield owner Rob Smethurst had described the past couple of weeks as “mentally exhausting” for his players, as they have had to come to terms with the loss of their team-mate.
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“The players have lost somebody that was so close to them, that they’d trained with day in and day out, and been around most days and had fun with,” Smethurst told The Athletic.
Following the victory, Ethan’s parents joined the squad in the dressing room to celebrate the win. In emotional scenes, they were pictured hugging and talking to players after their famous victory. “I just walked in the office then and his parents were celebrating with us,” Macclesfield boss John Rooney, Wayne’s brother, said afterwards. “I said to his parents: ‘He is definitely watching down on us today. I feel he is here with us.’”
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Macclesfield are a club who are sadly no strangers to tragedy. In 2010, when they were still Macclesfield Town, their manager Keith Alexander passed away suddenly at the age of 53. Ten months later, their midfielder Richard Butcher also died.
“To have [Ethan’s] mum and dad here - to come into the changing room, to come into the office. That means so much to me. I took a shine to him from day one when he came on trial. He was an absolute diamond of a kid. He was the life and soul of the changing room. He always had a smile on his face.
“It was very special to me knowing [his parents] were with us. It’s something I’ll hold on to for ever, and I’m sure Ethan was definitely looking down on us today.”
Photograph by Alex Livesey – Danehouse/Getty Images