Macclesfield vs Bury Predictions

Having come from behind to secure their first three points of the season a fortnight ago, Macclesfield will have been hoping to take further steps in the right direction, though they’ve since lost two on the bounce and are once again back down in the doldrums. The Silkmen will be looking to resume winning ways when they host Bury at Moss Rose on Saturday.

The hosts did lose last weekend, their fourth loss in five games, but they weren’t disgraced in doing so. Offensively, they struggled to create, which has often been the case, though their defensive efforts weren’t slack, and in truth, their performance didn’t warrant zero points.

Playing at home has at least provided some respite for the struggling Silkmen at times this season, so they may fancy themselves to get a positive result on this occasion. They’ve won just one of their eight matches at Moss Rose, though they’ve drawn three of the other seven and have only lost by more than a single goal twice.

Prior to a shocking display against Northampton recently, Whitaker and Howarth’s men had delivered a couple of encouraging performances at home, performances that if replicated may be enough to, at the very least, compete against Bury.

On paper, Bury are a better team than Macclesfield, you only need to look at the league table to realise that. However, have the visitors been good enough to warrant such strong odds-on favouritism away from home? Possibly not. After all, the Shakers have won just two of their eight away games in League Two this season, while they’ve not exactly been scoring an abundance of goals on their travels either. The underlying data does suggest that they’ve been a tad unlucky, but it doesn’t suggest that they’ll win this fixture as easily as their price-tag suggests they should.

Macclesfield can be forgiven for their display last time out at Moss Rose, especially since they’d delivered some decent performances prior to that. Having battled well against the likes of Mansfield, Forest Green and Carlisle, all three of which they bettered in terms of expected goals, the hosts could quite easily upset the visitors.

Quite simply, although the underlying data – Macclesfield have bettered their opponents in terms of expected goals four times at home, while Bury have bettered their opponents five times on the road – does suggest that Bury have done a slightly better job on the road than Macclesfield have done at home, it’s very easy to oppose the visitors at the prices. Backing Macclesfield to avoid defeat, as they have done against two top-half teams already this season, is a bet that offers punters a chunk of value.