Legend of Mad Dog is forever at Alty

MARK MADDOX 1973-2023

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IT was often said Mark Maddox didn’t have motor neurone disease, rather motor neurone disease had Mark Maddox.

The 50-year-old NonLeague and Altrincham legend passed away this week having lived with the incurable disease for more than 12 years.

“He always said that: this thing won’t beat me, I’ll beat it – it’s just typical of the man, the way he was,” former Altrincham chairman Grahame Rowley tells The NLP.

“His biggest challenge came after his career rather than during his career and I think he won that as challenge as well. We’re so proud of him. There are so many things that have been said about Mark, but I think they all come down to the same thing – he was a 100 per cent committed bloke in everything he did. He’s a massive loss to the football world.”

His beloved Liverpool FC posted a message on social media about his passing amid an outpouring of love for the defender known as Mad Dog.

“That’s the thing that is most amazing, people are just not accepting of it and that’s a clear sign of how strong he came across,” Alty co-chairman Bill Waterson says. “Even when we saw him in the later days when he was wheelchair bound, you could still tell there was that indomitable spirit in him. You could see it in his eyes there was still a strong person in there.”

Maddox joined the Robins in 1996 from Sunday League in Liverpool and went on to make 326 starts over the next ten years. His forthright approach to the game endeared him to many – including referees.