But after shocking Palace, owner Rob looks to future

"YOU would have to be off your head to buy a football club," says Macclesfield owner Rob Smethurst.

- BY IAN PARKER

That was the case for the businessman when he found the club's Moss Rose home listed on property website Rightmove for £500,000 in 2020 after the old Macclesfield Town had been liquidated.

Smethurst was struggling with addiction after selling his successful car-trading company.

Though Macclesfield-born, he could not claim to have been a fan of the Silkmen and knew nothing about owning a football club but, even in the drunken haze of a four-day bender, he knew he had found something.

"I wish I'd bought a kebab at the time!" he said. "But now I've got it, what it has done and especially the cup run we've been on, it's just been something so special."

Smethurst reckons buying the club has "saved my life", saying: "You realise it doesn't matter how much money you've got, it's about bringing a community together and a town together."