2025-26 FA Cup, 4th Round (the 32 clubs): Location-map, with fixtures list & current league attendances
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By Bill Turianski on the 13th of February 2026; twitter.com/billsportsmaps.
Links…
-The competition…FA Cup (en.wikipedia.org).
-2025-26 FA Cup (en.wikipedia.org).
-BBC’s page on the competition…bbc.com/fa-cup.
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Biggest upset in the FA Cup 3rd Round (and the biggest Cup-upset ever) – 6th tier side Macclesfield beats Cup-holders Crystal Palace
Macclesfield FC are from Macclesfield, Cheshire, a town 20 miles south of Manchester, with a population of 52,000. Macclesfield FC are the Phoenix-club of Macclesfield Town FC (who existed from 1874 to 2020, and who played 17 seasons in the Football League between 1997 and 2020). The re-born club started out in the 9th level of the National League system, in 2021–22. Macclesfield then won promotion 3 times in 4 years, including last season, when they won the 7th-tier Northern League. So in 2025-26, Macclesfield are a 6th-level team in the National League North.
Macclesfield play at Moss Rose (aka Leasing.com Stadium), which opened in 1891, and which has a capacity of 5,350 (2,095 seated), and has a 4G pitch {see photo and caption below}. Macclesfield has maintained solid support since their re-formation, and were drawing well over a couple thousand-per-game right from their re-start, and are now drawing a bit over 3,000-per-game. Macclesfield are currently [13 Feb 2026] in the play-off places in the National League North, in 6th place with games in hand. Macclesfield’s manager is John Rooney, age 35 (who is the younger brother of former England captain Wayne Rooney). John Rooney was a journeyman MF who got his pro start with the then-4th-division Macclesfield Town in 2008, and finished his playing career and eased into the coaching role with 2 seasons at Macclesfield FC (from 2023 to ’25 with 26 goals in 67 appearances), taking over the managerial role from former player Robbie Savage, in July 2025.
(Macclesfield had not qualified for the FA Cup 1st Round in their four previous seasons.) In the 2025-26 FA Cup 2nd qualifying round, Macclesfield defeated 9th-tier side Atherton Laburnam Rovers 3-0 at Moss Rose in front of 1,364. Then in the 3rd qualifying round, Macclesfield defeated 8th-tier side Nantwich Town 2-0 at Moss Rose in front of 1,387. And then in the 4th qualifying round, Macclesfield defeated 7th-tier side Stamford 1-0 at Moss Rose in front of 1,605.
In the FA Cup 1st Round, Macclesfield beat 6th-tier side AFC Totten 6-3, in front of 2,197 at Moss Rose. In the 2nd Round, Macclesfield beat another 6th-tier side, Slough Town, away, 1-3 in aet. Then for the 3rd Round, Macclesfield were drawn to host the reigning Cup champions, Crystal Palace, on 10 January 2026.
In the match, following a scoreless first half, there was a second-half goal right away. In the 46th minute, Macclesfield MF and captain Paul Dawson (with a bandaged head) headed in a goal from a free kick by MF Luke Duffy, putting the non-Leaguers in the lead {see photo below}. And then 17 minutes later, in the 60th minute, Manchester-born Macclesfield MF Isaac Buckley-Ricketts deftly side-volleyed a deflected shot into the net {see screenshot below}. So it was 2-nil to Macclesfield. Crystal Palace threatened all through the last third of the match, but they appeared to be rattled. Palace did score in the 90th minute, from a free kick by Yeremy Pino. But Macclesfield held on, and at the final whistle, there was a jubilant pitch invasion by the Macclesfield faithful, and captain and goal-scorer Paul Dawson was carried off the pitch. In the match, Macclesfield had only 29% possession…yet they outshot Palace 13-12. In other words, this was no fluke win.
6th-tier Macclesfield were ranked 117 places below Premier League side Crystal Palace, making this the biggest upset in FA Cup history. Also, it was the first time ever that a team won an FA Cup match against a team 5 levels above them. And no non-League team had beaten the Cup Holders since 1909…when none other than a non-League Crystal Palace (then of the Southern League), defeated 1908 Cup winners Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Macclesfield will now play Premier League side Brentford in the 4th Round, on Monday night (16 February). It will be at Moss Rose, and of course it is sold out, and of course it will be televised.
-Video: Macclesfield STUN the holders ???? | Macclesfield FC (2-1) Crystal Palace | Emirates FA Cup 2025-26
(6:00 video uploaded by The Emirates FA Cup at youtube.com).
-Macclesfield pull off FA Cup’s greatest shock by knocking out holders Crystal Palace (by Dominic Booth at theguardian.com/football).
-Sat 10 Jan 2026, FA Cup – 3rd Round: Macclesfield 2-1 Crystal Palace (by Barry Rose at bbc.com/sport).
Photo and Image credits above – Macclesfield town centre, photo from cheshire-live.co.uk; Macclesfield-born Ian Curtis [Joy Division] mural, photo segment from onward-living.co.uk/living-in-macclesfield-area-guide. Moss Rose (aka Leasing.com Stadium), photo by Non League Football at facebook.com/photo. Paul Dawson goal, photo by Martin Rickett/PA via theguardian.com/football. Isaac Buckley-Ricketts goal, screenshot from video uploaded by Crystal Palace FC at youtube.com. Manager John Rooney celebrates at the final whistle, screenshot from video uploaded by Crystal Palace FC at youtube.com. Macclesfield players and fans celebrate the historic win, photo by AFP via firstpost.com/sports.
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Sources…
Thanks to all, at the links below…
-Blank relief map of England (and Wales), by Nilfanion, at File:England relief location map.jpg (commons.wikimedia.org).
-Blank relief map of Greater London, by Nilfanion (using UK Ordnance Survey data), at File:Greater London UK relief location map.jpg.
-Blank relief map of Greater Manchester, by Nilfanion (using Ordnance Survey data), at File:Greater Manchester UK relief location map.jpg.
-Blank relief map of West Midlands, by Nilfanion, at File:West Midlands UK relief location map.jpg.
-Fixtures list: screenshot from bbc.com/fa-cup.
-FA Cup (en.wikipedia.org).
Attendance figures…
-transfermarkt.com/[leagueone] ; transfermarkt.us/[league-two] (current average attendances for the 1st through the 4th division).
-nonleaguematters.co.uk (current average attendances for non-League football).
