Preview: Macclesfield Town vs Brentford - prediction, team news, lineups

Macclesfield Town will hope their fairy tale FA Cup run can continue, but they must deliver another gargantuan performance on Monday against Premier League visitors Brentford at the Leasing.com Stadium.

The hosts pulled off the greatest FA Cup upset in history, beating Crystal Palace 2-1 in the third round on January 10 despite being in the sixth tier of English football, while Brentford comfortably saw past Sheffield Wednesday 2-0 on the same day.

Match preview

Perhaps the biggest compliment that can be paid to Macclesfield is that they were deserving winners against Crystal Palace despite the 117 places between the sides in the football pyramid at the time of their clash.

The Silkmen also became the first team from the sixth tier to eliminate a Premier League club since the formation of the division.

Head coach John Rooney was named the National League North manager of the month for January, and he has guided his players to seven wins from their last nine outings in all competitions.

Macclesfield are sixth in the sixth tier with 48 points and occupy the fifth of six promotion playoff spots, though they do boast at least one game in hand on the rest of the top 15.

The Silkmen have enjoyed six consecutive victories at home heading into their FA Cup clash on Monday, and they have in fact only been beaten once in their past 15 matches at the Leasing.com Stadium.

Brentford have already advanced further in this season's edition of the FA Cup than they had in their prior three campaigns, though they have only once reached the fifth round in their 19 most recent attempts.

Keith Andrews's side are unfortunate to not be coming into Monday's game on the back of a win against Arsenal, who they thoroughly outplayed on Thursday in the Premier League but ultimately drew 1-1 with.

The Bees are seventh with 40 points in the top flight, and they are only two points from sixth-placed Liverpool and four from fifth-placed Chelsea.

Andrews's side have claimed victory in seven of their past 11 contests in all competitions, with the club only suffering two losses in that time, scoring 20 goals and conceding on 10 occasions.

Brentford's record on the road has also been positive given they have emerged as winners in five of their last six fixtures away from home.

Macclesfield Town FA Cup form:

Macclesfield Town form (all competitions):

Brentford FA Cup form:

Brentford form (all competitions):

Team News

Macclesfield goalkeeper Max Dearnley may need to perform heroics in goal, but he will stand a better chance of keeping a clean sheet if centre-backs Sam Heathcote and Rollin Menayese are as commanding as they were against Palace.

Forwards Isaac Buckley-Ricketts and D'Mani Bughail-Mellor could appear ahead of a double pivot consisting of Paul Dawson and Josh Kay.

Though Brentford will be seen as favourites, they will want to avoid underestimating their hosts in order to avoid the embarrassment that Palace faced, so expect striker Igor Thigao to feature up front.

Mikkel Damsgaard is a likely inclusion in an advanced role after coming on as a substitute against Arsenal, while Jordan Henderson and Yehor Yarmolyuk are candidates to start behind him.

Elsewhere, Caoimhin Kelleher will be needed in goal should the match go to a penalty shootout, though he will hope for adequate protection from Nathan Collins and Ethan Pinnock,

Macclesfield Town possible starting lineup:

Dearnley; Fensome, Menayese, Heathcote, Lacey; Edmondson, Dawson, Kay, Duffy; Buckley-Ricketts, Bughail-Mellor

Brentford possible starting lineup:

Kelleher; Kayode, Pinnock, Collins, Hickey; Yarmolyuk, Henderson; Ouattara, Damsgaard, Lewis-Potter; Thiago