After the goose, it’s the turn of the Bantams at Moss Rose tonight.

Macclesfield’s homecoming to league football after a six-year absence was gate-crashed at the weekend by a Canada goose.

His unexpected pitch invasion held up play for several minutes in the second half of their game against Grimsby before groundsman Danny Walker eventually curtailed the bird’s capers.

But it was probably the high spot for the home crowd who witnessed a 2-0 setback for the newly-promoted National League champions.

That made it back-to-back losses to kick off the campaign following the heartbreak of conceding two penalties deep in stoppage time to turn victory into defeat at Swindon on the opening weekend.

Macclesfield only lost once on their own soil all last season as they defied the Conference bigger hitters to romp to promotion.

But like City, they are a team finding their feet again after a summer of changes.

Boss John Askey left for Shrewsbury – and a debut defeat in their hot-seat at City’s hands 10 days ago – and was replaced by former Cheltenham manager Mark Yates.

There are also 14 new players – only one shy of the Valley Parade revamp under Michael Collins.

Yates admitted: “I’ve got a decent squad but at the minute, one or two of them are not convincing.

“We over-achieved last year and we’ve got to over-achieve again this year to get to where we want to.”

Veteran midfielder Danny Whitaker is happy to adopt the underdog mantle once more. It is one he is well used to after playing well over 400 of his 722 career games in two spells with the Silkmen.

“We kind of thought of ourselves as a little fish in big pond last season,” said Whitaker. “It’s the same this time around.”

The 37-year-old, who combines playing with his role as joint assistant to Yates, was a trainee at Macclesfield when City paid their first visit to the Moss Rose in the League Cup in 2001. An extra-time winner from Stuart McCall clinched an unconvincing 2-1 win.