CONNOR Wood was a helpless spectator as City were humbled on their last visit to Macclesfield 14 months ago.

Wood was an unused substitute when the Silkmen exposed the first cracks in Michael Collins’ brief stint in charge with a Carabao Cup win on penalties.

The left back intends to have a far more active role for this weekend’s return to Moss Rose.

City have a score to settle in Cheshire – and that’s nothing to do with last season.

Tuesday’s Valley Parade setback against Port Vale came as a nasty shock given the upturn in league form since the start of September.

Will Atkinson’s injury-time strike was a reality check for City’s promotion ambitions.

But Wood is determined to ensure it was nothing more than a bump in the road in their progress up the table.

He said: “We’ve just got to get our heads round it now and come back flying.

“We didn’t come out the blocks as fast as we have been. It was a bit of a learning curve and a lesson for us as a team.

“We can take it as a kick up the backside and put those mistakes right. We don’t want that to happen again.

“There is a bigger picture and we must come out fighting for every other game this season.”

City had won three in a row before Vale pinched their first away success since March. With 19 points from the previous eight games, Wood insists there should be no need for concern.

“We had quite a good run prior to Tuesday’s game and built up some momentum,” he added.

“Now we’ve got to bounce back and start another run. We want to keep the crowd on our side, keep fighting and picking up points.

“There are always going to be unexpected results throughout the season but we’ve got to make sure this is the last one like that.

“We don’t want it to happen again and have got to start games quicker each and every week.

“We can take a lot from what happened and learn from it. We need to work on our mistakes for the rest of the week and be ready for Macclesfield now.”

The biggest concern is the mounting number of absentees with Gary Bowyer bemoaning a bulging casualty room.

Harry Pritchard is the latest to join a lengthy injury list that also includes Clayton Donaldson, Dylan Connolly, Matty Palmer and Jamie Devitt.

Wood admitted: “With the list of injuries we’ve got at the moment, there are a few key players in there.

“You could look at it and say that it’s going to have an impact. But with the depth we’ve got, I feel we’re more than capable of dealing with that.

“The team we put out the other night is as strong as you can get.

“There will be a lot of fighting for places when the injured lads start to come back in.

“We’ll put that loss behind us and work on getting better going into the weekend and rest of the season.

“I didn’t come on against Macclesfield last year but it’s a tight little ground.

“It will be a hard place to go but we’ve got to come out fighting and hit that level that we set ourselves previously.

“We’ve got to bounce straight back with a positive result and I believe we will.”