A striker not deemed good enough at Valley Parade could come back to haunt his former club tomorrow night.

Emile Sinclair played in the same City youth team as Joe Colbeck and Luke O’Brien but the Leeds-born striker was released at the end of his apprenticeship in 2007 before being picked up by Nottingham Forest.

He scored the decisive penalty in a shoot-out win over Chester in the Carling Cup on his debut and netted his first senior goal against Gillingham.

But chances at the City Ground have been limited and he has been forced to look elsewhere for opportunities.

Having started this season with three substitute appearances for Forest, the pacy 21-year-old went on loan to Mansfield in the Blue Square Premier and scored four times. Then Macclesfield snapped him up during the transfer window in January.

Sinclair scored on his debut for Keith Alexander’s side against Brentford. Forest briefly recalled him because of injuries but he was allowed to return to Moss Rose and played in Saturday’s impressive 3-0 win over Shrewsbury.

That result, which did City a favour after their own misery at Meadow Lane, was Macclesfield’s first win in eight games. It was also a welcome clean sheet for the team who have shipped the most goals in League Two.

Macclesfield’s main problems have been on their travels and they have collected only one point from the last six away games.

Boss Alexander said: “People have to realise that the problem with youngsters and the young team we’ve got at the moment is that they aren’t usually very consistent.

“They can have a great game one day and then a poor one the next – but we know we can perform against decent teams.”