A ’magical moment’ is how Isaac Buckley-Ricketts describes scoring the winner against Crystal Palace for Macclesfield in the Emirates FA Cup third round.
The non-League outfit pulled off one of the greatest – if not the greatest – shocks in the competition’s history last month when they knocked out the holders, who sat 117 league places above them in the standings.
“You hear about these things and you see these things happen but you never really think you’ll be the one that’s going to be in the situation yourself,” said the forward.
“For me personally to score in the game and for it to be the winning goal, even now, when I do speak about it, I’m re-living it as I’m talking. It feels surreal. These are fairytales – they’re what dreams are made of.”
But the 27 year old’s career has been about more than just one match-winning moment.
From Manchester City to Macclesfield via a Dutch detour, the former England youth international signed for the Sky Blues at the age of 12 before earning a scholarship and heading out on loan to Eredivisie side FC Twente.
“It was kind of nerve-wracking for a young footballer that does have ambition but it’s a new world you’re jumping into,” he recalled.
“My first loan, I played with [Oussama] Assaidi. He was at Liverpool actually. He was a winger but I had to do slightly a bit more research into his career and I found out that he’d had a very star-studded career.
“He used to mentor me but not too much because he did try and instil that you need to have your own confidence as a player in order to get far.”
Having made his debut at under-18s level with the Young Lions, Buckley-Ricketts was a part of the team that won the 2017 UEFA European Under-19 Championship out in Georgia, lining up alongside the likes of Mason Mount and Reece James.
“I’d say I had a slight bit of underdog mentality,” he explained. “In the Premier League 2 and under-23s, you’re kind of only playing your region unless it’s FA Youth Cup – you rarely come up against the players that you hear about on the socials.
“For me to actually play in the EUROs and get the call-up and get through the training groups, it was an honour obviously but getting that clarification and validation that you can compete at a high level with these high-quality players is something I always remember.”
When COVID hit, the former Oxford United loanee found himself in a ‘difficult situation’ as a free agent with restrictions preventing him from joining a new club.
That was until Stretford Paddock came along – the club founded by influencer and YouTuber Stephen Howson.
“That was a very interesting scenario,” said Buckley-Ricketts. “I went there playing with my mates and started to enjoy it and it puts that fire back in you.
“Joining them gave me that buzz because I’ve never been one that was too fixated on how big the club is or how it looks to everyone else. It helped me a lot during that time.”
The move to newly promoted National League North side Macclesfield came in May 2025, on the back of spells with Southport, Warrington Town and Curzon Ashton.
And in his first season with the Silkmen, he’s already written his name into the history books.
“I settled in pretty smoothly because – a bit of trivia – D'Mani Mellor, the striker, he’s my cousin,” he continued. “It’s a very tight-knit club and family orientated, so it was pretty seamless for me to settle in.”
But how does one of the architects of what is mathematically considered the greatest FA Cup upset take his mind off the football?
History made in Macclesfield 👊@thesilkmen's win against the #EmiratesFACup holders is our @emirates Moment of the Round 🏆 pic.twitter.com/XNKWtO0nJi
— Emirates FA Cup (@EmiratesFACup) January 11, 2026
When you can’t find him on the pitch, you can find him in the studio making music – two of Buckley-Ricketts’ passions that, in his opinion, go hand-in-hand.
“Football’s a very mentally challenging sport so for me personally, music has always been my safe space to express,” he explained.
“My go-to genre would be R&B but I’m not fixed to one genre – I go off how I’m feeling. I could go home one day and make a pop song; I could come home and make a house song or a rap song.
“It’s just how I am outside of the game and as a human having emotion that flows everywhere. If you allow yourself to be free off the pitch and express yourself, once you’re on the pitch, you’re not going to feel as confined to just play a certain way or think twice.
“Me, as a winger, it helps me because the position I play in, I have to create and make something out of nothing sometimes. Throwing a stepover is like throwing a hook on a song or a chorus in a song!”
And as Macclesfield gear up to take on another Premier League side in Brentford in the fourth round proper, Buckley-Ricketts and his teammates will prepare to face the music on Monday night.
