AN audacious 80-yard drive from John Rooney a la David Beckham showed the confidence running through Keith Alexander’s new-look Macclesfield.

From 25 yards inside his own half, Wayne’s younger brother unleashed a magnificent shot that left Northampton keeper Chris Gunn flapping at thin air as it sailed just a foot over the bar.

Macclesfield dominated this game and should have taken all three points. They hit the woodwork twice in a minute in the first half when first a Shaun Brisley header crashed off the crossbar before lightning left-winger Colin Daniels thumped a drive off the upright.

Keeper Jon Brain made two excellent saves to deny Adebayo Akinfenwa and Alex Dyer in the first half, and was again at full stretch to push an Akinfenwa drive wide in the 80th minute.

Both Daniel and Izak Reid could have grabbed all three points for Macc at the death but it was veteran striker Steve Guinan who flopped his lines in the last minute with a shot across the face of goal from five yards that would have given Northampton a hardly-deserved winner.

Northampton: Dunn, McCready, Hinton, Beckwith, Marshall, Gilligan, Osman, Dyer, Holt, Akinfenwa, Mckay. Subs: Rodgers, Guinan, Walker, Benjamin, Jacobs, Rose.

Macclesfield: Brain, Brisley, Morgan, Bencherif, Tremarco, Bolland, Draper, Rooney, Sinclair, Wright, Daniel. Subs: Reid, Bell, Wilson, Veiga, Kirk, Flynn, Tipton.

Referee: Gavin Ward (Surrey)