EFL: Macclesfield end winless run and crowds flock to Championship grounds

The latest international break left many fans of English Football League clubs twiddling their thumbs over the past fortnight patiently waiting for their team to return to action.

On Saturday, all three divisions were back to a full programme and there were a few headlines to be written.

For some supporters that long-awaited winning feeling was finally back, while for others the drama came very, very late and perhaps somewhat unexpectedly.

Here's a look at some of the stories you may have missed from an eventful afternoon.

New Year's Eve 2011. It might not mean much to many people but, to Macclesfield Town fans, that date was becoming a very irritable monkey on their backs.

It was on that day that Macclesfield last won an English Football League match, 2-1 at home against Port Vale.

Until today...

The Silkmen were relegated to the National League at the end of that 2011-12 season and their exile from the EFL lasted until promotion back in May.

They picked up 122 league wins in non-league's top tier during their absence, but before kicking off against Carlisle United in League Two on Saturday were just 90 minutes away from creating an unwanted piece of history - 37 EFL matches without a win.

Prospects looked bleak when they fell behind after 50 minutes to Ashley Nadesan's goal for the visitors,

However, fortune was finally on Macclesfield's side when they turned the game on its head with two goals in the space of four minutes.

Michael Rose levelled from the penalty spot and then Peter Vicenti sent the majority of the 2,153 inside Moss Rose into raptures as he netted the deciding goal in a 2-1 win.

Macclesfield are still bottom of League Two and managerless after parting company with Mark Yates a fortnight ago. But both they and Derby County will be joint-holders of the longest run of English league matches without a win at 36.

What's more, their win means every single EFL club has now won at least once in the league this season.

Doncaster Rovers fans must have been pulling their hair out during their side's League One meeting against Gillingham.

Grant McCann's side seemingly had all the chances but none of the luck if you take a quick glance at the stats from the Keepmoat Stadium.

The game itself finished 3-3 as Paul Taylor rescued a point for Rovers with a stoppage-time equaliser, but his team were without question the more hungry in front of goal.

Rovers registered 32 shots (13 of them on target) to Gillingham's three, from which goals from Barry Fuller, Tom Eaves and Max Ehmer all came.

But Taylor's late goal meant they got out of jail and stayed inside the division's top six, just a couple of points off the automatic promotion places.

Gillingham, meanwhile, will rue what might have been as they sit just a point above the relegation zone.

Saturday's Championship fixture list certainly caught the imagination of fans with two matches recording capacity crowds.

At Villa Park, where new home manager Dean Smith made a winning start to life at Aston Villa against Swansea City, there were 41,326 there to witness it.

Before kick-off, the club also paid tribute to former chairman Sir Doug Ellis, who died earlier this month, aged 94.

Across the Midlands at the City Ground, there were similar Sold Out signs going up on the turnstiles as Nottingham Forest hosted Norwich City in front of 29,427.

But the Canaries were party poopers coming from behind to win 2-1 and leapfrog their hosts into the play-off places.

It wasn't quite a full house at Ewood Park earlier in the day, although Leeds United boasted an away following of 7,700 for the trip to Blackburn.

However, Rovers fans had the better day out. Their side toppled the team bidding to return to the Championship summit 2-1 courtesy of goals from Danny Graham and Darragh Lenihan either side of Mateusz Klich's equaliser.

Gary Rowett and Garry Monk have seen a fair bit of each other in opposing Championship dugouts in recent seasons.

What's more, on each occasion, they've been in charge of different clubs respectively and Rowett was leading the head-to-head series with Monk 2-0 going into his Stoke City's side home fixture against Monk's Birmingham City.

But this time it was Monk who took the bragging rights for one of Rowett's former clubs as Blues won 1-0 courtesy of Che Adams' goal in the closing stages.

What chance both of them will still be in their respective jobs come the clubs' next scheduled Championship meeting on Boxing Day?

And, jumping back a few paragraphs to big crowds, 28,160 were there - the biggest at a Stoke match in the second tier of English football since the final day of the 1962-63 season.

And finally this week, a moment that reminds you football truly is a game followed by young and old.

Brentford gave two of their loyal supporters a day to remember at their Championship fixture with Bristol City as both were made mascots.

Both Brandon Kear and John Dean were also celebrating their birthdays at Griffin Park, 13 and 93 respectively.

For Brandon, turning a teenager was a hugely significant moment having contracted Stevens-Johnson syndrome earlier this year, a rare but serious disorder of the skin.

It left Brandon in intensive care and his family, supported on social media by Brentford fans throughout his treatment, were told at one stage he may not survive.

He pulled through and recovered and his family were able to unfurl a banner at half-time thanking Bees supporters.

John, meanwhile, remembers Brentford playing in the top tier of English football after his first home game in 1931, aged six, and witnessed some of their best days in the 1930s and 1940s.

John, from Isleworth, still regularly attends matches today and both were on hand to wish new manager Thomas Frank all the best before kick-off.

Sadly for them, visitors Bristol City had other ideas as they grabbed all three points courtesy of Niclas Eliasson's 89th-minute winner with the game's only goal.