Playing in the National League North, Macclesfield are part-time and defender Sam Heathcote is one of a number of players with a job outside football.
The 28-year-old has gone from battling with the likes of Brennan Johnson and Yeremy Pino on Saturday to returning to his day job as a PE teacher at Stamford Park Primary School in Altrincham on Monday.
“Straight back to it this morning, back down to reality,” the centre-back told BBC Breakfast. “I’m looking forward to seeing the kids.
“I was going round school last week saying ‘conceding anything less than 10 we will be happy with’ and they were all laughing.
“Last time a couple of them watched it when we played in the second round against Slough and the first thing one of them said to me was ‘you gave away a penalty’. They might talk about my yellow card instead of us winning. A few of them will be excited, bless them, especially the older ones that are really getting into football.”
Heathcote joined the Silkmen in the summer of 2023 and has combined his teaching job with training two days a week.
He teaches children from the ages of three to 11 and hopes beating the Eagles can inspire his pupils.
“It will show that you can be an underdog in any story, you can achieve whatever you want and things that seem completely impossible might just become a reality because that’s exactly what happened on Saturday,” he said.
“I never thought I’d be in this position to come back in on a Monday having won that game. I still can’t get over it now, it’s amazing.
“I’m so happy for everyone involved to create this bit of history. We will try and milk it for as long as we can, but I know what the gaffer’s like and we will be straight back to it tomorrow night.”
