A gaming YouTuber has adopted Macclesfield FC as his second team, after falling in love with our club after the recent BBC documentary.

Torquay United fan Sam Swann aka SWNe (22) from South Devon, has won three promotions and one cup trophy with The Silkmen on the video game Football Manager 22.

In the game, he secured promotion from the North West Counties League Premier Division at the first-time of asking, a feat that the real-life Macclesfield FC hope to do this season.

The YouTuber also won the FA Vase, as part of his Rebuilding Macclesfield FC Football Manager 22 series on his channel SWNe.

He won the treble in his second season, and is now currently in the 2023-2024 season with Macclesfield FC in the Northern Premier League.

The series has gone on to acquire over 1,000 views on YouTube, and given The Gulls further respect for our town's new football club.

"I chose Macclesfield due to the huge rebuild job needed to get the club back to where they deserve to be," Sam said.

"As a huge Torquay United fan, I can't imagine what the Macclesfield fans went through when they lost their football team. Supporting your local team is such a great escape for some many people, as well as the local community. So I found the task immediately appealing.

"I have seen the old Macclesfield play against Torquay a few times over the years, I have always

enjoyed our games against each other. For a lot of my lifetime they had been in the Football League and National League with Torquay. Despite being 250 miles away, I see a lot of similarities. "I really enjoyed the documentary [Robbie Savage: Making Macclesfield FC], it was a great reflection on the work that Rob Smethurst and Robbie Savage have done. They have some great staff members behind the scenes who clearly love the club. "Running a football club is a huge challenge, especially to make it sustainable. The 4G pitch and the improved restaurant/bar was a very clever investment. I loved Savage's passion, however I lost my first game in charge in Football Manager, so he would have probably sacked me there and then!" Sam has 3,000 subscribers on his gaming YouTube Channel, and had previously recorded a successful Football Manager 22 series with his local club Torquay United. "My favourite player at Macclesfield when I started the YouTube series was Neil Danns," Sam added. "He is a player of high pedigree who is nearing the end of a fine career. He scored and assisted a lot from midfield. "My other favourite was an ex-Bolton youngster called Eddie Brown who I signed at the start of my game. "He has been my main striker for a few years now, and helped Macc get promoted to the 7th tier. "Sadly, in real-life he suffered a bad hamstring injury which ended his Bolton career, he was one of the youngsters who played during their financial crisis. I hope he fully recovers and rebuilds his career." (Given Macclesfield FC's current exodus of forwards in real-life, perhaps Sam might be onto something there with signing free agent Eddie Brown!) "I aim to get Macclesfield back to the Football League, like I have with my beloved Torquay, however the sky's the limit after that," Sam also said. "I work in education meaning I get a lot of spare time during the holidays, so we could see a European tour by the end of the summer! "I enjoy studying the successful and unsuccessful recruitment models at football clubs. Like many, I find Football Manager a very fun escape, I am a football boffin. I am also very interested in the tactical side. "The one thing I learned through recording the Macclesfield FC Football Manager series was I didn't realise that Danny Whitaker was the manager until I started. "I think that it's a great story and I hope he continues to do well. It must have been very difficult to build a team with no idea of what level the competition was. Luckily, I inherited his squad, so I built from there. I used to fear when Torquay played against him, he was a very capable player during his playing days. "Good luck to him and Macclesfield for the end of the season!" Sam is uploading multiple episodes of his Macclesfield FC Football Manager 22 save file per week. His Silkmen are currently fighting for promotion from Northern League Premier Division, which features local clubs such as Buxton and Matlock. This is Step 7 in the Football Pyramid. Currently two tiers - or two promotions - above where the real life Macclesfield FC are now. We've put an episode of Sam's Macclesfield FC journey at the top of this article for you to watch. You can also view his channel here and follow him on Twitter. UPDATE: Sam has since had Macclesfield FC promoted a third time in his game. See also: Young Macclesfield FC vlogger has over 30,000 views on YouTube. Macclesfield: Have you signed up for our FREE Friday weekly newsletter? It contains each week's top 10 Macclesfield news stories, and one EXCLUSIVE article? 1035 of you have signed up already. Simply enter your email address in the shaded box below or on this link. Free from pop-up ads, or unwanted surveys, Macclesfield Nub News is a quality online newspaper which produces 30-40 stories a week for our town. You can find us on Facebook and Twitter.