Who is Luke Matheson? Macclesfield Star Recaps Career and Horror Wolves Move

Huge Youth Equaliser against Manchester United to Heroic FA Cup Run - Luke Matheson's Story So Far

For most people they will remember the name Luke Matheson for the time he scored a huge equaliser against Manchester United at just 16 Years Old for Rotherham.

But recently his name has come back into the news for being apart of Macclesfield's huge FA Cup run including knocking out current holder Crystal Palace just the other week.

To pin his career just down to this however would be a huge disservice of his story so far, with that said let's unpack his story.

The Famous Equaliser

In September 2019 Manchester United were playing Rochdale at home in a third round tie of the Carabao Cup when Matheson first made himself known to the footballing world.

Manchester United were leading 1-0 up until the 76th minute when Matheson stepped up and bagged the equaliser to force the game to penalties.

Just the month before this Matheson was collecting his GCSE's and we'd probably call this the biggest moment of his life until this match.

Rochdale went on to lose the game on 5-3 penalties with Jimmy Keohane being the one who unfortunately missed, however the loss didn't matter to Rochdale supporters who gave the side a standing ovation from Old Trafford's away end.

Rochdale's 17-year old Luke Matheson is having a medical at Wolves after a deal was agreed for around £1million 🔥

A look back at his famous goal against Manchester United at Old Trafford 🏟 pic.twitter.com/MLvFUe8Ql1

— Soccer AM (@SoccerAM) January 31, 2020

Macclesfield Knock Out The Reigning Champions

On Saturday the 10th of January we were treated to perhaps the greatest upset in FA Cup history as National League North side Macclesfield FC beat Crystal Palace, the reigning FA Cup champions, 2-1 to dump them out of the competition.

The scorers were Paul Dawson and Isaac Buckley-Ricketts before Yeremy Pino was able to pull one back, despite this it wasn't enough to save Palace from the biggest upset in FA Cup history.

To put into perspective how incredible of a result this truly was for Macclesfield, there were 117 places between the sides at the time of the game.

HISTORY IS MADE! 🤩

Sixth-tier side Macclesfield FC knock FA Cup holders Crystal Palace out of the competition! 😳

📺 @tntsports & @discoveryplusUK pic.twitter.com/dz0wIxT3qH

— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) January 10, 2026

Horror Move To Wolves

Just four months after his famous equaliser against Manchester United, Matheson had earned himself a move from League One to the Premier League as he moved down south to Wolverhampton in a move worth £1m.

Matheson has described his move to Wolves as a 'step backwards' speaking about the move since which makes sense when you see the context behind the move.

At Rotherham he had made 30 senior appearances in League One, this was followed by dropping down to U-23 level at Wolves and seeing plenty of his fellow U-23's looking to do the reverse of what he'd just done and get first team senior football on loan.

"A lot of the under-23s were trying to get out on loan into a first team. I'd gone from doing that to not doing that."

By the time his loan spell at Wolves was finished Matheson has been unable to make a single team appearance and had suffered multiple serious injuries, he enjoyed loan spells at Ipswich Town, Hamilton Athletic and Scunthorpe but ultimately it didn't do enough to stop him from being released at the end of the 2022/23 season.

Delighted to staying here and embracing every day🖊️ pic.twitter.com/RIeDuF4LNK

— Luke Matheson (@Luke_Matheson41) December 19, 2023

Life Outside Of Football

After suffering a high grade hamstring tear that doctors warned could see the end of his playing career, Matheson was forced into looking at what life outside of football might look like.

In September 2025, Luke graduated from the Professional Football Association (PFA) Business School with a diploma in sporting directorship.

Fun Fact, he graduated alongside a few other well known footballing faces in former Newcastle United goalkeeper and Dutch international, Tim Krul and former Watford defender Adrian Mariappa.

Currently he is a part-time player for Macclesfield and also coaches the under-8's side in his spare time.

Heartbreaking News

During rehab at Wolves Matheson grew to become good friends with Ethan McLeod and the pair later ended up reuniting at Macclesfirld FC.

Tragically the 21-year-old forward, McLeod, died in a car accident whilst travelling home from a Northern League North game against Bedford Town.

The majority of the squad, including Matheson, were stuck in gridlocked traffic on the M1 following the crash and had the news of McLeod's passing told to them by manager John Rooney the following morning.

Speaking to the BBC about the events Matheson said;

_"You don't realise how much a person almost saved you until they're not there anymore, I was lucky that I had the pleasure of getting to know him for three-and-a-half years at Wolves, and then again as we both matured and got older here.

"Unfortunately we did spend a lot of time together in rehab, but I'm grateful and very lucky that we did because it definitely impacted my career in a positive way.

"Through some of the darkest days of my career, with his infectious smile he would walk in and brighten up every single day."_

Matheson now finds himself injury free at Macclesfield and is getting regular minutes, he has also vowed in tribute to his friend McLeod to carry his legacy forward and with the upcoming game against Brentford in the FA Cup he has a huge chance to do so.

The parents of Ethan McLeod, who sadly lost his life in a car crash in December, joined players and staff in the dressing room to celebrate Macclesfield’s FA Cup win over Crystal Palace.💙

🎥 @footballontnt pic.twitter.com/52rT3GytE4

— Ben Jacobs (@JacobsBen) January 10, 2026