The Silkmen won the FA Cup Run of the Year award at the ceremony held at AFC Wimbledon’s Plough Lane on 20 May.
The National League North outfit produced the greatest upset in the competition’s 155-year history when they beat the holders, who had England internationals Adam Wharton and Marc Guehi playing for them, in the third round despite there being 117 places between the two sides at kick-off.
After Paul Dawson’s header gave John Rooney’s men the lead, Buckley-Ricketts doubled their advantage before they held on to record a famous 2-1 victory at Moss Rose.
“That Crystal Palace game was a milestone moment for me,” said Buckley-Ricketts. “To score the goal, that turned out to be the winner, it is what dreams are made of. To be completely honest, [when I scored] in the moment, I felt numb. I know I scored, but knowing it was against a Premier League side, I couldn’t get overwhelmed as we still had the game to play. But once the final whistle went, it’s hard to explain how I felt. All the emotions came at once.
“To win the award today, it feels like a full-circle moment. We came through a lot of high stakes games and at the end of the day, you’re there to win. After losing to Brentford after beating Palace, we felt a little bit deflated but to win this award, and to get some recognition feels great.”
The National Game Awards is a celebration of the non-League season - highlighting the community, fans, on-field, and off-field successes of the game outside of the Football League.
The awards afternoon is held annually by the Non-League Paper, the UK's number one selling football title and the best place for your non-league news.
Buckley-Ricketts added: “It’s really important that the NGAs shine a light on non-league football because there’s so much talent in these leagues, even if it’s not always televised or recognised. Events like this highlight the quality throughout the non-league pyramid, and I think it can only benefit the game going forward.”
Jon Couch, executive editor of The Non-League Paper, said: “These awards are really important because non-league football does not always get the recognition it deserves. We like to think of ourselves as the voice of non-league football, and this is a chance to celebrate everyone involved, the clubs, players, managers, contributors and sponsors who help keep the game alive. It’s been another brilliant year of non-league football.”
The Non-League Paper is the UK’s number one selling football title, available every Sunday. For more information please visit www.thenonleaguefootballpaper.com