Accrington Stanley Hoodoo Continues
Morecambe travelled south and east across the storm-blasted county of Lancashire today to visit their all time Nemesis in the shape of Accrington Stanley. Since the Shrimps entered the EFL, the club (usually) managed by the Shrimps’ leading scorer of all time – John Coleman – has beaten them no less than a quite astonishing fourteen times out of twenty-three matches altogether. Morecambe have won only two. Accrington were thirteenth in League One today but have only won one of their last five league games. They have drawn three of them and lost the most recent one last Saturday 2-1 at Ipswich in a very feisty game after initially taking the lead.
Morecambe, meanwhile, were coming from behind twice to beat Wycombe Wanderers – the leaders of the Division prior to kick-off – by three goals to two. We all saw what The Beast (Adebayo Akinfenwa) has been doing for his entire career when he scored – yet again – against us, this time after barely ninety seconds were on the clock. It’s a shame that some idiots in our midst chose to shout abuse at this man on the basis of what barely passes for a rhyme for his surname and I’m glad to see that the club has apologised to him for this truly brainless insult. Just think of the damage that could be done to League One defences if a player of this calibre could link-up with our own Goal Machine, Cole Stockton.
So – to move onto more positive matters, I am thus truly delighted to exclusively reveal on these pages that Cole the Goal now has a new strike partner. The Beast was unavailable – so please put your hands together for… The Bear.
(Thanks to Katie at Bear’s Doggy Day Care in Lancaster for the title photograph.)
EFL League One Manager of the week Stephen Robinson was unable to name Greg Leigh in his starting eleven due to an international call-up. So Liam Gibson started in his place this afternoon. Robbo has also signed ex-Gillingham defender Rhys Bennett on a deal which will last until the end of the season. The Morecambe Manager would be hoping for a positive result today to lift his team out of the Relegation Zone of League One where they were precariously poised at the top of the pack of the four clubs marked down for damnation at the end of the season. Morecambe were in twenty-first place in the table and went into the match on the back of two wins and two defeats in their last five league games. Robbo said prior to the game:
“This is a really big game for us. I have been really impressed with Accrington and they have been unlucky with results in recent weeks. John always has them fired up. They are a big, big strong side and it will be a challenge for us. There will be a great atmosphere on Saturday I am sure but it will be a tough game for us. There is not a lot of differences between teams at this level. Every game is competitive. We need to carry on playing with the confidence we have played with in recent games. I still don’t think I have picked the same team twice in a row, with Greg now away on international duty that isn’t going to happen. Ryan McLaughlin is still a doubt for Saturday as well, but the lads who have come in through the season – the likes of Liam Gibson and Ryan Cooney – have done well for us. Some people’s misfortune are other people’s opportunities and it is up to those players to come in and grab that opportunity.”
John Coleman’s affection for Morecambe has never been in doubt. Here are his thoughts prior to the game:
“Having played in the fixture for Morecambe against Accrington, I know it’s a special game and I know they will be buoyed by a good win last week. It will be a bumper crowd and a good atmosphere. I did the Play-Off semi-finals for Radio Lancashire and there was no one happier than me that Morecambe got promoted. Everyone knows my affinity to them and I had my best footballing years there. I met a lot of really good people who I am still good friends with. I want Morecambe to do well, just not against us. Stephen Robinson is a good lad, I did my coaching badges with him. He is a good footballing person, he knows his onions, he has done remarkably well to get a team going and they have had some great results this season. They have got one of the leading goal-scorers in Cole Stockton and they have good footballers and he will be scratching his head about why it goes awry, as we all do, but that’s life in League One.”
During the week, midfielder and Stanley Captain Sean McConville added the following about the forthcoming clash:
“The new players have been made aware of the local rivalry between Morecambe and Accrington and will be made more aware today and tomorrow going into a big game on Saturday. Our fans will let you know this is a big one, they will get behind us from the first minute to the last regardless of the scoreline and we want to send them home happy with three points. I have always had a good record against Morecambe over two spells, luckily enough. We had a good record when Jim Bentley was manager. Even though I like Jim, we always seemed to beat his sides. I also feel we owe Morecambe one, they nicked a point off us at their place with ten men and that was down to our naivety towards the end of the game. That still stings a little bit but being back at home, in front of our fans, in a derby, we will be going 110 per cent to get three points. We are at a stage of the season where we need the three points. We were on a good run, we lost on Saturday and I don’t think we deserved to lose. If you look at the points total over the last few games, we have drawn a few and we feel like we need to pick three points up to get us back on another run.”
As mentioned, Storm Malik has been ravaging parts of northern and eastern Britain all day today. In Accrington, though the weather was sunny a lot of the time and although very windy both before and during the game. The gale was blowing straight into the visitors’ faces in the first half but they played the better football during it in my humble opinion. Having said that, Trevor Carson in the away goal made the first good save of the contest; pushing huge, lumbering Centre Back Ross Sykes’ effort on target over the bar after six minutes. By this time, the die was set.
John Coleman’s Stanley sides have always followed a particular style: big; aggressive and prepared to lump the ball forwards at all times. In Ethan Hamilton, you have a big guy at the back with little finesse who was constantly prepared to leave his foot in when tackling and then exchange verbals with whoever had been on the receiving end of his attentions. Sykes headed and otherwise blocked the ball with whatever was required physically to do so but seemed to lack the basic skills in getting rid of it effectively once he had done so. Harry Pell and particularly Colby Bishop are old-fashioned centre forward types: big; rough and direct.
But this pretty Neanderthal approach to the Beautiful Game works for Stanley and that is presumably why – with their limited resources and constant changes of personnel – their Manager sticks with it.
It didn’t work particularly well today though, at least early on. The best chance of the game so far fell to Jonah Ayunga after seven minutes, when Cole Stockton’s excellent run from the Morecambe left and unselfish pass to him resulted in a wild swing at the ball which missed the target by about a mile. He should have scored then. But he did atone for this mistake with almost a quarter of an hour on the clock. Cole the Goal was again instrumental in this, forcing his way into a good position before unleashing a shot which home keeper Toby Savin could only parry and his defence struggled to clear. There was a bit of ping-pong before the ball fell to Jonah on the right hand edge of the Accrington penalty area from his point of view – and he buried it. He scored again after twenty-six when strike partner Stockton again set him up to smash home a strike from the right which seemed to go under Savin’s body.
So Morecambe found themselves two to the good with less than a third of the game played. We people from North Lancashire were on Cloud Nin – this simply doesn’t happen against Accrington Stanley, does it?
It has to be said that the visitors had ridden their luck to some extent up to this point. After twelve minutes, Skipper Sean McConville was in on goal and seemed to slip as he took a shot which didn’t even test the visiting keeper. But when Stanley pulled a goal back after 35 minutes, the gods were certainly smiling on them. The ball clearly went way over the goal-line on the Stanley right just before they were awarded a corner on their left as weak refereeing again allowed them to play on in a situation where a goal-kick should have been awarded. Having said that, though, Bishop clearly told McConville where he expected the dead ball kick to go. He wasn’t disappointed and headed home far too easily as the Shrimps yet again failed to defend properly from a set piece. It got worse. In injury time, Hamilton clearly dived on the Stanley left just outside the penalty area and Referee Sam Purkiss fell for it almost as theatrically as the player had thrown himself to the ground himself. McConville again took it. Morecambe again failed to defend it properly. And Accrington scored again – this time through Michael Nottingham.
So the Shrimps had basically thrown the win away – yet again. Stanley was the better and more assertive team throughout the second half as they successfully dragged the visitors down to their own Cavemen level and out-Neanderthal-led them. There is little to add in the second half. Carson did well a couple of times to single-handedly keep his team in the match. Morecambe looked shaky every time the home team won a set-piece: and the won loads of corners. Forays into the Accrington half were few and far between for the visitors but the Cole Machine was a handful for the home defence all the time. Savin also did really well to keep an effort from him out after 54 minutes. Adam Phillips came on for a while near end and offered little other than a back-keel in injury time which rolled agonisingly across the unprotected home goal line with nobody in a black strip to convert it.
Overall, though, a draw was probably a fair result. Morecambe could – and should – have won today. The point they earned left them stuck in twenty-first place in League One. But the gap between themselves and the three teams above them narrowed following results elsewhere. Stanley, meanwhile, remained exactly where they were prior to the game: lucky thirteenth.
Accrington Stanley: 40 Toby Savin; 4 Ethan Hamilton; 5 Ross Sykes; 6 Matt Butcher (Y); 7 John O’Sullivan; 8 Harry Pell; 9 Colby Bishop (3 Jay Rich-Baghuelou (Y) 45’); 36 Mitch Clark; 11 Sean McConville (C); 12 Michael Nottingham; 38 Yeboah Amankwah.
Subs Not Used: 30 Liam Isherwood; 2 Harvey Rodgers; 26 Lewis Mansell; 32 Rosaire Longelo; 35 Jack Nolan; 37 David Morgan.
Morecambe: 30 Trevor Carson (Y); 4 Anthony O’Connor (C); 5 Jacob Bedeau; 8 Toumani Diagouraga (Y); 10 Aaron Wildig (18 Adam Phillips 62’); 9 Cole Stockton; 17 Jonah Ayunga; 19 Shane McLoughlin; 21 Ryan Cooney; 22 Liam Gibson (31 Rhys Bennett 27’); 24 Arthur Gnahoua.
Subs Not Used: 1 Kyle Letheren; 14 Jonathan Obika; 16 Jacob Mensah; 27 Ousmane Fané; 28 Courtney Duffus.
Ref: Sam Purkiss.
Att: 3,527 (1.168 from Morecambe).
