Routine victory for Bolton.
It’s not all that long ago – March 8th – since Derek Adams brought his predecessor Stephen Robinson’s team to Horwich on a Tuesday night seeking to remedy a parlous position in League One. Morecambe were stuck in twenty-first position in the league – as they were again this evening. On the night, the Shrimps led by a Cole Stockton goal until almost the end of the game. In the meantime, huge Bolton centre-half and Captain Ricardo Almeida Santos wiped-out Dylan Connolly in the home penalty area and should have conceded a spot-kick and be sent off into the bargain. But weak Referee Christopher Sarginson kept his cards in his pocket. In doing so, he showed himself to be far too easily intimidated by the large, threatening lump of a man otherwise known as Bolton Boss Ian Evatt. Evatt is a bully who is prepared to stoop to any level – however despicable – to gain an advantage for his team. Last season at Morecambe, the Bolton Manager was responsible for two innocent members of the home crowd being thrown out of the ground on totally baseless allegations made against them by himself. He them went on to complain of a `barrage’ of racist abuse being directed at his players by other Morecambe supporters. Curiously, though, a police investigation of the claims Evatt made at the time has produced no evidence of any such behaviour. Last March, the Bolton Boss claimed that Derek Adams had entered the field of play to push one of his own players. As a result, Referee Sarginson booked our Manager. But video footage proved not only that Derek was actually innocent but clearly showed him being manhandled by his much larger Opposite Number. So what Ian Evatt had suggested had happened wasn’t true. But that’s what this man does. And he gets away with it – nearly always. Last Saturday at Vale Park, though, he came across a referee in the shape of Ross Joyce who was not going to put up with the blatant gamesmanship and constant cheating that the Bolton Manager wears as badges of pride – and sent him off at the end of the first half. Bolton Captain Almeida Santos was also sent off and as a result could not feature for the Trotters tonight.
Bolton Wanderers started the game in eight position in League One. They are unbeaten after four games so far, of which they have won one league game (3-0 against highly fancied Wycombe) and drawn two. In the League Cup, they walloped League Two Salford City 5-1 at this venue a week ago. In their four previous meetings with the Shrimps, Wanderers have won one game and drawn three. Last season, the League One game at the Maz was disrupted by crowd trouble by a minority of away fans after which Morecambe lost their momentum from a winning position and conceded an equaliser. All this was sparked by the allegations of racism which Ian Evatt made at the time but no action has been taken against either the Manager nor the club for the disorder which ensued. As already mentioned, if the Referee had been stronger in the return fixture, Morecambe could – and should – have departed from Horwich with a win. But it wasn’t to be. Tonight, though, provided an opportunity for a new start. I take on board the criticism I have received recently for portraying Referees as the Pantomime Villains in Morecambe’s games from time to time and I’ve decided to tone this down – except when it is justified. But the man charged with regulating tonight’s match and standing up to Ian Bolton’s ingrained whingeing and potentially intimidating behaviour could be a key to the final result. So a heavy burden of responsibility fell onto Anthony Backhouse’s shoulders this evening.
Prior to the game, King Derek’s thoughts were these:
“Anybody who can beat Wycombe three-nil has to be doing something right. We looked at that game; we’ve looked at the game from Saturday; we’ve looked at previous games. We understand their philosophy (and) we understand what we’ve got to do to get the better of them.”
Opposite Number Ian Evatt predictably played the role of martyr prior to the game and claimed he had been harshly dealt with by the officials at Vale Park last Saturday. Anticipating a ban from the touchline for tonight’s game, he said on Monday:
“It’s not ideal that I might not be in the technical area but I trust my staff 100 per cent and they know exactly what’s required – as do the players. We will do our work before the game and then hopefully the players can go out there and execute the game plan. We’re feeling good, feeling positive and still carrying momentum from Saturday. Even though we faced a lot of adversity, we still came out with a positive feeling and hopefully we can continue that tomorrow night.”
Black clouds glowered over the University of Bolton before and during the match but the weather stayed dry and it remained quite warm, despite a keen breeze blowing across Horwich from the south west.
Rumours that former favourite Carlos Mendes-Gomes was about to re-sign from Luton Town on-loan were dashed before the game with news that he has signed for Fleetwood instead. There was also no place in the squad tonight for Cole Stockton for whatever reason so Derek chose virtually the same starting line-up as he did last Saturday. The only change was Jensen Weir, who replaced Ousmane Fané in the starting eleven.
Morecambe’s tactics tonight soon became apparent. Initially, they pushed the hosts back into their own half and dominated the play with some excellent passing moves of their own. Sadly, though, a football match lasts for ninety, not just twenty minutes and as the half wore on, the Trotters got an increasing foothold in it. They had a chance after ten minutes when Jón Bödvarsson headed a corner just wide of the target. But, Bolton being Bolton, there was a lot of histrionics and crowding around the Referee every time one of their number fell over. When Max Melbourne was booked after twenty- three minutes, I genuinely don’t think he ever connected with Keiran Lee but the spirit of Ian Evatt lived on as his players crowded Mr Backhouse – and the Referee duly provided them with the Yellow Card they wanted. I think the fairest thing I could say about this man’s performance tonight was that he gave the home team an awful lot of leeway. Every time one of them fell over, he was quick to award a free kick. But when Max Melbourne was genuinely hurt after almost an hour and had to be stretchered off with what looked like a serious facial injury, he didn’t award so much as a free kick, let alone a Yellow or a Red card to whoever caused this injury to our full-back. Yes, I know I said I wouldn’t go on about the Refereeing tonight but Anthony Backhouse was far too easily influenced by the men in white and the baying home crowd than any fair-minded official should have been.
As Morecambe were pushed further and further down the pitch, two things started to concern me about our performance tonight. Ash Hunter has a lot of talent – that’s obvious. But he also makes a lot of mistakes and gives the ball away far too often. It was him who – in a promising break-away for the Shrimps after thirty-nine minutes – passed the ball to a Bolton player defending his own penalty area instead of finding a team-mate. The Trotters wasted no time pinging the ball forward and Liverpool loanee Conor Bradley opened his account for Wanderers with a decent finish. In one moment, the play had switched from one end of the pitch to the other and the hosts took full advantage of it.
The other thing that bothered me was the performance of our goalkeeper. Connor Ripley can kick a football a hell of a long way – there’s no doubting that. But his distribution tonight was appalling with aimless kick after aimless kick which continually handed the possession back to Bolton. His mastery of his area was again weak as well and he failed to hold onto the ball on a couple of occasions when he really should have done better.
Opposite Number Manchester City loanee goalkeeper James Trafford, on the other hand, had very little to do tonight. Near the end, he had an easy save from a Farrend Rawson header following a corner but in a match of few chances, he was never really seriously tested. In truth, Bolton created more openings during the first half than the Shrimps did and probably dominated the play in the second half as well. The nearest the visitors came to equalising tonight was in the fifty-fourth minutes, when Ryan Delaney headed Hunter’s excellent free-kick narrowly wide of the target.
At the other end, Bolton could and probably have increased their lead in the eighty-second minute, when Kyle Dempsey’s perfect cross into the Morecambe box was headed horribly wide by substitute Amadou Bakayoko. Other than that, there’s not a lot to say. Morecambe played well at times and looked tight in defence. Their good play tended to come apart in midfield though and they offered very little going forward all night, which is obviously a worry.
I don’t know what Ian Evatt’s thoughts were after tonight’s game; nor do I personally care. His team went up to fourth in the League One standings as a result of their victory; Morecambe fell to twenty-second. As always, though, Derek Adams found the positives – and there were many – in tonight’s performance:
“I think we looked very organised, tactically we were very good because Bolton have beaten Wycombe Wanderers here 3-0 in the past, and they didn’t have to many opportunities in the game. We were unlucky with Ryan Delaney’s header in the second-half which went past the upright. Rawson had a header on goal as well. This is a difficult leagueF for us in this moment in time; in that forward area we are not getting that right pass at the right time. You have to remember we are a new team and we are four games into the season.”
Bolton Wanderers: 19 James Trafford; 2 Gethin Jones (C); 3 Declan John; 6 George Johnston; 9 Jón Bödvarsson (11 Amadou Bakayoko 72’); 15 Will Aimson; 16 Aaron Morley; 20 Keiran Lee; 21 Conor Bradley (Y) (4 MJ Williams 81’); 22 Kyle Dempsey (7 Keiran Sadlier 91’); 24 Elias Kachunga (7 Oladapo Afolayan 72’).
Subs not used: 12 Joel Dixon; 14 Jack Iredale.
Morecambe: 1 Connor Ripley; 2 Donald Love (C); 3 Max Melbourne (Y) (7 Jake Taylor 58’); 4 Liam Gibson; 5 Farrend Rawson; 6 Ryan Delaney; 10 Ash Hunter; 14 Arthur Gnahoua (8 Ousmane Fané 82’); 15 Jensen Weir; 14 Arthur Gnouah 16 Jacob Bedeau; 19 Jon Obika (11 Dylan Connolly 73’).
Subs not used: 12 Adam Smith; 17 Caleb Watts; 18 Shane McLoughlin; 22 Anthony O’Connor.
Ref: Anthony Backhouse.
Att: 17,165 (764 from Morecambe).
