Morecambe Suffer Roles Reversal at Cambridge
There was a reunion today in Cambridgeshire as Colin Calderwood welcomed his former Assistant Manager at Hibernian to the Abbey Stadium for the final game of the year – and the decade – for both Morecambe and Cambridge United. Shrimps’ Manager Derek Adams worked with Calderwood for six months beginning in November 2010 before returning to his first managerial post at Ross County and renewed success. Colin has been the boss at Cambridge United for just over a year. In that time, he has stabilised a club with serious relegation fears when he arrived and got rid of the rump of players which he inherited from Shaun Derry a year ago. United’s record has been patchy this season so far, however. Although comfortably thirteenth in the League Two table before the game, the U’s have only won one of their previous five league fixtures; drawn two and lost their last two, including Saturday’s 4-0 drubbing at table-toppers Swindon Town. In previous years, Morecambe have won six of the eleven meetings between the clubs (including the famous FA Cup victory at Christie Park during 2000) and lost just three, albeit one of them by their worst ever deficit in the EFL: seven-nil.
A year from now, I think it would be reasonable to assume that if Derek Adams could emulate his former colleague’s achievement by steering the Shrimps to a mid-table position in League Two, his tenure so far would be judged to be a success. Morecambe lost at home to Oldham last time out despite being the better team for at least the first half of the game. They have lost three of their last five league games and won only one of them. The Shrimps arrived just a single point above Stevenage, who were holding-up the whole of the EFL prior to today’s contest. If they lost and Borough pulled-off an unlikely win or draw at Plymouth, Morecambe would begin the new decade bottom of the table: which is a situation no club wants to be in.
Both Managers made changes to the teams which started last Saturday. Callum Burton appeared between the sticks for the first time ever for the U’s and Dan Jones and Marc Richards also started for United. For Morecambe, injured Cole Stockton was not in the squad and A-Jay Leitch-Smith was relegated to the bench: Ritchie Sutton and Lewis Allesandra replaced them. Significantly, though, Derek Adams only named five substitutes today. Players such as Andrew Tutte and Adam Buxton are both fit but neither of them even travelled with the squad today and it would appear that the new Manager does not have them in his plans for the future of the club.
It was dry and quite sunny in Cambridgeshire as the match kicked-off. The early stages of the game were fairly even. Carlos Mendes-Gomes tried his luck with a volley from Kevin Ellison’s cross after three minutes – it only just missed the target. Kev then tried a similar trick with a similar effort after nine minutes but his volley from George Tanner’s forward lob went over the bar. For the hosts, George Taft missed with a header from Jack Roles’ cross following a corner with twelve minutes played. Roles then tried his luck himself with a shot from 25 yards after seventeen minutes which Mark Halstead in the visiting goal pushed away for a corner. United came even closer to opening the scoring a couple of minutes later when only Tanner’s clearance off the Morecambe goal-line prevented Marc Richards scoring from an acute angle. George then unleashed a powerful drive from a long way out after twenty-five minutes which only just cleared the Cambridge bar with Callum Burton struggling to get anywhere near it. With Ellison giving U’s defenders plenty to think about, Alex Kenyon and then Kev himself both had shots which were off-target as the half grew older. During injury time, John O’Sullivan headed Lewis Allesandra’s cross narrowly wide and then Luke Conlan forced Burton into a decent save with a long-range shot. But what had been a fairly lack-lustre match so far finished goal-less at half time with neither side being particularly dominant at any time.
Cambridge began to press right from the start of the second period and pinned the visitors in their own half for much of the opening twenty minutes or so. Paul Lewis played-in Richards after 53 minutes but Halstead was equal to the striker’s header. The visiting goalkeeper was beaten four minutes later though as the Morecambe defence parted like the Red Sea and allowed Spurs loanee Roles to run into their penalty area with the ball and unleash a shot which nestled low into the corner of the net. Morecambe went onto the front foot after conceding and Captain Kenyon played in Kev to bury the ball in Burton’s net with an hour on the clock but the veteran was clearly offside. There were a couple of goalmouth scrambles as United struggled to clear their lines after that before Ritchie Sutton headed Allesandra’s cross narrowly wide after 65 minutes. Derek Adams took Kev off and then made a double substitution involving A-Jay Leitch-Smith and Aaron Wildig with a quarter of an hour left in an attempt to get back into the match. But the hosts had the next decent chance to score: Richards’ header from a corner was cleared off the line by Steven Old. As the visitors conceded a succession of corners, United again started to get on top. A nice passing move saw Lewis pull the ball back for substitute Reggie Lambe but he put the ball over the bar. And that was basically that although the Shrimps at least ended the game on the front foot with shots from substitute Jordan Cranston being saved during injury time and other attempts by O’Sullivan and A-Jay being blocked just before that.
So it was yet another disappointment on the road for the Shrimps today. They ended 2019 with a defeat but their one crumb of comfort is that Derek Adams’ previous employers did him a favour at Home Park by beating Stevenage 2-1. Borough thus get the unwelcome distinction of opening a new decade right at the bottom of the entire EFL. Macclesfield also lost at Forest Green so they end the era a single point and one place above the Shrimps in twenty-second position in League Two. Cambridge end 2019 in twelfth place.
Let’s all hope for a more productive 2020 – on and off the football field.
Cambridge United: 25 Callum Burton; 16 Harry Darling; 5 Greg Taylor; 4 George Taft; 3 Daniel Jones; 22 Paul Lewis; 10 George Maris; 8 Liam O’Neil (19 Reggie Lambe 56’); 18 Marc Richards (11 Harrison Dunk 78’); 30 Jack Role (26 Harvey Knibbs 83’); 20 Sam Smith.
Subs not used: 1 Dimitar Mitov; 9 Andrew Dallas; 24 Jordan Norville-Williams; 27 Ben Worman.
Morecambe: 21 Mark Halstead; 3 Luke Conlan; 27 George Tanner; 5 Steven Old; 4 Alex Kenyon (C)(Y); 14 Tom Brewitt (15 Aaron Wildig 75’; 12 Ritchie Sutton; 7 John O’Sullivan; 19 Carlos Mendes-Gomes; 11 Kevin Ellison (33 Jordan Cranston 70’); 8 Lewis Alessandra (10 A-Jay Leitch-Smith 75’).
Subs not used: 28 Andre Filipe Da Silva Mendes; 23 Tyler Brownsword.
Ref: Will Finnie. 4086 (47).
