Duff Win For The Robins
Morecambe made the long journey to Gloucestershire today to try and emulate their win over Walsall in the West Midlands last Tuesday night. Derek Adam said about this win after the game:
“Coming away from home, against a team speaking about getting into the play-offs, dominating possession, dominating chances – it was a thoroughly perfect way to win a football match.”
Could what some Saddlers’ fans subsequently described as DA’s `rag and bone outfit’ get some more points on the board to push themselves even further ahead of Stevenage in the dog fight at the bottom of League Two?
Michael Duff’s Robins were on the fringe of the Play-Offs in eighth position in the table prior to the match on a run of two wins, two draws and a single defeat in their last five league games – an identical record to today’s opponents. Last Tuesday, they only managed a draw against Bradford at Valley Parade even though former Morecambe player Jamie Devitt was sent-off for the hosts during the first half. Historically, the two clubs have met twenty-one times previously in all competitions. Morecambe have won just five of these and lost nine. One of the remaining drawn games happened at the Globe Arena last August when neither team was able to conjure a goal between them.
Mr Duff named new loanee from Bristol Rovers Tom Nichols in a Cheltenham line-up which included Welsh International Wigan Athletic loanee Owen Evans, who was in goal for Macclesfield when Morecambe won there last August. The young man played twenty-seven times for the Silkmen this season before having his loan there rescinded three weeks ago. Luke Varney was added to the starting line-up which began Tuesday’s match at the expense of Tahvon Campbell, who was injured. For the Shrimps, this week’s loan signing from Millwall – Harvey Bradbury – went straight onto the bench. Burnley loanee Adam Cooney was stretchered-off in the Walsall game and was not fit enough to turn-out today: Christian Mbulu took his place at full-back. The result was that almost half of Morecambe’s first team were men who Derek Adams has imported since the beginning of the year.
It was dry but cloudy as the game kicked-off. Morecambe had the first effort on goal of the match, Cole Stockton shooting just over the bar on a swift counter-attack after five minutes, having being played through by Adam Phillips. Cheltenham Captain Ben Tozer missed with a header after eleven minutes and then Christoffer Mafoumbi was called into action for the visitors to gather a dangerous cross from Chris Hussey from the Robins’ left six minutes later. Twenty-five minutes had been played when ex-Cheltenham player Jordan Cranston took a trade-mark long-range pop at goal after 25 minutes – and missed the target. Phillips also tried his luck from long-range a couple of minutes later but Cranston made the next significant contribution to the contest. He clearly fouled Luke Varney in the Morecambe penalty area and Mafoumbi was unable to repeat his wonder save of Tuesday night when Conor Thomas hammered the ball past him from the spot and he went the wrong way. There could have been a penalty for the Shrimps almost immediately when Carlos Gomes-Mendes seemed to be impeded in the home box but Referee David Rock was unimpressed. Just two minutes after they had gone ahead, the home side were two goals to the good. Toumani Diagouraga made an uncharacteristic mistake in midfield and gave the ball away; Varney nipped into the visitors half with it and found Alfie May who scored his fourth goal in five games with an assured shot low into the corner of the net. Stockton attempted to reduce the arrears in injury time with a powerful shot which drew a fine stop from home custodian Owen Evans. But two minutes of poor concentration by the visitors meant that Cheltenham returned to the dressing rooms relatively comfortably in the lead.
The visitors upped their game during the second half, though and had a lot more of the possession. They couldn’t make anything of this early-on however, despite several efforts. Cranston missed again with a long-range shot after 67 minutes. Carlos then had an effort blocked two minutes later after being set-up by substitute A-Jay Leitch-Smith. But the home team came closest to scoring after 75 minutes when Cheltenham sub Ryan Broom played a sublime ball for May, whose resultant shot bounced-back off the post. Phillips then fired straight at Evans before the always impressive A-Jay reduced the arrears with six minutes scheduled to play, turning-in a cross from Phillips. Right from kick-off, the visitors almost equalised but Captain Tozer was in the right place at the right time to clear an effort off the line. Captain Sam Lavelle hit the post and the Shrimps came even closer as Leitch-Smith’s brilliant bicycle kick from a corner slammed against the bar after 88 minutes. Cole Stockton had a couple of attempts subsequent to this but – try as they might – they couldn’t pull the game out of the fire, having given themselves a mountain to climb in the first half.
Morecambe’s generally disappointing record on the road thus continued today. There was good news at the end of the match, though: Stevenage contrived to collapse at home by a whole three goals to nil to Leyton Orient: a team hardly renowned for their away prowess in League Two. So it was As You Were at the bottom of the division this evening. At the top, the Robins sneaked into the Play-Off positions in seventh place.
Cheltenham: 33 Owen Evans; 5 Charlie Raglan (Y); 4 Ben Tozer (C); 26 Jacob Greaves; 2 Sean Long; 7 Conor Thomas (11 Ryan Broom (Y) 51’); 14 Max Sheaf (23 Rohan Ince 67’); 21 Jake Doyle-Hayes (Y); 3 Chris Hussey; 32 Luke Varney (Y) (34 Tom Nichols 66’); 29 Alfie May.
Subs not used: 31 Freddie Lapworth; 17 Josh Debayo; 15 Will Boyle; 16 Alex Addai.
Morecambe: 37 Christoffer Mafoumbi; 27 Christian Mbulu (Y); 33 Jordan Cranston; 5 Steven Old; 16 Sam Lavelle (C); 31 Adam Phillips; 15 Aaron Wildig (Y); 32 Toumani Diagouraga (10 A-Jay Leitch-Smith 64’); 19 Carlos Mendes-Gomes (27 Harvey Bradbury 83’); 9 Cole Stockton; 29 Jordan Slew (4 Alex Kenyon (Y) 55’).
Subs not used: 21 Mark Halstead; 3 Luke Conlan; 14 Tom Brewitt.
Ref: David Rock.
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