(Memory Lane for Morecambe supporters of a certain age. The cover photo shows the Main Stand at Whaddon Road. It dates back to 1963 and is a carbon copy of the old Main Stand at Christie Park. Even the floodlight pylons on the roof have survived at Cheltenham.)
Cheltenham are Red; Morecambe are Blue…
Morecambe journeyed to Gloucestershire today to face a Cheltenham Town team which they came from behind to beat at Whaddon Road in the first game of their promotion-winning season two years ago. In League One, though, Town won both fixtures against the Shrimps last season by three goals to one. Overall, they have beaten Morecambe twelve times in all competitions; lost seven and drawn seven.
Last season’s Boss Michael Duff has departed for Pastures New and was in charge of the Barnsley team which lost to the Shrimps in north Lancashire last Saturday.
Replacement Wade Elliot has seen his team lose their last three League One matches, most recently at the hands of fellow strugglers against relegation, Burton Albion. In doing so, they have shipped eight goals and scored only one. The Robins started this evening’s game in twentieth position in the table, just above the relegation zone and three points ahead of tonight’s opponents. Asked how he rated Morecambe’s win against Barnsley last Saturday, Mr Elliot said:
“Barnsley are a good side but they had to perform really well. They were dogged and they were organised and it was a really good win for them.”
When also asked if he regarded the match against Morecambe to be a six-pointer or if he read any significance in to the fact that Town had beaten them twice last season, he replied:
“I think they’re all important. We don’t prioritise any one game over any other game. We try to pick a team and a game plan to get a result in every game. Just because you won the last one, it doesn’t necessarily owe you the next one. Obviously we’ve done our homework on them. They had a good result at the weekend. They got a point at Burton the week before that. We certainly won’t be taking them lightly. We don’t think we have an entitlement to rock-up and take the points. We have to find a better balance than we had against Burton.“
Concerning the unrest which Robins’ fans made obvious at the end of the away game on Saturday, he said:
“I would just say stick with us. I do understand the frustration and I think fans have got a right to vent that. I think, from experience, what I don’t want is for that to spill over into something that then everyone regrets later. At the end of the game the players’ emotions are high, fans’ emotions are high. I think potentially that can become a flashpoint which you don’t want and which you’d rather avoid. But I’ve got no problem with there being a dialogue between fans, players and staff, because I do think we’re all in it together.”
Opposite Number Derek Adams said the following prior to the game tonight:
“Firstly, the only important thing for all of us is to win football matches. The three points certainly gets you quickly up the table. You only have to look at where we could have been if we had a couple more wins on the board. We take it a game at a time, but we’ll always look at the table and see how many teams we can gain ground on on any given day should we go on and win the match. We’ve cut the gap between ourselves and sixteenth place to five points, so that is something we’re looking at and hoping to build on. After Saturday’s result in particular, the team spirit is very good and the players have got that desire to do well. We’re going into a big game against Cheltenham; a number of wins can push you up the table quite quickly, and this is something we’ll be looking to achieve on Tuesday night.”
It was dry and quite mild as the game kicked-off and Morecambe went straight onto the front foot.
Liam Shaw had the first effort of the night for either side but his wild shot cleared the stand roof after three minutes. A minute later, the ball was well worked to Ryan Cooney on the Shrimps’ right but his cross was confidently held by Reading loanee Luke Southwood in the home goal. Eight minutes had been played before Town showed any attacking intent. Tricky Charlie Brown made good progress through the visitors defence before setting-up Ryan Jackson to miss with a low effort when he might have done better.
Three minutes later, Jacob Bedeau’s excellent pass to Cole Stockton on the Morecambe right led to the centre forward slinging over a low cross which eluded all the men in blue strips. Town hit quickly on the break as they picked-up the loose ball and Brown again set up a chance which this time Daniel N’Lundulu directed wide of the target when presented with the entire goal to shoot at. Cole Stockton then hit the ball way out of the ground after a quarter of an hour with an unconvincing attempt to replicate one of his many wonder strikes of last season. Morecambe were still asking most of the questions though, with some slick inter-passing as they pressed the hosts far up the field into their own half.
Liam Gibson forced Southwood to turn his long-range shot for a corner with a decent save after seventeen minutes and then Stockton was denied by a superb tackle when in a threatening position in the centre of the Cheltenham penalty area with 23 minutes on the clock. King Derek then got a talking-to by officious Referee James Oldham after almost half an hour when he was clearly disputing the pinching of loads of yards by Cheltenham at a throw-in.
However, his team’s dominance of events was underlined by the fact that Town didn’t have their first corner kick – which came to nothing – until almost this time. Then Ryan Broom took a weak shot which was easily held by the visiting goalkeeper after 34 minutes.
It was still looking good for the visitors until Ryan Delaney made a really poor pass straight after this almost half way up the pitch on the Morecambe left. It was pounced upon by the hosts in the shape of Ryan Jackson, who motored up their right wing and slung over a cross which full-back Ben Williams gleefully buried at the back post.
The goal totally changed the momentum of the match. After it, the Robins looked like men re-born as Morecambe clearly completely lost their way. It was as if a balloon had been popped. There were few good chances for either side from here on in until injury time at the end of the game.
Derek shook things up with positive changes at the beginning of the second half: off came defender Delaney and midfielder Jensen Weir to be replaced by forwards Dylan Connolly and Arthur Gnahoua. Dylan ran about a lot and managed to get a booking for a stupid foul on home custodian Southwood but did nothing constructive otherwise. Arthur offered even less. The seemingly totally uncommitted Stockton was also replaced later on by Caleb Watts.
But long before the ninetieth minute, there had been a gnawing feeling about the inevitably of defeat this evening. Morecambe had a lot of the ball in the second half but almost constantly failed to do anything constructive with it despite constant changes in personnel and the team’s shape.
Cheltenham also offered little apart from a few efforts from the impressive Ryan Broom – they look like another pretty poor team.
At the death, substitute Adam Mayor fairly walloped a volley into the side netting of Southwood’s goal from a long way out. During injury time, Kieran Phillips again did what he does when played-in by substitute Caleb Watts, who produced the only killer pass of the entire evening for the Shrimps. On the right hand side of the hosts’ penalty area from his point of view, Kieran unleashed an absolutely tremendous shot which beat Southwood all ends up but cannoned off the angle of crossbar and post high to the goalkeeper’s right. And that was it…
Results elsewhere made this an even more depressing evening for Morecambe fans tonight.
MK Nobodies won 0-2 at Charlton. FGR drew at Fleetwood.
So Morecambe fell back to the bottom of League One again, albeit only four points from safety.
All is far from lost yet, though. Having said that, this was a truly disjointed display tonight once the Shrimps fell behind. Headless Chickens probably more or less summed it up.
The win pushed the Robins up to eighteenth position in League One this evening.
After the game, King Derek was – as ever – brutally honest about what happened this evening:
“I’m really disappointed because the performance tonight was very poor.”
There’s not a lot else to say.
Cheltenham Town: 1 Luke Southwood; 3 Ben Williams; 5 Charlie Raglan; 6 Lewis Freestone; 7 Charlie Brown (30 Christian Norton 57’); 8 Liam Sercombe; 9 Daniel N’Lundulu (19 George Lloyd 50’); 14 Caleb Taylor; 22 Ryan Jackson; 28 Taylor Perry; 32 Ryan Broom.
Subs not used: 20 Shaun MacDonald: 4 Tom Bradbury; 16 Daniel Adshead; 23 Elliot Bonds; 36 James Olayinka.
Morecambe: 1 Connor Ripley (C); 4 Liam Gibson (25 Adam Mayor 81’); 5 Farrend Rawson (Y); 6 Ryan Delaney (14 Arthur Gnahoua 45’); 8 Ousmane Fané (Y) (18 Shane McLoughlin 76’); 9 Cole Stockton (17 Caleb Watts 66’); 15 Jensen Weir (Y) (11 Dylan Connolly 45’); 16 Jacob Bedeau; 20 Liam Shaw; 21 Ryan Cooney); 23 Kieran Phillips.
Subs not used: 12 Adam Smith; 2 Donald Love.
Ref: Scott Oldham.
Att: 3,515 (Congratulations and commiserations to the scores of Shrimps fans who made the long journey.)
