Roller-Coaster Ride Continues as Morecambe Come from Behind to Win – Yet Again…
It’s a while since Morecambe played Crewe Alexandra – December 2021 to be precise. Then, the Shrimps contrived to lose to them by two goals to one in Lancashire, having won the reverse fixture at Gresty Road 1-3 only three months earlier. This was a rare win for Morecambe in Cheshire: they had been hammered there 5-0 the previous season and absolutely annihilated 6-0 the season before that in an utterly dire first game of the new campaign. Altogether, the Shrimps have lost nine of their previous matches against the Railwaymen and won only four of their sixteen games in total. Today, they would face a rampant Crewe, who were in the lowest of the automatic promotion positions (third) in League Two on the back of just one loss and three victories in their last six league fixtures.
At this point of the season, the reverse fixture at the Mazuma Mobile Stadium should have already been played. But the game scheduled in north Lancashire on Saturday, November 18th was postponed due to international call-ups for what was then Derek Adams’ team. It was re-arranged for Tuesday, January 23rd but didn’t happen then either because of a waterlogged pitch. Is there a hoodoo on this fixture?
Whatever, Morecambe began today’s match with exactly the same statistics as Crewe’s – three wins and two draws from their last six matches – but were nine places and thirteen points behind the club from Cheshire in League Two, albeit with a game in hand. They would face a team whose Manager – Lee Bell – would be banned from the touchline today. In sharp contrast to our own Manager – who claimed he had been stitched-up by the Bizzies – sorry – wrongly accused as far the charges which resulted in his ban at the Maz last time out were concerned, Mr Bell has publicly taken full responsibility for his own behaviour after a recent game against Harrogate, after which he was shown a straight Red Card:
“I’ll be in the stands against Morecambe. There is a cooling off period after the final whistle before you can speak to referees. If I’d have used it, I wouldn’t have a ban, so it’s my fault. They are the rules and I broke them. I’ll know not to do that again because young people – including my son – are watching and it’s a bad example to set.”
As far as the match itself at Gresty Road today was concerned, he said about the opposition:
“I’ve watched them a couple of times. Good team; honest team; work hard but also try and play some good football. They’ve got some athleticism all over the pitch; they’ve got a player back from injury (Ged Garner) who is a really effective player. They will have their ambitions. They are right on the cusp of it. If they can muster-up two or three wins on the bounce, they will be right in the mix. So we’re going to have to be at it.”
Speaking to the media yesterday, Ged Brannan had these thoughts about the forthcoming match:
“It’s going to be a really tough game. But we have a good game plan, so we’re going to go there, give it our best shot and see what happens. We will be well prepared for Saturday’s game. On the day we’re a good match for anyone. So tomorrow, we’ll be full of confidence going into that game against Crewe. We’ve got nothing to lose. We’ll just go and enjoy it.”
Our Ged named a starting eleven which included a welcome return for namesake and Barrow loanee Ged Garner. The potential for goals in his partnership with the outstanding Gwion Edwards is unlimited. There was no place in the squad yet again for Jake Taylor though, who seems to be a perennial injury absentee. Warming the Crewe sub’s bench with his ample backside today was former Morecambe favourite Ryan Cooney and former Shrimps’ loanee from Huddersfield – Josh Austerfield – was named in their starting eleven.
There had been a heavy hailstorm within an hour of kickoff but the Gresty Road groundstaff did wonders clearing the heavy pitch by three o’clock. It was overcast but dry with occasional glimpses of the sun – with the threat of more heavy rain later –as the match started.
Morecambe created the first good opening of the game. After just three minutes, Joe Adams set-up an onrushing Joel Senior to play a pass right across the home penalty area with the Crewe defence struggling to get back and cover it. Crewe Captain Mickey Demetriou’s long throw soon became apparent as a secret weapon in the Railwaymen’s armoury. But Morecambe threatened again with a Ged Garner shot from a Max Melbourne cross which missed the target in the seventh minute and they then forced the first corner of the match – which came to nothing – a minute or so later. The away team were playing with a high press and Adams won the ball in the thirteenth minute and again set-up Garner, who once more missed the target with a shot.
But for all their endeavour, Morecambe yet again found themselves trailing following virtually the first attack by the men in the red shirts. Crewe won their first corner of the match after 17 minutes. Morecambe failed to deal with it properly and Crewe quickly won another one. This wasn’t cleared properly either and the ball was finally played over the top of Shrimps’ Skipper Farrend Rawson by Charlie Kirk to Elliott Nevitt. His first headed attempt as he bore down, unmarked, on goal was brilliantly saved by Archie Mair. Sadly for the young Scottish goalkeeper, though, the ball fell back towards the Alex striker and he walloped it home second time of asking. Ged Brannan would have been pulling his hair out on the bench: this was precisely the sort of failure to concentrate defensively which he has been trying to eradicate on the training ground for weeks now.
Crewe won three corners to Morecambe’s none after the goal but the rest of the half was a fairly even affair with neither side creating any clear chances within the allotted 45 minutes. But in the second and final minute of injury time, Gwion Edwards (whose contribution to the game had been minimal until this point) forced a really good save from home custodian Harvey Davies, who was forced to leap low to his right to palm the ball away.
The second period saw the first chance fall to Crewe and they went further ahead after just three minutes of the restart. Matús Holícek played the ball forwards to Shilow Tracey, who was able to cut inside Jacob Bedeau in the away penalty area and unleash a tremendous shot which beat Mair’s brave attempt to stop it by crashing through his hands into the top corner of his net.
Ged Brannan shook things up after an hour, replacing the disappointing Edwards and the recently yellow-carded Chris Stokes with Jordan Slew and Jordy Hiwula. The latter almost immediately had a real impact, feeding Adams with a ball for a shot which beat the goalkeeper but was booted off the line by covering Alex defender Demetriou with 68 minutes on the clock. The impressive Adams wasn’t to be denied much longer though: he latched onto Melbourne’s fine pass from the left flank and hit the ball under Davies’ body to record his first goal for the club just a minute or so later. Charlie Brown was brought on with 73 minutes played and his first contribution was to set Adams up for another attempt on goal from the Morecambe left which Davies could only parry: Jordan Slew swept home the rebound to make it 2-2 with over fifteen minutes left to play.
Crewe substitute Lewis Leigh then forced another great save from Mair at full stretch after 76 minutes. The goalkeeper then blocked a shot from Josh Austerfield with his legs a minute later. Brown was ankle-tapped by Holícek with 83 minutes played. From it, the ball was played to Senior on the right; he beat his man and played a cross into the away penalty area which Skipper Rawson (or was it a Demetriou own-goal?) swept home to turn the game completely on its head. Although young Archie had a couple more routine saves to make, Morecambe continued to attack after taking the lead.
Referee Farai Hallam added on an astonishing eight minutes of stoppage time. Substitute Zac Williams walloped the ball over the bar when he should have done better for Alex with three minutes of these played. Crewe came even closer a minute later when Archie pulled-off a fantastic save from sub Courtney Barker-Richardson and then Bedeau and Jacob Davenport combined to work a further miracle in clearing the loose ball off the line. But try as they might, a combination of poor finishing by Crewe and tremendously determined defending saw Morecambe yet again pull the fat out of the fire on the road with another truly brilliant victory.
There were unpleasant scenes as the players left the pitch and an alleged home `fan’ or even `fans’ were involved in some sort of altercation with Courtney Barker-Richardson which stewards and Skipper Demetriou had to intervene in. Whichever idiot or idiots were responsible for this might have been disappointed that their club had just fallen out of the automatic promotion positions to fourth in League Two. But this is no way to behave in any circumstances: I hope whoever is responsible is permanently banned. But – on a more positive note – the latest smash-and-grab saw the Shrimps go up to ninth in the table this evening. This is what Our Ged thought right after the game about what he had just seen happen:
“Me head’s gone a bit to be fair. It was a crazy, crazy game. You know what, we showed great character again. The lads; the character they showed second half was fantastic. The blocks they done in the last five minutes – that sums the whole performance up. They threw themselves on the line for each other. We went in at half time; we said: “Listen, these are third in the league; they are not better than us. Man for man – or even as a team – they’re not better than us.” In the changing room there, it weren’t all dancing and singing: it was everyone sat down and took a deep breath, they were so tired. But fair play to them. Absolutely brilliant. I’m made-up for them.”
Crewe Alexandra: 1 Harvey Davies; 3 Rio Adebesi (Y); 5 Mickey Demetriou (C) (Y); 8 Conor Thomas; 10 Shilow Tracey (21 Aaron Rowe 62’); 12 Ed Turns; 17 Matús Holícek (4 Zac Williams 90’); 20 Elliott Nevitt (9 Courtney Barker-Richardson 62’); 25 Josh Austerfield; 28 Lewis Billington; 30 Charlie Kirk (14 Lewis Leigh 75‘).
Substitutes not used: 13 Tom Booth; 27 Keiren Westwood; 2 Ryan Cooney.
Morecambe: 30 Archie Mair; 4 Jacob Bedeau; 5 Farrend Rawson (C); 6 Yann Songo’o (16 Jacob Davenport 73‘); 8 Joe Adams; 9 Ged Garner (20 Charlie Brown 73‘); 12 Joel Senior (Y); 15 Chris Stokes (Y) (14 Jordan Slew 62’); 19 Gwion Edwards (39 Jordy Hiwula (Y) 62’); 23 Max Melbourne (22 Kayden Harrack 90’); 38 Nelson Khumbeni.
Substitutes not used: 21 Adam Smith; 11 Julian Larsson.
Ref: Farai Hallam.
Att: 4,995 (409 from Morecambe.)
