Exeter City 3:2 Morecambe.

Morecambe Relegated for First Time in 103 Year History.

Well – Down to the Wire; The Eleventh Hour; Last Gasp – choose your own analogy. After  forty-five games right up and down the country, it all came down to the forty-sixth to see if – for the second season in a row and against all odds yet again – Derek Adams could once more steer his men towards perhaps the most unlikely escape from the trapdoor back to League Two.

Morecambe started this season the bookmakers’ favourites to return to the lowest tier of the EFL. But Morecambe have been the betting fraternity’s favourites to be relegated every single season since they first entered the Football League way back in 2007. 

When asked by an interviewer after the win against Lincoln City last Saturday if it would have been easier to throw in the towel rather than keep on fighting against the seemingly inevitable for the last few weeks, King Derek replied:

“Well there’s a number of supporters already done that. I think that, from my point of view, we as a playing staff and staff knew that we’ve got the pride to keep this football club going. And that’s what we’ve done to the last day of the season. No-one have could asked for any more. We just keep on going from game to game.”

In the EFL, Morecambe have played Exeter twenty times in the past. They have only won four of these and lost seven. But all Shrimps supporters will remember that, having never registered a single victory over the Devon club when they were both members of the old Football Conference, Morecambe came out on top when it really mattered: the Play-Off Final at Wembley on May 20^th 2007. They needed to do so again today.

The situation before the game at St James’ Park in Exeter at midday today was as follows:

If Cambridge United had won at the Pirelli Stadium last Tuesday, this afternoon’s game would be effectively a pointless one. United would finish their campaign today against Forest Green Rovers at home. FGR’s season has been a disaster – and the chances of them upsetting a run of games which saw them a massive seventeen point adrift of safety even before the final game had been played were frankly risible.

But Cambridge lost to Burton by the only goal of the game. This cemented them one place and a single point behind the Shrimps at the start of play today.

Above us, Oxford United are belatedly safe by the skin of their teeth. But the so-called MK Dons survived above the Legion of the Damned on a Goal Difference of Eight alone.

They also played at Burton this afternoon. If they won, Morecambe would be relegated unless they won by nothing less than a Cricket Score against Exeter. But if the Plastics lost – or even drew – the Shrimps would stay in League One with a victory at St James’ Park in Exeter this afternoon

Morecambe had the best current form in the entire EFL before the game bar the three leaders of League One: and Sheffield United in the Championship: three wins on the spin.

The Grecians, on the other hand , have the absolute worst: even more dire than stricken Forest Green right at the bottom of the table. They have lost all of their last six fixtures, most recently when they were annihilated by Ipswich last Saturday in Suffolk by six goals to nil, having conceded five goals in the first half alone.

But pride alone would dictate that they would want to end the season on a positive note, particularly in front of their own supporters.

Their Manager – Gary Caldwell – stated prior to the clash:

“What we do know is that they’re in form. They’ve played the same way in their last few games so I’d be very surprised if they changed that but when we play at home it’s about what we do regardless of who we play.”

In the meantime, King Derek told the media last Thursday – after Cambridge’s loss at Burton Albion:

“It helped us. It gave us a little more clarity on the situation. If we can get a win and MK Dons don’t win, then it allows us to stay in the division for another season. Burton winning against Cambridge allows us to really focus on winning the (Exeter) game. We’ve already got more points than we had last season. But we’ve taken it to the last game of the season again. They have had a lot of difficult fixtures to play, Exeter. They’ve had a lot of the top teams to play. It’s a hard match – we understand that. We have to go there and win – we did that in League Two towards the end of the season – and it will be a similar scenario this season. We’ve just got a small squad. The players that are here have given their all for this football club. They’ve been brilliant.”  

It was a midday kick-off under overcast skies in Devon. Shrimps’ Skipper Connor Riley won the toss and elected to have Exeter play against the massed ranks of their onw supporters on the fabled Big Bank in the first half. In front of a packed away end, Morecambe started the brighter and took the game to the hosts for the first half an hour or so. Daniel Crowley’s effort after a quarter of an hour was only just wide of the target and Liam Gibson forced a routine save from Jamal Blackman in the home goal with a weak header later on. Finally, Jensen Weir warmed Blackman’s hands with a shot almost at the end of the half.

As for the hosts, they looked disinterested and uncommitted for much of the first half but began to get a foot in the match for the last quarter of an hour or so. They won a lot of corners although these were completely wasted more often than not by being regularly overhit. Apart from having to punch a cross away from the penalty area close to the end of the period, Connor Ripley in the visitors’ goal had very little to do.

However, that all changed in the second half. City came out and immediately started to play with real purpose. They might have taken the lead within a minute of the re-start as Jacob Bedeau’s block on the right of the penalty area from his point of view swerved wildly towards Connor’s top corner to the goalkeeper’s left –he had to make an excellent reaction save to keep the ball out.

It was a big day for Fulham loanee Jay Stansfield this afternoon. This would be his last game for the Grecians perhaps ever and he would want to impress in front of the new stand which is named after his father, Exeter legend Adam Stansfield. He got his eye in with four minutes of the second half played but an excellent block from the away defence denied him an opening goal. Just a minute later, though, he scored. Demetri Mitchell found Sam Nombe on the edge of the Morecambe box and Stansfield did the rest as Nombe slipped the ball to him. He scored again after fifty-seven minutes as the ball found its way to him in a perfect position and then he completed his hat-trick in the seventieth minute, dropping-off the retreating Shrimps’ defence to sweep the ball home un-marked as Joshua Key crossed the ball to him from the right flank.

In the meantime, Cole Stockton had equalised almost immediately after Exeter took the lead, taking advantage of a misunderstanding between Blackman and central defender, Grecians’ Skipper Will Aimson to head the ball home. He scored again deep into the fourteen minutes of injury time with a tremendous volley high past Blackman to the goalkeeper’s right – but it was too little too late.

In one sentence, that sums-up Morecambe’s entire season: Too Little; Too Late. Today was just a step too far for them to take to rescue a campaign which seemed to be finished well over a month ago. The entire team has to be saluted, however, for the way they have managed to hang on until the very last moment: they are a credit to themselves. The almost 700 away support generously applauded the team and their Manager at the end but the sad fact of the matter is that Morecambe have today been relegated for the first time ever in their 103-year history.

Elsewhere, MK Frauds were unable to win at Burton and will accompany the Shrimps back to League Two for next season. Cambridge United predictably beat hopeless Forest Green and managed to escape from the relegation pack right at the very last minute. Congratulations to them. Accrington also went down on a positive note, coming from behind at Oxford to win the game by the odd goal in three. Morecambe ended-up higher than Stanley in the final League One table on goal difference alone. At the top, Plymouth assured the champion’s crown by winning 1-3 at Port Vale and Ipswich’s draw 2-2 at Fleetwood saw them return to the Championship as well as Runners-Up. Well done to both of them.

So Morecambe now face the harsh reality of League Two football again next season. It was an ultimately disappointing way to go down but there are lots of reasons to be positive that this will not be their final game in League One ever. King Derek said at the end of the game in what I, for one, hope will not be a valedictory comment from him about Morecambe Football Club:

“We tried our best. The players gave their all not only today but over the season. We took nearly nine hundred supporters with us today which is fantastic. Not that long ago, we didn’t have nine hundred home supporters so it’s fantastic they came with us today. We’ve had tremendous backing throughout the season. It’s not (just) losing today – it is over the season it happens. I’m proud of the players. We’re obviously in transition at this moment in time. The football club has obviously got to sort itself out off the pitch to decide where we are going. It has to make a decision what is happening. We’re in limbo at this moment at time. We don’t know where we are for tomorrow or the next week or the months ahead. That situation – for the good of the supporters; for the the good of the staff and the players at the football club really needs to be sorted-out.”

Exeter City: 18 Jamal Blackman; 5 Alex Hartridge (26 Pierce Sweeney (Y) 34’); 7 Demetri Mitchell (3 Jack Sparkes 62’); 8 Archie Collins; 9 Jay Stansfield (19 Sonny Cox 73’); 10 Sam Nombe (23 James Scott 86’); 12 Joshua Key; 14 Will Aimson (C); 15 Kgaogelo Chauke (16 Harry Kite 61’); 27 Jonathan Grounds; 41 Pedro Borges (2 Jake Caprice 73’).

Subs not used:  11 Joe White; 21 Josh Coley.

Morecambe: 1 Connor Ripley (C); 4 Liam Gibson (20 Liam Shaw 61’); 5 Farrend Rawson; 7 Jake Taylor (6 Ryan Delaney 43’); 8 Daniel Crowley (10 Ash Hunter (Y) 54’); 9 Cole Stockton; 14 Arthur Gnahoua (18 Oumar Niasse 45’); 15 Jensen Weir (Y); 16 Jacob Bedeau; 21 Ryan Cooney (25 Adam Mayor (Y) 54’); 22 Josh Austerfield (29 Dynel Simeu 84’).

Subs not used: 12 Adam Smith.

Ref: Carl Brook.

Att: 7,386 (658 from Morecambe.)