Cook’s Broth Spoiled by Cole’s Goals.
Well – what a difference between today and the last time Morecambe played a competitive match. That was at Wembley in May. Derek Adams was in charge and his master stroke was to send on John O’Sullivan as an Extra Time substitute. Sully was fouled for the decisive penalty and the Shrimps Wunderkind of last season – Carlos Mendes-Gomes – scored from the spot. They thus picked-up the League Two Play-Off Trophy and with it promotion to League One for the first time in the club’s history. At the end of the game, Yann Songo’o also deservedly picked-up the Player of the Match award.
Today, though – barely two months later – all the people mentioned above have gone. Derek took a step backwards to pick up the reins at Bradford City – and took Yann with him. Sully left for former club Accrington Stanley. Carlos is hopefully on his way to fame and fortune at Luton Town of all places. So today’s line-up against Ipswich featured six newcomers. Of the men who won the Play-Off Final against Newport County earlier in the summer: the most surprising omission was club Captain Sam Lavelle, about whom there have been persistent rumours that he is about to depart for Pastures New. Sam was warming the bench initially today. In front of him, this was the first competitive test of Ulsterman and previous Motherwell Manager Stephen Robinson as the new boss of the club from Lancashire. He said about his first selection for a team to take place in a competitive match:
“There can’t be guarantees in football; who plays well in the staff’s opinion will play today. There’s no favourites; there’s none of that. Contrary to what some people think sometimes, I pick a team to win football matches and we’ll do that. There’s a real competition, there’s a really good spirit in the camp. Everybody knows they’re fighting for a place. People will be disappointed not to start but it’s a long, long season.”
However, the fact that the team Robbo selected and the opposition – who had once been managed by Bobby Robson as one of the best sides to ever compete in the highest echelons of English football -met as equals today speaks volumes about the two separate journeys the Tractor Boys and the Shrimps have been on in recent times.
They last played each other in the FA Cup in 2003 and 2001. The latter game was at the old Christie Park and Ipswich – managed by former star fullback George Burley – were third in the Premiership at the time. They won 0-3 but suffered several scares during the first half when the non-league team played the better, more dominant football. Last time out – with Morecambe club Captain Jim Bentley sent off right at the start of the game – it was easier for the men in the blue shirts and they comfortably came out winners by four goals to nil.
But who would have thought – way back in 2003 – that these two clubs would be competing in the same EFL division on a level playing field only eighteen years later? We all know about the steady progress of Morecambe through the non-league world to the Conference and then the EFL. For Ipswich, though, the Twenty-First Century has been a disappointing era. It started off well, with the Tractor Boys beating Barnsley in the 1999-2000 Play-Off to start the new century back in the Premiership. They did well at first but were relegated in their second season back in the Big Time. George Burley left and replacement Joe Royle took the club to the semi-finals of the Play Offs in 2004, where they beat West Ham in the first leg 1-0 but – crucially – lost the away fixture 2-0. West Ham beat them again in the Play-Off finals the following season as well and by 2005, Royle had gone and the club was to be stuck in the wilderness for the next ten years as a succession of managers including Roy Keane and Paul Jewell came and went. Mick McCarthy took the Tractor Boys back to the fringes of the Big Time in 2015 but the defeat in the Play-Off semi-finals by local rivals Norwich City left a bitter taste in the mouths of many at Portman Road. More Managers came and went but were unable to stop the slide towards further relegation, let alone steer the club back in the direction of the Premiership and at the end of the 2019 season, down they went again. Even more Managers then came and went but no improvement in the club’s fortunes arrived with any of them. At the end of last season, Ipswich ended up ninth in the table, five points adrift of the Play-Offs. Today, former Wigan Manager Paul Cook was at the helm and the team he picked featured former Morecambe favourite Joe Piggot leading the line plus a Holy Goalie as one of the substitutes.
So – as we have seen – the fortunes of the two clubs have been diametrically opposed this century: Ipswich’s a tale of gradual decline as opposed to Morecambe’s steady rise up through the ranks. But who would the fickle finger of fate favour today?
It had been wet in Suffolk earlier and rain intermittently swept across the ground until about ten minutes before the game started. Before the match kicked-off, there was a minute’s applause to remember Paul Mariner, Town’s brilliant ex-England star striker. I once personally witnessed Paul laying-out supposed Liverpool Hardman Tommy Smith at Anfield when Tommy tried a `loosener’ on him off the ball early doors. For a man with a Jeff Beck barnet, he was a hell of a lot tougher than he looked and Smith never went near him after that…
Any thoughts of a blue tide sweeping the men in the all-red strip aside were quickly dispelled as the teams seemed pretty well matched early on. Cole Stockton caught the eye with a clever back heel to Wes McDonald after two minutes and this was a combination – Cole looking to hold-up the ball and then feed it to Wes on the wing – which seemed to be a deliberate ploy for the visitors. McDonald had a couple of efforts blocked by the Town defence early on. For the hosts, Skipper – the ex-Wigan Welsh international Lee Evans – impressed with some clever play and a free-kick he took after eight minutes went fairly close to the Shrimps’ goal – but not close enough. Ex-Salford City goalkeeper Vaclav Hladky did well to act as a sweeper and belt the ball away from danger as Stockton bore down on him after ten minutes. The Morecambe centre forward then played the ball out to McDonald twice in the next few minutes but Wes forgot to take it with him on the second occasion. With almost twenty minutes played, an unmarked Joe Piggot headed narrowly wide from a free kick which came in from the Ipswich right. But history was made a minute later. Cole received the ball about 35 yards from goal and started to weave his way through a Town defence which backed-off – and backed-off. He kept going and – having wriggled his way into the home penalty area – looked up, saw Hladky slightly off his line and brilliantly lobbed the ball over him to score Morecambe’s first ever goal in League One. It was a sublime effort and a just reward for Morecambe’s positive approach so far. The home side responded with a shot from Scott Fraser which hit the side netting. Then a corner hit to the far stick was headed wide by Toto Nsiala after 29 minutes. As the sun came out with just over half an hour on the clock, Alfie McCalmont played Cole in again but this time, the home goalkeeper was able to push a shot swerving towards his top corner away for a corner kick. Thirty-three minutes had been played when Ryan Delaney was hurt in a collision and had to retire to be replaced by Sam Lavelle, who took the Captain’s armband. Matt Penney burst into the box on the Shrimps’ right after 38 minutes but smashed his resulting shot into the side-netting instead of hitting the target. Arthur Gnahoua then missed the target as well at the other end when well-placed shortly afterwards. Following that, there were few other scoring opportunities for either side and the fact of the matter is that the visiting goalkeeper didn’t have to save a single effort from Paul Cook’s men to save by the end of the half.
The Tractor Boys’ Manager must have roused his troops at half time because the onslaught we might have expected at the start of the match certainly happened in the opening stages of the second period. Letheren made an excellent save from Piggot just a few minutes in at the cost of a corner. Then, as rain threatened to fall, he punched an Evans free kick away from danger shortly afterwards. But at the other end, McDonald swept down the flank following a pass from Shane McLaughlin after 57 minutes and slipped over a low cross which Stockton was only just unable to connect with. Ryan Cooney and his goalkeeper then combined well to clear Penny’s cross away for a corner just a minute later. The home team’s increasing pressure paid off after 61 minutes when Scott Fraser equalised when a neat one-two with Conor Chaplin led to a curling shot to Letheren’s left. Robbo immediately took McDonald off and replaced him with Jonah Ayunga, who impressed with his strength, skill and speed from the moment he entered the fray. Morecambe were beginning to weather the Ipswich storm by this point and – as the home crowd became noticeably quieter – started to push forward themselves again. Toumani Diagouraga almost played Jonah in after about seventy minutes but Hladky was able to get to the ball first. His defenders got in a tangle almost immediately afterwards though. This allowed Cole to pounce again, take the ball forward, round the goalkeeper as if he wasn’t there and pass the ball into the net to put the debutants in League One back into the lead. As all the noise started to come from Morecambe’s travelling support, it looked like the favourites for relegation were about to pull off a tremendous victory against the favourites to return to the Championship next season.
Sadly, it wasn’t to be. In injury time, a lapse of concentration at the back by the Shrimps allowed substitutes James Norwood and Macauley Bonne to combine well for the latter to slip the ball low under Letheren to make the final score 2-2.
There were a lot of positives for Morecambe at Portman Road today – despite the disappointment of being pegged-back right at the death. They played positively throughout and at no time looked overwhelmed by a supposedly far superior side. All things considered, they were very good value for a point and Stephen Robinson must be really pleased with his team’s overall display. In the nascent League One Table, Ipswich are in ninth position in front of Morecambe only on alphabetical order tonight.
Ipswich Town: 31 Vaclav Hladky; 24 Kane Vincent-Young; 22 Toto Nsiala; 6 Luke Wolfenden; 3 Matt Penney (Y); 4 Rekeem Harper; 8 Lee Evans (C) (Y); 7 Wes Burns; 21 Conor Chaplin (18 Macauley Bonne 77’); 11 Scott Fraser; 9 Joe Piggot (10 James Norwood (Y) 78’).
Subs Not Used: 1 Tomáŝ Holy; 12 Louie Barry; 14 Armando Dobra; 16 Idris El Mizouni; 44 Janoi Donacien.
Morecambe: 1 Kyle Letheren; 4 Anthony O’Connor (C until 33’) (Y); 7 Wes McDonald (17 Jonah Ayunga 62’); 8 Toumani Diagouraga; 9 Cole Stockton; 15 Ryan Delaney (5 Sam Lavelle (C) 33’); 19 Shane McLaughlin; 21 Ryan Cooney; 22 Liam Gibson (Y); 24 Arthur Gnahoua (3 Greg Leigh 76’); 25 Alfie McCalmont.
Subs Not Used: 20 Jökull Andrésson; 18 Adam Phillips; 2 Kelvin Mellor; 6 Callum Jones.
Ref: Craig Hicks.
Attendance: 21309 (about 400 from Morecambe.)
