Imperious Ipswich – Shrimperilous Morecambe.
Morecambe made the long journey to East Anglia today to face third-placed League One club Ipswich Town. The Tractor Boys won at the Maz last October in the reverse fixture 1-2 in a game where controversial and useless Referee Thomas Kirk spoilt the game. He awarded Town a penalty which should have never been given and followed this up with a number of other bizarre decisions such as booking six Shrimps’ players but only one from the visiting team in a game which was played in a good spirit. Luckily, this incompetent wasn’t in charge again tonight.
In the EFL, Town and Morecambe met as equals for the first time ever last season in League One. Both games ended in draws. In their only other meetings, Ipswich dumped the Shrimps out of the FA Cup home and away in both their previous meetings when Morecambe were a non-league club but the Tractor Boys were still one of the bigger names in English football. In these less exalted times, Ipswich’s last victory in League One was five games ago. Since then, they have drawn three matches and lost their latest one – in thick fog – at Oxford last Saturday, where they went down 2-1. Morecambe, on the other hand, haven’t played at all for almost two weeks. Due to postponements, they found themselves slipping back into the highest of the relegation positions – twenty-first – in League One on Saturday evening. But their recent record is not only better than Ipswich’s – it is the best in the entire EFL and probably England; Britain and the known universe as well: three wins out of three since 2023 began.
Morecambe Manager Derek Adams expressed his understanding of the enormity of the task facing his men tonight prior to the match tonight thus:
“We understand how difficult a game it can be because Ipswich haven’t lost at home this season and I think that shows how good a team they are in this division. Their budget in total is five times the budget that we have. They are one of the superpowers in this division. They’ve strengthened their squad in this transfer window already. We’ve got great confidence because we’ve won three games on the trot and we’ve scored goals. We can open up defences when given that opportunity; we’ve got players to do that. The beauty of going there is that, with Ipswich, we all know the pressure they are under to get out of the division and we are going there, tying to – obviously – get the win to move us further up the league. (Ipswich) are a superpower that has fallen away down the divisions over the years but for Morecambe football club – from where they have come from; going in the opposite direction – and (with) upward momentum, we’re delighted to be in this division and playing against one of the biggest teams in English Football.”
Opposite Number Kieran McKenna had this to say yesterday:
“When you have a disappointing result you want the next game quickly and we’ve got that with the visit of Morecambe tomorrow night. We have lots of players fighting for the shirt and ready to compete for us. Everyone is pushing and all eyes are on tomorrow evening. Morecambe’s situation shows how quickly you can gather or lose momentum in the league. They were bottom but have won three games in a row. It’s strange that they haven’t played in two and a half weeks but the focus is on us. They’re fighting for points for one reason and we’re fighting for them for another reason. Every game brings a challenge and we’ll need to be ready for one tomorrow night. In a 46-game season momentum is important but the main thing is to stay focused, keep working and keep doing the right things. We know that once we win a game or two the narrative and situation can look very different. It’s very important to keep perspective but we know we need to get points on the board. We know we’re not far away and we have quality and spirit in the group.”
It was cold, dry but noisy as the game kicked-off in front of a bumper crowd. Right from the off, the Tractor Boys went straight onto the front foot and ripped into Morecambe, who seemed powerless to respond from there on in. Within thirty seconds, Ipswich won a corner on their right. Morecambe Academy graduate Leif Davis took it: Farrend Rawson headed the ball into the ground from where it spun its way towards Freddie Ladapo, who swept it home from point-blank range to put the team in the blue strip one goal to the good. The visitors responded with virtually their only meaningful move of the first half. They worked the ball forward intelligently and it fell to Caleb Watts on the right of the home penalty area from his point of view. His shot was brilliantly blocked by a combination of two Town defenders who slid in together to deflect the ball away from goal. In the fourth minute, Morecambe were attacking again but lost position for Davis to hare away up the Ipswich left only for the ball to fall to Ladapo once more. He turned Jacob Bedeau as if he wasn’t there and slid a pass straight across the goal mouth. Fortunately for the visitors, there was nobody in a blue shirt to connect with it. In the fourth minute, Captain Connor Ripley was forced into action as he did well to dive low to his right to keep out a powerful strike from Nathan Broadhead. It was still a blue tide pouring forwards as Welsh international Lee Evans hit Ripley’s right-hand post with the goalkeeper beaten from all of twenty-five yards with a fine shot. Barely ten minutes had been played when Liam Gibson made a tremendous blocking tackle to stop yet another chance for the home team. But the dam burst again after sixteen minutes when Ladapo benefited from good work on the Ipswich right by Broadhead after Gibbo had lost the ball and swept the resulting cross right across Connor to hit his far post and bounce over the line to deservedly put the Tractor Boys two goals up. Arsenal loanee Harry Clark then had a shot deflected for a corner with seventeen minutes on the clock. In a rare foray into the home half, there was ping-pong in the Town penalty area after half an hour as the home team struggled to clear but Adam Mayor was caught in possession and Ipswich were rapidly on the counter-attack before young Adam caught-up and atoned for his mistake. I thought he was playing better than any of his team-mates until he was moved from a roving role in midfield into attack as the half grew older – and as the game was being played almost exclusively at the other end of the field, it was hardly surprising that he had little impact after this positional change. Ripley fielded an in-swinging corner kick well after 35 minutes but Ipswich looked dangerous every time they moved forward, particularly down their right. Two minutes later, Wes Burns made good progress along this flank, looked up and played an inch-perfect pass to an unmarked Connor Chaplin on the closest edge of the away penalty area to him. The impressive Chaplin wasted no time picking a spot low to the his namesake in the Morecambe goal’s right to score a far too easy third goal for the Suffolk side. Forty minutes had been played when Clark left Gibson for dead on the Ipswich right again and slung over another dangerous cross which came to nothing. And from then until the end of the half, it was like a practice match for the home team. They pinged the ball around between themselves at will as the visitors tried and failed to get at least a touch of it but ended-up chasing shadows more often than not. And just to rub it in, Town scorned an excellent chance when George Edmundson headed Davis’ corner over the bar when he could and should have hit the net after 43 minutes. Sixty seconds later, Broadbent could have opened his account for the Tractor Boys following another attack down the right only to be foiled by Ripley. Rawson had to be at his best to get his head to another cross from the Town right to stop Ladapo scoring a hat trick as the game entered injury time. But the away team conceded again during the fifty-first minute when they fell for exactly the same combination that had led to their third goal – Burns found Chaplin from the right; Chaplin found the net again.
So Morecambe retreated to the Dressing Rooms well and truly beaten. They were second best in everything they had done during the first half; could have conceded more than the four goals; didn’t win a single corner and didn’t even really look like troubling Christian Walton in the home goal at any point.
King Derek made three changes at half time. Off came the ineffectual Watts – beaten for pace throughout the first period. Off too, came Mayor – perhaps harshly. Ryan Cooney was also withdrawn but blaming him alone for the joy Ipswich had enjoyed down their right would be unfair as I thought that Gibbo had a really poor half by his own usually tremendous standards. Ryan Delaney was also taken off but I suspect this had more to do with an injury he suffered rather than his performance. In his place, Dynel Simeu made his debut for the club. He slotted-in at centre half and had an increasingly impressive game, reminding me – at least –of Yann Songo’o. Michael Mellon was Mayor’s replacement. He ran about a lot but – without wishing to rush to judgement on the young lad – didn’t contribute much. The third Morecambe debutant was Daniel Crowley and he really caught the eye with a pretty good midfield performance in the place of Caleb Watts but did manage to get booked. Club Captain Donald Love was Rooney’s replacement. Did he lead by example? Was he a better fit in the left back berth than Ryan had been? Not in my opinion: he’s too slow in thought and movement most of the time and I thought he was at best average tonight.
The second half was a bit of a non-event. Ipswich took their foot off the gas; their Head Coach gave their better players a rest by replacing five of them with the game already obviously won. They still had the better chances though and Ripley was far busier than his opposite number, who again had absolutely nothing to do. Morecambe actually forced their only corner of the night in the seventieth minute but overall, this was a mauling this evening. Tractor Boys? Tractor Men against boys was more like it, particularly in the first half.
The four goals conceded obviously don’t do the Shrimps’ Goal Difference any favours. But results elsewhere could have been worse for Derek Adams and his men. Milton Keynes Muppets lost at home to Shrewsbury 0-1 and remain a single point above Morecambe, having played a game more. Forest Green also lost again at the appalling Ian Evatt’s Bolton and remain rock bottom of League One; three points worse off than the Shrimps but having played two games more. So although it couldn’t have been much worse on the field – it could have been much worse off it. As always, the King looked for the positives from this car-crash of a result:
“Second half, we worked really hard to keep the scoreline down and we’ve got no complaints. It was never going to be easy. We made four substitutions at half time. That was to give players game time. We were out of the game; the game was finished. We were never going to draw it; we were never going to win it. We tried to stay in the game as long as we could. Ipswich shouldn’t be in this division but we’ve got to try and compete with them.”
Ipswich Town: 1 Christian Walton; 2 Richard Keogh; 3 Leif Davis; 4 George Edmundson; 5 Sam Morsy (C) (30 Cameron Humphreys 62’); 7 Wes Burns (19 Kayden Jackson 45’); 8 Lee Evans; 9 Freddie Ladapo (27 George Hirst 62’); 10 Connor Chaplin (Y) (11 Marcus Harness 72’); 33 Nathan Broadhead (29 Kyle Edwards 62’) 34 Harry Clark.
Subs not used: 31 Václav Hladky; 44 Janoi Donacien.
Morecambe: 1 Connor Ripley (C) first 45’; 4 Liam Gibson; 5 Farrend Rawson; 6 Ryan Delaney (29 Dynel Simeu 45’); 9 Cole Stockton (10 Ash Hunter 82’); 15 Jensen Weir; 16 Jacob Bedeau (Y); 17 Caleb Watts (8 Daniel Crowley (Y) 45’); 20 Liam Shaw; 21 Ryan Cooney (2 Donald Love (C) last 45’); 25 Adam Mayor (11 Michael Mellon 45’).
Subs not used: 12 Adam Smith; 14 Arthur Gnahoua.
Ref: David Rock.
Att: 21,948 (102 from Morecambe. Well done each and every one of them.)
