Memory Lane – Morecambe v Forest Green Rovers.
We start tonight’s stroll down Memory Lane on a theme: the letter `V’. Our cover photograph shows what our beloved Prime Minister’s advice is to the nation in this time of global crisis. We all know that the other V on most people’s minds at the moment concerns a certain Virus. But tonight, in Northern Lancashire at least, people were able to come out from under their beds and mix freely on the streets as the invasion of another phenomenon beginning with `V’ was lifted, however temporarily. For tonight, the Vegans weren’t coming after all…
So – in the absence of anything current to write about, here are some match reports concerning clashes between the Shrimps and the Green Devils from the past:
Forest Green Rovers 2:0 Morecambe. The New Lawn. Skybet EFL League Two, Saturday 28th October 2017.
Forest Green: New Lawn; Morecambe: No New Dawn.
Off the field, Morecambe Football Club have had another very trying week, with claim and counter-claim being posted by the various factions involved in the on-going melodrama concerning who actually owns the thing. As further rumours about whether or not the staff would be paid on time swirled around the internet, the team made its way to the smallest community ever to have supported a Football League club in the shape of Nailsworth of Gloucestershire (population: 5,800) to confront the growing crisis on it. Their opponents – Vegan, Right-On and Environmentally Friendly Forest Green Rovers – were in the relegation zone when the Shrimps arrived from North Lancashire today. But if they continued their recent form – two wins on the spin – and made it three, Forest would swap positions with today’s visitors. So for both clubs concerned, this really was a crunch match which – even at this early stage of the season – could have a big influence on who sees themselves returning to the League the Green Devils emerged from just last season: the National one.
The game started on a sunny, relatively warm day in the Cotswolds with rural views from the ground – perched high above Nailsworth on the top of a steep hill – towards the rolling green countryside all around. The Shrimps started confidently and dominated the first twenty minutes or so. As the Morecambe fans chanted “There’s only one Rod Taylor!” in support of the only member of the club’s Board who seems to be prepared to stick his head above the parapet these days, Andy Fleming played-in Vadaine Oliver with a clever pass down the right only for Bradley Collins to rush from his goal and smother the ball after two minutes.
Although the visitors were dominating the possession, you did start to wonder if the away team had any alternative to Plan A: a succession of long balls aimed at their overworked centre forward. After just nine minutes, Aaron Wildig made his displeasure known to his team-mates that he had no options to select from as he crossed the half way line with the ball at his feet on a counter-attack. With Reece Brown looking impressive for the Green Devils, the home team had their first attack after ten minutes and their first serious effort when a long-range shot from Drissa Traore narrowly missed Barry Roche’s right hand post almost ten minutes later. Up the other end, Morecambe showed that they had a Plan B after all when Adam McGurk had his effort blocked by the Forest defence after seventeen minutes. Straight after this, Wildig found himself unmarked to the right of the Devils’ penalty area but hit a shot over the bar when he could have steadied himself and done better.
With almost twenty minutes on the clock, Steven Old produced yet another header from a Morecambe corner but his effort went tamely wide of the Forest goal to its left. The best move of the first half arrived ten minutes before half time though – Fleming’s excellent 30 yard pass from the left flank went to the onrushing Aaron McGowan on the right who outstripped Scott Laird and swung in a cross which Jack Fitzwater cleared off the line at the expense of a corner. From this, Old headed the ball down eventually to tee-up Oliver whose shot slammed against Collin’s right-hand post but bounced away to safety. At the other end three minutes later, Alex Iacovitti hammered the ball from the left side of the Morecambe penalty area from his point of view to see a rising shot only just clear the bar. But after 28 minutes, Morecambe’s Achilles Heel was exposed yet again this season when a corner taken from the Forest Green right finally found its way to the unchallenged Keanu Marsh-Brown, who had time to pick his spot and stick the ball in the back of the net with a well-placed shot. As some of the away supporters began to shout abuse at their own players, Forest Green had the next chance as well when Roche managed to turn a shot he knew little about from Christian Doidge away for a corner more by luck than judgement. But his own luck ran out as this corner was taken when he was injured trying to push it away and needed prolonged treatment on the field. Although the big Irishman soldiered-on until beyond half time – earning a very sporting round of applause from the home fans – he had to come off during the second half. So the away team went in at half time a goal down with an injured goalie and a pronounced silence from the uncovered West stand, where all their supporters were gathered.
Few of these people applauded when the team re-took the field, which surely does not help their general morale. With about three minutes on the clock, Luke Conlan worked his way down the Morecambe left but his cross went straight into the goalkeeper’s gloves. Two minutes later, Old needlessly gave the ball away but the home team failed to take advantage. Down the opposite end, Andy Fleming looked as if he might have been impeded as goalkeeper Collins reached the ball before he could and fell on it. A seemingly tiring Oliver then made good progress down the Shrimps’ left and slung over a cross which was cleared for a corner which required the Forest goalkeeper to punch clear. Roche finally went off in the 63rd minute and the first thing replacement Danijel Nizic had to do was pick the ball out of the Morecambe net. The visitors were caught napping for the second time from a set-piece: Laird took a free kick which Doidge seemed to help on its way to putting the Gloucester team two-nil to the good.
After that, the game deteriorated into a pretty scrappy and aimless contest. Having said that though, Forest Green came closer to extending their lead than Morecambe ever did to reducing it and if it wasn’t for an excellent save from Nizic to deny Brown after his defence had yet again given the ball away with three minutes left to play, the defeat would have been even heavier. Most alarmingly from the Shrimps’ point of view, however, was their failure to put any sustained pressure on a Forest Green side who looked short of confidence themselves and were certainly vulnerable at the back.
Kevin Ellison came on after his three-match ban for most of the second half and Garry Thompson also appeared during the closing minutes of the game – but neither player had any significant impact on the game and Kev’s contribution, very sadly, was precisely nil. The Shrimps looked beaten from the moment they conceded the first goal and trooped off to even more abuse from some of their own supporters. This was a wretched display by any measure and at the end of the game, they found themselves swapping places with their hosts and falling into the relegation positions.
So a typically acrimonious and unpleasant week off the field was finished-off by a pretty hopeless display on it during which – for the third game in a row – they failed to put the ball in the net. For Morecambe Football Club, things have rarely looked bleaker and unless Jim Bentley finds a way to motivate players who looked short of confidence right across the team today, their tenth season in the Football League might very well prove to also be their final one.
Forest Green Rovers: 1 Bradley Collins; 2 Dale Bennett; 3 Scott Laird; 4 Drissa Traore (11 Omar Bugiel 79 mins) ; 5 Lee Collins; 7 Keanu Marsh-Brown (6 Manny Monthe 79 mins); 9 Christian Doidge; 10 Reece Brown; 16 Jack Fitzwater; 20 Alex Iacovitti; 34 Isiah Osbourne.
Subs Not Used: 24 Harry Pickering; 19 Will Randall; 21 Mark Roberts; 25 Ben Hedley; 33 Luke James.
Morecambe: 1 Barry Roche (12 Danijel Nizic 63 mins); 22 Max Muller; 5 Steven Old; 4 Alex Kenyon (11 Kevin Ellison 53 mins); 2 Aaron McGowan; 24 Michael Rose (C); 8 Andy Fleming; 14 Luke Conlan (Y); 15 Aaron Wildig (Y) (7 Garry Thompson 74 mins); 28 Adam McGurk; 9 Vadaine Oliver.
Subs Not Used: 3 Patrick Brough; 16 Sam Lavelle; 21 Elliot Osborne; 29 Callum Lang.
Ref: Charles Breakspear.
Morecambe 1:1 Forest Green Rovers. Skybet EFL League Two, Saturday 17th February 2018.
Wylde Man Saves Day For Shrimps.
Forest Green Rovers travelled north to play Southend United in League Two today, according to their own website. So it may have been a surprise to them to encounter the Shrimps – as opposed to the Shrimpers – at the Globe Arena for the first time ever. The only Vegan club on the planet have played Morecambe loads of times in the past but this was only the second time they had met in the EFL. Last October, they managed to push Jim Bentley’s team into the relegation position they had occupied themselves at the start of the game by beating them two goals to nil. Mark Cooper’s men arrived today on the back of three straight wins in League Two, the last one just last Tuesday when they defeated Stevenage 3-1 at the New Lawn.
Back in October, Morecambe keeper Barry Roche was injured during the first half and had to be replaced by Danijel Nizic in the second. Today, with Roche suffering from an injury, the Australian Under 21 international started right from the beginning.
The match was played in bright sunshine throughout at the Lancashire seaside on a heavy pitch which rapidly cut up. Right from the beginning, though, you could see which of the two sides were really pumped up for it. And it wasn’t Morecambe…
Jim Bentley’s team played throughout the first period lethargically, on the back foot and without any guile whatsoever. Kevin Ellison was played as a target man much of the time as his theoretical strike partner Vadaine Oliver wandered sometimes apparently aimlessly all over the field. He helped-out at free kicks and corners but his impact as a forward was minimal.
Rovers, on the other hand, looked confident and positive and clearly had a game plan. The visitors seemed to have a potent attacking threat in the nippy but slight shape of Christian Doidge and the chunkier Reuben Reid and individuals like Isaiah Osbourne showed some really deft touches for a big lad. The visitor’s intent was made apparent after just six minutes, when a Gavin Gunning header from a free kick went just wide of Danijel Nizic’s left post with him scrambling in its wake. Ten minutes later, Chris Clement ‘s sublime strike from all of thirty yards out beat him all ends up to put FGR one-nil up. They held onto this lead until half time but you had a feeling that if they were brave enough to really go for it, they could have led by a wider margin. They were good value for their lead but the really disappointing thing from Shrimps’ supporters’ points of view was the lack of either quality or any apparent commitment in their team: they were hopeless. The only time they looked like troubling the visiting defence was when Steven Old forced a good save from Bradley Collins in the Rovers’ goal with five minutes of the half left to play with a superb header from a corner.
The second half was the diametric opposite of the first. Forest Green either decided to go into their collective shells and try to hang on to their lead – or whatever Jim Bentley had said to his players in the Changing Rooms at the break really went home. Plymouth loanee Gregg Wylde – making his home debut for Morecambe today – started to have a real impact on the game. Down their left flank in particular, the visitors increasingly found the Glaswegian hard to handle and started to concede a number of corners as a result of his runs as the match wore on. They also started to concede a mounting number of free kicks as they increasingly found themselves on the back foot. Wylde only just missed the target when his fierce strike after an hour or so went narrowly over the bar. But just a few minutes earlier, he had taken a shot which Collins in the Rovers’ sticks found too hot to handle: without a miraculous intervention by Haydn Hollis, Kevin Ellison would have scored – when the ball finally ended-up in the Green Devils’ net, referee Anthony Backhouse ruled it out for whatever reason. With an hour on the clock, Aaron McGowan went down in the `D’ on the edge of the FGR penalty area. It looked like a foul to me but the referee – who, to be fair, had a very good game today – decided that he had dived and showed him the Yellow Card. As the pressure mounted, Alex Kenyon headed just over the bar with 69 minutes on the clock. Ten minutes later, Dean Winnard repeated the feat but as time started to run out for the Shrimps, it looked as if the visitors were going to take all three points home with them to Gloucestershire.
Literally right at the death, though – in the 89th minute – Wylde got the reward his overall performance merited when he was able to run clear into the FGR half and finish beautifully with a low strike which left Collins clutching at thin air as it whistled low past him to his right into the bottom corner of the net. The game thus ended one goal each.
This was probably a fair result given the see-saw nature of the game. FGR were by far the better team in the first but they looked uncertain and shaky during the second as soon as the Shrimps started to play a bit. If Morecambe continue to play the way they did in the first half, they will be relegated. If they play the way they did in the second, they won’t. Simple as that. The draw puts Rovers just a point above Morecambe with one more game played. The Shrimps, meanwhile, dropped to twenty-second in League Two. With Barnet drawing and Chesterfield losing again, they remain five points clear of the drop zone with a game in hand over the two clubs below them.
Morecambe: 12 Danijel Nizic; 6 Dean Winnard (Y); 16 Sam Lavelle (28 Adam McGurk 55 mins); 5 Steven Old; 2 Aaron McGowan (Y); 4 Alex Kenyon; 24 Michael Rose (C) (Y); 14 Luke Conlan; 21 Gregg Wylde; 11 Kevin Ellison; 9 Vadaine Oliver (7 Garry Thompson 68 mins).
Subs not used: 3 Patrick Brough; 8 Andy Fleming; 10 Adam Campbell; 17 Mitchell Lund; 25 Ben Hedley.
Forest Green Rovers: 1 Bradley Collins; 2 Dale Bennett; 16 Gavin Gunning; 20 Farrend Rawson; 32 Haydn Hollis; 8 Dayle Grubb (Y); 22 Chris Clements; 34 Isaiah Osbourne; 17 Dan Wishart (31 Alex Bray 60 mins); 9 Christian Doidge; 26 Reuben Reid (15 Charlie Cooper 77 mins).
Subs not used: 12 Jordan Simpson; 3 Scott Laird; 25 Tahvon Campbell; 30 Cameron Belford; 10 Reece Brown.
Ref: Anthony Backhouse.
Attendance: 1447 (95 from Nailsworth).
Official Sponsor’s (and justified) Man Of The Match: Gregg Wylde.
Forest Green Rovers 0-1 Morecambe Skybet EFL League Two, Saturday 17th November 2018.
FGR make a cake – but Morecambe take the Biscuit!
To mark Forest Green Rovers’ third anniversary of becoming the only Vegan football club on the planet, they baked a special cake and sold it today. Slices £1.90 each; all proceeds to The Vegan Society.
Imagine this happening at Morecambe…
You can’t even buy a Veggie – let alone a Vegan – pie unless you go in the posh bit: which most fans, including Yours Truly, never do.
The Gloucestershire club were also giving away no less than four hundred FGR shirts to kids – no proceeds to anyone; these things were donated to their next generation of supporters FREE. Wow…
Imagine anything like this ever happening at the Globe Arena?
On and off the field, FGR are on a different par to today’s visitors in terms of their vision and plans for the future. Except for their policy as far as Away Fans are treated – in the open with no place to sit down. Other than this, though, they are light years ahead of most football clubs in terms of their ambition and forward planning. No wonder there were rumours that Theresa May was to be seen in the Directors’ Box during the game. But will the person responsible for the way this amazing club is run actually take her offer of the Brexit Secretary’s job? Maybe we’d actually get somewhere if he (or she) actually did…
Forest Green had a poor Conference record against Morecambe, who beat them on a regular basis home and away. But today, the team ninth in League Two had one win and a draw under their belt against the side in twentieth spot in the games they have played since Rovers were promoted to League Two at the beginning of last season.
FGR had a chance in the very first minute of today’s contest when Reuben Reid held the ball up before passing it to Reece Brown who, in turn, fed it to Carl Winchester who strode down the right wing, cut inside and sent a vicious shot just over the visitors’ bar. Theo Archibald then had a punt from distance after a nice turn which was deflected for a corner which Morecambe cleared with eleven minutes played. At the other end, Kevin Ellison slung a cross over to the far post with nineteen minutes on the clock which A-Jay Leitch-Smith got his head to but James Montgomery in the home goal managed to get down and smother his effort. Two minutes later, A-Jay was almost first to reach a deflected ball but Nathan McGinley did well to cover the ground and get to the ball first although his clearance came dangerously close to his own goal.
FGR applied some concerted pressure after this but Mark Halstead in the Shrimps’ net was not troubled before Leitch-Smith was again denied by McGinley with Kev ready to pick up the pieces after 34 minutes. There are a lot of Mills around Nailsworth and two of them were on the field today, one on each side. Morecambe’s Zak tried his luck after 35 minutes with a curling shot from the edge of the penalty area but Montgomery was equal to it. The home team broke away next, Reid and Archibald combining well together only for George Williams’ resultant effort to be sufficiently blocked by Halstead for Steven Old to be able to stop it crossing the Morecambe line: the Kiwi in the all-blue strip managed to boot the ball away from danger. The game swung up the field then and the home goalie made a fine save after 40 minutes from Liam Mandeville only for Farrend Rawson to block the follow-up shot from Vadaine Oliver. A lively half ended with a shot well over the bar from Digby and team-mate Archibald being booked by referee Ben Toner for diving just before the break.
Rovers started on the front foot in the second period and Archibald only just missed with a shot after 49 minutes. But it was almost an hour before they fashioned a half-decent chance: Williams made progress down the Rovers’ left and put in a low cross which eluded the Morecambe goalkeeper but also eluded Archibald as he rushed-in but failed to connect with it. Halstead then saved well from a shot by Carl Winchester shortly afterwards. Mandeville then missed narrowly with an effort at the other end after 58 minutes. With an hour on the clock, Reid was denied by Halstead when he did well to save his fierce shot at the cost of a corner. With sixty-eight minutes played, FGR’s Mills – Joseph – played a dangerous ball into the Shrimps’ far post but the relatively diminutive Aaron Wildig of all people headed it away for a corner. The same player came to Morecambe’s rescue again after 72 minutes when he cleared a looping effort from Reid this time away for another corner.
Archibald managed to work the ball over the Shrimps wall from a free-kick with 77 minutes played but it was easily fielded by Halstead. Substitute Andrew Tutte warmed Montgomery’s hands with a shot after 83 minutes which the goalkeeper turned-away for a corner. Six minutes later, the substitute tried his luck again, the ball broke to Wildig and the Shrimps’ Captain spun in the penalty area and beat the FGR goalkeeper with a shot which went over Montgomery’s head to put the visitors one goal up. And that was basically it – A-Jay and Digby were booked in the dying moments for a bit of handbags but the Lancashire team were able to hold on to their slim lead right until the end without any serious scares.
So it was the icing on the top of the cake for Jim Bentley’s men tonight. FGR are no pushover and the Morecambe Manager was full of praise for them after the game. But he must be absolutely delighted with the three points today. The win pushed the Shrimps up the table one place to nineteenth. The loss meant that Mark Cooper’s team slipped the same distance to tenth. With bottom two clubs Macclesfield and Notts County – who shipped three goals at home without scoring any – both losing today, the Shrimps found themselves a healthy six points away from the Drop Zone. More importantly, they no longer look like a side which will struggle for the rest of the season.
Forest Green Rovers: 13 James Montgomery; 7 Carl Winchester; 6 Farrend Rawson; 19 Nathan McGinley; 23 Joseph Mills; 20 Paul Digby (Y); 4 Lloyd James (14 Tahven Campbell 70 mins); 11 George Williams; 10 Reece Brown; 18 Theo Archibald (Y); 26 Reuben Reid.
Subs not used: 1 Robert Sanchez; 16 Gavin Gunning; 17 Isaac Pearce; 21 Matt Worthington; 22 Ben Morris.
Morecambe: 21 Mark Halstead; 2 Zak Mills; 16 Sam Lavelle; 5 Steven Old; 3 Luke Conlan; 27 Jordan Cranston; 17 Liam Mandeville (6 Andrew Tutte 66 mins); 11 Kevin Ellison (4 Alex Kenyon 78 mins); 15 Aaron Wildig (C); 28 A-Jay Leitch-Smith (Y); 9 Vadaine Oliver (12 Jason Oswell 82 mins).
Subs not used: 13 Dawid Szczepaniak; 25 Ben Hedley; 14 Josef Yarney; 19 Carlos Mendes-Gomez.
Ref: Ben Toner
3085 (94 from Morecambe)
Morecambe 3:0 Forest Green Rovers Skybet EFL League Two, Saturday 9th March 2019.
Forest Green Rovers: No Excuses at Morecambe.
Forest Green Rovers travelled to the North Lancashire seaside today looking to avenge their one-nil home reverse against Morecambe at the New Lawn last November.
Mark Cooper’s side travelled-up from Nailsworth on Friday and stayed locally overnight. The Gloucestershire club were seventh in League Two when they arrived at the Globe Arena and therefore in the lowest of the Play-Off positions. However, the only Vegan football club on the planet’s recent form has been patchy in the extreme. They lost their last game at home against leaders Lincoln City 1-3 seven days ago from a winning position. No surprise there. But they also lost three of their four League Two games during February, including a 1-2 home reverse against seemingly doomed bottom club Notts County. Thus – whilst FGR were hoping to get their Promotion Train back on the rails, the Shrimps were looking to remedy their own recent form – two defeats on the bounce – and try to put some daylight between themselves and the rest of the damned at the bottom of the EFL. Most notable of these are Macclesfield and a club who haven’t won for seven games and lost every fixture they were involved in last month: Port Vale. The Shrimps were certainly helped by the return of Aaron Wildig after a long lay-off with injury: he scored the decisive goal against Forest Green last year and is one of few genuinely pedigree players currently on the club’s books.
Previous EFL history shows a completely even record between the two clubs: one match won; one drawn and one lost so far. According to the official FGR website, the clubs have played each other twenty-two times in all. Morecambe have won twelve of these games; the Green Devils only five. As far as today’s contest is concerned, Manager Cooper said yesterday:
“We don’t want any excuses. It’s a long way, so what? Morecambe had a long journey and came here and beat us. There’s no excuses tomorrow. It’s roll your sleeves up, get your head down and go and perform.”
Would they, though?
It was sunny but very windy and soggy underfoot as the match kicked-off. Rhys Oates was the first player to chance his arm in the game. After three minutes, he took a shot from distance which was so far away from the target that it went for a throw-in to Rovers. The young striker got it spot-on just two minutes later, though, when – after an excellent run and shot by Aaron Collins – he got on the end of a rebound from visiting goalkeeper Lewis Ward who was only able to parry Collins’ initial effort and steered the bouncing ball at full stretch into the net at the far post.
FGR came close to equalising with nine minutes played – when former Bristol City striker Shawn McCoulsky received a pass from Joseph Mills on the Forest left, controlled the ball and struck a shot which was cleared off the Morecambe line by Ritchie Sutton. The Green Devils – with the wind at their backs – then enjoyed a period of concerted pressure.
With quarter of an hour played, Udoka Godwin-Malife made good progress down the FGR right and cut the ball back to Christian Doidge but the Welshman’s clever flick was brilliantly saved by Mark Halstead low down in the home goal.
The visitors weren’t having it all their own way, though. After eighteen minutes, Reading loanee Ward excelled himself to get his hands to a fierce shot from Collins, who had cleverly played his way into the opposition penalty area. This time, Paul Digby was on hand for the visitors to ensure nobody in a red shirt was able to follow-up the loose ball again. In an end-to-end encounter, Rovers had the next decent chance. With twenty-six minutes on the clock, George Williams took a free-kick; the ball was headed across the Shrimps’ penalty area by Gavin Gunning but Halstead again worked wonders to thwart an unmarked McCoulsky when it reached him and the Morecambe defence were able to clear the danger. There had been thirty-five minutes played when Morecambe went even further ahead. Collins yet again hit the target, this time beating two defenders before shooting unerringly through a crowd of players on the edge of the penalty area past the despairing right hand of Lewis Ward to make it two-nil to the hosts. Four minutes later, the Shrimps could have gone even further ahead. Aaron Wildig beat Godwin-Malife on the Morecambe left and slung over a cross which was only just fractionally too high for Collins to get his head to. Forty minutes had been played when the game was stopped so that Ritchie Sutton could get treatment for a nasty-looking cut close to his right eye after doing well to block a dangerous cross from Williams which seemed destined for Doidge in the middle. The Green Devils had the last chance of the half when Halstead easily fielded a weak header from Doidge. But the Shrimps went in with a deserved lead and the luxury of anticipating playing with the wind at their backs in the second half.
However, the visitors came out with a determination and intent which they had rarely shown during the first half and dominated the play in the opening period of the re-start. If Williams had taken a little more care following good play by the visitors after almost an hour, Rovers could have been right back in the game. Instead, he fired straight at Halstead when well placed and the chance was lost. Bennett had a sniff of a chance after 63 minutes but FGR had another golden opportunity to reduce the arrears with 66 minutes gone. Carl Winchester took a shot from close to the goal only to see Halstead again dive to his right to brilliantly keep the ball out of the net and his defence to reach the second ball first in order to clear the danger once more. But things changed again after 72 minutes. Oates out-muscled Paul Digby on the by-line and slipped the ball across the area for Alex Kenyon at full stretch to poke the ball past Ward into the bottom corner of the net. Three minutes later, Alex would have scored again if it wasn’t for a fantastic save from the visiting goalkeeper who went full-length to his right to keep out a shot from quite some distance. Just before Oates had missed the goal again after 82 minutes, FGR’s Mills took a shot which would have hit the target had it not slammed into team-mate Williams first. To add insult to injury, Williams was in an off-side position in any case. But, undaunted, Williams forced Halstead into a save after 83 minutes and was denied again when his shot was cleared off the line by Steven Old three minutes later with Halstead beaten for once. But for FGR today, it just wasn’t to be. So Morecambe deservedly won and, in doing so, achieved their first double for quite some time. It was a good team display and there were some excellent individual performances, most notably by official Man of the Match Mark Halstead; returnee Aaron Wildig, Rhys Oates – who scrapped for everything throughout the game – and Ritchie Sutton, who has certainly re-discovered his shooting boots after Jim Bentley gave him a chance to resurrect his stalled career just a few weeks ago.
With Yeovil losing to Lincoln last night, it was All Change again at the bottom of League Two. Macclesfield lost at home 1-3 to the team from Milton Keynes having led at one point. Notts County were tonked 4-1 at Cheltenham and Cambridge only managed to draw at home against Oldham. Port Vale won for the first time in ages and moved to twenty-first position as a result. Morecambe are one point and one position better off than them and a whole eight points clear of the drop zone. So it was a good day altogether for Jim Bentley and his men. In the meantime, FGR’s latest reverse saw them fall to ninth in League Two.
Morecambe: 21 Mark Halstead; 2 Zak Mills; 3 Luke Conlan; 4 Alex Kenyon (C); 15 Aaron Wildig (24 Paul McKay 76 mins); 31 Aaron Collins; 5 Steven Old; 12 Ritchie Sutton; 7 Ritchie Bennett (11 Kevin Ellison 70 mins); 18 Rhys Oates (17 Liam Mandeville 88 mins); 26 Pietro Mingoia.
Subs not used: 1 Barry Roche; 25 Ben Hedley; 14 Sam Dalby; 19 Carlos Mendes-Gomes.
Forest Green Rovers: 34 Lewis Ward; 4 Lloyd James (10 Reece Brown 57 mins); 7 Carl Winchester; 8 Dayle Grubb (25 Junior Mondal 57 mins)l; 9 Christian Doidge; 11 George Williams; 16 Gavin Gunning (C); 20 Paul Digby; 21 Shawn McCoulsky (2 Liam Shephard 69 mins); 22 Udoka Godwin-Malife; 23 Joseph Mills.
Subs not used: 24 Lewis Thomas; 5 Lee Collins; 6 Farrend Rawson; 19 Nathan McGinley.
Ref: Carl Boyeson.
1528 (141 from Nailsworth)
Morecambe 0:2 Forest Green Rovers Skybet EFL League Two, 22nd October 2019.
Crisis Grows At Morecambe
When was the last time you saw Forest Green Rovers on the telly? Saturday night/Sunday morning on Quest? Possibly. Last time I saw them was late on Sunday night when they filled a large part of a programme about the effect of Veganism on footballers in this country: Jermaine Jenas investigates Football Going Vegan. Fascinating – look it up on Sounds if you didn’t see it at the time. The only thing young Jermaine chickened out of (no pun intended) was showing what actually happens in poultry processing plants and slaughterhouses in this country. If we can eat the results, surely we should be able to see the processes involved (Halal slaughter for instance) in getting these things onto the supermarket shelves in the first place, shouldn’t we?
Fancy that – a football club which also produces fantastic recipes. Wow. Imagine that happening here at stuck-in-the-mud albeit prize-winning pie makers Morecambe. In my experience, the fare is simply meat knocker, gravy and peas; take it or leave it. Or hot Bovril. There’s not even a vegetarian option – let alone a Vegan one – in the bit for plebs at the Globe Arena which I always inhabit. Isn’t it time we entered the Twentieth Century – let alone the Twenty-First?
Whatever, the only Vegan club on the planet visited the Globe Arena tonight on the back of two wins, one draw and a single loss in their last five League Two games. Mark Cooper’s team were in sixth place in the division before the match and were looking to pick-up further points to improve on last season’s performance, where they ended-up in the Play-Offs only to lose to Tranmere Rovers. Their better-known players such as Reuben Reid and Reece Brown have moved to Pastures New (or should that be bigger New Lawns?) On Saturday, though, Morecambe old boy Aaron Collins scored his third goal in four games for FGR and Shrimps’ fans would be hoping that he would not find the net again against a club who re-started his football career just a year ago at a time when it had completely stalled.
Morecambe, on the other hand, were celebrating the fact that what was only their second league win of the season at Colchester last Saturday saw them escape from the icy tentacles of the National League Octopus to see Stevenage slip back to the rock bottom of the EFL by a single point. In past meetings, Morecambe have had the best of previous encounters in all competitions (according to the FGR website, thirteen wins out of twenty-three previous games; five draws and five losses). Most recently, Aaron Collins set-up one goal and scored another in the Shrimps’ 3-0 win over FGR at the Globe last season, when they also won 0-1 at Nailsworth with a goal from Aaron Wildig. Altogether, they have beaten Rovers twice; drawn once and lost only their first encounter at the New Lawn in League Two before tonight.
It was windy, overcast and thus very dark by the North Lancashire coast as the game kicked-off. Rovers must have won the toss because they elected to change ends at the start. In front of a relatively sparse crowd, the first half was played much like a practice game. You could hear the players shouting to each other and a lot of the play was pretty scrappy and shapeless. After two minutes, following good approach play, Lewis Allesandra attempted a volley from the edge of the FGR penalty area but got over the ball and sent it sailing above the bar. At the other end, Carl Winchester sent an even wilder shot over the Morecambe bar with ten minutes played. Two minutes later, a Rovers defender played a suicidal back-pass back to his goalkeeper and Joe Wollacott did brilliantly to deal with it. Fourteen minutes were on the clock when Cole Stockton controlled the ball brilliantly and played-in strike partner Allesandra who beat Wollacott only to see Liam Kitching kick the ball away from just in front of the goal line. Eighteen minutes had been played when Stockton again controlled a header from Kevin Ellison really well and just missed the FGR right-hand post with a low shot. The visitors had plenty of the ball and forced three corners alone during the twenty -seventh and twenty-ninth minutes but they failed to make any impact with them. The nearest they came to force Barry Roche into a meaningful save was right at the end, when Ebou Adams headed a corner over the bar. Quite a long way over at that. It was at this point – according to the FGR Twitter feed – that the taker of the corners, Joseph Mills, yelled at his colleagues: “Attack the ball!” But they didn’t. So the half meandered to an end with few chances and even less excitement.
The second half was also a curiously muted affair. The visitors had even more of the possession (three more corner kicks by the fifty-second minute for instance – as opposed to none for Morecambe during the entire match) but never really did anything with it. However, the sheer weight of possession means that a goal becomes more rather than less likely and one duly arrived as the game seemed to be drifting towards an inevitable bore draw. It was the most bizarre of strikes: FGR forwards took it in turn to shoot; Morecambe defenders took it in turn to block these efforts but the last one – by substitute Jack Aitchison apparently – was deflected and rolled agonisingly to the left of Big Baz in the Shrimps’ goal with the goalkeeper completely wrong-footed. This was in the seventy-fourth minute. Another pivotal moment in the match had been reached about five minutes earlier when Referee Matt Donohue booked Lewis Allesandra for a fairly innocuous forward’s tackle on Winchester. In injury time, Lewis was sent off for another relatively minor infringement. Having watched Dom Barnard reacting really badly to a shove from Stockton and then roll about as if pole-axed when fouled by Alex Kenyon in the first half and then seen Mathew Stevens clearly dive in the penalty area after about an hour, you really wondered by which rules the referee was judging the game. Neither of the Forest Green players was even booked. However, with a man short and at least some attempt by the Shrimps to pull back a losing situation, the game was well and truly wrapped-up by Liam Shephard in injury time when he raced up the Forest Green right and unleashed a tremendous shot which beat Baz all ends up to give the visitors a probably just about deserved win. The three points pushed the Vegans into third place in League Two.
Elsewhere, Stevenage also lost by the only goal at Swindon, thank goodness – and thus remained bottom of the EFL with Morecambe precariously placed just one position above them. Next Saturday, the two bottom teams meet at Broadhall Way.
Six-pointer? Is it possible to be more than that? At this moment, it begins to feel very much like it…
Morecambe: 1 Barry Roche (C); 3 Luke Conlan; 4 Alex Kenyon (24 Shaun Miller 81’); 5 Steven Old; 7 John O’Sullivan; 8 Lewis Alessandra (R); 9 Cole Stockton; 11 Kevin Ellison; 14 Tom Brewitt (15 Aaron Wildig 69’); 16 Sam Lavelle; 27 George Tanner.
Subs not used: 21 Mark Halstead; 17 Michael Howard; 19 Carlos Mendes-Gomes; 12 Ritchie Sutton.
Forest Green Rovers: 13 Jojo Wollacott; 3 Dom Bernard; 6 Farrend Rawson; 20 Liam Kitching; 2 Liam Shephard (Y); 7 Carl Winchester; 15 James Morton (10 Aaron Collins 65’); 23 Joseph Mills (C); 14 Ebou Adams; 9 Mathew Stevens; 17 Elliot Frear (29 Jack Aitchison 65’).
Subs not used: 24 Lewis Thomas; 12 Taylor Allen; 21 Shawn McCoulsky; 24 Lewis Thomas; 25 Junior Mondal; 28 Kyle Taylor.
Ref: Matt Donohue. 1658 (63)
