Barrow Sunk at Morecambe…
Morecambe have never played Barrow in an EFL match. When the Bluebirds were members of the Football League in the distant past, the Shrimps were either in the Lancashire Combination or the original Northern Premier League. Since Morecambe have been in League Two, however, Barrer has been a non-League club. Until this season: when they were readmitted to a League which they should never have been thrown out of in the first place (see https://d3d4football.com/the-thoughts-of-our-new-barrow-correspondent/).
If you walk along Morecambe’s Promenade, on a clear day you will get an unsurpassed view over the Lakeland Hills across the Bay to the north. To the left of this vista, though, can be seen two large cream-coloured buildings even with the naked eye. At night, they are even more obvious as bright red lights mark their position against the dark background. These are BaE’s submarine sheds, where the British nuclear fleet’s huge boats are built. They dominate the centre of the town of Barrow-in-Furness, which is only about fifteen miles away from Morecambe as the Fly Crows. It’s a lot further by road or rail but there is a move afoot to merge the local government in Barrow and district with that of Lancaster and Morecambe into a new unitary Authority to better promote the region’s joint interests. (Want your say? Go to Lancaster.gov.uk/bay-survey). It still rankles in Barrow, almost half a century after it happened, to be in Cumbria rather than Lancashire: and the Red Rose on the club’s badge reflects this fact. So there is more than just Morecambe Bay to unify the two places: there is history too.
Barrow’s Manager, David Dunn, was picked-out by the TV cameras sitting, masked and alone, in the main stand at the Mazuma Arena last Saturday as Derek Adams’ men finally saw-off National League Solihull Moors 4-2 in the FA Cup. The previous Thursday, his own men had bowed out of the same competition with a home defeat on penalties to AFC Wimbledon. Two days earlier, they had also lost at Holker Street: 3:4 to Oldham Athletic in a League Two match. They arrived in Morecambe today on the back of two defeats and a single win in their last five League Two games. They were six points worse off and five positions lower than this evening’s hosts, who started the match in fourteenth position in the table. The Shrimps’ league form has barely been any better than tonight’s opponents: they have drawn three of their last five League Two games and have taken all three points on only one occasion. Having no crowd in the ground never helps – but for a local derby, the absence of fans was more sorely missed than ever: in more normal times, the stadium would have been packed to the rafters tonight. This is a point that David Dunn picked-up on before the game:
“It’s a local derby so it’s a big game (for) both teams and we know what it means to the supporters. They’ve got a way of playing and they play with decent energy so it will be a battle and we have to compete like you do in every derby. There can be pressure on players in local derbies, but the best players come to the party when the pressure is on and they want to perform to show people how good they are. Obviously, it would be wonderful to have the fans back and have a fantastic following at Morecambe, but we have to just go about our business the way we do to try and make them proud. That means we compete, be patient when we need to be and be good with the ball; there will be ups and downs like in any game but we’re going to have to stay composed and hopefully that sees us through.”
If they were to win, it would be a sorely-needed boost for both the club and the town. The news today that Debenhams is about to go bust was a really low blow for Barrow; its shopping centre and the general employment situation there.
For the visitors, Patrick Brough and Josh Lillis – both once of this parish – were named in the squad tonight, with Patrick featuring in the starting eleven. Aaron Wildig’s loss to an injury picked-up in the very first minute against Solihull when their Captain scythed him down with a crude tackle was a big blow for the Shrimps. John O’Sullivan replaced him and an even bigger Midfield General role was thus thrust upon Adam Phillips – who I thought had a poor game against the Moors. Good news for Morecambe was that Alex Kenyon was fit enough once more to warm the bench tonight. He would sit alongside goalkeeper Jake Turner, whose place in the first team stayed with Mark Halstead, who replaced him after a very weak display in the first half against Solihull a few days ago.
It was dry with hardly a breath of wind but very cold as the match started at half past six. Morecambe went straight onto the front foot and it became immediately obvious that Adam Phillips was up for it this evening. However, someone else on the field of play wasn’t. Referee Thomas Bramall made his first big mistake after just two minutes. The Shrimps were attacking down their right flank; the ball was played into the Barrow penalty area and an arm clad in a black sleeve with a yellow stripe clearly deflected it as it was in the air. This would have been a penalty even under the old handball rules but the Ref didn’t give it. Four minutes had been played when the ball found its way to Nathaniel Knight-Percival, who put it just over the bar when quite well placed. At the other end, Scott Quigley – who impressed throughout – showed a deft touch and quick turn for a big lad after six minutes; running almost centrally against a back-pedalling Shrimps’ defence and then spoiling all his good work with a weak shot which missed the target altogether. Almost immediately, Joel Dixon in the visitors’ goal pulled-off a great save from Phillips and then managed to block John O’Sullivan’s follow-up effort as well. But the goalkeeper was well and truly beaten after eleven minutes when Phillips picked-out Carlos Mendes-Gomes in the away penalty area with a tremendous pass and the young man took the ball past the goalie and swept it home to give the Shrimps the lead. Three minutes later, Carlos was up against Barrow Skipper Sam Hird as another ball was played forward. Mendes-Gomes ended-up on the ground and the Ref blew for a free-kick. But then he had a brief discussion with his linesman – and produced a red card. TV replays didn’t show any offence worthy of this and I am personally astounded that Hird was sent-off: it seemed appallingly harsh to me at least. I thought that this incident basically ruined the game. Morecambe had been playing well until this point but against ten men, they played a lot worse. Barrow were forced to change things as a result and at times, they played some nice intricate patterns as Morecambe tended to stand off and let them have the ball. Quigley beat KP on the deck easily after forty-two minutes and his resulting shot was deflected for a corner. Down the other end, Stephen Hendrie made good progress on the Shrimps’ left after forty-one minutes, looked-up and plonked the ball on Kelvin Mellor’s head in the centre of the pitch only for the defender to miss badly with a poor header. Cole Stockton also had a couple of chances, most notably in injury time when a quick turn and shot drew a good save from Dixon. But the half ended with Barrow a man down and Morecambe a goal up.
The hosts dominated the play briefly at the start of the second period and Stockton turned and struck quickly again to see his shot pushed away by the visiting goalkeeper for a corner. But there was little pattern or threat from the men in the red shirts. Barrow played the better football at times and you would have thought that they had the extra man on the field at times. On another day, they might have been awarded a penalty after an hour when Sam Lavelle just might have fouled the always tricky and combative Quigley. David Dunn threw caution to the wind by sending on Jayden Reid after an hour and at this time, Barrow were making all the running. However, shortly after A-Jay Leitch-Smith was sent on by Derek Adams, the balance of the match started to change again. A-Jay held the ball up well; played it into the spaces for his team-mates to run onto and troubled the visitors’ defence from virtually the moment he came on until the end of the game. He only just missed the target with a shot after seventy minutes as Morecambe played effectively on the counter-attack. A minute later, he linked well with Sully to set-up Stockton for a shot which missed the target. Then he drew a save from Dixon with 75 minutes on the clock following a clever piece of play in which he created the space for himself to shoot: the goalkeeper pushed this away for another corner. Six minutes later, he was instrumental again in progressing the ball forward before Carlos took over only to see his shot blocked after eighty-one minutes. At the other end, Barrow still threatened occasionally and both Quigley and Reid looked threatening at times. But the one man disadvantage was to prove too much for the visitors and the match ended with Mark Halstead in the home goal having very little to do.
The three points saw Morecambe go up to eleventh position in League Two. Barrow fell to twentieth. On this showing, they are far too good to fear a quick return to the National League. Besides, with Southend apparently on a suicide mission, Stevenage as hopeless as ever and Harrogate apparently imploding at the moment, there are at least two other teams in the division who appear to be much worse than they seem to be.
Morecambe: 12 Mark Halstead; 2 Kelvin Mellor; 3 Stephen Hendrie (21 Ryan Cooney 71’); 4 Nathaniel Knight-Percival (17 A-Jay Leitch-Smith 56’); 5 Sam Lavelle (C); 6 Harry Davis (Y); 24 Yann Songo’o (Y); 11 Carlos Mendes-Gomes; 9 Cole Stockton (8 Toumani Diagouraga 86’); 20 Adam Phillips; 16 John O’Sullivan.
Subs not used: 1 Jake Turner; 14 Alex Kenyon; 18 Ben Pringle; 7 Jordan Slew.
Barrow: 1 Joel Dixon; 3 Patrick Brough; 4 Jason Taylor; 5 Matthew Platt; 6 Sam Hird (C) (R); 9 Scott Quigley; 11 Josh Kay (19 Scott Wilson 19’); 25 Harrison Biggins (20 Dior Angus 62’); 27 Bradley Barry; 28 Chris Taylor; 33 Luke James (29 Jayden Reid 61’).
Subs not used: 12 Josh Lillis; 2 Connor Brown; 7 Callum Gribbin.
Ref: Thomas Bramall.
