No Horror-gate for Morecambe
Harrogate Town travelled west across the Pennines today to meet Morecambe not only for their initial meeting in an EFL match but for the first time ever. Town have risen from non-league obscurity in the last few years under the leadership of Chairman Irving Weaver and his son – the club’s Manager, Simon. They began life in the Big Time promisingly enough this season but in recent times, Town’s form has dropped like a stone. The club has lost four out of its last five games at Wetherby Road in all competitions and only drawn the other one. They were hammered on their own ground by Scunthorpe 2-5 last Tuesday and lost at the same venue 0-1 to Forest Green a week ago in league games. Prior to that defeat, they were run ragged by Blackpool on their own pitch, losing 0-4 in the FA Cup and before that, they had won one; lost one and drawn one of their previous League Two ties. Asked to comment on the disparity between his team’s home and away form, Simon Weaver told the media before the game:
“Maybe the lads are getting a good night’s sleep away from home – maybe that’s it: maybe they’ve got to go to bed a bit earlier. I don’t think you can read too much into it – your mind can fry if you think too deeply into it – we just have to perform a little bit better at home. We started the season on fire; we’ve had a few injuries; we’ve had a few dips in form as well but now it’s time to show character.”
All Morecambe supporters will thus have hoped that the men from Yorkshire didn’t sleep as well as perhaps they might have last night. As far as today’s opponents are concerned, Mr Weaver added:
“They are a solid outfit. They tend to play some really attractive football under the new Manager so he deserves every credit.”
That `new Manager’ had this to say about today’s task prior to kick-off:
“Harrogate have had a seamless start in League Two after coming up from the National League. Simon Weaver and his team have kept much the same from last year, they have a good work ethic, a lot of players who have bought into their philosophy over the years and have done really well since getting promoted. They’re a club that have been very good in the community and like Barrow they’ve come up into the league and performed well. It shows that there isn’t much difference between the National League and League Two, the same as there isn’t a big difference between League Two and League One.”
Harrogate began today’s match in seventeenth position in the table. Despite their recent disappointments, however, they were just four places and three points shy of today’s opponents from Lancashire.
In terms of their own form, Morecambe had only won one of their previous five league games and lost two of them. Having said that, I thought that they were unlucky to lose at Rodney Parade by the odd goal in three against league leaders Newport County last Saturday. Manager Derek Adams was upbeat about his team’s performance after that match but today, he was unable to select Stephen Hendrie, who was suspended after being sent off during the game in south Wales. Jordan Slew has also been suspended for the next three games. An FA Tribunal made this ruling during the week following a retrospective look at a bit of stupidity he indulged in during the match against the Exiles. If he had been spotted doing this at the time, the Shrimps would have ended the match with only nine players. So one of the things Derek must have been concerned about today was his own team’s discipline, which has been in question in recent times such as the game against Solihull Moors, where I thought Yann Songo’o was lucky not to be sent off and Cole Stockton could have seen red as well. Before the game, DA had this to say about the current situation he faced at the club:
“Freddie Price is out injured and we have Jordan Slew and Stephen Hendrie suspended. We do have fitness doubts over Aaron Wildig and Cole Stockton who both missed last week with injuries, otherwise everyone is fit and available.”
As it turned-out, both Wildig and Stockton started this afternoon. Further good news for the home team was that Liam Gibson was named on the bench after a long lay-off due to injury.
It was heavy underfoot in North Lancashire as the match kicked-off in bright, Wintry sunshine. The `Sulphurites’ – as Harrogate are nicknamed due to the spa water available in their town (don’t breathe in when you taste it!) – were clad in an all-blue strip and kicked-off after all players Took The Knee.
It was an entertaining game in the first half with both teams trying to play the game properly and constructively. Harrogate’s Plan A was to work the ball down their right via the impressive Ryan Fallowfield, George Thomson and Brendan Kiernan. Sadly for them, though, they didn’t seem to have a Plan B. Nevertheless, after eleven minutes, Yann Songo’o gave the ball away in a dangerous position and Thomson took a shot for the visitors which missed to the left of the goal from his point of view. Five minutes later, Kiernan made good progress on the Town right; the ball found itself at the far stick and a shot went wildly high and wide of the target from a Harrogate player as a result. Just before half time, Kiernan got the better of marker Ryan Cooney, advanced on goal and took a shot which was blocked for a corner when he really should have passed the ball instead. Then the visitors played down the left for perhaps the first time in the game and a half-chance was well blocked by the Shrimps’ defence.
At the other end, Cooney had burst through the middle after five minutes and taken a shot from quite a long way out which missed the target to his left. Cole Stockton then caught a Town defender in possession, turned and advanced quickly down the middle to set-up Aaron Wildig with a clever pass only for Morecambe’s Number Ten to make a complete mess of it. Wildig returned Cole’s favour after a quarter of an hour only for the big centre forward to miss the goal with another poor effort when well placed. Adam Phillips and Kelvin Mellor then combined well on the Morecambe right only for a low cross into the penalty area to be booted clear. Then Wildig fluffed his lines again when brilliantly found in a central position in the away penalty area by Carlos Mendes-Gomes: if he wasn’t short of match fitness, he might well have scored.
And so a half which had been entertaining to watch throughout ended all-square and goal-less with neither goalkeeper having even one save to make.
The visitors looked lively again at the start of the second half with the same trio who had caught the eye in the first half – Fallowfield, Thomson and Kiernan –playing clever triangles again on the Harrogate right flank. Morecambe, in the meantime, were playing with more purpose and started to press Town as the match grew older. Following a series of concerted attacks, the ball found its way to Phillips on the right with fifty-six minutes played. He looked up and sent a tremendous looping cross over to the far post onto an unmarked Wildig’s head. Aaron made up for his two poor efforts during the first half with a decisive header to put the hosts into the lead. An hour had passed when the ball was played-up to Stockton who, with his back to goal and a Town defender all over him, controlled the ball, spun and shot in one movement to draw a sublime save from James Belshaw. The visiting goalkeeper was in action again just a minute later when he came to the edge of his area and confidently punched a cross away only to see Cole leave his afternoon’s tormentor Connor Hall in his wake shortly afterwards. Morecambe’s Number Nine strode forward down the centre and unleashed a shot which the visiting goalkeeper again excelled in pushing away for a corner. Although Harrogate continued to play some nice tippy-tappy stuff, they were failing to penetrate the home rearguard and one of the few chances they managed to create all game arrived after almost eighty minutes when Kiernan’s wild shot missed the target by about a mile. Morecambe could and should have gone further ahead after 84 minutes when Carlos found himself with a clear run on goal from the Morecambe left. Belshaw thwarted him with a save as he narrowed the angle only to see the ball find its way back to the Shrimps’ forward, whose second bite at the cherry was brilliantly blocked on the Town line by Ryan Fallowfield. Old stager Jon Stead came on as a substitute for Harrogate near the end and his effort – a weak, looping header which Mark Halstead collected all too easily right at the death – was his team’s only accurate attempt on goal all afternoon. So the White Rose club lost again. On this showing, though, they are far too good to make a quick return to the National League. They played the game in the right way and in an excellent spirit today. They were, however, perhaps a little naive at times. But if they ever discover that there is a left as well as a right flank on a football pitch, they could cause a lot of teams plenty of problems in the future.
Jordan Slew’s ineligibility proved to be a blessing in disguise today for Morecambe: John O’Sullivan – who played really well throughout – was far more effective than the man he replaced has ever proved to be in a Morecambe shirt. Those of us with long enough memories will remember Jordan feigning a foul by Shrimps’ legendary goalkeeper Barry Roche once as a Plymouth Argyle player. The Referee rightly sent him off for doing this. Do we really want people who are prepared to cheat like this in our team? I think not and on past performances alone (just one goal in twenty-six appearances as an alleged forward but four yellow cards and now a retrospective red one picked-up at the same time), I personally think he’s lucky ever to be given a place in the side at all.
The win propels the Shrimps back up to tenth position in League Two. Harrogate found themselves staying in seventeenth place but they still have a lot of daylight between them and the really poor teams at the bottom of the EFL such as Stevenage, who were mauled 4-0 at Carlisle today to slip back into the relegation positions.
Morecambe: 12 Mark Halstead (Y); 2 Kelvin Mellor; 5 Sam Lavelle (C); 6 Harry Davis; 24 Yann Songo’o; 10 Aaron Wildig (Y); 11 Carlos Mendes-Gomes; 16 John O’Sullivan; 20 Adam Phillips (14 Alex Kenyon 81’); 21 Ryan Cooney; 9 Cole Stockton.
Subs not used: 1 Jake Turner; 19 Liam McAlinden; 4 Nathaniel Knight-Percival; 17 A-Jay Leitch-Smith; 8 Toumani Diagouraga; 22 Liam Gibson.
Harrogate Town: 1 James Belshaw; 2 Ryan Fallowfield; 4 Josh Falkingham (C); 6 Warren Burrell; 7 George Thomson; 10 Aaron Martin (16 Jon Stead 80’); 14 Brendan Kiernan; 12 Jake Lawlor; 20 Connor Hall; 15 Connor Kirby; 18 Jack Muldoon.
Subs not used: 13 Joe Cracknell; 9 Mark Beck; 17 Lloyd Kerry; 19 Calvin Miller; 16 Kevin Lokko.
Ref: Ollie Yates.
