Morecambe move to exalted heights – where’s the oxygen?
John Askey brought his Port Vale side – who were unbeaten in League Two so far – to the Mazuma Stadium today on the back of the latest statement from his outspoken Chairman, Carol Shanahan. Famously, Carol sacrificed the chances of promotion for her then well-placed club in order to vote to end last season’s League Two programme early in the best interests of the game as a whole. She must be applauded for that decision, which she described at the time as `the hardest thing I have ever done’. Since then, she has written to Sports Minister Nigel Huddleston to pose – among many others – the following key question which will be of interest to all football supporters at least:
“We understand fully that the situation with regard to Covid-19 restrictions is very nuanced and evolving but, like many supporters, are struggling to understand the logic which decrees that hundreds of people are able to sit together in an aeroplane for hours on end or eat and drink inside pubs and restaurants – but fans of football clubs are not allowed to be accommodated in the open air inside stadia declared safe by experts in socially-distanced bubbles while wearing face coverings. It would certainly be helpful if the science behind this decision could be shared with the football community.”
I can’t find any evidence of a reply by Mr Huddleston but to set the context, the Vale chairman has stated elsewhere:
“It can’t be underestimated the number of lower league clubs in trouble. We need money to survive. We had plans ready for all our fans to come in, but that has now been put off to March, which is frustrating. During lockdown we delivered 155,000 meals to 64,000 different people across Stoke, we are the centre point of our community.
Any club could go under. It is down to individuals to put money in. Not every club has that. I noticed Man City just spent £65m on one player. That would have gone a long way to saving lower league clubs. We are all part of the same family.”
Are we, though? As we have noted before, it is alleged that Spurs’ returning Messiah Saint Gareth’s weekly wage could save Macclesfield from the real prospect of oblivion; two weeks’ wages could keep Southend United going too. So Chairman Carol’s attempt to appeal to Premier League consciences may well already have fallen on stony ground…
Anyway, on the field, the Valiants’ record was two wins and a draw in the League campaign so far. They were second in the table, just behind the very impressive Cambridge United and a point above fifth-placed Morecambe. In eighteen previous meetings, Vale had lost eight and drawn four to give the Lancashire club a slight historical advantage. For the hosts, Manager Derek Adams told the local press this week that he was concerned that Morecambe had gone behind in both their away League games this season. Although he was obviously pleased that his men overcame these setbacks to win both matches, he added:
“We’re sitting down and looking at it but there can be a whole host of things behind it. Do we come in too early from the warm-up? Do we stay in too late between the warm-up and going back out again? Is it how we start the game? These are all things that we’re looking at.”
It was very wet and squally as the game kicked-off in North Lancashire. The pattern – such as there was – of the first half was soon established. The visitors dominated the possession and moved the ball in short passes along the pitch but seemed to run out of steam when they got within striking distance of the Morecambe goal. With Tom Pope sitting on the bench, Vale seemed to have no focal point in the middle of the pitch and they were thus clearly reluctant to cross the ball. On their left, their biggest player – Devante Rodney – was also their biggest threat. After ten minutes, for instance, he went past Ryan Cooney as if he wasn’t there and played a dangerous low cross into the home penalty area only to see the ball relatively easily cleared. The visitors had the clearest chance of the half as well – defender Leon Legge had a clear header in the centre of the Shrimps’ penalty area following a long but accurate lob from the Valiants’ right but Jake Turner was able to save it without too much trouble. At the back, though, the visitors looked disorganised at times and struggled to clear their lines on a couple of occasions. Cole Stockton looked threatening once or twice; Adam Phillips had a couple of half chances and shots by him and Alex Kenyon went over the bar. Carlos Mendes-Gomes had an unusually ineffective half apart from a brilliant turn from a corner when he set-up Cole for a shot which narrowly missed. All this said, though, there wasn’t a great deal to report and the first period ended in a pretty tame goalless draw.
The second period followed a similar pattern. As the rain never relented for a moment, Port Vale still created pretty patterns on the pitch but despite allowing Rodney a freer role to roam up front, they never tested Turner in the home goal and continued to lack any obvious focal point. It didn’t help their cause that they literally squandered a number of set pieces from corners and free kicks by regularly over-hitting the ball. Morecambe played some good stuff themselves, not least after 47 minutes. Then, Carlos fed Aaron Wildig on the Morecambe left from deep in his own half; Aaron cleverly worked the ball forwards and laid a superb pass to an unmarked Adam Phillips in the centre who in turn drew a fantastic save from Vale Skipper Scott Brown at the expense of a corner kick. Carlos went off hurt just before the hour. Just before he departed, Phillips cleverly worked his way on the Shrimps’ right past Shaun Brisley who pulled him back but couldn’t prevent him finding Wildig on the other flank only for him to be flattened by another pretty crude foul. Vale again repeatedly failed to clear their lines from the resulting free-kick. There wasn’t a lot to report after that until the key moment of the match arrived in the seventy-third minute. Brisley was perhaps harshly adjudged to have pushed Cole Stockton in the penalty area; Phillips took the resulting spot-kick and Brown obligingly dived out of the way as Adam belted the ball straight down the middle. And that was basically it. The rain continued to fall but any expected storm from the visitors to defend their unbeaten league record so far totally failed to materialise.
This wasn’t a great game by any means. But probably the biggest difference between the two sides was that Morecambe occasionally looked like scoring – Vale, on the other hand, never really did. So the Shrimps ended the day in the exalted position of second in League Two behind Kevin Ellison’s Newport County. Port Vale, meanwhile, did a total swap with their hosts today by falling to fifth.
Morecambe: 1 Jake Turner; 5 Sam Lavelle (C); 6 Harry Davis; 9 Cole Stockton; 10 Aaron Wildig; 11 Carlos Mendes-Gomes (19 Liam McAlinden 54’); 14 Alex Kenyon 16 John O’Sullivan (Y); 20 Adam Phillips (24 Yann Songo’o 80’); 21 Ryan Cooney; 22 Liam Gibson (Y) (2 Kelvin Mellor 99’).
Subs not used: 13 André Da Silva Mendes; 4 Nathaniel Knight-Percival; 17 A-Jay Leitch-Smith; 18 Ben Pringle.
Port Vale: 1 Scott Brown (C); 2 James Gibbons; 16 Shaun Brisley; 5 Leon Legge (Y); 24 David Fitzpatrick; 4 Luke Joyce; 10 Tom Conlon; 20 Scott Burgess (18 Danny Whitehead 84’); 13 Mark Cullen (12 Theo Robinson 61’); 7 David Worrall; 21 Devante Rodney (19 David Amoo 77’).
Subs not used: 30 Dino Visser; 11 Cristian Montaňo; 3 Adam Crookes; 9 Tom Pope.
Ref: Robert Madley.
