Sheffield Wednesday Score Again – and Lose…
Well – who’d have thought it? Morecambe playing Rotherham Tuesday one week; and mighty Sheffield Wednesday the next one. And in the same league division as well. Eee- it teks me back tha’ knows. I can’t quite stretch back to Morecambe’s first ever game (against Fleetwood who won 1-4 at the cricket ground here in the town), which was played exactly 101 years ago to the day. But I can remember matches such as when Morecambe beat Matlock Town by two goals to nil at Christie Park in the Northern Premier League, for instance. Yes – Mighty Matlock, the pride of, er, Matlock. Probably. That was almost exactly fifty-two years ago: on Saturday 23rd August 1969 when – as a fourteen-year old – I would be standing with my mate Paul and his dad on the cinder bank which was finally known as the Car Wash terrace. I don’t think any of the three of us would expect `little old Morecambe’ to be plying its trade in the Football League at any time in the future way back then. It wasn’t possible for one thing – what is now the EFL was very definitely a Closed Shop all those years ago. But as I sat in the main stand at a (virtually) brand new ground with Paul again today at a brand new game in a brand new league, I’m sure we both had to pinch ourselves to really appreciate the fact that the club has progressed so far.
Once-mighty Wednesday arrived sitting right at the top of League One. The huge potential – and actual – fanbase of this club fallen on hard times was illustrated by the fact that their entire allocation of 1,779 tickets was sold out as long ago as Monday as soon as they went on sale. Their – in my opinion – vastly underrated Manager Darren Moore has overseen the Owls draw their first League Match at Charlton and then win all three of the subsequent ones – without conceding even a single goal so far. Perhaps most significantly, they beat Rotherham – who I thought were simply too good for the Shrimps in their previous game here just over a week ago – by two goals to nil on their own patch last Saturday. (The only match the Owls have lost so far was when they were beaten in the League Cup on penalties by neighbours Huddersfield in the First Round.)
History also favoured the visitors from Yorkshire: in the clubs’ only ever previous meeting, Dave Jones’ overly cynical and physical bunch of bruisers booted Morecambe out of the FA Cup here in front of the live television cameras almost exactly ten years ago. (Guess who the Referee was? Yes – it was that internationally renowned Man in the Middle, David `World-Wide’ Webb again…)
The raw aggression and the Dark Arts clearly worked though: Wednesday were promoted to the Championship at the end of the campaign. (But it didn’t work a division higher: Dave Jones was sacked in December 2013 with his team having won only one league match all season. Part of his legacy was a £2000 fine and an FA ban following a `fracas’ with the Coach of Brighton & Hove Albion – who Jones’ subsequently described as a `nobody’- during a game between the two clubs. Nature Note: Owls and Seagulls clearly do not get on…)
Anyway… Darren Moore is the second away Manager to visit the Maz this season who has been stricken with Covid-19 and brought very low by the virus: he suffered pneumonia and blood-clots on the lungs last season as his team lost their struggle to remain in the Championship. Fortunately, he won his own struggle to stay with the rest of us and hopefully, he is on the way to a full recovery presently.
Before the game, Mr Moore made this assessment of today’s opposition:
“Morecambe are a team used to winning given their promotion last season and a club that’s made huge strides over the last couple of years. They are brave on the ball, they try and play the game at a good tempo which is great to see. They are not in League One to make up the numbers, they are a good, well organised team and if you’re not on your game they will cause problems for you. We have to make sure we are at our absolute best and continue to build on performances.”
Opposite Number Stephen Robinson’s team, meanwhile, were sixteenth in League One prior to the game. Robbo made no bones about the difficulty that overcoming a team unbeaten in League One posed prior to his team’s latest test. Reflecting on his men’s midweek defeat by Preston North End, the Shrimps’ boss said:
“The games are certainly not getting any easier, but that’s what we are here for – all that hard work that the players put in last season has led us until this point. These are the games the fans want to come to, there was a full house then and there will be another one Saturday, and we are really looking forward to it. It is a tough, tough challenge, they haven’t conceded a goal yet and we have to try and change that – we will be aiming to take points on Saturday and if we do that I think we will all be satisfied with how we’ve started.”
However, the real question to be answered was: would today’s clash lead to Sheffield’s fourth league win in a row – or Morecambe’s fourth loss in succession in all competitions?
The weather has been beautiful for the last few days in North Lancashire: sunny; warm with barely a hint of wind. Today was no exception. Both teams Took the Knee and then a game played in an excellent spirit and which never faltered for a moment began in front of a record crowd of almost five and a half thousand fans. Wednesday looked sharp and quick and had a good balance of brawn and brain right across the team. You could soon see why they were top of the table. But the men in the red shirts were clearly up for it too and they had the earliest good chance. After Shane McLaughlin had been fouled just outside the Sheffield penalty area to the Shrimps’ left; League One’s top scorer Cole Stockton shot low right through the defending wall but visiting keeper Bailey Peacock-Farrell saved it without too much fuss. There were several other chances for both sides – Liam Palmer missed the target with a header after a quarter of an hour for the visitors; Alfie McCalmont’s shot missed at the other end with just over half an hour played and Callum Paterson also headed wide with thirty-seven minutes on the clock, for instance. The nearest either side came to scoring, however, was when a deep cross by Jack Hunt from the Wednesday right looped over home goalkeeper Jökull Andrésson and bounced off his far post. In truth, Andrésson was the busier of the two goalkeepers during a first half which Wednesday probably just about shaded.
The visitors opened the proceedings in the second period playing at a faster pace and pressing far further up the field. With the massed ranks of their supporters roaring them on, they dominated the play for at least the first ten minutes. George Byers could not have come any closer when his tremendous curling strike from a long way out hit Morecambe’s Icelandic goalkeeper’s left-hand post and bounced harmlessly away after just four minutes. A minute later, the same player fed Lee Gregory – who had narrowly missed with a header right at the end of the first half. Gregory turned and shot in one brilliant movement but his attempt went just too high. With almost an hour played, diminutive Owls Skipper Barry Bannan played-in Gregory again on the left-hand side of the penalty area from his point of view but Andrésson’s brave save right at his feet kept the ball out. It had been virtually all Wednesday up until this point but Stephen Robinson responded by changing the formation by replacing a forward player – Courtney Duffus – with a defensive one in the shape of Ryan Delaney after an hour. He joined Adam Phillips, who he had also sent on a few minutes earlier. In my opinion, the introduction of Phillips totally changed the game. Adam was prepared to press and harry further up the pitch. He linked-up well with Toumani Diagouraga and Cole Stockton and for virtually the first time in the match, Sheffield didn’t look quite as assured at the back. 63 minutes were on the clock when McLaughlin fed Cole the Goal – who had basically not had a kick so far faced with Man Mountain but extraordinarily effective Dominic Iorfa. Stockton did what he does best only to be denied another goal by a good save from Peacock-Farrell at the cost of a corner. Phillips took it from the Shrimps’ left; there was Panic Stations in the away defence and next thing, the ball was in the back of the net. Only afterwards was the goal accredited to Wednesday’s unfortunate Dennis Adeniran.
As the visiting supporters fell more or less silent, you wondered how Wednesday would react to the unusual position of being behind in a league game. Darren Moore sent on double substitutes almost immediately after the goal but I actually thought that the Yorkshire side played worse with them on the pitch than they had done without them. The home goalkeeper was the Man Of The Match in my opinion today. But after Morecambe went ahead, he had little to do and the game ended with the home side looking the likeliest to add to their lead as opposed to conceding it.
So it was a record-breaking day. The biggest crowd ever at this venue. Wednesday’s first defeat. Wednesday’s first goal conceded. They can still argue that nobody from an opposing team has scored against them yet, though. They will also take positives even in defeat today. This Wednesday team – in stark contrast to Dave Jones’ Neanderthals – play the game the right way. They will perform far worse this season and still win. The defeat saw them slip to second in League One behind another club whose glory days are far in the past: Sunderland.
But for Morecambe, this continues to be as good as it has ever been. I thought they were tremendous today. Paul and I were wondering what would have happened this time last season if this fixture had occurred then. Derek Adams had only one (albeit usually very effective) way of playing – on the break. When we considered the hammerings we endured against Cambridge and particularly Newcastle here last season, we both feared that we would have lost this game today. In Robbo, however, we seem to have a Manager who is prepared to change his formation and personnel when it is not working in an all-out attempt to win. It worked at Blackburn. It worked again today. Well done that man.
Tonight – with next Saturday’s game at Crewe postponed due to international call-ups – the Shrimps have time to recover and get injured players ready for the fray once again.
Let me repeat that: “next Saturday’s game at Crewe postponed due to international call-ups”. That’s us – not them – for the first time ever. Wow…
It was good to see Liam Gibson and Ryan Delaney back in the thick of things today. Aaron Wildig is clearly also ready to return to the front line. Things are really looking up: Morecambe went up fourteenth in the League One table at the end of play as well. Judged on this performance, they will be even higher before very long.
Morecambe: 20 Jökull Andrésson; 21 Ryan Cooney (Y); 5 Sam Lavelle (C); 4 Anthony O’Connor; 3 Greg Leigh (22 Liam Gibson 79’); 19 Shane McLaughlin (Y); 8 Toumani Diagouraga; 25 Alfie McCalmont (18 Adam Phillips 56’); 28 Courtney Duffus (15 Ryan Delaney 60’); 24 Arthur Gnahoua; 9 Cole Stockton.
Subs Not Used: 1 Kyle Letheren; 7 Wes McDonald; 10 Aaron Wildig; 31 Scott Wootten.
Sheffield Wednesday: 1 Bailey Peacock-Farrell; 32 Jack Hunt; 6 Dominic Iorfa; 2 Liam Palmer; 18 Marvin Johnson; 14 George Byers (Y); 8 Dennis Adeniran (26 Lewis Wing 73’); 13 Callum Paterson (23 Theo Corbeanu 65’); 10 Barry Bannan (C); 3 Jaden Brown (Y) (20 Florian Kamberi 65’); 9 Lee Gregory.
Subs Not Used: 28 Joe Wildsmith; 17 Fisayo Dele-Bashiru; 34 Ciaran Brennan; 40 Sylla Sow.
Ref: Anthony Backhouse.
Att: 5,481 (a minimum of 1,779 being Owls fans.)
