Bad Taste in the Mouth at Morecambe
Bolton Wanderers made the relatively short trip to north Lancashire today to play Morecambe for the first time ever in League One and only the third time in the club’s history. Last season, they drew in Horwich and then won the penultimate game of the season against Derek Adams’ men in a bad-tempered game at the Mazuma Stadium which helped the Trotters to gain a place closer to the Big Time which they were once a member of by winning promotion automatically.
Wanderers arrived in eleventh position in the table, having lost only one of their last five league games but winning four in a row since then. They were active in the transfer window which closed earlier in the week and must have been hoping for another three points against a team rooted in the relegation positions in League One in twenty-first place.
Morecambe, on the other hand, have lost two and only won one of their previous League One matches. Although they were beaten at Hillsborough in mid-week, Shrimps’ Boss Stephen Robinson was far from downhearted afterwards, saying that his team had
“Pressed them, took the game to them. (There are) fine lines in football again: they score a 30-yard wonder goal; we have a goal disallowed in the first half that comes off them so Cole can’t be offside. We have to take the positives from that and take the performance into Saturday against Bolton because – if we go and press them the same way as we did against Sheffield Wednesday; if we can go and press a club like that with players of that calibre away from home – we can certainly do it at home against Bolton.”
Trevor Carson was concussed during the Wednesday game and apparently also had his nose broken when the ball was blasted at point-blank range straight into his face. He was thus unavailable for selection today. The quite extraordinarily unsupportive message posted on social media earlier this week by the partner of his replacement on Tuesday – Kyle Letheren – will not have gone un-noticed at the club. The Welshman seemingly has subsequently departed under something of a cloud which is a shame, given his undoubtedly positive contribution to the promotion campaign last season. Adam Smith was signed yesterday as replacement for Kyle after training for some time with the squad.
As for the opposition, Robbo’s Opposite Number Ian Evatt said earlier in the week:
“It’s going to be a challenging game on Saturday – a different type of game to what we’ve had at home but we have to go there with the right mind-set and personality and attack the game the best we can and try and get the three points. We’ve got a squad of players who are all ch(a)mping at the bit and ready to play and make an impression – especially the new ones, so we’ve got decisions to make. We’ll take each game as it comes, really, and see the opponents’ strengths and weaknesses and pick a team accordingly. We’ve got some good options. We’re pleased with everybody; we’re pleased with the business we’ve done; pleased with the returning players and we’re pleased with the run we’re on. But we’re hungry for more and want to carry on winning games. We’ve got lots of hard work to go but the boys are really bouncing at the moment. It’s great to have options and then I have to pick the right team for the right game. You have to earn the right in every game and we’ve got to do that again on Saturday.”
As far as today’s opponents were specifically concerned, he added:
“They are a team very much in touch and capable of staying up with some very good players. We’re going to have to find a way to win. It might not be our usual fluid attacking game but we have to make sure we are positive and we keep doing the things we’ve been doing and set the right standards. And if we do that, we can hopefully get three points.”
The Shrimps’ Boss assessed today’s task in these terms:
“Bolton have been fantastic, I’ve watched three of their last four games. They’re a very good football side. They’ve got a set way of playing and they won’t change that for anybody which is credit to them. They’re a real threat.”
Bolton quickly sold-out their allocation of 1700 tickets for today’s clash and the Mazuma Stadium was packed to the rafters in front of a record crowd for this venue. On the way to the game, I saw angry waves crashing over onto the promenade from a choppy grey sea.
When I arrived, a gale was blowing straight from the Bay under glowering skies from which heavy, freezing squalls of rain fell regularly and eventually constantly as the match progressed.
Both sides Took the Knee and then the game started.
You know in advance what to expect from any Ian Evatt side: in the image of their Manager, they are big, aggressive and will bully you if you let them.
Oladapo Afolayan has a well-deserved reputation for trying every trick in the Book of Dark Arts but you can see that this man is blessed with more ability than most footballers. So why does he waste it by constantly cheating?
He had perhaps the first half chance of the contest after eight minutes when his shot was well blocked by Shrimps’ Skipper Anthony O’Connor. Anthony was impressive and led by example again today. Up-front, Jonah Ayunga also played really well throughout. He registered the home team’s first meaningful opportunity after eight minutes when he took a shot which went narrowly wide of the target after good approach play down the right flank by the men in the red strip.
Kieran Lee walloped a shot way over the bar for the visitors after eighteen minutes. Immediately afterwards, Cole the Goal had his first – really good – chance of the game. He received a perfect lofted ball from Jonah in the centre of the visitors’ penalty area but – uncharacteristically – dragged his shot to the right of James Trafford’s goal from his own point of view. Eight minutes later, Adam Phillips played a good pass to Ryan McLaughlin on the right and he set Cole up for another shot which was deflected wide.
The visitors had the next chance after half an hour. The confident-looking Adam Smith was forced into action for virtually the first time when he saved a not particularly difficult effort from Declan John.
After good play by the Shrimps in midfield, Arthur Gnahoua shot over the target against his former team from a long way out almost at the end of the first half.
It was thus goal-less at half time and not a lot in it.
Bolton had the strong wind behind their backs in the second half.
Aaron Morley sent a woeful effort from a free-kick when well-placed after 54 minutes. Then Stockton set-up O’Connor for a shot which was saved by Trafford a couple of minutes later. The visiting goalkeeper then did well to smother a fierce free kick which seemed to go straight through the Bolton wall with just over an hour played. By this time, Morecambe had been asking all the questions for most of the half. A goal seemed to be coming and it should have arrived when huge Bolton Captain Ricardo Almeida Santos handled the ball to prevent his net bulging after panic stations had broken-out in the away penalty area following a Phillips’ corner with sixty-eight minutes on the clock. Off he went – eventually. The very aggressive way this giant argued the toss with diminutive Referee Ross Joyce didn’t do him any favours and clearly added to an increasingly bad atmosphere in the ground.
Cole the Goal stepped up to take the kick – and sent a weak shot right at Trafford which the man in blue saved far too easily.
But Bolton were faced with a situation where they needed to survive with ten men for the last twenty minutes of the game.
Almost immediately, Morecambe were on the attack again. Ayunga played brilliantly on the right; combined with Phillips and then Cole who made no mistake this time by finishing-off a sublime move by the Shrimps after 72 minutes. I personally thought they had gone even further ahead straight afterwards when O’Connor headed home from another corner as the home team kept up the pressure. But Mr Joyce disallowed it.
Shortly afterwards, he was faced with a real dilemma. The rowdy visiting crowd behind Adam Smith’s goal started throwing things at the home goalkeeper. So he stopped the game for a while. Then he spent ages speaking to Ian Evatt on the touchline. The Bolton Manager was apparently complaining about racist abuse being shouted at his substitutes from the home crowd behind him. If this is true, he did the right thing. If it isn’t, it smacks of yet more gamesmanship by a man who clearly coaches it into all of his players.
Ross Joyce took both teams off. Some of the away supporters responded to this by running onto the pitch and basically doing a pretty passable impression of morons who routinely did things like this during the 1970s.
One obviously drunk visiting idiot eluded the home security as the away hordes egged him on only to slip and fall over in the centre circle and be dragged away. It was a very darkly comic moment.
No communication with the crowd was made by anybody as this melodrama was enacted. To be fair to him, our home announcer was probably as much in the dark as to what was going on as the rest of us were. (He should have played `Why are we Waiting?’ by Bis. Come on Mark – get a grip, mate…)
But eventually, the players came back on again.
The break had robbed Morecambe of their momentum and the ten men in the white strip undeservedly equalised.
So the three points Morecambe so richly deserved were reduced to just one.
It left a very bad taste in the mouth. The Referee was placed in an invidious position today. The way a lot of the visiting fans behaved – a minority, admittedly – but a very significant minority – was completely Out of Order.
Characteristically, though, their Manager didn’t criticise them at the end of the game. I’m just relieved that he isn’t in charge of our club.
The Trotters slipped to tenth in League One tonight. Morecambe remain in Twenty-First position. Stephen Robinson was clearly struggling to bite his tongue when he said after the game:
“We should have won. We were the better team with eleven men. We were the better team with ten men. We totally dominated and created all the chances.”
I don’t think anybody who actually witnessed this game will fail to have any have sympathy with this view.
Morecambe: 41 Adam Smith (Y); 2 Ryan McLaughlin; 3 Greg Leigh; 4 Anthony O’Connor (C): 5 Jacob Bedeau; 8 Toumani Diagouraga; 9 Cole Stockton; 17 Jonah Ayunga; 18 Adam Phillips (27 Ousmane Fané sixth minute of extra time); 19 Shane McLoughlin; 24 Arthur
Gnahoua (11 Dylan Connolly 84’).
Subs Not Used: 12 André da Silva Mendes; 21 Ryan Cooney; 14 Jonathan Obika; 25 Alfie McCalmont;. 31 Rhys Bennett.
Bolton Wanderers: 19 James Trafford; 3 Declan John; 4 MJ Williams; 5 Ricardo Almeida Santos (C) (R); 6 George Johnston (Y); 10 Dion Charles (11 Amadou Bakayoko 77’); 13 Marlon Fossey; 15 Will Aimson; 16 Aaron Morley; 17 Oladapo Afolayan (32 Kyle Demsey 66’); 20 Kieran Lee (9 Jón Dadi Bövarsson 45’).
Subs Not Used: 12 Joel Dixon; 22 Keiran Sadlier; 25 George Thomason; 27 Alex Baptiste.
Ref: Ross Joyce.
Att: 5,617 (1,757 from Bolton).
