Morecambe Matchzone

Morecambe 1:1 Exeter City.

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Image for Morecambe 1:1 Exeter City.

Grecians Urn a Point.

Exeter had to make the very long journey from Devon to North Lancashire today to play a game which was originally scheduled to be played tomorrow. This is yet another downside of FIFA’s comprehensively corrupt decision to award the World Cup tournament at to a dodgy country where money speaks far louder than any other of the many objections to the reality of state whose laws and values are rooted in the Dark Ages. To play the World Cup at a time when the major leagues of international football have to be interrupted to allow for this is a decision that makes no sense at all except to those members of the ruling clique who have benefited from it personally in terms of large wads of cash. It stinks, in fact. But the knock-on effect tonight was that many Grecian supporters would be logistically unable to travel and get home again in a reasonable time all because the England team were originally predicted to play a World Cup match tomorrow afternoon. (Just to rub things in, it turns out that they will not be playing until Sunday in reality.) So commiserations but also congratulations to all the two hundred and fifty-five fans from the south coast who actually made the long journey (287 miles) to the Mazuma Stadium tonight to support their club. Many of these people would have had to shuffle their work routines – if this was even a possibility – to leave the city centre today at noon. Return coaches are due to arrive back in Exeter at just before four tomorrow morning. Both of these things are ridiculous – and shouldn’t have happened in the first place. I wouldn’t be happy if the boot was on the other foot – and I’m sure they aren’t either.

Morecambe have a strange relationship with Exeter City. They first met when both clubs were in the Conference and Morecambe never beat them even once in eight times of asking until they finally met in the Play-Off Final at Wembley in 2007. We all know what happened then…

Since 2007, though, the two clubs have met nineteen times altogether in League Two. Morecambe only won four of them and lost seven. So if it wasn’t for the historic win at Wembley, City would be a bit of a bogey team for the Shrimps.

Exeter arrived in eleventh position in League One in their first season back in the third tier of English football on the back of two wins and two losses in their last five league games. Morecambe, on the other hand, were rooted in twenty-third position in the table with just fourteen points: eleven fewer than the Grecians have picked-up so far. The Shrimps haven’t won in the league since they overcame Barnsley by the only goal of the game in October and have lost two of their last five League One games. A win tonight could help them to the top of the relegation pile, where they are equal on points with the team from Milton Keynes, Burton Albion and Forest Green Rovers but behind the first two on goal difference alone. MK Frauds host Burton tomorrow at 12.30pm and FGR play Cambridge at the New Lawn half an hour later.

Exeter Manager Gary Caldwell reflected prior to the game on his team’s 4-1 loss to Oxford United in their away FA Cup game last week with these words:

“Nobody likes to lose football matches and the good thing we have seen during the week is a reaction. The players have responded with intensity and the volume has been cranked up at the training ground. It is all about how you react. I have seen what I like in training and the players’ comments give me heart and their reaction to it in training give me heart.”

City have conceded fourteen goals in the six matches Mr Caldwell has been in charge of the team, keeping just one clean sheet in the process. He lamented:

“Our Achilles heel is too many opportunities, too many shots at our goal, too many goals going in the back of our net. It’s been a problem for a number of weeks now and it’s something we have to find a solution to now quickly.”

As far as tonight’s match specifically is concerned, he added:

“It’s going to be a difficult game. I know the (Morecambe) team very well. They are much improved from earlier on in the season and they have added some players of quality, especially in midfield. They have a clear structure in how they want to play and how they want to win games, so we’re fully prepared for that.”

Morecambe Manager Derek Adams had a full-blown – and very understandable – rant about lack of money after his team were very unfortunate not to beat Portsmouth in their last league fixture at the Maz. He had calmed down a bit by the time he reflected on that draw prior to tonight’s fixture:

“We played very well that day; we were really unfortunate not to have won the game. We had to settle for a draw in the end, but we created a lot of very good openings. Now we go into the Exeter game on Friday night – looking forward to that. We have said that we know how this division works. There’s a lot of quality sides, we’ve been unfortunate a number of times not to have got those wins from the draws we’ve had. It’s the wins which are the most important thing. Draws are good against some of the teams, but wins are vital. We’ve got players coming back from injury, the likes of Jake Taylor and Max Melbourne. Cole Stockton is scoring goals, so that’s enabled us to have a better squad to choose from than we had many weeks ago. We’ve created really good openings for Phillips. If Stockton gets back into the team, hopefully they fall for him. He was unfortunate the Saturday before when he hit the post with a long ranger. If it was last season, it might’ve gone in for him”

It was dry but cold by the side of the Irish Sea as the match kicked-off in the darkness of a Winter Friday night. Morecambe immediately went onto the front foot and played some nice, accurate football in the opening phases. After five minutes, Cole Stockton controlled a lobbed pass from Jensen Weir brilliantly and took a shot which went just wide of Jamal Blackman’s post. It wasn’t all one-way traffic, though. With just over a quarter of an hour on the clock, Jay Stansfield combined well with Alex Hartridge,  Joshua Key and Sam Nombe before Jake Caprice took a low shot which Connor Ripley did well to save at the cost of a corner. Caleb Watts was lively tonight and received some harsh treatment from the visiting defence, including a few really bad fouls. The worst of these was committed after almost twenty minutes – and not for the first time – by obvious self-styled Hard Nut Jonathan Grounds. He had , er, Grounds to be booked for it but Referee Peter Wright clearly had decided to be lenient to both sides tonight and let a number of poor challenges go. Indeed, the only player to be booked in the first half was Anthony O’Connor, who stupidly talked his way into the Referee’s notebook by constantly back-chatting to the official after he had penalised him for a poor challenge on Stansfield after 25 minutes. But ten minutes later, the Shrimps took the lead. City conceded a corner to their left; the home team worked a clearly rehearsed routing and Cole Stockton finally opened his account for the season with a low header from close range.

It was a deserved lead because Morecambe had been the livelier of the two sides so far.

But that was as good as it got. Shrimps’ heads seemed to be on Cloud Nine as Exeter’s own Number Nine took the ball almost the length of the pitch straight from kick-off. “Tackle him!” I thought; “Somebody –  tackle him!”

But nobody did. Stansfield slid the ball to Nombe, who unleashed a shot from point-blank range which Ripley saved only for the ball to rebound to Key, who swept it home to equalise.

From then on, Morecambe simply fell apart. Their discipline disappeared; the shape they had earlier was nowhere to be seen and they went onto the back foot – and stayed there.

It was all Exeter, particularly in the second half, when there seemed to be several more men in a light blue strip on the field than there were men in red shirts throughout. City constantly probed and – with both Nombe in particular but also Harry Kite always a threat – Morecambe’s response was last-ditch defending and the occasional wild punt up the field to clear their lines only to see the ball played straight back into their half. As a spectacle, though, it was really dreary. Although they had all the play and forced loads of corners, the Grecians thankfully had no punch up front. If they had, they would have won this match at a canter. The nearest they actually came to taking the lead was when Nombe’s shot clipped the post after about seventy minutes and then when Ripley made a smart save to his left to keep out substitute Jevani Brown ‘s powerful low shot in injury time.

So that was it. Morecambe looked like they were going to win this game early on but finished up being thankful to escape with a point. They were so poor in the second half that it actually came as a shock to the senses to fleetingly see them in the Exeter half after all of 83 minutes. Why on earth King Derek waited until three minutes from time to send on Kieran Phillips to attempt to break the stalemate is something only he could explain. However, the single point his team clung onto tonight was enough – for a few hours at least – to push the Shrimps up to twenty-first position in League One. Worryingly though, they are now five points adrift of safety. Exeter, meanwhile, moved up – probably temporarily as well – one place to tenth. Derek Adams is always realistic but also emphasises the positive in all situations. Tonight, he had this to say after the game:

“It’s another point added to the points total. The boys put in a terrific effort tonight; we can’t fault them for that. They defended the box really well in the second half. We gave the ball away while Exeter regained possession and found a man and used the ball better than us.  It was probably a match where we had the better of the first half and definitely Exeter had the better of the second half. We started the better team, we controlled possession and really got into the game. We started off with a great goal, well worked from the training ground. They didn’t pick Caleb up, he flicked it round (for) a header from Cole Stockton, but it was a really good start to the game.”

If there are any match reports you have missed do far this season, (including Morecambe’s failure in the Second Round of the Papa John’s Trophy last week at Lincoln), please look at:

https://shrimplythebestfootball.com/2022/07/30/morecambe-football-club-second-season-in-league-one-2022-23/

Morecambe: 1 Connor Ripley (C); 4 Liam Gibson (Y); 7 Jake Taylor (23 Kieran Phillips 87’); 9 Cole Stockton; 15 Jensen Weir; 16 Jacob Bedeau; 17 Caleb Watts (5 Farrend Rawson 77’); 20 Liam Shaw (11 Dylan Connolly 61’); 21 Ryan Cooney; 22 Anthony O’Connor (Y); 25 Adam Mayor (3 Max Melbourne 87’).

Subs not used: 12 Adam Smith; 2 Donald Love; 6 Ryan Delaney.

Exeter City: 18 Jamal Blackman; 2 Jake Caprice; 5 Alex Hartridge; 8 Archie Collins; 9 Jay Stansfield; 10 Sam Nombe; 12 Joshua Key; 16 Harry Kite; 26 Pierce Sweeney (C); 27 Jonathan Grounds (20 Jevani Brown 66’) 39 Cheick  Diabate.

 Subs not used: 3 Jack Sparkes; 6 Rekeem Harper; 7 Matt Jay; 14 Timothee Dieng; 15 Kgaogelo Chauke; 22 Harry Lee.

Ref: Peter Wright.

Att: 3,976 (255 from Exeter. Very well done one and all.)

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