Were Fleetwood Fishing at Morecambe?
Morecambe’s geographically closest rival visited the Mazuma Stadium today for a League One fixture. Fleetwood were tenth in the table following a 2-1 win over Plymouth Argyle at Highbury last Saturday; a game that they came from behind to eventually win. Last Tuesday, Town also pulled off one of the shocks of the League Cup’s Round One when they beat Championship Wigan by the only goal of the game in another home match. In the past, The Cod Army – in various incarnations – have met Morecambe countless times in leagues as disparate as the Lancashire Combination and the EFL. As League clubs, though, the visitors had won four of nine EFL games and lost three. Last season, in their only previous League One meetings, Fleetwood drew at the Maz in a goal-less bore played in dense fog but then memorably lost 1-2 at home to perhaps the most amazing goal I for one has ever seen in real life. Cole Stockton’s powerful turn in his own half when under pressure followed by a perfect lob over half the length of the pitch during injury time will live forever in the memory.
Morecambe’s progress in the league so far has been faltering. In the opening match of the season, they drew 0-0 against Shrewsbury with a pretty disjointed display. Then they were well beaten at Peterborough last Saturday, going down 3-0. Whist Fleetwood were beating Wigan last Tuesday, though, the Shrimps did brilliantly to account for another Championship team in the shape of Stoke City. They won on penalties having played the final third of the game with only ten men. On the night, Referee Andy “Hopeless” Haines controversially sent-off Jensen Weir as a result of which the Brighton loanee was unavailable for selection this afternoon.
Today’s Referee was Sebastian Stockbridge. We’ve come across this man quite a number of times before. He could hardly fail to have a better game today than his useless colleague from the North East did on Tuesday night. Two years ago, he handed out no less than eight yellow cards (four each) in the home game between the Shrimps and Leyton Orient. Last season, he was in charge as Morecambe lost to AFC Wimbledon by the odd goal in seven. He made a lot of errors in this particular game. He took the reins of power as Stephen Robinson’s team were beaten at home by bottom of the table Crewe too – perhaps the Shrimps’ most feeble display of last term. On this occasion, the Referee was noticeable by his anonymity during the game – which is always a good thing as far as officials are concerned. To be fair to him, though, Mr Stockbridge is one of the better Referees to be seen on League One pitches. For a start, at least he is able to keep up with the play and rarely makes himself the centre of attention as so many of his egotistically-charged colleagues clearly love to do.
Derek Adams summed-up his expectations with these words earlier in the week:
“They’re all tough tasks in this division and I think that Fleetwood is no different on Saturday. We’re looking forward to the game because it’s a local derby and Fleetwood have come off a win against Wigan and that’s a great victory for them. They obviously beat Argyle last week so we know how difficult a task it is. They’ve got some really good players; they’ve strengthened their team in the summer. They’ve got a new manager. They play in a way which can be expansive at times. They push the full-backs forward so we understand that and we have to deal with that threat, but in that we always know from our players that we’ve got a threat going forward as well and can punish teams. I’m sure there will be a bumper crowd on Saturday. I think the weather is supposed to be very hot again and the players are really looking forward to it.”
For the opposition, team Boss and ex-Celtic legend Scott Brown first had to deal with speculation suggesting that Fleetwood are currently angling for a deal with Cole Stockton. He said:
“I think it wouldn’t be great if I started talking about somebody else’s player, especially when we’re playing them on Saturday. Cole is a great player and it’s going to be hard for us to play against him on Saturday. He scored almost half of their goals last season so, as I say, he’s a fantastic player, but we’ve got a great team here.”
The Cod Army’s need for a new striker has been exacerbated because of Ellis Harrison’s move to League One rivals Port Vale just two days ago. Replacement front-man Promise Omochere was available for selection today despite suffering from a fractured eye socket.
As far as the game itself was concerned, Mr Brown added:
“It’s going to be a tough match; they got a great result in midweek against Stoke but we’ve played against Stoke so we know what a quality side they are – we are looking forward to the occasion. Morecambe are a side who have swapped and changed formations, but for me, it’s all about us and how we prepare, how we turn up on the day, and how we prepare ahead of the game. It’s a given that you work as hard as you can, especially in a derby match for 90 minutes. If we do that, hopefully, it all pays off with what we’ve done in training and how the lads have worked. I know Derek Adams. He had a wonderful career and is doing a great job at Morecambe but for me, it’s all about us and how we prepare. We’ve got a great team and a brilliant bunch of lads who want to continue this winning form. That winning mentality is huge at this club and the lads have bought into how we want to play and how we want to turn up to games and make sure we’re ready to operate. We need to worry about ourselves and not everyone else around us, it’s about how we are going to get ready for the game and sticking to the style we want to play in.”
Rumours abounded before and during the game that Cole the Goal would be returning to Highbury Stadium on the Fleetwood Town bus tonight and the contingent of away fans who filled two-thirds of the end allocated to them had a home made banner.
I was such a long way from it that I’m not entirely sure what it said. If it really was `Stockton is a Cod”, that would be a shame and we will all miss him – both on and off the pitch. If, however, it actually read “Stockton is a God”, I think few Shrimps fans would disagree.
Whatever, it was hot in north Lancashire and sweltering as the match kicked-off. Consequently, there were two drinks breaks during each half for players and officials alike to attempt to re-hydrate themselves.
Morecambe started the stronger and looked the most likely to win the game throughout the first forty-five minutes. Official Man of the Match Ash Hunter – playing against former employers – curled a shot just wide of the angle of Jay Lynch’s left hand post and bar after just two minutes. Jake Taylor then fired over the goal just a couple of minutes later. The outstanding Liam Gibson then played a killer ball to Arthur Gnahoua with thirteen minutes played but Arthur put his effort over the crossbar when he might have done better. He was in the right place at the right time six minutes later, though. Then, he cleared a header from Toto Nsiala as the Cod forward got on the end of Andrew’s cross from the Fleetwood right.
Town monopolised possession of the ball throughout the fixture. Ged Garner tried his luck from 20-yards out after ten minutes – and missed. Then Dan Batty had an effort blocked inside the box. The first moment of controversy arrived after 21 minutes when a low cross from the Morecambe right into the Town box was clearly stopped by a blue-clad arm: Brendan Sarpong-Wiredu’s. But Referee Seb Stockbridge was unmoved. He remained unmoved as the away fans clamoured for a spot-kick after 29 minutes as well when Gibbo may or may not have been guilty of another handling offence; possibly blocking the ball with his outstretched arm as Harrison Holgate tried to head it.
Just a minute later, however, the hosts went ahead in spectacular fashion. Arthur was found on the Morecambe left, turned on the after-burners and – at a point when I think we all expected him to cross it – fairly hammered home a vicious strike which beat Lynch all ends up high to his left. It was a goal good enough to win any contest – but it didn’t.
The play was fairly even after that, with half-chances for Josh Earl and Cian Lane being blocked for the visitors. But Morecambe should have doubled their lead when a panic-stricken piece of defending presented Hunter with a golden chance on the left of the Town penalty area from his point of view. He should have buried the ball but his shot beat Lynch and bounced back into play low off the goalkeeper’s right-hand post.
The hosts then forced a series of corners right at the death of the first half which Fleetwood repeatedly failed to deal with properly. But they rode their luck – and Lynch pulled-off a miraculous double save. He somehow managed to knock another pile-driver of a strike from Gnahoua up into the air and then he managed to block a diving header from a couple of yards out from Taylor, who was following-up.
So that was it at half time. Fleetwood had a lot of the ball but didn’t do a lot with it. Morecambe, on the other hand, could have been three-nil up with a bit more luck and a less inspired performance from the visiting goalkeeper.
So what went wrong in the second half? Did King Derek tell his charges to try and hang on to what they already had? Or did whatever opposition Manager Scott Brown said to his men in the Dressing Room finally start to pay off?
Right from the off, the game was played almost exclusively in the Morecambe half. Even though they still had a lot of the ball, the visitors still had problems actually testing home custodian Connor Ripley. Shaun Rooney missed the target after about fifty minutes and then Hayes fluffed his lines with fifty-two minutes on the clock. He had a clear run on goal but walloped the ball over the bar when he really should have done better. Ripley then saved a free-kick from Andrew which was fired straight at him.
As Morecambe continued to back-pedal, the Cods almost came undone on the break. Skipper Donald Love cleverly played substitute Dylan Connolly into the acres of space of the opposition half in the seventy-eighth minutes. Dylan fairly galloped onto the ball, drew the goalkeeper and tried a deft clip over him at the last moment. Sadly for him, Jay Lynch again kept his side in it with a simply phenomenal reaction save which had just enough on it to divert the ball away from the goal. But still, Fleetwood pushed for an equaliser – and the Shrimps continued to retreat. The seemingly inevitable away goal duly arrived after 83 minutes. Andrew almost replicated Gnahoua’s opening strike with another rocket of a shot which gave Ripley in the home net little chance.
After this, there was only one team that was going to win the game – and it wasn’t the one playing in red. But Fleetwood finally ran out of time and the match ended all-square.
In injury time, previously impressive visitor Paddy Lane was shown a straight red card for a really bad challenge on substitute Shane McLoughlin. Silly boy – very silly boy: this will mean an automatic three-match suspension…
The draw sees Morecambe in the relegation positions in twenty-first place in League One. Fleetwood remained lucky thirteenth.
Derek Adams pronounced himself a little disappointed with today’s result after the game:
“I thought it was a really good game. It started end-to-end. We probably should have been three, four – maybe even five-nil up at half time with the chances we had. Their goalkeeper’s made some great saves; I don’t know how he’s made some of them. We hit the post as well. We were quite dominant especially later on. Arthur scored a fantastic goal: he came off that left-hand side as he does. I said to him before the game: “Just do what you did against Charlton” and he did that really well. I thought in the first half we looked dangerous. We dealt well with the rotation in midfield. We stopped them playing. It gave us that impetus in the game. I thought they had the better of the second half. In the end, they’ve come away with a draw. But we had the biggest of the chances in the game.”
Morecambe: 1 Connor Ripley; 2 Donald Love (C) (Y); 3 Max Melbourne; 4 Liam Gibson (18 Shane McLoughlin 85’); 5 Farrend Rawson; 6 Ryan Delaney (Jacob Bedeau 87’); 7 Jake Taylor; 8 Ousmane Fané; 9 Cole Stockton; 10 Ash Hunter (Y) (17 Caleb Watts 85’); 19 Jon Obika.
Subs not used: 12 Adam Smith; 21 Ryan Cooney; 22 Anthony O’Connor.
Fleetwood Town: 13 Jay Lynch; 3 Danny Andrew (Y); 4 Brendan Sarpong-Wiredu (20 Promise Omochere 60’); 8 Josh Vela; 10 Callum Morton (21 Cian Hayes 46’); 11 Paddy Lane (R); 14 Joe Garner(19 Gerard Garner 60’); 22 Aristote Nsiala; 24 Daniel Batty (27 Harvey Macadam 72’); 26 Shaun Rooney; 32 Joshua Earl.
Subs not used: 25 Alex Cairns; 18 Harrison Holgate.
Ref: Sebastian Stockbridge.
Att: 4288 (Only 645 from Fleetwood – there were many more than this from Stoke in mid-week.)
