No Marks for Marc at Morecambe.
Morecambe have a so-so record as far as Mansfield Town are concerned: of seventeen previous matches, they have won six and lost nine. Today – in an unusual half-past six kick-off – they had as good a chance as has been possible in recent times to improve their win ratio against a team which has lost three of their opening six league games and drawn the others. With just three points on the board, only Southend stood between the Stags and the bottom of the entire EFL prior to tonight’s game. Last Saturday morning, Mansfield were in Twenty-first place, with Oldham Athletic bottom of the table with no wins so far. But, as Oldham won at Bolton, Town contrived to lose three-one at home to Bradford in the afternoon and had debutant George Lapslie sent off into the bargain.
So Graham Coughlan’s men thus made the journey from Nottinghamshire to North Lancashire on the crest of a slump. Whilst the Stags were losing to Bradford though, Derek Adams’ men were putting on a similarly woeful performance at Crawley, where they fell apart in the second half and shipped four goals without reply. This is becoming a habit. The Shrimps seem to either win gloriously this season – or get absolutely annihilated. So what would happen at the Mazuma Stadium tonight when two teams with different sorts of confidence issues met?
In addition to the suspended Lapslie, Mansfield were without first-teamers Ollie Clarke and Joe Riley who are both still recovering from injuries. Derek Adams, meanwhile, was unable to select Alex Kenyon – who retired hurt with a hamstring problem during the game at Crawley before disaster struck as well as Carlos Mendes-Gomes, who was injured by their goalkeeper who got away with it Scott-free. But better news for the Manger was that he was able to name A-Jay Leitch-Smith as a substitute this evening. Toumani Diagouraga was included in the first team for the first time since being sent-off against Newcastle but there was no place for Harry Davis in the line-up tonight.
It was dry and not too windy throughout the game as the hosts started on the front foot. The ball had not gone out of the Mansfield half before Ryan Cooney did well on the Shrimps’ right; played the ball to John O’Sullivan who found Cole Stockton who turned brilliantly in the box and played the ball to Adam Phillips, who belted it past Marek ŝtêch in the visitors’ net to make it one-nil. Things were pretty even after that with both teams keeping the ball on the deck and trying to pass their way into the game. There were half-chances for both sides which didn’t involve a save for either keeper but you felt that the momentum was slowly passing to the visitors as the match became older. And so it was to prove: after twenty-five minutes, the tricky Kellan Gordon weaved his way up the Stags’ right flank and played a low shot into the area which Harry Charsley backheeled past Jake Turner to his right to nestle in the goal: if Charsley actually meant it, this was a sublime strike. However, what I thought was the key moment in the match arrived almost as soon as the game kicked-off again. The ball was in the air; John O’Sullivan made an attempt to get it only to be stricken by a passable impression of Bruce Lee by Stephen McLaughlin. Mansfield’s Number Twenty attempted to fly – feet up and studs showing – and smashed into Sully about three feet above the ground. It was deliberate; it was dangerous – and it must have hurt. It’s one of the worst fouls I’ve seen in recent times: if you did the same thing in a rugby game of either code, you would be sent off for certain. But McLaughlin wasn’t. And with him still on the pitch, the visitors probably just about shaded it until half time.
It carried on in a similar fashion in the second half. For whatever reason, Morecambe stood-off their opponents for periods in the game and allowed them to play. The result of this was that Turner was forced into a good save from George Maris five minutes after the restart. But when the hosts went onto the front foot, they looked dangerous every time they did so. The best move of the half came after fifty-four minutes when Aaron Wildig made excellent progress down the Shrimps’ left and sent over a pin-point cross which Cole headed into ŝtêch’s top right-hand corner only for the goalkeeper to pull-off a quite miraculous save. Time and again, Morecambe’s approach play was good and Mansfield looked shaky at the back. But progress was always erratic. The visitors offered little in the second half but the man who should not have been on the pitch drew a good save from Turner from a free kick after fifty-one minutes. Long before the end of the game, you got the impression that both sides had settled for a draw – and that’s what happened.
I was very complimentary about Referee John Busby last Saturday at Crawley: he probably should have sent off their goalkeeper Glenn Morris but apart from that, I thought he was tremendous. Not so Mr Marc Edwards tonight. The foul which McLaughlin committed early in the first half was worth at least two red cards. He also missed a stone-wall penalty ten minutes into the second half when a Mansfield defender committed a foul on Stockton in their penalty area which would have earnt a free-kick anywhere else on the field. He rightly booked Morecambe’s Ryan Cooney after eighty minutes but when the same player was scythed-down a couple of minutes later by substitute for Bad Boy McLaughlin Tyrese Sinclair – he again did nothing. Even though Sinclair had compounded the offence by running off with the ball as soon as he was penalised in order to stop the Shrimps taking a quick free-kick. He missed or got a number of other things wrong as well in my opinion. I believe that the only reason Mansfield left Lancashire with a point tonight was that the Referee allowed them to. He was a disgrace: as hopeless as Mr Busby was effective a few days ago. The draw allowed the Stags to back to twenty-first position in League Two. Morecambe, meanwhile, dropped to seventh.
Morecambe: 1 Jake Turner; 4 Nathaniel Knight-Percival; 5 Sam Lavelle (C) (Y); 8 Toumani Diagouraga; 9 Cole Stockton; 10 Aaron Wildig; 24 Yann Songo’o; 20 Adam Phillips (Y) (7 Jordan Slew 74’); 16 John O’Sullivan; 21 Ryan Cooney (Y) (3 Stephen Hendrie 84’); 22 Liam Gibson (2 Kelvin Mellor 60’).
Subs not used: 12 Mark Halstead; 18 Ben Pringle 19 Liam McAlinden;.
Mansfield Town: 1 Marek ŝtêch; 2 Corey O’Keeffe; 4 Rollin Menayese (C); 6 Farrend Rawson; 5 Ryan Sweeney; 7 Harry Charsley; 20 Stephen McLaughlin (Y) (27 Tyrese Sinclair 69’); 10 George Maris; 11 Andy Cook (9 Jordan Bowery 72’); 14 James Perch; 12 Kellan Gordon.
Subs not used: 31 Aidan Stone; 15 Aaron O’Driscoll; 19 Jamie Reid;; 22 Nicky Maynard; 30 Alistair Smith.
Ref: Marc Edwards.
