Morecambe Matchzone

Morecambe 1:2 Forest Green Rovers

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Shrimps devoured by Vegans

The only Vegan football club on the planet brought their Quorn sandwiches to the Mazuma Stadium today to take-on sixth-placed Morecambe in League Two. Forest Green Rovers lost for the first time in the league last Tuesday night when they went down at Colchester after conceding the only goal of the game with just seventy seconds on the clock. After the match, having said that his players were `still on the bus’ when Colchester took the lead, long-term Manager Mark Cooper complained that Referee Carl Brook ignored a stone-wall penalty for his team as well and added ruefully:

”Mr Brock was never going to give us anything tonight; he let Colchester manage the game and run the clock down. Sometimes you know that – you have to accept that and not get too heated about it.”

These words could well have been spoken by today’s opposite number Derek Adams after his side’s one-all draw with Mansfield in Morecambe at the same time. Referee Marc Edwards allowed the perpetrator of one of the worst tackles of any season anywhere to stay on the field after committing it quite early in the game. Only he could explain why he did so – it was one of the worst decisions I have ever personally seen taken on a football field anywhere.  He also overlooked a clear penalty for the home side during the second half. But as Mr Cooper said, one of the key skill sets any football Manager needs to acquire is to accept even really appalling decisions and not get too heated about them.

Prior to the loss in Essex, Rovers had drawn two and won two of their last five league games and stood two places and one point behind today’s hosts. In six previous EFL meetings, FGR had beaten Morecambe twice but lost to them three times.

Derek Adams was faced with an injury crisis before the game. Carlos Mendes-Gomes had recovered sufficiently from the ankle injury he received when being flattened at Crawley last Saturday to sit on the bench. However, Alex Kenyon will not be available for a while due to a hamstring pull he felt in the same game. Harry Davis is having to isolate due to fears about Coronavirus and both Ryan Cooney and Liam Gibson had failed to recover from injuries received against Mansfield in midweek. There was no place in the squad for Cole Stockton either but A-Jay Leitch-Smith made a welcome return to the starting line-up for the first time this season in League Two. For the visitors, Mark Cooper shuffled his squad but included Aaron Collins in the first eleven to face the club where Jim Bentley allowed him to rebuild his stalled career the season before last.

It was grey and wet by the North Lancashire seaside as the game kicked-off – and the rain never relented for a moment all afternoon. FGR – in a full sky blue strip – immediately went onto the front foot – and stayed there for the first quarter of an hour or so. They played well as a unit, passing the ball accurately and quickly and in the shape of Jayden Richardson looked like they could pose a threat on Morecambe’s left flank at least. Odin Bailey missed to Jake Turner’s left with a shot after eight minutes; two minutes later, Aaron Collins received the ball in the centre of the penalty area and quickly spun and shot in one move: the ball went narrowly over the bar. It was over ten minutes before the home team actually penetrated the visitors’ territory meaningfully and after thirteen, Adam Phillips was fouled to the right of Forest Green’s penalty area. The FGR defence struggled to deal with the resulting free-kick, allowing Aaron Wildig to shoot to the left of Luke McGee’s goal from his point of view. The visitors broke quickly after this and from a corner, Turner weakly punched the ball but got away with it. Seventeen minutes had been played when Toumani Diagouraga made one of his trademark muscular runs and unleashed a tremendous shot which McGee did well to push away for a corner. From this, though, Forest Green failed to clear; the ball was deflected to the Morecambe left where A-Jay Leitch-Smith showed us what we have all been missing by looking up and picking a spot at the far post before curling a tremendous low shot into the corner of the net. Having taken the lead, Morecambe never looked back. After twenty-nine minutes, Adam Phillips drew a tremendous save high to his right from the visiting goalkeeper following a free-kick awarded for a foul on John O’Sullivan. Then Kelvin Mellor tried an audacious shot from his own half with half an hour played, having spotted McGee way out of his ground – and missed. With Yann Songo’o excelling in the centre of the Shrimps’ defence, the team from Gloucestershire had lost all their momentum long before the end of the half. Aaron Wildig narrowly missed the target with a header after thirty-seven minutes following good link-up play between AJ and Phillips. The latter was off-side shortly afterwards when well-placed and found by an accurate cross from Stephen Hendrie on the home side’s left. An equally dangerous low cross by Kelvin Mellor from the other wing was cleared after forty minutes and the home team went into the changing rooms at half time good value for their lead.

The second half started as the first one had – with the visitors asking all the questions again. This time, though, they stayed on the offensive for virtually all of the forty-five minutes as their hosts initially played on the break and eventually seemed to run out of steam long before the end. Morecambe seemed content to let Forest Green have the ball and as the half wore on, they retreated further and further up the field until they were playing almost exclusively in their own half.  Having said that, though, they could have gone further ahead after 48 minutes. Wildig caught an opponent in possession, drove forward and unleashed a shot from within the penalty area which beat McGee but bounced agonisingly back off the woodwork. But FGR were also unlucky after 66 minutes when Bailey’s excellent shot from their right came back off Turner’s crossbar with the goalkeeper beaten. Gradually, the visitors were building a head of steam and the inevitable happened after 78 minutes. Substitute Scott Wagstaff sent in a superb cross from the Forest Green left; Jamille Matt headed the ball back to where it came from and another substitute – Jake Young – scored. As Morecambe continued to back off, the visitors doubled their score four minutes later. This time, the huge centre forward Matt made a tremendous leap; hung in the air and powerfully headed a cross from the FGR right past a helpless Turner to turn the game on its head. The Shrimps looked washed-out by this time of the game and although they pushed forward in injury time, the game had already gone and they lost 1-2.

It was a disappointing end to a game which finished so promisingly at half time. Injuries obviously took their toll today and FGR also looked a pretty good side, to be fair to them. Even more disappointingly for Morecambe though, AJ picked-up yet another injury and had to come off in the second half. The defeat means that Derek Adam’s men drop to eleventh in League Two. Forest Green, meanwhile, went up to fourth in the table.

Morecambe: 1 Jake Turner; 4 Nathaniel Knight-Percival (Y); 2 Kelvin Mellor; 3 Stephen Hendrie (Y); 5 Sam Lavelle (C)(Y); 8 Toumani Diagouraga; 10 Aaron Wildig (Y); 24 Yann Songo’o; 20 Adam Phillips (18 Ben Pringle; 60’); 16 John O’Sullivan; 17 A-Jay Leitch-Smith (19 Liam McAlinden 58’).

Subs not used: 12 Mark Halstead; 11 Carlos Mendes-Gomes; 23 Freddie Price; 7 Jordan Slew.

Forest Green Rovers: 1 Luke McGee; 5 Chris Stokes; 6 Liam Kitching; 22 Udoka Godwin-Malife (Y); 8 Ebou Adams (20 Elliott Whitehouse 78’); 7 Carl Winchester (C); 10 Aaron Collins (21 Scott Wagstaff 67’); 14 Jamille Matt (Y); 17 Odin Bailey; 25 Jayden Richardson; 28 Josh March (18 Jake Young 45’).

Subs not used: 24 Lewis Thomas; 16 Jack Evans; 3 Dom Bernard; 19 Shawn McCoulsky.

Ref: Michael Salisbury.

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