Wigan Survive Seaside Scare
Well, it was another walk down Memory Lane for some of us today. For the already partially fossilised element of Morecambe’s support such as Yours Truly, Wigan Athletic bring back memories of a key moment in the club’s history – and that is the creation of the Northern Premier League in 1968.
This is when the better clubs in the Lancashire Combination – of which Morecambe was a member – linked-up with the cream of other major non-league competitions in the north of England. These ambitious clubs organised in this way to start to apply pressure to the completely moribund and appallingly conservative Football League to finally open-up their Closed Shop to progressive new clubs.
Of these, there is no doubt that the members of the Cheshire League – and Wigan Athletic, Stafford Rangers and Wigan Athletic in particular – were better-run and stronger than the dregs which had been coming bottom of the old Fourth Division for year after predictably dreary year. Yet however hopeless these clubs – York City and Workington among many others – were, they suffered no consequences whatsoever season after unending season in the Football League. This was the reality of League Football in this country for as long as anyone could remember right up until 1987 in a seemingly endless celebration and reward of mediocrity – and exclusivity – decade after unchanging decade.
The ex-Cheshire League clubs – and certainly Morecambe even at the time as well – were also stronger and better run off the field than most of their northern non-league counterparts. But former members of the Cheshire League won the NPL in its first four season of operation. The Silkmen were Champions in its inaugural and second season. Wigan won it after the third campaign. Stafford Rangers were Champions in its fourth edition.
But Wigan were the first to break the mould when – after several years of failing – they were finally `elected’ (note the word) to the Football League in 1978, when they replaced their nearby club Southport, who were kicked out of the Old Boys’ Club. The fact that they were not actually good enough to be there in the first place has been proved by the fact that Southport has never featured in that exalted company since.
In breaking into the Closed Shop, Wigan showed non-league clubs right across the country that the Football League’s Fortress had at least a few weaknesses in its usually impenetrable battlements. So they acted as a beacon for all fans of smaller clubs eager for change – including ourselves.
I thus love Wigan Athletic. Without them, it is possible that Morecambe would still be members of the Northern Premier League even today.
And who would have thought that a club once plying its trade at the pretty primitive old Springfield Park would one day grace the Premier League in a brand new, State-of the-Art stadium and also win the FA Cup? Mismanagement and particular dodgy ownership issues which the EFL – as ever – overlooked until it was too late has seen the club’s halcyon days come and go. Despite this, Wigan seems to be on an upward trajectory again at the moment.
The way they were relegated from the Championship last season seems to me at least to show that they are still regarded as interlopers by the same reactionaries at the EFL who blocked their repeated applications to join a Closed Shop in the first place. (I personally believe in Cock-Up rather than Conspiracy theories – but I also think that the way Macclesfield was allowed to go bust altogether because of one man’s folly off the field fits an EFL pattern of prejudice on the one hand and utter incompetence on the other.)
Discuss.
(Bury fans might have something to say about this.)
So – OK – point conceded: the EFL are simply not Fit for Purpose when deciding if owners of football clubs pass the so-called `fit and proper’ test…
But these same incompetent individuals at the EFL were obviously only all too keen to apply sanctions to Wigan for misdemeanours in the Boardroom which the same sinecures in that organisation are paid a fortune to avoid in the first place. So Athletic was relegated at the Eleventh Hour two years ago when the authorities hit them with a twelve-point penalty for going into administration.
It stinks: the same overpaid EFL nobodies had approved the acquisition of the club by the very people who completely mismanaged it only a short while earlier….
I personally saw Wigan Athletic for the first time on Saturday, November 29th 1969 at Christie Park. Morecambe beat them 2:1. Since then, though, Athletic have usually beaten us when it really mattered. I could only get onto the South Umbro Stand at a Christie Park packed like Sardines instead of where I usually stood when Wigan forced a one-all draw in the F.A. Trophy Quarter-Final on Saturday 10th March 1973. Athletic went on to win – and at the time, my own mindset – as I am sure was the case with most of my fellow fans – was that was likely to be as good as it was ever going to get for the Shrimps.
The Football League was a Closed Shop. Getting so close to the FA Cup Final – which was what the FA Trophy signified at the time – might not come around for a little club like ours ever again.
But Dave Roberts’ Shrimps won it the very next season. And we all know what has happened since…
The number Four seemed to be regularly recurring as far as Wigan is concerned as I did my research for tonight’s clash. Athletic were fourth in League One; had only lost four of twenty-two League One games this season so far and had won four out of their last five matches in this competition, having drawn the other. However, in the EFL, this was the first time that the two clubs resumed their acquaintanceship since they last met in the Northern Premier League all those decades ago. Wigan – no stranger to crises themselves – have furthermore benefited quickly for the utter shambles at Derby County at the moment and signed Scottish International Graeme Shinnie from them on a two-year contract. This follows the loan signing from Hull of Northern Ireland international Josh Magennis last week. Tonight’s game would also mark a welcome return to the Mazuma Stadium by Callum Lang, who played a pivotal – and very popular – role at Morecambe to keep the Shrimps in the EFL during the 2016-17 season.
So tonight, beating Wigan would be a Big Ask for the Shrimps. Our boys went into this contest on the back of a single win in their last five League One outings; two draws and obviously two defeats as well. But the way they fought-back after a truly pathetic display in the first half to beat Doncaster Rovers 4-3 last time out at this venue showed that Manager Stephen Robinson still has the support of the Dressing Room. Ten days ago, the scare they gave Tottenham Hotspur in their Billion Pound new stadium was a further statement of intent not to lie down and die in the club’s first ever attempt to preserve League One status. In a truly dreary match at Wimbledon last time out, the Shrimps – with New Boys goalkeeper Trevor Carson and Centre Half Jacob Bedeau in the side for the first time in a league game – at least didn’t lose.
Manager Stephen Robinson said before tonight’s game:
“Wigan have sold out their end, so it will be a similar atmosphere to the Sheffield Wednesday game. You only have to look at their two recent signings to see how big of an attraction they are. They are going to be up there all season. It is up to us to make sure that we try and compete with them. It is a difficult challenge but we do not fear anyone in this division. If we implement our style of play on the game and rule out the individual errors that we’ve made on occasions, then we’ll be okay.”
He said this about Opposite Number Leam Richardson:
“Leam has built a squad, I say that they are going to be up there because of their finances, but you have to get the right players. He has a good style of play. They are really well organised, He came in at a really difficult time, he has helped stabilise things and they have gone from strength to strength. Wigan are a good club, a substantial club who have had financial problems at times but they are a club aiming for the Championship, as Wycombe will be on Saturday.”
It was dry but cold as the match started. Both teams Took the Knee and then Morecambe immediately went onto the front foot – and stayed there. For the first fifteen minutes, the visitors hardly ever crossed the half-way line and found themselves pinned back in their bit of the field. Arthur Gnahoua missed with a shot in the second minute and it was virtually one-way traffic until the seventh minute. Then, Ryan McLaughlin seemed to over-hit a cross from the Shrimps’ left but it found its way to Greg Leigh on the left wing. Greg dropped a shoulder and went on a run before slinging a low cross into the centre which Morecambe’s Goal Machine Cole Stockton duly dispatched past a helpless Ben Amos in the visiting goal to score for the nineteenth time this season. Aaron Wildig then tried his luck after eleven minutes but his shot went too high over the target before Gnahoua’s free-kick was nodded by Jacob Bedeau to Anthony O’Connor but the Shrimps’ Captain also headed the ball over the crossbar. But Wigan showed they were not here just to make up the numbers when Max Power took one of his notoriously brilliant spot-kicks after eighteen minutes. He swerved the ball wickedly under Trevor Carson’s bar into the near top corner but the Morecambe stopper made a last ditch effort to punch the ball away via the woodwork. In view though – and I was sitting in line with this – two of Wigan’s forwards were clearly offside before the corner was awarded. But the man with the yellow flag – either Ivan Stankovic or Graeme Fyvie – I’m not sure which – kept it down. According to whichever was the guilty man, though, Wigan didn’t stray offside even once during the first half.
The visitors won a corner on their right this time after 20 minutes but James McClean’s in-swinger was well held by the home keeper. Two minutes later, another good Gnahoua free-kick was headed goalwards by Jacob Bedeau but Amos caught it without too much trouble. At the other end, Callum Lang cleverly set himself up for a shot which was well saved by Carson at the cost of a corner. The action swung to the other end again and Amos did brilliantly to push a deflected effort from Leigh – as Morecambe played on the break – away for a corner. Lang then received the ball from Power on the Wigan right and he swung over a cross which McClean headed wide. But it seemed that the Shrimps would take a deserved lead back to the Dressing Rooms until extra time. Then, Will Keane seemed to be offside by a country mile but the linesman again didn’t flag and the Referee allowed his simple finish to stand.
Wigan – attacking a sell-out 1700+ away crowd in the second half – stepped up the pace. They were the better team for most of the second period. Lang committed a really bad foul on Leigh with about fifty minutes gone. A better referee than the extremely erratic Samuel Barrott might have sent him off for this but the Man in the Middle didn’t even speak to him, let alone book him. After that, Greg had to leave the field as Callum went on to encroach on every free-kick Morecambe were awarded – and Mr Barrott repeatedly let him get away with that as well. Despite this, the hosts came closest to re-taking the lead after 53 minutes when Jonah Ayunga couldn’t quite control the ball to lob it over Amos when well-found by Cole the Goal and unmarked: the goalkeeper made a tremendous save to keep it out. They came closer still four minutes later when Cole worked his magic on the Morecambe left and swerved in a shot from a long way out which beat the visiting goalkeeper all ends up only to see the ball bounce harmlessly away from his far post. With just over an hour played, Leam Richardson shuffled his pack with a double substitution. As the away support belatedly came to life, Athletic started to dominate the game. Morecambe substitute Liam Gibson fouled Lang after 64 minutes and Power’s delivery again lived-up to the player’s name. As the home defence struggled to deal with it, the ball ended-up smashing against the underside of bar as Lang tried to convert Tom Naylor’s nod forwards – but the Shrimps survived this time. It wasn’t to last much longer, though. As the visitors continued to ask all the questions, Power missed with a wayward shot with 68 minutes on the clock. Then Wigan substitute Stephen Humphrys put the visitors into the lead after 74 minutes, rising highest to connect with a cross from Lang and heading purposefully home. They could have extended their lead just two minutes later when the latest scorer’s cross was deflected by Bedeau towards his own goal only for Carson to pull-off a truly miraculous reaction save with his right foot as he was moving rapidly to his left. At the other end, though, it seemed to me at least that Wigan got away with another key blunder with about ten minutes left. One of their defenders clearly handled the ball in the Morecambe penalty area when trying to clear it. But linesmen’s flags stayed down and the Clown in Chief waved play-on. Again. I thought that the Shrimps actually re-grouped and started to make a game of it for about the last eight minutes or so of the match. But it was too little, too late.
So Wigan won again. They are a good side and looked dangerous every time they attacked tonight. But they struggled early on and I thought that they were lucky to be level at half time. Despite the loss, this was far from being a poor performance from Stephan Robinson’s men. With new signing Ousmane Fané – who apparently performed a role similar to Yann Songo’o’s for the Shrimps last year when he played for Robbo at Oldham Athletic – likely to add a bit more steel to the team, there are fewer clouds on the horizon at the Maz than there were just three weeks or so ago. Despite the loss, Morecambe remain in twenty-first position in League One tonight. Wigan went up to second. I hope we beat them at their place. But I also hope they get promoted again.
Morecambe: 30 Trevor Carson; 2 Ryan McLaughlin (Y); 3 Greg Leigh (22 Liam Gibson 56’); 4 Anthony O’Connor (C); 5 Jacob Bedeau; 17 Jonah Ayunga (21 Ryan Cooney 68’); 8 Toumani Diagouraga; 10 Aaron Wildig; 9 Cole Stockton; 19 Shane McLoughlin (18 Adam Phillips 77’); 24 Arthur Gnahoua.
Subs Not Used: 1 Kyle Letheren; 15 Ryan Delaney; 7 Wes McDonald; 25 Alfie McCalmont; 27 Ousmane Fané.
Wigan Athletic: 12 Ben Amos; 2 Kelland Watts (Y); 3 Tom Pearce (7 Gwion Edwards 61’); 4 Tom Naylor; 5 Jack Whatmough; 8 Max Power; 10 Will Keane; 11 Gavin Massey (39 Stephen Humphrys 61’); 19 Callum Lang (15 Jason Kerr 84’); 23 James McClean; 27 Tendayi Darikwa.
Subs Not Used: 1 Jamie Jones; 18 Graeme Shinnie; 20 Tom Bayliss; 30 Thelo Aasgaard.
Ref: Samuel Barrott.
Att: 5,359 (1,760 from Wigan.)
