Netflix Beckons as A Star is Born in Morecambe…
Saturday, 9th March 2024 is a day which could go down in the annals of Morecambe Football Club history as one of the most significant ever. This morning, the Shrimps Trust arranged for hundreds of the club’s loyal fans to gather together to protest against the ownership of our club by the detested Bond Group. The march started at Eric Morecambe’s statue on the town’s promenade and weaved its way westwards before turning down Regent Road towards the Mazuma Mobile Stadium to the ground itself. Our very own Santa (pictured in my own cover photo) gave a stirring speech to the assembled multitude – and off we went. All the way, the weather had been dry although there was a bitingly cold wind blowing off adjacent Morecambe Bay the entire time.
It would be only fair to commend Santa and his new-look Shrimps Trust for organising this march today. But most of all, I tip my hat again to Lord David of Fulwood, whose idea this was in the first place and whose determination since the idea was first dismissed out of hand by the old Shrimps Trust last May has not dented his determination to succeed today. Well done to everyone who made the effort to turn-up. It may prove to be a forlorn gesture in the fullness of time – but at least we as a collective made our voices heard in unison against the owners of our precious club, which must always be better than doing absolutely nothing…
By three o’clock – with League Two Royalty in the shape of third-placed Wrexham with their entourage of Hollywood stars and a Netflix camera crew in tow having arrived earlier – the game against the Welsh wizards began. (Well – maybe not quite that magical: their own otherwise excellent pre-match preview tells their fans that they are playing Southend United today. Let’s hope not many of them set-off on the long journey to Essex to watch the “Shrimpers” repeatedly referred to in their article…) If anything, the weather had improved by then. But we get ahead of ourselves…
The revitalised club from north Wales has never been to the Maz before. The only time they had ever faced the Shrimps in England previously was at Christie Park. There – in 2008 – the two teams drew 2-2. Earlier in the season, Morecambe had played their first-ever away game in the EFL at what was then known as the Racecourse ground and lost 2-1. At the end of the campaign, Wrexham were relegated – and remained in the Outer Darkness of non-league football until Phil Parkinson and his superstar American backers brought the club back into League Two last year. So the reverse fixture at the STōK Cae Ras last November is the first time the two clubs had met in almost two decades. In the first game after the departure of Derek Adams, the Shrimps were torn to shreds and lost by six goals to nil. Old Boy Paul Mullin – taunted by some of our number as a “Morecambe Reject” – scored perhaps the easiest hat-trick of his career so far. It was a total shambles from the men from north Lancashire. Since then, though, Ged Brannan has been promoted from temporary to full-time Manager and his new-look virtually totally rebuilt team went into the match in ninth position in League Two on the back of identical form to today’s visitors: three wins and two draws out of their last six league games.
Our Ged said the following about the task facing his men this afternoon, referring back to the game against the Red Devils before anticipating the Red Dragons:
“It was a great performance on Tuesday night. The lads left nothing on the pitch. We’ll go into Saturday’s game full of confidence and hopefully get the three points. We’re going to go into Saturday’s game like we’re playing anyone – whether it’s Wrexham; the Hollywood thing – whatever. They’re just a normal team like us – a League Two team. Their form’s not great away from home. It will be a totally different Morecambe playing on Saturday than it was playing against Wrexham last time. We’ve come a long way since then. It’s one of those games that when you’re a footballer, you love to play in games like this. The atmosphere will be fantastic, it will be really loud and they’ll bring quite a few. Hopefully we can go on to win the game.”
For the visitors, Phil Parkinson said the following about Morecambe:
“They play a very similar style of football to what they did before, with only a few changes of personnel. When we played them last time, they were two points off the play-offs with a game in hand, so they have always been up there knocking on the door. They’ve recruited well. They are a team that has a real go and it’s going to be a real competitive game, but one we are looking forward to.”
So the game started in front of the massed ranks of fans from north Wales, who were in good voice all the way through the match. At the other end, though, the Morecambe Choir also noisily contributed to a vibrant atmosphere for most of the game.
The Shrimps started brightly and drew first blood after less than four minutes. There was clear confusion between visiting goalkeeper Arthur Okonkwo and Eoghan O’Connell as Gwion Edwards played the ball forward on the Morecambe right. Ged Garner got behind them, worked a position for himself to widen the angle and scored with an excellent shot in front of the stunned crowd from the Principality.
They may have been astonished by the way the match was not going according to the script but nobody could have been surprised by the way Wrexham responded. They are a physically big, combative team who know all the Dark Arts and aren’t afraid to practice them. Ollie Palmer was probably the biggest player on the field this afternoon. He’s not slow to use his arms, his elbows and his sheer size to get the better of smaller opponents. Yet, it’s amazing how easy it is to knock him over, isn’t it? Paul Mullin has always been the first to get in Referee’s faces, whingeing about non-existent infringements whilst constantly committing them himself with a crafty nudge here and a push or two there. Wrexham’s “X” feed tells us that their Captain – James McClean – should have been awarded a penalty after 23 minutes when he was tripped in the home area. But he wasn’t tripped – he dived. The Referee should have booked him. But he didn’t. From the first whistle to the last, Jordan Slew was singled-out for Special Treatment by the Wrexham defence. He was constantly held and often pushed into the bargain by two or sometimes three Red Dragons defenders. But the little man with the turquoise shirt and the whistle in the middle of the field let the big men in the black strip get away with it time and time again. Refereeing a team like Wrexham needs a strong official. Today, we got the opposite.
Having said that, nobody could blame the Referee for the mistake which allowed the visitors back into the game with just over half an hour played. The normally solid Shrimps’ Skipper Jacob Bedeau made a complete hash of an attempted back-pass and was too slow to challenge Mullin as he latched onto it and made progress on the Wrexham left. Our ex-player looked up and passed a simple ball across to an onrushing and unmarked McClean to smash the ball home past a helpless Archie Mair. After that, the momentum swung to the Welsh side. But they had a very willing helper not so much in the wings but actually centre stage in the middle of the pitch…
It would be easy to think that the man in charge – Mr Thomas Parsons – had been bribed today, so one-sided and biased was his performance throughout the match. That would be an outrageous accusation to make. But when you think about it, even an official who had taken a bribe could not have been more blatantly partisan towards Wrexham from the first whistle to the last. I have never seen a performance like it – Referee Parsons was an absolute disgrace to his profession and spoilt the game this afternoon. He booked Max Melbourne for a relatively innocuous foul in the first half. Then, when Palmer suddenly found he was unable to keep his feet under another challenge again early in the second half, the man in charge sent Max off. It was an absurd decision – even the Wrexham fans in front of whom the alleged `foul’ had happened seemed dumbfounded by it. When the fussy little incompetent reached for a card, I assumed he was going to book Palmer for cheating. But off went our player instead for precisely nothing. Not content with that, Mr Parsons then chose to award a penalty to the visitors after 54 minutes when one of their forwards blasted the ball at point-blank range at a defender and the Shrimps’ man was unable to get his arm out of the way. Mullin scored from the spot. In extra time at the end of the game, the ball just as clearly also hit a Wrexham defender on the arm in a situation where he had got time to get it out of the way – but the Man on a Mission was not in the slightest bit interested. Against ten men, a team simply as powerful as the Red Dragons were always likely to win and their third goal – scored by substitute Steven Fletcher with a towering header almost as soon as he had been sent on in the eightieth minute – was an excellent one, Once again, though, it came about shortly after the ref had allowed the visitors to re-take a corner: a decision I have never personally seen made by anyone else before.
Wrexham were the better team throughout the second half. But against ten men, it was made far easier for them than it needed to be. The only way to describe the performance by Mr Parson the Small Person is that he was auditioning for a star part in the Netflix documentary which is being made about the Hollywood-sponsored club. If not applying the rules equally and fairly is what you need to complete the Mission he was on – to get the leading part – then in Thomas Parsons, a Star indeed was born today. I hope he can live with himself after this parody of what a Referee should be. But he probably can: sending an opposition player off and then awarding a penalty to the Red Dragons will virtually guarantee his own spot in whatever Netflix finally produce at the end of the season, won’t it? What a disgrace. The loudest noise of the entire afternoon was reserved for the end of the game when this diminutive clown led his other two officials off the pitch and the home crowd remained to boo him to the rafters. In over sixty years of watching football, I’ve never seen anything like it.
Had Our Ged? He would need to be very careful what he said after the game because the FA takes a very dim view of any of their officials being criticised, no matter how biased and incompetent they clearly are. Showing commendable restraint, this is what he actually said:
“You’re playing Wrexham – they’re a top team. They’re not up there for no reason. They’ve won a lot of games this season. I thought they got a lot of help off the referee.”
Asked his thoughts about the support from the home fans which lasted throughout the game, he replied:
“They see the effort the lads were putting in – and what we were up against. I don’t want to say any more – but what we were up against: they seen it; they’re not soft; they can see things on the pitch. Some of the decisions against us were not right. So they got behind us. They have done all season. As I say, hats off to them.”
Despite the defeat, Morecambe are still on the fringe of the Play-Offs although they have fallen to tenth position. Wrexham remain in third place in League Two.
Morecambe: 30 Archie Mair; 4 Jacob Bedeau (C); 6 Yann Songo’o (Y) (16 Jacob Davenport 59’); 8 Joe Adams (3 David Tutonda 51’); 9 Ged Garner (39 Jordy Hiwula 59’); 12 Joel Senior; 14 Jordan Slew; 15 Chris Stokes; 19 Gwion Edwards (20 Charlie Brown 79’); 23 Max Melbourne (R); 38 Nelson Khumbeni.
Substitutes not used: 21 Adam Smith; 11 Julian Larsson; 22 Kayden Harrack.
Wrexham: 33 Arthur Okonkwo; 9 Ollie Palmer (26 Steven Fletcher 75’); 10 Paul Mullin (11 Jack Marriot 87’); 15 Eoghan O’Connell; 19 Jacob Mendy; 20 Andrew Cannon; 23 James McClean (C) (8 Luke Young 87’); 25 William Boyle; 29 Ryan Barnett (Y); 32 Max Cleweth; 38 Elliot Lee.
Substitutes not used: 21 Mark Howard; 4 Ben Tozer; 7 Jordan Davies; 17 Luke Bolton.
Ref: Thomas Parsons.
Att: 5,166 (1,668 from Wrexham.)
