Morecambe Hog the Newport Limelight
Michael Flynn brought his Newport County side to the Globe Arena today hoping to get a better result against the team absolutely rock-bottom of the EFL than they achieved last Saturday. Then, they entertained Morecambe’s nearest rival for relegation to the National League, Stevenage. They were losing at Rodney Parade until injury time when a goal from ex-Fleetwood striker Jamille Matt finally earnt them a 1-1 draw in the ninety-third minute. Phew! If Borough had managed to survive until the end of the game, they would have found themselves three points ahead of the Shrimps with a game in hand over Derek Adams’ side. As it turned-out, they had to settle for a one point advantage and a much better goal difference whilst County found themselves in twelfth position in League Two at the end of their game. The Exiles have an even worse record over their last five matches than today’s hosts: they lost all four of the fixtures prior to their clash with Stevenage. So there has been little sign recently of the team which qualified for the Play-Offs on their last visit to the Globe. To be fair to them, Newport’s squad has been decimated by injuries and illness in recent times. One of the victims has been Charlton loanee and midfielder Taylor Maloney, who would seem not to have had his MMR vaccination: the twenty-year-old has been struck down by Mumps of all things, poor lad. This disease is no laughing matter: it can cause serious and irreversible physical damage particularly to adults. However, he seems to have made a miraculous recovery as he was in the starting lineup today. More than half a team: defenders Scott Bennett and Kyle Howkins; midfielder Robbie Wilmott plus forwards Corey Whitely, Keanu Marsh-Brown and long-term absentee Ade Azeez were all unavailable for the Welsh side today, though. In the final game of last season, County’s strongest team earned an undeserved one-all draw against Morecambe with that man Matt scoring a late equaliser for them. In previous meetings, County have a pretty dismal record against the Shrimps, having lost six of twelve games and won only two.
For Morecambe, however, things have gone from promising to disastrous since the last meeting between these two clubs just seven months ago. Talented loanee Liam Mandeville subsequently chose to sign for non-league Chesterfield rather than the Shrimps. Promising fellow-loanee Richie Bennett went to Port Vale. Outstanding prospect and Newport lad Aaron Collins (whose brother was on the bench for County today) decided to continue a career rebuilt by Jim Bentley at Forest Green Rovers. This left the club with a rump of players whose quality has not been greatly improved by recent arrivals and – as results so far have shown – are generally not good enough to compete at this level of football. In their last two away games, the Shrimps have had a player sent-off in the opening period both times and Morecambe have shipped a total of nine goals and scored precisely none. Derek Adams has his work cut-out keeping this collection of rejects, journeymen and the eternally injury-prone in the league at all. But today – against a team clearly low on confidence and ravaged by absentees – the Shrimps had at least a chance to escape from the single relegation position in the division. If they won and Stevenage lost or even drew at home against Dave Artell’s high-flying Crewe, Borough would be wearing the Dunce’s Cap on Xmas Day.
Could we dare to hope that this fantasy would actually come true?
Well – stranger things have happened. Who would have thought that Morecambe FC could be top of any league ahead of clubs such as Manchester City and Liverpool? But this week, we learnt that the Shrimps are officially top of the Hedgehog Preservation Society’s Hedgehog Friendly League with ten whole points. Please feel free to wallow in this glory here:
It’s only the second award the club have ever won in the EFL era. The other one was for pies. Wait a minute… Hedgehogs? Pies? Do you suspect what I do? When I saw an offer for a meat and tattie pie with `Branston Prickle’ at the club recently; I thought it was a typo. Now I know better. Poor old Branston…
Anyway, the Globe Arena was expected to be packed to the rafters as a result of the club offering cut-price tickets for a fiver right across the ground, presumably as an incentive for loyal and Fair Weather supporters alike to turn their backs on the delights of Christmas shopping. But only just over two thousand people turned-up so the atmosphere particularly in the first half was pretty muted.
It was sunny, mild for the time of year and there was virtually no breeze prior to kick-off and throughout the opening period. During this time, the die was cast. Newport are a physically big side who know all the tricks of the trade. They pinch yards at throw-ins – not just to try and get an unfair advantage but also because they know time will be wasted if the referee makes them take it from the proper position. Equally, their great big lads seem to be extraordinarily physically delicate: the poor things fall over at each and every opportunity and take ages to get up again. They are the masters of the last minute crafty push or obstruction – and all it takes is a weak referee to let them continually get away with it. And in fussy and officious Paul Marsden, we had exactly such a sap at the Globe today. He should have made them leave the field when they feigned injury – but he didn’t. I’ve never understood why teams cheat like this. Newport were clearly the better team throughout the first half: if they had concentrated on playing football rather than trying to con the man in the middle instead, they could have been out of sight by half time. They were faster to the ball than the Shrimps; they used it better and they made all the running. They could and probably should have taken the lead after ten minutes when Joss Labadie’s shot when well placed was smothered by a Morecambe defence at panic stations – the Newport man should have scored. But he wasn’t going to be denied much longer. He was fed by Taylor Maloney for a thunderbolt of a shot which hit the underside of the crossbar and bounced down over the line according to the officials at least. Where is VAR when you most need it? Another chance for the Welsh side hit the bar on the way over and the home team looked disjointed and badly drilled throughout. They booted the ball away from danger without looking; they failed to hold onto it; they lost possession on a regular basis – they were absolutely hopeless.
So I’d like some of whatever Derek Adams put in their tea at the break. He took off the ineffectual Aaron Wildig and Lewis Allesandra at half time and replaced them with Cole Stockton and the evergreen Kevin Ellison. As a result, the team were unrecognisable. They attacked County right from the off and ran them ragged at times. Nick Townsend made a good save from a close-range header almost immediately and then pulled off a simply sublime stop to push A-Jay Leitch-Smith’s superb dipping shot from the Morecambe left over the bar with 57minutes played. The visiting goalkeeper was forced into action again when the impressive Carlos Mendes-Gomes tested him with a decent shot which he pushed onto the top of the bar and away for a corner with 57 minutes on the clock. Carlos and A-Jay were playing well together and when Josh Sheehan was caught in possession by Mendes-Gomes after an hour had been played, Leitch-Smith was denied again by another superb save from Townsend. Morecambe were getting ever nearer and Padraig Amond came to the rescue against his former club in the 64th minute, clearing Steven Old’s effort off the line. The seemingly inevitable equaliser arrived four minutes later when the impressive substitute Stockton volleyed a low cross past Townsend – the keeper had no chance this time. Michael Flynn tried to take the impetus out of the game by making substitutions and his players continued play-acting and wasting time at every chance – until the eightieth minute. Then they suddenly stopped time-wasting and trying to con the ref. Why? Because Morecambe had deservedly gone ahead with a truly fantastic goal. John O’Sullivan combined well with Kev and A-Jay as they moved the ball quickly and intelligently through the middle from their own half for O’Sullivan to smash the ball home from the Newport penalty area. Having got ahead, the Shrimps – to their considerable credit – did not drop-off. They were looking for a third, not trying to kill the game. They didn’t get it but they did get the all-important three points – and very well deserved they were too.
After the game, Mr Flynn said “I’m massively disappointed. Our second half performance was a disgrace.” In my view, the team’s performance throughout was a disgrace: an exercise in the Darker Football Arts which got exactly what it deserved. County fell to thirteenth in League Two as a result. Elsewhere, Crewe slaughtered Stevenage 1-5 on their own patch to push the Shrimps to a position of safety at Christmas, which came early for all Shrimps fans today and particularly for their Manager, for whom this was his first League win. Well done Derek!
With poor old Macclesfield being docked six points yesterday for their recent transgressions against EFL rules, the Shrimps found themselves level on points with them and behind only on goal difference albeit having played two games more. Macc failed to play their home match against Plymouth today because they didn’t have the required Safety Certificate. The four extra points deduction suspended earlier in the week will thus almost certainly be their minimum punishment, which would push them to the bottom of the EFL. This is a shocking situation to be in – but for the grace of god, this could be us; this could be virtually anybody…
I’m ancient enough to remember a time, years ago, when Macclesfield, Morecambe and Wigan Athletic among others were unable to enter a football league which was a Closed Shop. This despite the appalling quality of clubs – Halifax; York City and Walsall for instance – who carried on failing in it year after tedious year but faced no sanction whatsoever: they just started playing the same old rubbish all over again the following season. They should have been booted out years ago. Now, they would be. I still take the view that if a club is not good enough to compete in the EFL, out they should go. I would thus personally be sad to see the Silkmen relegated to the National League on a technicality which their players have little and fans have absolutely no control over. In my view, this is not fair. The worst team should be relegated, full-stop. They deserve to be. There’s still a long way to go until the end of the season but if the Shrimps end up winning and drawing fewer games than anybody else, we should suffer the consequences and take it on the chin. (If we play like we did in the first half today; this could well happen. If we play as we did in the second, there is no fear of it happening whatsoever.)Taking points off badly-run clubs is the usual easy, lazy option for the EFL – just as it was easier for them to expel Bury earlier this year instead of actually doing the job they are paid to do. They should properly oversee the ownership and running of clubs such as the Shakers (and ourselves) to stop them from getting into dire straits in the first place. The fact that the EFL are too complacent, inert, incompetent or possibly even corrupt themselves to do so stinks – but the Football League always has…
So I’m afraid I don’t possess goodwill to all men (or women) this Christmas. But to all loyal football fans (and most other people) everywhere – have a good one!
Morecambe: 21 Mark Halstead; 27 George Tanner; 5 Steven Old; 4 Alex Kenyon (C); 3 Luke Conlan; 14 Tom Brewitt; 7 John O’Sullivan (Y); 15 Aaron Wildig (11 Kevin Ellison 45’); 19 Carlos Mendes-Gomes (33 Jordan Cranston 91’); 8 Lewis Alessandra (9 Cole Stockton 45’).
Subs not used: 28 Andre Filipe Da Silva Mendes; 2 Adam Buxton; 23 Tyler Brownsword; 24 Shaun Miller.
Newport County: 30 Nick Townsend; 12 Danny McNamara (Y); 25 Mark O’Brien (27 Ryan Inniss 71’); 28 Mickey Demetriou; 3 Ryan Haynes; 4 Joss Labadie (C); 10 Josh Sheehan; 22 Taylor Maloney (17 Scot Bennett 67’); 16 George Nurse (16 Tristan Abrahams 71’); 9 Padraig Amond; 11 Jamille Matt.
Subs not used: 1 Tom King; 8 Matthew Dolan; 21 Lewis Collins; 24 Dominic Poleon.
Ref: Paul Marsden. 2161 (91)
