Is It A Sign From Above?…
Port Vale did Morecambe a huge favour last Saturday when they beat Stevenage 0-1 on their own patch with a Tom Pope penalty. In doing so, they sent Borough to the bottom of the EFL: an unwelcome position which had been occupied by the Shrimps earlier in the day. John Askey’s team arrived at the Globe Arena in tenth position in League Two and unbeaten in their last five league games. They had won two and drawn three of them. In the FA Cup, they lost to Manchester City earlier this month, but Pope managed to score against them at the Etihad. Memorably, he had criticised City defender John Stones for mistakes he made in England games last summer and said he would relish playing against him every week. The Valiant striker was totally unapologetic after the meeting between the two sides, saying: “I’d just like to say I was completely wrong and bang out of order to say I’d score 40 a season….. it’s more like 50.”
Pope has a good record against Morecambe with nine goals in twelve games. Would he find Steven Old as easy to play against tonight as Mr Stones was a couple of weeks ago?
Overall, the two clubs have played each other seventeen times previously. In all competitions, the Shrimps have just shaded it with seven wins against six. However, they lost their last meeting at Vale Park earlier this season when – from a winning position – Jordan Cranston took it upon himself to take a swing at an opponent off the ball. Off he went, quite rightly. And ten-man Morecambe consequently lost.
The hosts went into tonight’s game on the back of three losses; one win and a draw in their last five games. Last Saturday, they performed encouragingly against a good side in the shape of Colchester and fought back to gain a 1-1 draw. Four new signings featured in the game and Derek Adams had this to say after the game about those players overlooked for a place in the team or on the bench:
“Nobody can be disappointed at being left out, they have all had ample opportunities since I came here – and in the past – and they’ll have ample opportunities in the future. Today’s another day, things change, people change and we go forward; it’s the start of a new era that we have to take forward now.”
With youngster Kyle Hawley joining FC United of Manchester this week for a month’s loan as part of the new Manager’s shake-up at the club, Mr Adams selected virtually the same starting line-up which featured against Colchester three days ago. Luke Conlan was dropped to the bench to be replaced by George Tanner.
Blimey, that Brendan bloke is incontinent: it rained and it rained and it rained today as the latest named storm swept across the North West of England. I was half expecting tonight’s game at the Globe Arena to be called-off. Particularly when the fixture at relatively nearby Fylde was postponed earlier today. But nobody sabotages the drains at Morecambe with house bricks wrapped in towels in the way they do there apparently…
On the wet surface, the home side went straight onto the offensive. The visitors won the first corner though and referee Marc Edwards provided a bit of entertainment as this was being taken.
“What’s this?” he yelled at the Vale full-back who was pinching as much time as he possibly could before launching the ball into the middle.
“It’s a whistle!” he yelled, implying that the Vale man should play to it. It’s still just about Pantomime Season, I suppose, but I suspect the subtlety was lost anyway: the dead ball kick took even longer to take than ever…
The Shrimps’ first corner arrived after four minutes. Newbie Adam Phillips took it; Steven Old got the merest of touches and the ball was in the back of the net. Port seemed shell-shocked but continued to play as if their heads were still in the dressing rooms. Morecambe went on to make all the running and it was no surprise when they went even further ahead after eleven minutes. Ryan Cooney anticipated brilliantly and intercepted a counter-attack, worked his way down the Shrimps’ right and passed to Phillips. He took it into the penalty area and beautifully set-up Cole Stockton to finish with a perfectly-placed shot past the helpless Scott Brown in the away goal. On forty minutes, official Man-of-the-Match Carlos Mendes-Gomes mesmerised the Valiants’ defence and slipped the ball to Phillips, whose shot was blocked by desperate last-ditch defending on behalf of the visitors: James Gibbons miraculously got his head to it to clear off the line.
In the meantime, Vale offered nothing and Morecambe played some intelligent, flowing football. When Tom Pope wasn’t backing into his opponents to no effect, he was mouthing-off at his team-mates to similar effect: none. The Valiants not only didn’t have a single attempt on goal, they never looked like troubling Mark Halstead between the home sticks.
Who was the team at the bottom of the division?
I suppose we were all expecting a reaction from the visitors during the second period. Phillips was left behind in the Dressing Rooms and Morecambe didn’t look anything like as well-balanced without him. The visitors had their first attempt on goal after 49 minutes, when Luke Joyce set-up Tom Conlon for a shot which was blocked by the men in the red shirts. With almost an hour on the clock, though, substitute John O’Sullivan combined well with Carlos on the Morecambe left and the ball found its way into the centre and George Tanner, who forced Brown into a tremendous save high to his left at the expense of a corner. From this, the Valiant’s stopper again did well to block a point-blank effort about which I suspect he knew very little.
There’s been controversy at the Vatican today apparently as an old Pope has stirred-up some sort of controversy with the new one. At Morecambe tonight, another Pope was taken-off after a hopeless display after sixty-four minutes. Kiwi Steven Old had him in his pocket throughout the match. I bet he wished he could play against him every week.
However, the change galvanised the visitors and for the first time in the contest, they actually started to play effectively and on the front foot. It took them just seven minutes in their new incarnation to pull a goal back.
The team was starting to look like a threat going forward even before their earlier saviour Gibbons unleashed a sublime shot from the right-hand-side of the Morecambe penalty area from his point of view. It looped over the dive of Mark Halstead to his right to land in the top corner of the net. Seventy minutes played. Twenty to go with the visitors in the ascendency.
Vale continued to dominate the game; Morecambe fell back and you started to fear that the Shrimps were going to throw the game away. The visitors had chances – none clearer than when Halstead made a tremendous stop low to his right after seventy-seven minutes to keep out a David Amoo header.
But – just like Brendan in the skies way above – the storm passed. Morecambe had the better of the last ten minutes and the five extra minutes added-on at the end.
So the match finished with a win and three precious points for Derek Adams’ team. He will be concerned by the way his men lost their momentum just before and after Port Vale reduced the arrears. But this was, overall, a decent performance. His opposite number must be perplexed by the way his charges played better when icon Mr Pope was taken-off. To an outsider, you wonder exactly how much value this old-fashioned bruiser actually has to his side: you got the impression that he actually intimidated some of his team-mates, rather than the opposition…
The news from elsewhere was even more promising for Morecambe. Stevenage were unable to beat Oldham on their own patch tonight and thus fell three points behind them at the bottom of the EFL with the same number of games played. Port Vale, meanwhile, remained in tenth position. And at the end of the game, the rain finally stopped. It must be a sign. Who’s got the Pope’s number?…
Morecambe: 21 Mark Halstead; 30 Ryan Cooney; 27 George Tanner; 5 Steven Old; 16 Sam Lavelle (C); 31 Adam Phillips (7 John O’Sullivan 45’); 4 Alex Kenyon (Y); 32 Toumani Diagouraga; 19 Carlos Mendes-Gomes; 9 Cole Stockton (10 A-Jay Leitch-Smith82’); 29 Jordan Slew (14 Tom Brewitt 71’).
Subs not used: 28 Andre Filipe Da Silva Mendes; 3 Luke Conlan; 12 Ritchie Sutton.
Port Vale: 1 Scott Brown; 2 James Gibbons; 5 Leon Legge (Y); 15 Nathan Smith; 11 Cristian Montano; 20 Scott Burgess (21 Richie Bennett 51’); 4 Luke Joyce; 10 Tom Conlon; 19 David Amoo; 9 Tom Pope (13 Mark Cullen 64’); 7 David Worrall.
Subs not used: 30 Jonny Maddison; 12 Will Atkinson; 17 Rhys Browne; 18 Callum Evans; 28 Shaun Brisley.
Ref: Marc Edwards.
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