Penalty awarded at Morecambe!!!!
Well – there was potential for a few sparks (with apologies to the Bradford Manager) to fly today – at least off the pitch- as Derek Adams’ last club played his latest one.
Derek went to Valley Parade after taking Morecambe for the first and only time into League One just over two years ago. But he didn’t last long, luckily for us. Derek was sacked some time before the season finished after what would appear to have been quite a disheartening experience for him in Yorkshire. Rumours of Machiavellian manoeuvrings behind his back persist. Only Mr Adams could actually tell you if these rumours are true or – if so – if they still wrankle with him. But I suspect that Derek is far too experienced – and far too mature as a personality – to tell anyone this outside his own personal or familial circle how he actually feels about this. But every cloud has a silver lining. Derek’s P45 came at almost exactly the same time that Stephen Robinson abandoned a rapidly sinking ship and fled North of the Border to St Mirren. King Derek was left to keep the relatively weak squad Robbo had bequeathed to the club in the division. Derek duly obliged – against all the odds.
`Sparky’ Mark Hughes took-up the reins on the other side of the Pennines once Derek departed. The Board at Bratfud seen to believe that their club has a Divine Right to be in the Big Time. They thus appeared to have an expectation that the former Welsh international would take City immediately back to League One. But he didn’t. Bradford City, indeed, are now an established League Two club: they have been in it for the last five seasons continuously and have spent eleven of the last sixteen years as a member of it as well.
City arrived today in what was once known as `Bradford Upon Sea’ (because of the Midland Railway link to said city and the influx of Yorkshire folk to the town in the past). At the start of the match, the Bantams were in lucky thirteenth place in the table. They were level on points with Morecambe and just one place above them.
This term, they have exactly the same league record as today’s opponents too: one match won; one drawn and one lost. (Their single win was over Colchester United, who are currently bottom of the table and pointless, albeit with only two matches played.)
In previous encounters, the two clubs have come across each other nineteen times. They have both won one of two FA Trophy matches but in League Two, Morecambe have won three and lost four of seventeen games (one more was cancelled due to Covid.)
Derek Adams said this about his former employers earlier in the week:
“Bradford have changed their style a bit this season from last year. They are playing in a different formation. They have taken in a few players over the summer. They’ve still got players that I signed for the football club when I was there – which is… different. They do churn-out quite a lot of players. They churn-out quite a lot of Managers as well. They have had twenty Managers over the last twenty seasons or twenty years. I’m the fifth longest-serving Manager. It doesn’t make sense really. It doesn’t mean that it’s a football club with stability. Until they have that and give a Manager a long enough opportunity, then I don’t see there being progression. But they’ve got a Manager now who has been in probably for a longer period than most.”
Asked whether he regretted his move to Bradford, the King replied:
“I don’t, no. At that moment in time, this football club didn’t know where it was going. It was in a bit of limbo – from a training ground point of view; from (an) off-the-field point of view. It was an opportunity for me to move to a club where the ambition was to get out of the division, which we had just done with Morecambe. I was given an opportunity by the Chairman to come back here. I am very grateful for that. It’s a difficult industry. There’s a lot of Managers not working. I have been allowed to get on with my work without any influences from outside and that probably doesn’t happen at most clubs nowadays.”
Opposite Number `Sparky’ said that in League Two, there are
“No easy games: it’s cliché but it is true, certainly this year. (Morecambe) have a where-with-all about them. They have some good players in that group. There will be guys there that understand the league. The way they have looked to set-up obviously is they get lots of people behind the ball out of possession; get a low block and you have to be good enough to break them down. It will be a challenge. We need to be creative again and have that guile and clinical edge. Every player has to work together and be good enough to break the opposition down. Morecambe’s approach will not change because of who they are up against, so we should set out as we always do – to focus on ourselves and recognise where in the game we can edge in front. Any club that has experience at a higher level will be tough as they have guys who understand how to get out of this league. However, we have to focus on our own output and make sure we are threatening enough going forward. It is all about taking opportunities when they arise. We have more strength in that area. The personnel we have bought in has improved that but we have what it takes to compete on away soil. There is more to come from this group.”
The weather has been very mixed in North Lancashire recently. It chucked it down this morning just a few miles north of the football ground but the match was played in sunny, dry condition, albeit with a keen breeze.
Morecambe started on the front foot and for the first five minutes or so, the visitors were well and truly on the defensive. It became a little more even after that but with 22 minutes played, the visitors conceded a free-kick just outside their own penalty area to the right from their point of view after Richard Smallwood fouled former team-mate Yann Songo’o. Michael Mellon scored with a simply sumptuous shot.
I thought he was again outstanding today. The Official Man of the Match today was Skipper Donald Love – and who am I to argue? But, against a much more experienced and crusty Centre Half in the shape of Matthew Platt, Michael seemed by far the more accomplished player this afternoon. He was quicker to the ball; better in the air and constantly snapped at the heels of Platt and his fellow defenders – often to really good effect. In comparison to his Opposite Number for the visitors – Andy Cook; it was chalk and cheese.
(I was going to write `the great big lump Andy Cook’ but one of my multitude of advisers has suggested a far better way of expressing this. So let me re-phrase my previous sentence thus:)
In comparison to his Opposite Number for the visitors – Andy Cook; who does not have the body of an athlete – it was chalk and cheese.
Mellon scored again right at the death as Morecambe were awarded their first penalty for longer than most of us can actually remember. The Shrimps didn’t get a single one last season in League One despite some very obvious fouls in away penalty areas. Mr Adams has explained this in terms of Referees being intimidated by huge away support and has claimed that the default in situation like this is always to favour the bigger clubs.
There is no club bigger than Bradford City in League Two. But Derek’s thesis still holds because we were playing at home today, where City’s massive and loud support had less influence. At Valley Parade, I personally doubt the decision would have been given…
Whatever, Michael’s second goal was scored in injury time at the end of the game when substitute Kevin McDonald made a wild and panicky foul as fellow replacement Jake Taylor got away from him and he decided to take the Morecambe player down.
In the meantime, JJ scored his first League goal for the club when the Shrimps broke quickly from defence and Mellon provided the final pass for an excellent finish past a helpless Harry Lewis in the Bantams’ goal.
This was a really good performance from Morecambe today. Apart from a period around the hour mark, they never really looked like conceding to the visitors. The nearest City came was after 58 minutes when Platt connected with Smallwood’s delivery and the ball was cleared off the Morecambe line. Richards then sent a low cross right across the home goal-line from the City left with an hour on the clock. But it eluded all of his colleagues. Towards the end of the game, Stuart Moore in the home goal was forced into a rare save: when sub Clarke Oduor hit a shot straight at him.
So it ended with a really decent score against one of the favourites in this Division plus a clean sheet – it doesn’t get much better than this, does it?. This is the best I have personally seen Morecambe play for quite some time.
To express a far from original thought: Funny Game Football, isn’t it?
Last Saturday at this time in Mansfield, I thought we were in for another really attritional season where we would struggle. Today, we looked like Championship contenders.
The Bantams look like they could have a handy enough team to get out of League Two this season. Lewis Richards was excellent today. Clarke Oduor caught the eye. But with the massive resources and support that Bradford take for granted, they should be mounting a challenge for League Two, shouldn’t they? – this club: really ought not be in this division in the first place, for goodness sake.
The end of the game saw the Shrimps occupy a Play-Off position which most `experts’ have already ruled-out for this season – as has been the case for all previous ones.
Bradford fell to eighteenth as a certain chant echoed in Mark Hughes’ ears from the home terraces:
“You’re getting sacked in the morning!”
At Valley Parade, this has always been a distinct possibility…
Derek took Yann Songo’o off after ninety minutes today. This was obviously to give both the home and what was left of the away support an opportunity to express their appreciation of a man who has played a pivotal role at both clubs. And – to be fair to them – quite a lot of Bradford supporters did.
Yann was tremendous again today and deserved every bit of applause he received. But so were all of the Shrimps’ side: they were up for it and if ever a side was playing for their manager, today was the day.
The King himself couldn’t resist entering the field of play after the match had finished and approaching the away end to wave goodbye to them. These were people who had loudly sung a chant which rhymes with `Banker’ at him prior to the first goal. After that, the abuse stopped. Quite a number of visiting fans actually clapped him once the game had ended. As well they might – this was a Master Class as far how to win in League Two fixture is concerned which the Bantam Top Brass dispensed with all too soon.
Thank goodness for that…
So who can blame him for being so elated after this tremendous victory? Derek is human after all. Unusually, he singled-out a particular player for special praise – after the interviewers had finally managed to peel him off the ceiling:
“I thought that Michael Mellon was magnificent. He is an out-and -out goal scorer. He is a striker who plays on the shoulder of defenders. He takes the ball in; he can run in behind; he wants to score; he wants to create chances for others. I thought it was a top performance from him today.”
As far as the game itself was concerned, he added:
“They just couldn’t deal with us. Our players were very sound out of possession and in possession. We’ll take three-nil and move on. The victory was great for us today. Bradford City are obviously one the favourites to go up – as they are every season for the last I don’t know how many they have been in League Two. We just keep on going. Today, I thought that the new players that came in performed magnificently well. I’m just delighted for the players. There are not many times that you get a victory the way that we got it today.“
Morecambe: 1 Stuart Moore; 2 Donald Love (C); 4 Jacob Bedeau; 5 Farrend Rawson; 6 Yann Songo’o (15 Chris Stokes 90’); 7 Tom Bloxham (14 Jordan Slew 82’); (78’); 8 Eli King(16 Jacob Davenport 69’); 9 Michael Mellon (Y); 10 JJ McKiernan (18 Jake Taylor 69’); 11 Adam Mayor (Y); 12 Joel Senior (3 David Totonda 82’),
Substitutes not used: 21 Adam Smith; 17 Cammy Smith; 20 Charlie Brown.
Bradford City: 1 Harry Lewis; 5 Matthew Platt; 6 Richard Smallwood (Y) (23 Bobby Pointon 69’); 9 Andy Cook; 10 Alex Pattison; 12 Clarke Oduor; 14 Tyler Smith (27 Matt Derbyshire 83’);15 Sam Stubbs (Y); 18 Keirán Kelly (26 Kevin McDonald 45’); 22 Daniel Oyegoke (2 Brad Halliday 69’); 32 Lewis Richards.
Substitutes not used: 13 Colin Doyle 3 Liam Ridehalgh; 8 Emmanuel Osadebe.
Ref: Lewis Smith.
Att: 4,713 (at least1300 from Bratfud: as always, some of them were in among us. I hope it wasn’t too excruciating for them.)
