Morecambe Matchzone

Morecambe 3:0 Colchester United

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Pellish Performance by Colchester at Morecambe

Let’s face it, January is a pretty grim time of year. The darkness and the cold weather don’t help. Coronavirus makes life even more difficult because we can’t meet anyone or do things we once took for granted anymore. In the darkness and the wetness, it would be easy to get depressed. I felt a bit down myself after Morecambe’s draw against Walsall last Tuesday. But on Wednesday, all that changed. I turned the telly on at nine in the evening and there – in full colour and stereophonic sound – was The Bay. Morecambe. Heysham. Hest Bank. If you looked very carefully from the roof of the Alhambra, you could almost see the Mazuma Stadium. (That wasn’t everyone’s favourite Uncle Ken’s scrapyard, though, was it?) But it was so reassuring to see heavily-armed hard-looking female coppers swarming over our town in their body armour. A man opening his front door just off Sandylands only to be shot dead by a delivery driver. Point-blank range. Bang bang bang! Blood all over the place. Well – that’s one of the pitfalls of using Amazon, I suppose. Yes folks – just an ordinary day in Morecambe. Thank god for a bit of normality at last…

It’s only a month ago since the town’s football team made the long journey to Essex to face Steve Ball’s Colchester United in League Two. Then, they played some neat, progressive football against a team which hadn’t lost at home previously and came away with a very creditable 1-2 win. Overall, they have now beaten today’s opponents twice in the past; lost once and – very unusually – drawn all six of their other previous meetings. In recent times, the U’s have not won any of their last five league matches and have lost three of them, including the one against the Shrimps. They arrived in Lancashire in unlucky thirteenth position, six points and five places behind today’s hosts having played the same number of games: twenty-two. Morecambe, meanwhile, have won three and lost one of their last five fixtures in League Two. Their draw against Walsall last Tuesday wasn’t helped by the appalling weather but Derek Adams’ side remain unbeaten at the Mazuma Stadium for nine games – the last time they lost at home was against Forest Green at the end of October.  DA had this to say at the end of last Tuesday’s game:

“The players keep on going, they have a terrific attitude and they believe they can win every game. It was a difficult night for both teams – heavy rain, swirling wind and difficult underfoot. I think both teams tried to get the ball down and play. On a night like tonight, it was always going to be difficult but second half, we were very good. We got the ball forward and into really good areas and were unfortunate not to score more goals.”

Subsequently, December’s League Two Manager of the Month has been charged with improper conduct by the FA following his red card at the end of the Walsall match. Presumably, no action will be taken against the man responsible for Derek’s outburst at the time – referee Graham Salisbury – whose appallingly bad performance on the night was condemned by both of the Managers concerned after the contest. But some things never change. Prior to today’s game, though, Colchester boss Steve Ball said this:

“Morecambe have a really good offensive threat, with Stockton, Mendes Gomes, Wildig and Phillips, they are all good players at this level. I watched them on Tuesday night, and it showed it was a really tough place to go. It will be a heavy pitch up in Morecambe, and we have had to be a bit delicate after the pitch from last weekend, but we have good processes in place to keep players fresh and ready to go.”

Mr Bell had to do without the services of injured midfielder Tom Lapslie and was also without Luke Gambin, who signed for rivals Newport County this week until the end of the season. Better news for the visitors was that Michael Folivi had recovered from a hamstring injury and was available for selection today after three weeks on the sidelines: he was named on the bench. There was no place for Harry Davis, Alex Kenyon or A-Jay Leitch-Smith in the Shrimps’ squad again today for the second game in a row. Aaron Wildig and Mark Halstead (isolating) were also missing which meant that emergency loan signing – Jökull Andrésson – started in goal. The 19-year-old 6’4” Icelander is on Reading’s books. He lined-up against us for Exeter earlier in the season and played well in what was only his second appearance for them. He was well and truly thrown in at the deep end today, having only arrived at the club less than 24 hours earlier.

The real worry before the game – as had been the case last Tuesday – was the weather. It snowed heavily during the night in Morecambe and the covers had to be rolled over the pitch. So Hats Off again to the ground staff for producing a surface in decent condition for today’s contest.

It was actually sunny as the game kicked-off and remained so – brightly at times – throughout the first half. Morecambe started off the better on a slippery, soft surface. Steven Hendrie took a shot from a long way out in the first minute and missed to Dean Gerken’s left. The visiting goalkeeper was forced into the first save of the game after nine minutes. Adam Phillips struck a free-kick from about 35 yards which the orange-clad goalkeeper pushed away to his left for a corner.  But as the half grew older, the visitors increasingly came into it as they seemed to accustom themselves to the conditions. Eighteen minutes had been played when the tricky Jevani Brown set up a colleague on the Colchester left who in turn played a dangerous low cross right across the opposing penalty area but there was nobody there for the team in the predominantly white strip to take advantage. Twenty- six minutes had been played when Callum Harriott – who was also a handful all half – beat Jökull Andrésson in the home goal but his shot bounced harmlessly back into play off the goalkeeper’s right-hand post. Down the other end, Cole Stockton was just unable to bring the ball down and get in a shot as two visiting defenders were closing him down after half an hour. United again impressed with some good link-up play on their left between Ben Stevenson, Cohen Bramall and Brown which the home defence finally cleared for a corner when it looked as if United might turn the ball in at the near post. They came even closer as the set piece was taken with Tommy Smith’s clever cushioned header hitting the right-hand post from his point of view and bouncing harmlessly away again. The visitors were at top at this time and forced another relatively easy save from  Andrésson right at the death. That seemed to be it, but in injury time, Hendrie passed to Carlos who returned the favour of Tuesday night and played a sublime ball to Phillips in the opposition penalty area. Adam’s reaction as he took on Gerken and slipped the ball past him into the net to give the men in red a lead which was frankly against the run of play was simply out of this world.

Morecambe seemed to increase their pace at the beginning of the second half. But Colchester created the first chance in the second minute of the restart when Stevenson found Harriott whose shot went just wide of the target. Forty-nine minutes saw excellent play by John O’Sullivan cleared for a corner. He combined well with Phillips on the left flank after fifty-seven minutes. Then he took a return pass from him, strode forward and slipped a low cross into the centre for substitute Toumani Diagouraga to brilliantly sweep the ball home to put the Shrimps two goals ahead. Shortly after that, there was an incident which reflected badly on Ryan Cooney and even worse on Colchester Skipper Harry Pell. Pell is a big, competitive player who clearly treads a thin line a lot of the time. When he made a sliding tackle on Phillips after an hour, he could have expected a yellow card for recklessness. Morecambe players took exception to the foul and Cooney ended-up feigning a head-butt from Pell. The United Skipper was not guilty but had been stupid enough to provide Morecambe’s loanee from Burnley the opportunity to cheat by moving his head in a threatening manner towards his face. He should have known better and he must have also known what would inevitably happen next: Referee Robert Lewis sent him off. This basically ended any chance the U’s had of getting back into the game. To be fair to them, they still tried to play their into contention. However, they didn’t trouble the young Icelander in the home goal even once and the nearest he came to conceding on his debut was when – clearly finding keeping his balance difficult on a sticky pitch – he completely mis-kicked an unwelcome back pass after 63 minutes but got away with it. At the other end, Carlos’ shot after 63 minutes had already hit team-mate Cole and the shot he set-up two minutes later was well blocked by the visiting defence. Stockton then contrived to miss from literally a yard out after smashing a long-range pass from the right by Cooney wide of the far stick.  Almost eighty minutes had been played when Phillips caught Omar Sowunmi in possession, passed to Carlos and received a pass back from him on the Morecambe right before sending over a low cross which Sully walloped home. It was a fitting reward for an excellent performance by the Irishman today.

For Morecambe, three-nil at the end was perhaps a bit flattering although there is no disputing the quality of all of their goals. Harry Pell let his Manager and his team-mates down today but even with him still on the field, the team from Essex seemed short of any real bite. The loss sees them fall to fifteenth place in League Two. Derek Adams’ side’s first double of the season, meanwhile, pushed them further up the table to fifth.

Morecambe:  1 Jökull Andrésson; 3 Stephen Hendrie (Y); 4 Nathaniel Knight-Percival; 5 Sam Lavelle (C); 24 Yann Songo’o; 7 Jordan Slew (8 Toumani Diagouraga 45’); 11 Carlos Mendes-Gomes; 16 John O’Sullivan (23 Freddie Price 88’); 20 Adam Phillips; 21 Ryan Cooney; 9 Cole Stockton (19 Liam McAlinden 82’).

Subs not used:  13 André da Silva Mendes; 18 Ben Pringle; 22 Liam Gibson.

Colchester United: 1 Dean Gerken; 3 Cohen Bramall; 5 Tommy Smith; 6 Omar Sowunmi; 8 Harry Pell (C)(R); 10 Jevani Brown (39 Michael Folivi 80’); 11 Callum Harriott (9 Aramide Oteh 63’); 14 Noah Chilvers; 18 Tom Eastman; 23 Kwame Poku (2 Miles Welch-Hayes 64’); 24 Ben Stevenson.

Subs not used:  29 Shamal George; 7 Courtney Senior; 33 Marley Marshall Miranda; 36 Harvey Sayer.

Ref: Robert Lewis.

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