Not Dead Yet…
Today would be a Show Down for at least one team currently struggling to retain their League One status this season. Not a million miles away across the county from north Lancashire, Accrington Stanley would be entertaining Cambridge United to see which one of them has the better chance of retaining their current status when The Fat Lady sings next weekend.
Miles away to the south and along both the M1 motorway and the West Coast main line, the club which bought the old Crazy Gang’s identity would attempt to maintain the utterly fraudulent co-called `Dons’ identity in this division. They shouldn’t be in it at all. But Money Talks. So when the Powers That Be sold them Wimbledon AFC lock, stock and barrel at a time when an old Crazy Gang member hadn’t even thought about – let alone starred in a film of the same name, the MK Frauds were facing relegation again today. This time, High-flying Barnsley were visiting – with one eye definitely focused on the Play-Off place which their form this season certainly deserves
In the meantime, Oxford United would seemingly just have to turn-up at the New Lawn to collect the full three points – the already relegated only Vegan club on the planet had given up all hopes of survival ages ago.
So what of Morecambe today?
Last Tuesday evening – even though they didn’t play – could yet prove to be pivotal to the club’s survival. On paper, an Oxford team which hadn’t recorded a single victory in its previous seventeen matches would do well to get anything at all against a visiting Cheltenham side. But they broke the mould and won by a tremendous four goals to nil to improve their current Goal Average – way out of reach of the Shrimps – and consolidate their position in League One at nineteenth place. Perhaps even more astonishingly, Accrington Stanley visited hated neighbours Bolton Wanderers and returned home again with a win courtesy of the only goal of the game. Normally, everybody associated with Morecambe football club would be delighted to see the team from Horwich beaten by anybody. But not on Tuesday…
The unexpected wins for two of the Shrimps’ rivals for relegation has made things even more difficult as far as Morecambe’s hopes for survival in League One are concerned this season.
They started their game against Lincoln at the Maz this afternoon at the top of the pile in the relegation section of the division. Stanley are directly behind them on goal difference alone, having played the same number of games: 44. MK Plastics are just one place above them with two extra points and a superior goal difference as well. Oxford United are one place ahead of them, three points better off than us but with a vastly superior goal difference.
Morecambe Manager Derek Adams has been saying for a while that his men have to win every game remaining until the end of the campaign to stand any chance of staying up this season. They have won their last two – most notably seven days ago when they repeated the miraculous score of 2-3 at Charlton from last season to keep themselves in with at least a slight hope of staying in the division. The situation at the moment is that they also need both Oxford and Milton Keynes to lose a minimum of one their two remaining matches and do no more than draw the other to have any realistic hope of overhauling them. So many eyes at the Maz this afternoon would be turned towards the east of the county, where Accrington were hosting Cambridge United. Cambridge have three games still to play and are far from certain to be relegated yet. A draw at the Crown Ground would be the best result as far as Morecambe is concerned. Their fans would also be praying that promotion-chasing Barnsley would overcome the Wombles frauds on their own patch as well. But, most of all, Morecambe would need to win again today.
Visitors Lincoln, on the other hand, have won three of their last five matches and lost only one – at home last Tuesday against Burton Albion by the only goal of the game. The Imps arrived comfortably in tenth position in the table. They have a tremendous record against today’s hosts: only three losses in eighteen previous meetings and ten victories. Earlier in the campaign, City beat Morecambe 2-1 in the league and then knocked them out of the Pizza Cup thing within the space of four days in November. King Derek had this to say about them prior to the match:
“They’ve got a really good record. They don’t lose many games. From my point of view, we’re at home. We’ve got a fantastic home record. There’s going to be a near capacity crowd here on Saturday. That in itself will help the players.”
Lincoln Head Coach Mark Kennedy said this:
“I’d rather play somebody who’s got something to play for. Morecambe can’t afford – in my opinion – to come and spoil the game and make it slow and break it down and hold on for seventy minutes and try and nick a goal at the end. I don’t mean in terms of holding on as if we’re going to dominate the game: they need to win the game of football. I think it will be two teams going out to win a game of football instead of one team hoping to get away with a point. So I’m glad we’re playing Morecambe to be honest.”
For Morecambe, Pape N’Diaye Souaré was injured at Charlton last time out and had not recovered sufficiently to be in the squad today. Max Melborne returned from his latest injury to make a very rare appearance in the starting eleven in his place.
It was dry with sunny periods as the game kicked-off by the north Lancashire seaside in front of a record crowd. Morecambe stopper Connor Ripley had to be on his toes to intercept a clever forward pass from the visitors’ midfielder Ethan Erhahon to Olamide Shodipo with five minutes played. Morecambe won the first corner of the game shortly after this but Daniel Crowley’s spot kick was hit far too long. Dan also hit a free-kick too long just over Jacob Bedeau’s head with nineteen minutes on the clock. Liam Gibson then did well to intercept a pass in the centre of the field and played the ball up to Cole Stockton, who took a speculative shot which failed to trouble Brighton loanee goalkeeper Carl Rushworth in the away goal. Lincoln had a half-chance after 26 minutes when Daniel Mândroiu lobbed a clever ball forward looking for Lasse Sorensen which was cleared as far as Matty Virtue, who drew a low save from the home custodian.
Uncle Arthur then played a return pass to Jensen Weir after twenty-nine minutes. Morecambe’s leading scorer had back-heeled the ball to him with almost half an hour played. Rushworth had to be at his best to keep out Jansen’s shot. But the ball went straight down the other end, and Mândroiu again tried to find Sorensen from the Lincoln right only for Shodipo to get to the ball first and sweep it past Ripley to put the visitors one-nil ahead.
Crowley and Josh Austerfield combined to play-in Weir again with 40 minutes played but his powerful shot was just wide of the target. But for the tremendous reflexes of the home goalkeeper, the Imps would have gone further ahead with just one minutes scheduled to play of the opening period. Mândroiu took a long, dipping shot from some distance only to be denied by the outstretched hand of Ripley, who clawed the ball away from the top corner of his net.
So after what had been a pretty scrappy affair, the Shrimps trudged back to the Dressing Rooms one goal behind. Elsewhere, Oxford were winning by the only goal of the game at FGR. Cambridge were winning by the same score at Accrington and MK Muppets were losing by the same margin at home to the Tykes. So virtually the only thing wrong with the script today was that the Shrimps had fallen behind. But they still had forty-five minutes to remedy this and force the season into a showdown at Exeter – who were being hammered 5-0 at Ipswich after only the first half.
It quickly got worse for the hosts. With only four minutes played, Austerfield appeared to be fouled in the middle of the park. But Referee Sam Allison gave nothing and the visitors took full advantage when Shodipo carried the ball into the danger area and slipped it to Virtue who – in turn – effectively passed it wide of the home stopper in to the net with an assured finish. But almost immediately, Cole Stockton pulled one back with his fourth goal in the last three games. It was another fantastic finish. This time, he took one touch to control the ball and then fairly walloped a dipping shot into the away net with forty minutes played. The Shrimps came within the width of the goal post of equalising when Dan the Man dribbled his way into the penalty area and unleashed a shot which bounded-back from the woodwork with an hour played. As Arthur backed-off and then backed off even more, Mândroiu repeated Crowley’s effort by also striking the post in the sixty-fifth minute. King Derek shuffled his pack and substitute Oumar Niasse scored his first goal for Morecambe when he was first to the ball as a cross came in and he headed it past a seemingly bemused Rushworth in the sixty-sixth minute. Substitute Ash Hunter then greedily sought glory with a wild strike from a long way out when Rushworth was off his line but Niasse was far better placed to beat him again with 71 minutes played. Six minutes later, Paudie O’Connor seemed to have won the game for the Imps but his header bounced off the bar and bounced away harmlessly to safety. But the game was absolutely turned on its head when, with four minutes left to play, Stockton headed his second goal, this time from a free-kick by substitute Ash Hunter.
Derek became over-excited again in the dying embers of the match. Not for the first time this season, he picked-up a booking for too vociferously expressing his thoughts to the Man in The Middle. There were a nail-biting twelve minutes added-on at the end of the game – but Morecambe rode the storm to deservedly take all three points for the third league game in a row.
Elsewhere, news from Milton Keynes in particular added to the drama. The Plastic People came from 0-1 down at half time to lead by an astonishing four goals to one against Barnsley at one point in the second half. But the Tykes managed to pull things back and the game ended 4-4. Oxford predictably won all too easily 0-3 at Forest Green to make themselves safe. Accrington lost catastrophically at home against Cambridge by the odd goal in three to see their hopes for survival this season in tatters. Cambridge will be playing at Burton next Wednesday. If they win, they will put themselves within a point of safety with only one more game to go – at home to relegated FGR. So it’s all to play for next Sunday. Morecambe visit Exeter City who were hammered 6-0 at Ipswich to make it seven games lost in a row. The win means that the Tractor Boys are promoted – so congratulations to them. MK Plastics end their campaign against Burton away at the same time – so what do we say?
We say:
COME ON YOU BREWERS!!!!!!
As the excitement finally subsided, Derek Adams had this to say about the latest victory today:
“It was a fantastic game. We knew we had to win the game – and that is what we did. This football club’s always punching above its weight. We had a near capacity crowd here today which is terrific for them. We’ve done all we can done all season. We’ve been through a difficult, difficult season off the pitch. On the pitch, it’s been difficult because we haven’t been able to do what we wanted to do. But our players keep on fighting; they keep on playing. It’s a testimony to them: they keep this football club going.”
Morecambe: 1 Connor Ripley (C); 3 Max Melbourne (7 Jake Taylor 45’); 4 Liam Gibson; 5 Farrend Rawson; 8 Daniel Crowley (Y) (10 Ash Hunter 67’); 9 Cole Stockton (Y); 14 Arthur Gnahoua (20 Liam Shaw 89’); 15 Jensen Weir; 16 Jacob Bedeau; 21 Ryan Cooney (18 Oumar Niasse 62’); 22 Josh Austerfield (Y).
Subs not used: 12 Adam Smith; 6 Ryan Delaney; 29 Dynel Simeu.
Lincoln City: 1 Carl Rushworth; 2 Regan Poole (C)(Y); 3 Harry Boyes; 11 Olamide Shodipo; 12 Ethan Erhahon (Y); 15 Paudie O’Connor (Y); 18 Ben House; 19 Daniel Mândroiu; 21 Lasse Sǿrensen; 24 Seán Roughan; 26 Matty Virtue.
Subs not used: 9 Luke Plange; 6 Max Sanders; 22 Timothy Eyoma; 28 Dylan Duffy; 31 Sam Long; 32 Jovon Makama; 37 Oisin Gallagher.
Ref: Sam Allison.
Att: 5,769 (over 500 from Lincoln.)
