Morecambe “Play The Game – And Not The Occasion”.
First of all – to repeat a theme of this season’s posts, let’s start with a look back at Morecambe’s last game.
I make no apology for moaning in the past that as the football club has undoubtedly moved ever further and more excitingly into a Brave New World, the way this has been communicated to an internet/Social Media-savvy new generation has often lagged a long way behind. So when – almost by chance – I stumbled across the following earlier this week I immediately posted a link to it online:
It got millions of hits. Well – half a million at least. Dave Salmon of Beyond Radio was very quick to ascribe the credit for the creator of this fantastic montage to his co-commentator on Shrimps’ matches – Matt Smith – as the Media Man at the club. Well done Dave – credit where credit is due and all that. I am eternally indebted to Matt himself if only because he took the photo of myself and Derek Adams when I was invited into the Inner Sanctum of the club a couple of years ago which I use on Faceflannel even now – and was really impressed by the way he went about his business generally.
So why are the club not pushing the stuff Matt produces? It surely should be featuring left, right and centre on its website every week for a start. What’s the point of having a Boy Wonder in the club’s employ if you don’t feature the work he produces? It’s gold. Gold, I tell you!
Doubt it?
Hitting the nation’s imagination with a memorable image or slogan is much older than the internet itself.
For example: Ian Rush drank milk. If he hadn’t, there was only one club he would be likely to play for.
(If you don’t know who Ian Rush is or anything else about what I’ve just written, ask your parents – or grandparents – because, even if they have no interest in football whatsoever, they will certainly be able to explain to you what the next image means).
In such a manner, let me open this week’s match report with an age-old question:
(Thanks to Andrew Baines for the cover photo.)
Well – who are they indeed? Their Manager, John Coleman is still Morecambe Football Club’s leading scorer of all time. Stanley – which disappeared off the face of the Earth altogether as a Football League club during 1962 – was re-established six years later with a veritable mountain to climb. They started again at the lowest level of a football pyramid which didn’t actually exist at the time. However, as the years passed and the EFL finally stopped being a Closed Shop, John Coleman and others gradually steered the club through the Lancashire Combination; the Cheshire League; the North West Counties League; the Northern Premier League and other ones as well until they finally took their place again as a Football League Member way back in 2006. Extremely ironically, they replaced the club which had taken their place in the Football League all those years earlier in 1962: Oxford United.
Since then, they were promoted to League One during 2018 and have never looked back.
So: 1968 to 2018: Fifty years of hurt barely describes it from Accrington fans’ point of view. I take my hat off personally to all the many people who refused to let the club die.
Despite what has happened subsequently…
So what are the parallels between the two clubs?
Some people claim that Stanley have ploughed the same furrow which Morecambe have themselves followed in due course.
Oh really?
The Accrington which went bust in 1962 were members of the Football League when it was a Closed Shop. Morecambe couldn’t have replaced them on merit – or even with wheelbarrows of cash for the `administrators’ of this creaky and extremely dodgy organisation in its little bubble in Lytham St Annes of all places for a start.
(I’m not quite sure why this makes them similar in any sense so far but let’s plough on with the analogy…)
Stanley have only been relegated once in their new incarnation.
The Shrimps have never been relegated at all.
Stanley have never lost at Wembley – because they have never got there.
It’s true to say, though, that this also applies to Morecambe in a way: they have never lost at Wembley either.
This is because they won the FA Trophy and the two Play-Off Finals they have reached at the old and new version of the venue over the last fifty years or so.
Neither club have ever been able to call on vast financial resources and they are both two of the least well-supported teams in the entire EFL.
This, at least, is true.
So why – given that the two Lancashire clubs have at least a few things in common – is Accrington absolutely the Shrimps’ worst Bogy-Team of all time, then?
In League Two alone, the two clubs have met twenty-two times in the past. Morecambe have won just two of these games and lost a quite astonishing fourteen of them.
So – all other comparisons aside – Accrington is very much the Senior Partner as far as their club and ours are concerned.
Stanley arrived by the seaside today in eleventh position in League One. They have won just two of their last five games and lost three, including their last two, which ended with a 1-4 hammering by league leaders Wigan Athletic at home last Saturday. Their Manager had this to say prior to his visit to the Mazuma Stadium:
“I had my best playing days at Morecambe. I met some unbelievable people who are still friends today. I have got friends who are Morecambe fans, it is a special place in my heart but I didn’t play in the new stadium so that doesn’t have any memories. We have generally done well there and hopefully we can keep that up. I was commentating on both Morecambe’s Play-Off semi-finals last season. I thought they were terrific, showed a great team spirit, they played some great football and they have kept quite a few players who have earned the right to play in League One and they are doing well this year. I know Stephen (Robinson) from my coaching badge days in Ireland and he is a good manager, a good footballing person and to take over a team who had the upheaval they did after getting promoted, he has done really well. They had a good performance at Ipswich on the opening day and he has carried that on and had good results. We watched them midweek as they beat Crewe. (First Team Coach) John Doolan went to the game and he was impressed with what he saw. We know we have our work cut out but if we can get back to playing the way we can play, and we know we are capable of this, we are a match for anyone.”
As far as concerns Shrimps’ Burnley loanee Adam Phillips – who `Coley’ persuaded to jump ship from Morecambe and sit on the bench more often than not at Accrington late on last season – the Stanley boss said:
“Adam is a good footballer and I have made no secret of the fact that I did try to re-sign him but he chose to go to Morecambe and that’s his prerogative. We have to hope that he feels on Saturday he has made the wrong decision. All we can do is try and win the game the best we can and the best we know, which is hard work and trying to play good football.”
John O’Sullivan – a key player in the Shrimps’ promotion last season – was named in Stanley’s starting eleven today. But there was still no place in the visiting squad for Northern Ireland International Dion Charles, who John Coleman has publicly criticised recently for having a bad attitude – whatever that means – as well as apparent disloyalty to the club.
For the hosts, most of the players and the Manager were facing their first-ever meeting with our local(ish) rivals. Stephen Robinson said about this:
“Derbies mean everything to the fans, the bragging rights especially. I have been involved in a fair few derbies in my time: Luton v Watford when I was playing – and then up in Scotland with Motherwell and Hamilton. For us managers, it is just three points, but it is an important three points and we will make sure that we play with the desire that if the fans had the shirt on and what it means to them, means exactly the same to us. We have made it clear to the players how big of a game this is for the fans, they are aware of it and ultimately they have to remain calm, play the game and not the occasion.”
As far as his Opposite Number and the club he manages is concerned, Robbo added:
“It is a massive credit to John, his staff and the Board. They have one of the smallest budgets in the division (and) like ourselves, they have a smaller fan base and smaller finances. They have massively overachieved, they have had to sell players and have bought in players that other clubs might not touch, and have turned them into little gems. It is a model that we look at and it something that we can aim for. Accrington have a very similar model to how things were at Motherwell when I worked there, but you have to give everyone full credit there.”
So would the Shrimps play the match and not the occasion? It’s been distinctly autumnal in North Lancashire this week after some lovely sunny days for the time in year in September generally. Today had been grey and gloomy by the seaside and the floodlights were needed as the match kicked-off at three o’clock. By the end of the game, though, bright sunshine was dappling the pitch and it was much lighter than it had been when it started.
Accrington – playing in a white strip today – looked as they nearly always have done: big; physical and combative. They had some huge players in their squad such as central defenders 6’4” Ross Sykes and even taller Michael Nottingham. The ball spent a lot of time in the air throughout the game but for such a big side, Stanley didn’t really ever take advantage of their height advantage in my humble opinion. Seamus Connelly and Colby Bishop were a handful up-front throughout their time on the field. But – given what was about to unfold – I never thought the visitors ever had a secure hold on the game – as it was to prove in the end.
Before we go any further, though, let’s look at the absolutely key decision of the game. After almost forty minutes, there was a coming-together of Shane McLoughlin and Stanley’s Ethan Hamilton in the middle of the pitch. From where I was sitting, it looked like a clear foul by the Accrington player and I expected Referee Marc Edwards to book him. Instead, Stanley’s big units surrounded the man in the middle and basically intimidated him. He thus issued McLoughlin with a straight red card instead. And that was the game as a contest ruined. Maybe there was more to this than caught the eye but I for one thought it was an absolutely diabolical decision. And it wasn’t the only one. Marc Edwards lost control of the game at times today in my opinion and his performance overall was absolutely appalling as he constantly allowed Accrington to get away with niggly fouls all over the pitch. He’s simply not good enough to be officiating at this level.
Morecambe had taken the lead when Goal Machine Cole Stockton ran onto a killer pass by Adam Phillips from midfield beyond the visiting defence and scored with a sumptuous shot after a quarter of an hour. Just four minutes later, though, the visitors were level. The normally rock-solid Liam Gibson was already being given a torrid time by John O’Sullivan – who the home crowd booed half-heartedly every time he got the ball – on the Accrington right flank. Sully managed to get on the wrong side of the big Ginger defender and Liam was rash enough to bring him down. This was one of the few decisions that the Referee indisputably got right this afternoon. Bishop gave Kyle Letheren in the home goal no chance at all from the spot. The visitors then turned the game on its head just two minutes later when Matt Butcher scored from a long way out with a beautifully-judged shot. But what had been a thoroughly entertaining game was levelled up by Prodigal Son Phillips with a cheeky back-heel from a cross from Arthur Gnahoua on the Morecambe left virtually on the Stanley goal-line with twenty-seven minutes on the clock.
And then the referee ruined it all.
Stanley went ahead again during the second half when – having played a lot of the game in Shrimps’ territory for long periods, they finally made their one-man superiority count when McConville’s blocked attempt from close range bounced into his path and he duly buried it. This was after 67 minutes. But Morecambe – to their considerable credit – did not lie down. Both sides had half-chances from then until the end of the game but Cole Stockton again showed why he is the leading scorer in the entire EFL when he latched onto a poor attempted back-pass by substitute Jack Nolan and volleyed the ball home with an unstoppable volley with just eight minutes left.
So a game ruined by a weak referee ended all-square. For Morecambe, it must have felt like a moral victory and John Coleman could be forgiven for claiming that his men had thrown away two points by failing to kill the opposition when they had a perfect opportunity to do so. To be fair to him, though, he said that the sending-off changed the game over what looked like `an innocuous’ incident and criticised the referee for a number of other decisions he thought Mr Edwards got wrong. For the Shrimps to play for over half a match with a man down is an achievement in any circumstances. But to fight back from a losing position in a situation such as was the case today is a tremendous tribute by any measure to the spirit and determination of the team in adversity.
The draw saw Stanley go up to seventh in League One, just outside the Play-Off places. Morecambe meanwhile dropped one position to sixteenth.
Morecambe: 1 Kyle Letheren; 4 Anthony O’Connor (C); 7 Wes McDonald (25 Alfie McCalmont 39’); 8 Toumani Diagouraga; 9 Cole Stockton; 18 Adam Phillips (11 Josh McPake 77’); 19 Shane McLoughlin (R); 22 Liam Gibson (Y); 2 Ryan McLaughlin; 31 Scott Wootten; 24 Arthur Gnahoua (17 Jonah Ayunga 58’).
Subs Not Used: 20 Jökull Andrésson; 6 Callum Jones; 15 Ryan Delaney; 16 Jacob Mensah; 6 Callum Jones.
Accrington Stanley: 1 James Trafford; 3 Sam Sherring; 4 Ethan Hamilton (Y) (35 Jack Nolan 62’); 5 Ross Sykes; 6 Matt Butcher; 7 John O’Sullivan; 9 Colby Bishop; 11 Sean McConville; 12 Michael Nottingham (C); 26 Lewis Mansell (8 Harry Pell 62’); 28 Seamus Conneely (18 Tommy Leigh 78’); 36 Mitch Clark; 37 David Morgan; 41 Jovan Malcolm.
Subs Not Used: 40 Toby Savin; 36 Jordan Clark; 38 Yeboah Amankwah; 41 Jovan Malcolm.
Ref: Marc Edwards.
Att: 4,142 (573 from Accrington.)
