For Scunny: Too Sunny and Not Funny At Morecambe.
Confusion reigned at Morecambe Football Club today. The official website announced that this evening’s game against Scunthorpe United was off due to a frozen pitch as long ago as Sunday but the game was still listed to go ahead on most fixture listings on the day itself and – perhaps most importantly – on the Scunthorpe Twitter feed as well. Would it go ahead? Or would it not?
It would. So what was that all about?
Anyway – the home team were in urgent need of a boost in form this evening. They have taken seven points from their last five league games but just one from the last three at this absolutely critical time of the season. Having started well against Port Vale in the snow last Saturday, they contrived to lose by the only game of a really dreary contest once the weather improved. But what chance did they have of getting back to winning ways tonight? Not much, if history is any guide. Morecambe have never beaten Scunthorpe United home or away. They have tried to on five previous occasions and lost three of them. The last time they played was last November, when another truly dreadful match ended in a draw. The Iron arrived in eighteenth position in League Two on the back of just one win in their last five league outings and three draws; the last one 0-0 against the Shrimps’ Play-Off rivals Tranmere in Lincolnshire last Saturday. Scunny Manager Neil Cox had this to say before tonight’s contest:
“We’re looking forward to the game. Obviously, Morecambe are a good side and we had a good game against them at home earlier in the season. They need to win games. They’re pushing to get automatic promotion from the play-offs and we’re looking to get three points. We had a good performance on Saturday, we had a really good go and we’re looking for the same again. We have to be better in possession which we did at times on Saturday, we need to be better in the final third and we have to create chances. We’ve got ourselves organised defensively, it’s about having that bravery going forward and having that bit of quality with the final passes. We’ll be raring to go and looking to take some of the positivity into the game from the weekend.”
There were injury worries for Mr Cox about John McAtee, George Taft and Kevin van Veen but Devarn Green – injured just over a week ago – was expected to return tonight. United would, however, be missing an injured Olufela Olomola and an unwell Abo Eisa.
For Morecambe, Derek Adams promoted Toumani Diagouraga and Kelvin Mellor to the starting line-up tonight at the expense of Ryan Cooney and Brad Lyons.
It had been sunny but with a bitingly cold wind all day in Morecambe. The visitors won the toss and elected to have the home side play facing the low sun. But Morecambe immediately went onto the front foot – and stayed there. After just three minutes, Toumani Diagouraga received a throw-in from the left in the opposition penalty area and headed the ball to Cole Stockton. He, in turn, spun and unleashed a fierce strike which drew a phenomenal save from Rory Watson in the United goal high to his left. After seven minutes, John O’Sullivan played a penetrating ball into the visitors’ penalty area and saw Scunthorpe defender Myles Hippolyte play it to an unmarked Carlos Mendes-Gomes in the centre of the goal. Carlos seemed so astonished to receive the ball that he couldn’t get it under control and the chance was lost. Just a minute later, though, the same player tried his luck from a long way out on the Morecambe left and forced another excellent save from Watson at the cost of a corner. The Iron’s defence struggled to clear this and they found that even when they were in possession, Morecambe’s constant pressing found them retreating into their own half more often than they were making any progress forwards. On a rare foray into the opposition’s half after thirteen minutes, Hippolyte controlled the ball well in the Shrimps’ penalty area as it came in from the right wing but a combination of being blinded by the sun and failing to keep his balance saw the chance go begging. Two minutes later, Jem Karacan also tried his luck with a shot from a long way out on the Scunny left: the ball missed the left hand side of Kyle Letheren’s goal by quite a margin. Up at the other end, Cole received a header from Sully after seventeen minutes and took a shot from an acute angle on the Morecambe right which missed the far post. Then Carlos was in an off-side position when well placed and found by a lob from `Toums’ after eighteen minutes. Morecambe were still looking lively when Karacan broke on the United right but his hopeless attempt at a cross went straight out of play for a goal-kick. With twenty- three minutes on the clock, O’Sullivan anticipated a Scunthorpe move on the Morecambe right and then found Cole in the centre. Morecambe’s centre forward took one touch to control the ball and then smashed an unstoppable shot into the top left corner of Watson’s net with the goalkeeper floundering. Twenty-eight minutes had been played when Teddy Howe was booked for fouling Mendes-Gomes and pulling his shirt into the bargain. The home team were still on top and pressing the visitors backwards. On thirty-six minutes, the outstanding Sully pinched the ball from Hippolyte on the half-way line, made rapid progress up the right and then played a superb ball to Carlos in the centre for the Spanish forward to beat Watson again with a sublime finish. It was still all Morecambe when Howe committed another cynical foul on Stockton with just two minutes scheduled to play of the first period. Referee Declan Bourne should have sent him off. Instead, he only awarded a free-kick. A no doubt mightily relieved Neil Cox immediately substituted him – a minute before the break.
Morecambe carried on in the second half just as they had during the first. Cole Stockton was badly fouled by George Taft within a minute of the restart – and Referee Bourne again kept his cards in his pocket. The forty-eighth minute saw Watson pull-off another tremendous save from Aaron Wildig’s effort from a pass by Carlos after United had given the ball away. From the resulting corner, it seemed to me that Sam Lavelle scored with a header – but the scorers logged it as an own-goal from Jacob Bedeau instead. Whatever, it was clear that Rory Watson was blinded by the low sun as the ball came across and his despairing lunge to his left to try and keep it out was too late. And still the home side pressed. Diagouraga made excellent progress to the right of centre after 52 minutes but his final ball towards Cole was slightly over-hit. Letheren made a routine save after 54 minutes and then a truly excellent one from Kevin van Veen three minutes later from the Scunny left after the Shrimps had given the ball away. With almost an hour on the clock, Morecambe won another free-kick on their right just over the half way line. Wildig played a clever pass low to the right; Carlos latched onto it, took the ball to the goal-line and struck it right across the goal-mouth for a stretching Yann Songo’o to bundle it over the line to put the home side four goals to the good.
Strangely enough, Scunny played their best football of the match after this. They were probably playing for pride and the hosts also maybe took their feet off the gas a bit as well. They won a corner after 62 minutes which Letheren punched away. Karacan smashed the loose ball against the bar and then Taft drew a superb save from the Shrimps’ goalkeeper from the rebound. Their Manager shook things up with a triple substitution with twenty minutes left. It paid-off when replacement Alfie Beestin got the rub of the green after 82 minutes when rebounds fell nicely for him not just once but twice before he managed to bundle the ball over the line to reduce the arrears.
The game had already been long-gone though and Morecambe ended-up very comfortable winners. After a disappointing couple of performances, this was a tremendously committed display tonight. With Tranmere perhaps surprisingly losing at Walsall, Derek Adams’ side leap-frogged over them into fourth place in League Two. Bolton won again tonight and the Shrimps are four points behind them with the same number of games played and five matches left. Their first-ever loss to Morecambe saw the Iron, meanwhile, fall to nineteenth place.
Morecambe: 1 Kyle Letheren; 2 Kelvin Mellor; 4 Nathaniel Knight-Percival; 5 Sam Lavelle (C); 8 Toumani Diagouraga; 22 Liam Gibson; 24 Yann Songo’o (Y) (21 Ryan Cooney 88’); 9 Cole Stockton; 10 Aaron Wildig (15 Brad Lyons 70’); 11 Carlos Mendes-Gomes (23 Freddie Price 85’); 16 John O’Sullivan.
Subs not used: 12 Mark Halstead; 6 Harry Davis; 3 Stephen Hendrie; 19 Liam McAlinden.
Scunthorpe United: 1 Rory Watson; 3 George Taft; 4 Jacob Bedeau (5 Harrison McGahey 70’); 8 Alex Gilliead (C); 10 Kevin van Veen (40 Harry Jessop 70’); 15 Myles Hippolyte (14 Devarn Green 54’); 20 Lewis Spence; 23 Jem Karacan (22 Alfie Beestin 70’); 32 Teddy Howe (Y) (25 Jai Rowe; 44’); 38 Mason O’Malley; 45 John McAtee.
Subs not used: 41 Tom Collins; 30 Tom Pugh.
Ref: Declan Bourne.
