Goal Fest at Morecambe…
Here’s something that puzzles me:
According to the Ministry of Health, over one hundred and twenty-seven thousand people have died in the UK so far from Covid-19 and more – immensely tragically – are still going to. I’d have thought that a nationwide One Minute Silence to mourn their passing is the least the government could do to acknowledge this loss of the equivalent of twice the entire population of the City of Lancaster. Surely, even a Two Minute silence should not be too much to ask, should it? But as far as I am aware, the government haven’t made any grand gesture whatsoever to even acknowledge the modern plague which has swept across the UK in recent times. Yet the death of just one individual – one very elderly, extremely privileged individual at that – has brought not just the nation but the whole football programme across Britain today to a grinding halt. By Order of HM Government.
Is the demise of one old man – however sad – really more significant than the collective deaths of over 127,000 other human beings?
Just a thought, folks… Anyway – the Shrimps welcomed Oldham Athletic two and a half hours earlier than originally scheduled today on the back of a really strong display against Scunthorpe United last Tuesday at the Mazuma Stadium. They won 4-1 and it could well have been more. If they were to play with the same intensity against the Latics today, Keith Curle’s team might just as well have stayed at home. But the ex-Manchester City star has not so much transformed Oldham’s fortunes since taking over from Harry Kewell early last month but injected an energy into the team which was previously completely missing. Oldham arrived in North Lancashire on the back of two straight wins in League Two with two losses and a win before that. They didn’t play in midweek but their last outing saw them take struggling Colchester apart at Boundary Park, where they won 5-2 last Saturday to put themselves into sixteenth position in League Two. Historically, Athletic had lost both cup games they have played against the Shrimps – most recently in the League Cup at the Maz last September. The league record between the two clubs also favours the Shrimps: three wins to two with no drawn games ever. One of these victories was Morecambe’s triumph by the odd goal in five last October in the reverse fixture.
Derek Adams’ team went into the game on the back of two wins, two losses and a single draw in their last five League Two matches. They were fourth in the table prior to the game and the Manager, acknowledging that his side had won their last two league games, added this before the match started:
“Oldham have two impressive wins under their belt too. They’ve scored a good number of goals over those two games. We’ve played them already this season, winning the game away from home. They have a different manager now in Keith Curle, who was at our midweek fixture against Scunthorpe. He’ll have seen how we play, we’re obviously capable of changing that. We’ve got three home and two away games left, every point we can get now is going to be hugely beneficial. We’re on 66 points now, which is a fantastic points total but we want to add to that.”
He promoted Kelvin Mellor back into the starting eleven today at the expense of Ryan Cooney but, other than that, chose the same line-up who played so well against Scunny earlier in the week. Opposite number Keith Curle also selected the same team which has beaten Colchester a week ago although they did appear to have a Hobbit as goalkeeping cover on the bench. (I must apologise immediately to Laurence Bilboe for this very obvious remark – he must be sick of quips like these.)
It has been gloriously sunny – albeit cold – in Morecambe for the last week and more. The teams and officials Took the Knee and then the home team kicked-off in bright sunshine. Within a minute, the Shrimps stated their intention: Toumani Diagouraga passed the ball to Carlos Mendes-Gomes in the Oldham penalty area and Carlos tried to flick it on the Aaron Wildig on the left of the box – and just misjudged the pass. But the team in the red strip were clearly determined to push the visitors onto the back foot and they scored after just four minutes. There was excellent interplay between Wildig, Kelvin Mellor and then Cole Stockton who played the ball forward for Carlos to squeeze it past Laurie Walker from an acute angle. Callum Whelan then got it all wrong at the other end after six minutes when he took a weak shot which Kyle Letheren in the home net gathered easily. Straight after this, Morecambe were attacking down the right flank again and Mellor took a tremendous shot from a long way out which Walker helped over the bar for a corner. From the twelfth minute to about the thirty-seventh, the i-Follow picture feed failed and I have to rely on what happened during this hiatus from the audio commentary of the Shrimpartial Twins. Oldham clearly were playing themselves back into the game and even had the ball in the net after about 24 minutes but Cameron Borthwick-Jackson’s shot was ruled out for off-side. Letheren also did well to save another attempt after about twenty-seven minutes – from Davis Keillor-Dunn according to the Oldham Twitter feed. Cole Stockton then apparently wasted a golden opportunity to restore the home team’s lead after about 35 minutes – screwing the ball wide of the target when unmarked in the centre of goal about eight yards out. It was clear even before the pictures went off that Dylan Bahamboula was having an outstanding game for the visitors and also that Laurie Walker in goal was carrying an injury which meant he was unable to kick the ball any distance – and preferred not to kick it at all. But the live feed came on again just in time to see Borthwick-Jackson lob the ball from way into his own half on the left flank into the opposition penalty area. Conor McAleny got the wrong side of Morecambe Skipper Sam Lavelle and equalised with a beautifully judged lob over the home goalkeeper. But the visitors clearly hadn’t come to North Lancashire in search of a draw: they continued to attack and some of their inter-passing and movement off the ball was really impressive. Having said that, the hosts also looked dangerous every time they got within sniffing distance of the opposition goal. After 41 minutes, the Shrimps restored their lead when Wildig received the ball centrally, passed it out to Carlos on the left and was on-hand to knock the resulting killer ball into the danger area over the line past a helpless goalkeeper. In injury time right at the end of the half, the hosts increased their lead with another outstanding team goal. Wildig’s attempt on goal was blocked but Morecambe picked-up the second ball, Liam Gibson made good progress on the left wing and played a low ball into the centre which Aaron back-heeled to Cole, who took it on about three strides before firing a fine shot past Walker.
The second half followed the same pattern as the first. Oldham had a lot of the ball and moved it quickly and effectively. They always looked a threat going forward. But the hosts were far more clinical – and deadly – to start off with at least. Wildig almost reached a back pass before a clearly struggling Walker managed to clear the ball in the opening minute. Then Oldham Captain Carl Piergianni fouled Cole three minutes later and the ball found `Toums’ in the Athletic penalty area from the resulting free-kick. Unfortunately, his effort from this went wide of the target. Oldham had the next attempt on goal after 50 minutes – but a shot from a long way out went ballooning way over the bar. Two minutes later, the outstanding Diagouraga played a brilliant dummy on the Morecambe left and played Carlos in again with another perfect pass which the latter dispatched beautifully. But even at four-one down, the visitors’ heads did not drop. If anything, they played even better than before. Manager Curle shook things up with a triple substitution after an hour and as Morecambe seemed to become increasingly complacent, looked like they weren’t beaten yet. However, the hosts could – and probably should – have gone even further ahead after 61 minutes. After Piergianni made a mistake, Carlos pounced on the ball and played a perfect pass to Wildig, who should have buried it. Instead, he totally messed-up his effort. Poor defending after 72 minutes saw Borthwick-Jackson sweep the ball home at the far post from a Latics corner from their left. More poor defending by the home team saw Oldham reduce the arrears even further from another corner in the eighty-seventh minute when Kyle Jameson headed home unchallenged. So it was squeaky bum time for Derek Adams and his men for the remaining seven minutes of the game including injury time. But they did just enough to keep the visitors out.
This was a tremendous game of football. It was quick, skilful and exciting. It was also played in a really good spirit and excellent referee Michael Salisbury didn’t book anybody. Elsewhere, third-placed Bolton surprisingly lost 2-1 at bottom club Grimsby to reduce the gap between themselves and the Shrimps to a single point with four games left to play before the end of the season. Morecambe remain fourth in the standings. Meanwhile, a very impressive Oldham Athletic slipped one place in the table to seventeenth.
Morecambe: 1 Kyle Letheren; 2 Kelvin Mellor; 4 Nathaniel Knight-Percival; 5 Sam Lavelle (C); 22 Liam Gibson; 24 Yann Songo’o; 8 Toumani Diagouraga; 9 Cole Stockton (3 Stephen Hendrie 92’); 10 Aaron Wildig (15 Brad Lyons 82’); 11 Carlos Mendes-Gomes; 16 John O’Sullivan (21 Ryan Cooney 64’).
Subs not used: 12 Mark Halstead; 6 Harry Davis; 23 Freddie Price; 19 Liam McAlinden.
Oldham Athletic: 37 Laurie Walker; 2 Harry Clarke (21 Marcel Hilßner 64’); 5 Carl Piergianni (C); 15 Kyle Jameson; 14 Dylan Fage (23 Nicky Adams 59’); 25 Alfie McCalmont (6 Ben Garrity 59’); 8 Callum Whelan; 3 Cameron Borthwick-Jackson; 24 Dylan Bahamboula (7 George Blackwood 59’); 18 Conor McAleny; 10 Davis Keillor-Dunn (34 Harry Vaughan 83’).
Subs not used: 33 Laurence Bilboe; 20 Andrea Badan.
Ref: Michael Salisbury.
