Reality Check at Peterborough for Morecambe.
We start today’s match report with some good news for our star striker, Cole Stockton. The cover picture shows Cole posing with the PFA Team of the Season award he received from the Professional Footballers’ Association earlier this week. He was named as the best Centre Forward – in the opinion of all of his professional colleagues – who wore the Number Nine shirt in League One last term. We all know that either one of the wonder strikes he netted against AFC Wimbledon at home and Fleetwood away should have won the EFL League Two Goal of the Season award. Even today’s opposition concurred with this view:
“The 28-year-old netted 26 goals in 50 appearances in all competitions last term, including some unbelievable goals with one in particular from the half-way line that should have yielded Goal of the Season awards aplenty.”
But we also know the nature of the EFL itself so it’s no surprise that his efforts were not even considered. However, to be recognised by your fellow players as the star you actually are must be more gratifying for Cole than any hollow trophy awarded by the Men in Suits at Football League HQ. He said:
“I’m delighted to win it and be recognised for what I did last season and to be recognised by the PFA. It’s always nice to win awards, so I’m grateful. You’ve always got to keep hungry, it gives you that little more bite to go and do it again.”
His next opportunity to `do it again’ arrived at London Road in Cambridgeshire this afternoon. Hosts Peterborough United ended-up twenty-second in the Championship last season; four points and a single place adrift of Reading and safety. But Posh are no strangers to promotion and relegation.
We like to boast, as Shrimps’ supporters, that our club has never been relegated. We proudly sing about this unique fact (in comparison all fellow EFL and most non-league clubs) from the terraces.
In contrast, Peterborough fans could equally well loudly blast forth the following ditty: “We get relegated every two seasons or so!”
Not quite so catchy, admittedly – but true nevertheless. The Yo-Yo nature of United in recent times is reflected by the fact that the only time they have met Morecambe before in any competition was fifteen years ago. At Christie Park, the Shrimps came from two goals down to beat them 3-2 in a League Two fixture. Morecambe’s Norwich loanee goalkeeper Joe Lewis so impressed then Posh Manager Duncan Ferguson that he signed him on the strength of this one performance alone. In an earlier game in Cambridgeshire, the match at London Road had already resulted in a scoreless draw.
So whilst we loyal Shrimps fans wonder if we can sustain a century-old tradition of never having gone down, Posh supporters face a totally different dilemma season after apparently endless season. For over the last decade and a half, the poor devils must wonder at the beginning of every campaign: “What Division are we in this time?” followed by “Is Darren Ferguson still our Manager?”
He isn’t. He has been for a whole three stints as Posh have bounced between League Two and the Championship but he’s not in charge any more. That berth has been filled by another previous boss – and in this case a former team Captain – Ulsterman Grant McCann. He has returned for a second go at it having had more (and sometimes less) successful spells in charge of Carlisle United and Hull City in the meantime.
He said about today’s clash:
“Morecambe will be a tough game, every game in this division is. They have a successful manager in Derek Adams and they got a good point on opening day. We will select a side and a formation that we believe can cause them problems. We want to be successful this season and a good home record will be important.”
As Mr McCann mentioned, the Shrimps started their League One campaign at home with a goal-less draw against Shrewsbury last Saturday. They thus arrived at London Road in sixteenth position in League One – two points but a whole fourteen places behind Posh.
Many pundits (and Bookies) make Peterborough favourites for automatic promotion back to the Championship. At half-time last Saturday, this didn’t look likely. United had allowed home side Cheltenham to take a two goal lead. But by the end, Grant McCann’s men managed to turn the game on its head and also delight the Bookmakers by winning by the odd goal in five. Since then, though, star midfielder Sammie Szmodics has signed for Blackburn Rovers which has certainly weakened the United line-up. Hector Kyprianou took his place in his place today. I was also hoping that Ricky-Jade Jones would be in their side because I adore “Chuck E’s in Love”…
(Sorry, what was that? Oh – Rickie Lee Jones – are you sure?...)
Anyway, Derek Adams said this about Posh prior to the game:
“They’re a football club that have shown over the years (that) their transfer business is excellent. They take in players, they pay money in transfer fees but what they do is they then sell them on at a higher premium than they bought them for. That’s the model that the owner has put in place, and it’s a terrific model for them. They’re one of the clubs in this league if you’re an up-and-coming team, you have to look to. They’ve got some talented players in their side. They were two-nil down last week; they came back and won three-two. So we understand the problems they can cause us. We understand that there are possible problems we can cause them – because Cheltenham did it to them in the first half.”
As far as what many of us thought was a pretty ropey display last week against the Shrews, King Derek added:
“We had five new players starting. When that is the case, you’re playing at home in front of your home fans, there is that expectation and I thought they held themselves, they looked after themselves. They’ve got their parents at the game, they’ve got family and I think, over the afternoon, I was really happy with the outcome. I thought they were very good. Everyone that played on the day played their part. They had to play tactically a different way at times and I thought they handled that situation well.”
The Boss shuffled his pack from the players which started last Saturday. They all featured again in the squad but Dylan Connolly and Arthur Gnahoua were dropped to the bench and Jake Taylor and Jensen Weir took their places in the starting eleven. For Brighton loanee Jensen, this was his debut for the club.
`The Posh’ – Peterborough’s official club website – started their analysis of the forthcoming game with this interesting remark:
“Cole Stockton is expected to lead the line despite interest from a host of other clubs.”
An unofficial history of the visitors was also provided on the Posh Twitter feed for fans unfamiliar with today’s opponents by Sir Gareth T Wildebeest III:
“Morecambe, named after Eric Morecambe from comedy duo Little and Large, are managed by Derek Adams, brother of mafia boss Terry.”
(For those of us – like me – who have never heard of Terry Adams, he was boss of something called The Clerkenwell Crime Syndicate. This was a new incarnation of the Kray twins’ scary hoodlums – but `sarf’ of the river Thames instead of in the East End. This equivalent of the London Mafia were also known as `The A-Team’ and `The Adams Family’. So now you know. And with that snippet of totally useless information, it’s back to the football…)
In charge at the London Stadium today was Dean Whitestone. This is a new name on me and I’m pretty sure the Northampton-based Referee hasn’t officiated in any games involving Morecambe in the past. Given what was about to happen, he is welcome back any time…
In the dustbowl which is apparently all that remains of the south of England at the moment, it was hot (23˚C) and sunny most of the time this afternoon. The game soon settled into a pattern which was familiar to Shrimps fans from Derek Adams’ League Two campaign. They were set-up to absorb the home pressure and play on the break. Cole Stockton and Ash Hunter were playing effectively as twin strikers and combined quite well in the opening phase of the match but the first good chance of the game fell to the home side after seven minutes. Josh Knight took the ball forward from the back and found Danger Man Jack Marriot whose low cross into the area aimed at Skipper Jonson Clarke-Harris was missed by him and then dealt with by a combination of sterling work by Connor Riley and his defence.
If this was a warning, Morecambe didn’t heed it. Just two minutes later, Joe Ward chanced his arm from twenty-five yards out and saw his shot effectively go through Connor Ripley’s gloves into the bottom corner of the net to the goalkeeper’s left. It was a very poor goal to concede at a time when the visitors seemed to be weathering the home storm quite effectively and actually forcing Posh onto the back foot at times.
Ward tried his luck with another long-range shot after a quarter of an hour but this time his attempt was off-target. After a couple of attempts to play in Stockton and Hunter were overhit by Jake Taylor, Cole the Goal had a golden opportunity to equalise after seventeen minutes. He was played-in to be one-on-one with United goalie Lucas Bergström. The young Chelsea loanee, however, did really well to stand his ground and then save Cole’s shot with his feet. Having said that though, our talismanic striker shot straight at him when he would normally be expected to bury the ball.
Jake Taylor then missed with a shot from distance after twenty minutes before Jensen Weir was found on the edge of the penalty area with a smart pass a couple of minutes later. He seemed to be caught in two minds, though – and the chance came to nothing. Then Hunter found Donald Love after about 25 minutes only to see the Morecambe Captain’s shot deflected for a corner.
With almost half an hour played, Ben Thompson drew a good save from Ripley with a shot from a long way out which Farrend Rawson then booted away from the danger area. The visiting custodian had a bit of a scare next after 37 minutes when a defensive header by Ryan Delaney went far too close to the Morecambe goal for his liking. For the hosts, Danger Man Jack Marriot missed with a long-range shot with forty minutes on the clock. As the first half seemed to be drifting towards a narrow lead for United, the story so far seemed to be a tale of two goalkeepers. At one end, Connor Ripley should have done better as Posh took the lead. At the other, Bergström did brilliantly to keep Stockton out. But with only a couple of minutes left of the half left to play, Morecambe went further behind. Thompson opened his account for his new club when, following a scramble in the away defence following a free-kick, he took a shot which – once again – Ripley might have done better with. Worse still, the goalkeeper had set-up the chance himself by failing to hold onto a shot by Clarke-Harris direct from a free-kick.
So the visitors trailed back to the Dressing Room with what suddenly looked like a mountain instead of a molehill to climb in the second half.
Things soon went from bad to worse for the visitors. Following a misunderstanding between Liam Gibson and Rawson, Ripley brought Clarke-Harris down in the home penalty area with ten minutes of the second period gone. Referee Dean Whitestone pointed immediately to the penalty spot and we feared being reduced to ten men but the Shrimps’ collective bacon was saved by an upraised flag by a linesman. Off-Side was given but it seemed certain that the ball which caused the foul by Morecambe’s goalkeeper was played towards him by one of his own defenders.
Ripley was soon busy again and made a really good save from Marriot after 53 minutes and then an even better point-blank one from Clarke-Harris barely a minute later as Peterborough forced a succession of corners.
At the other end though, Morecambe had another chance to reduce the arrears with sixty-nine minutes played. Bergström once again used his feet to brilliantly keep out Hunter’s effort from about two yards out, though. Morecambe then fell even further behind after losing possession on the half way line after 73 minutes. Hector Kyprianou celebrated his inclusion in the first team with a cool first finish for the club after being played-in by Marriott. With the match effectively already won, Grant McCann soon replaced almost half of his team with five substitutes. Derek Adams also changed things but United continued to dominate the game. Substitute Jon Obika ballooned a shot high and wide towards the end of proceedings but that was one of very few efforts the visitors were able to make in the dying embers of the contest. Connor Ripley pulled-off a good save from sub David Ajiboye during injury time but Posh seemed to be content with what they already had for the last quarter or so of the match.
The gulf in class – and depth of resources – between a club which was plying its trade in the Championship last season and one that only escaped relegation back to League Two by the skin of its teeth was there for all to see today. Having said that, the visitors occasionally threatened and with a bit more luck might have netted a couple of times. That being said, with a bit less luck, they could have lost by an even greater margin but for what was probably a mistake by one of the linesmen in the second half.
Derek Adams made a typically honest assessment of the game this evening when he said:
“I thought it was a good performance from us this afternoon. We caused Peterborough trouble at times and (created) a good number of opportunities. We didn’t take them. Unfortunately for us, they score a goal, probably against the run of play at that moment in time in the game. That was unexpected. We all know how good a side that Peterborough are. Cole Stockton should score: he is one-on-one with the goalkeeper at one-nil. That – we should have done better at. Connor (Ripley) should save it (their first goal.) We’re coming up against a team that has come down from the Championship – a very good side. I thought that at times we kept the ball; we passed it sometimes– (and) sometimes we didn’t. There’s a lot to build on.”
The loss sees the Shrimps slip into the relegation zone in League One tonight. They are twenty-first in the Division above point-less Cheltenham; the Plastic People and Burton Albion. Posh, meanwhile, find themselves right at the pinnacle of League One. On today’s performances, these are positions that probably both teams merit. This afternoon’s match was a bit of a reality check for the Shrimps – or some of their supporters at least. However, I thought the point Dean Ashton made last week on the much-improved ITV4 coverage of the EFL said it all. He reminded us that Derek Adams is back in charge and that he must never be underestimated.
Like Dean, Credo in unum Derek.
And just to remind anyone who doubts this, things could indisputably be much worse. We only have to look at the magic our last Manager has brought to St Mirren in the Scottish Premiership. He took this club from near the top of the table to perilous depths last season when he abandoned Morecambe to the fate he had engineered for it with just one win and no draws in eleven games for the team from Paisley. This time out – with two games played – they are rock bottom of the pile with no points at all. He memorably stated last season that he regarded six points out of every five games to be sufficient to keep Morecambe in League One – and then failed to deliver this very modest target. Faced with the same calculation recently, our current Manager expressed his own expectation from any five games played in any league:
Fifteen points.
Stephen Robinson anyone?
Peterborough United: 1 Lucas Bergström; 4 Ronnie Edwards; 5 Josh Knight (19 David Ajiboye 76’); 6 Frankie Kent; 8 Jack Taylor; 9 Jonson Clarke-Harris (C); 14 Jack Marriott (Y) (26 Joel Randall 76’); 16 Harrison Burrows (12 Nathan Thompson 80’); 22 Hector Kyprianou; 23 Joe Ward (21 Joseph Tomlinson 80’); 24 Ben Thompson (27 Joe Taylor 76’).
Subs not used: 40 Will Lakin; 7 Jeando Fuchs.
Morecambe: 1 Connor Ripley; 2 Donald Love (C); 3 Max Melbourne (17 Caleb Watts 69’); 4 Liam Gibson; 5 Farrend Rawson; 6 Ryan Delaney; 7 Jake Taylor (18 Shane McLoughlin 76’); 8 Ousmane Fané (Y); 9 Cole Stockton (19 Jon Obika 76’); 10 Ash Hunter (11 Dylan Connolly 76’); 15 Jensen Weir.
Subs not used: 12 Adam Smith; 14 Arthur Gnahoua; 22 Anthony O’Connor.
Ref: Dean Whitestone.
Att: Lots but I can’t find any figures.
