Morecambe not All At Sea at Portsmouth – but still lose.
Let’s start on an update about the appalling incident when some psycho among our ranks at the Stadium of Light threw a flare into the middle of the home fans below them in the ground. Morecambe Football Club made this statement after the game:
“Morecambe Football Club will take the strongest possible action against the perpetrator(s), if it emerges that they are our ‘supporter(s)’. We pride ourselves on being a family friendly club and are in dialogue with Sunderland AFC over the incident so action can be taken against the culprit(s). This kind of behaviour has no place at football grounds and both Sunderland AFC and Morecambe are as one in condemning action of this nature.”
Northumbria Police are involved in the investigation of this indefensible criminal act, which could have blinded or disfigured completely innocent individuals. I personally hope that whichever idiot actually did this is not only banned from football grounds altogether but prosecuted for what they have done. People are in prison for less. Anybody who condones this lunacy needs to have their head examined – and someone (and probably several somebodies) knows who did it. Shop them before this moron seriously injures somebody – we do not want people like this at our club: they are not welcome.
Proper fans of the Shrimps made the long trek to the south coast today to see if their heroes could improve on their woeful performance in the North East last Tuesday night. It wouldn’t be difficult to do so: the Shrimps lost five-nil and it could have been a lot more. This was one of the most feeble performances I have ever personally witnessed from any Morecambe FC team and it required an instant reaction today. Manager Stephen Robinson said this after the humiliation by the Black Cats:
“The excuses need to be put away. It seems to be that when we go a couple of goals down, if we don’t get straight back into it, we’re quite weak. As I’ve said millions of times, we’re a very quiet squad. I need some leaders in the team. We have to try and get people to take responsibility and not accept conceding goals and accepting defeats. Yeah we’re at a bigger stadium (and) at a bigger club with a bigger fan base and resources, but a lot of the things we can still control that we didn’t tonight.”
He has broken the season’s league programme down into bite-sized sequences of five matches. Currently, they have lost three of their last five League One and won only one. Robbo reckons they need to win a minimum of two from every five to stay in the Division. So you don’t have to be Einstein to see that they are on the wrong trajectory altogether at the moment. They arrived in Hampshire in twentieth position in the table – just a point above Fleetwood, who occupied the highest of the relegation positions at the bottom of League One. Bearing all this in mind, Mr Robinson promised that his team would press high up the field and `have a right go’ today. He said before the game:
“We need to get six points from the next three games to be exactly where I thought we would be, so it is not a mad crisis. There was nobody more humiliated after the (Sunderland) result than me. I take it personally. I don’t think I left my house for 48 hours. But we are back in, it is a case of bouncing back again – motivating the players because they are human, they make mistakes. We just need to be braver and make better decisions.”
As for Pompey, they started the game on the back of four victories in their last five league games and no defeats at all. This fine form has propelled them to the edge of the Play-Off positions at ninth place in the table. Having said that, they were only able to draw in a goal-less game against Sheffield Wednesday at home last Tuesday and faced the embarrassment of being dumped out of the FA Cup at Fratton Park last Saturday by League Two Harrogate Town. However, Portsmouth, like Sunderland, is a once mighty club fallen on relatively hard times. But their fanbase remains enormous and their potential to improve their league standing is virtually limitless. In previous encounters, the record is good given the massive disparity in the resources available to each club: two wins and four draws each.
Portsmouth Manager Danny Cowley was announced as the EFL’s League One Manager of the Month this week. The award was made not just to recognise his team’s sparking form in the competition, it also reflected the reality that the boss has had to manage both Covid and a sickness bug which has laid many of his squad low in recent weeks. He said:
“It’s a real challenge and we’re still feeling the unavailability we have in the group – through illness and injury. I received another text message early on Thursday morning from a player who had to pull out of training. The situation is what it is, though, and we’ve done well in recent weeks to find some solutions to that. We’re all feeling extremely focused and determined to find even more answers on Saturday afternoon. Every precaution is being taken – which is something we’ve all become used to since the outbreak of Covid. You have to be more vigilant, but some of these viruses are difficult to stop.”
As far as today’s opponents were concerned, he added:
“I’ve got a lot of respect for them and thought they were the most organised side in League Two last season. They were particularly good against the ball and gave away very little space before winning it and countering quickly. Morecambe had a positive start to the current season and although there’s been a difficult run of late, we know they’ll be motivated to put that disappointment behind them.”
He’s probably right to say that Morecambe were the most organised team in League Two last season. But this was when Derek Adams was in charge. Since then, defending has been a constant problem for Stephen Robinson’s team. They looked uncertain and vulnerable – I hesitate to add `overawed’ as well but I fear it may be true – at the Stadium of Light last Tuesday. Would the same thing happen today against a team which is arguably even better than Sunderland’s based on current performances?
There were no changes in the Portsmouth line-up which drew against the Owls on Tuesday. Inevitably, there were changes in Morecambe’s line-up today, though. Callum Jones, Aaron Wildig, Ryan Delaney, Arthur Gnahoua and – perhaps harshly – Jonah Ayunga – were all dropped to the bench. Liam Gibson and Scott Wooten were added to stiffen-up the defence and Jonathan Obika was given a chance to show what he can do up front with Cole Stockton after recovering from a long-term injury. Obika stated his intention before the match to be more vocal, making the point that older players such as himself had a duty to encourage many of the youngsters in the team in a way that has been missing in many games so far this season.
It was dry but grey as the match kicked-off close to the Solent. It was noisy too as the massed ranks of almost fifteen thousand home fans (complete with hand-bell) made their presence felt in the early stages of the contest. Ronan Curtis had the first shot of the game after about five minutes but it flew over the bar harmlessly from a long way out. He missed again a few minutes later having been set-up by Miguel Azeez. But Pompey took the lead as the ball was played over the top to George Hirst, who took the ball around Kyle Letheren as he came out to meet him and then slammed it against the crossbar. Azeez reacted first to then hit the rebound against a post before – as the Shrimps’ rearguard still failed to react – leading scorer Marcus Harness slammed the loose ball home. This was a comedy of errors which meant that – after just eleven minutes – the visitors seemed yet again to be facing a mountain to climb with hardly any of the game played. Manchester City loanee and Irish International Gavin Bazunu in the Pompey net was not troubled until Cole The Goal turned and shot after having been found by Adam Phillips with 16 minutes on the clock: it was a good save low to his right although not a particularly difficult one to make. Stockton then made a total mess of a half-decent opportunity about three minutes later. The men in the blue shirts were not dominating the play in the way Sunderland did the other night, though. Nice approach play saw Letheren make a routine save from Ronan Curtis after half an hour. Then Obika and Phillips combined well to set-up a shot from Alfie McCalmont which was deflected for a corner a little while later. Connor Ogilvie then made a tremendous tackle on Cole the Goal to prevent him scoring with about 35 minutes played before Pompey had an immediate chance at the other end which came to nothing. Phillips wasted a free-kick from a promising position with a poor shot straight into the home wall after thirty-eight minutes. The hosts won another free-kick in a dangerous position with about a minute of the half remaining. Reeco Hackett managed to swerve it around the Morecambe wall but Letheren again saved the shot without too much trouble. Then Gibson almost played-in the Goal Machine once more but a blue-clad leg managed to reach the ball just before Cole was able to pull the trigger.
So Morecambe went back to the changing room in arrears once more. So far, though, they didn’t ever look like falling apart in the way they had done earlier in the week. With Fleetwood winning at home against fellow-strugglers Gillingham, though, they were actually in the relegation zone as they prepared for the second half.
The visitors started the second period quite brightly. Alfie took over free-kick duties from Adam Phillips and sent over a good one after 48 minutes which the hosts’ rear-guard struggled to clear. As the home crowd fell increasingly silent, Morecambe continued to press without seriously testing Bazunu in the home goal. Curtis then headed Harness’s cross from the left tamely straight at the visiting goalkeeper when well placed after 54 minutes in a move which saw Scott Wooten’s match end with some sort of painful leg injury off the ball. As the rain started to fall, Stockton played Phillips in for a shot which was deflected for a corner after 56 minutes. With the pitch getting heavier and with thoughts of overdoing it clearly in the Manager’s mind, Obika was withdrawn after an hour. His replacement, Jonah Ayunga, wasted no time having a punt at goal which didn’t trouble the home goalkeeper. Arsenal loanee Aziz then missed the target for Pompey with a shot which went over the bar with sixty-four minutes played. Jonah got away from the home defence shortly afterwards but his cross into the middle eluded both Stockton and Phillips with the home defence – appropriately I suppose – all at sea for once. Then Phillips headed McCalmont’s latest free-kick straight at the home goalkeeper on sixty-nine minutes as the Shrimps enjoyed their best period of the match so far. Cole then headed right at Bazunu from Ryan McLaughlin’s cross a couple of minutes later. But Pompey won another corner with just fourteen minutes left. Azeez sent it over and Ogilvie headed it in unchallenged as the Shrimps conceded yet another poor goal from a set piece.
Morecambe could have reduced the arrears after 82 minutes as Bazunu pulled-off a world-class save to keep out a twenty-five yard thunderbolt from Adam Phillips; somehow pushing it against his crossbar where it bounced away to safety. Ryan McLaughlin missed with a shot right at the death and then the away goalie made a rare mistake, booting the ball against Phillips when trying to clear it only to see it bounce harmlessly wide.
So the game ended with Morecambe’s third league defeat in a row and with no goals to show from their recent efforts. They found themselves in the bottom four of League One for the first time ever this evening. But it’s not all doom and gloom. Pompey are a good side and Morecambe matched them for most of the game today. But for a miraculous save by their young Manchester City goalkeeper, they would have at least scored.
Next Saturday’s game against rapidly-improving Fleetwood thus assumes even more significance than it had done prior to the game. The Cod Army beat Gillingham by the odd goal in three after being two goals to the good at Highbury today. Elsewhere, Doncaster beat Shrewsbury in Yorkshire and Crewe lost at home to Sheffield Wednesday. Accrington did us a favour by beating Bolton Wanderers as well. So Morecambe are level on points with the Shrews, who are above them only on goal difference. The Gills are two points behind them but have played a game more. Doncaster are three points worse off and Dave Artell’s Railwaymen remain rock-bottom with four points fewer than the Shrimps. So it’s still all to play for.
Portsmouth: 1 Gavin Bazunu; 6 Shaun Williams; 10 Marcus Harness (17 Ellis Harrison 80’); 11 Ronan Curtis; 13 Keiron Freeman; 15 Mahlon Romeo; 16 Connor Ogilvie; 18 Reeco Hackett-Fairchild (Y); 19 George Hirst (9 John Marquis 69’); 20 Sean Raggett (C); 27 Miguel Azeez.
Subs Not Used: 7 Gassam Ahadme; 24 Michael Jacobs; 26 Paul Downing; 35 Alex Bass; 38 Harry Jewitt-White.
Morecambe: 1 Kyle Letheren; 2 Ryan McLaughlin (Y); 3 Greg Leigh; 4 Anthony O’Connor (C); 14 Jonathan Obika (17 Jonah Ayunga 58’); 9 Cole Stockton; 18 Adam Phillips; 19 Shane McLoughlin; 22 Liam Gibson (Y); 25 Alfie McCalmont; 31 Scott Wooten (15 Ryan Delaney (Y) 54’).
Subs Not Used: 20 Jökull Andrésson; 6 Callum Jones; 10 Aaron Wildig; 21 Ryan Cooney; 24 Arthur Gnahoua.
Ref: Charles Breakspear.
Att: 15,001 (182 from Morecambe)
