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Potential Good News and Bad News for Morecambe.

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Potential  Good News and Bad News for Morecambe.

Derek Adams has been as good as his word concerning his promise to bring fresh faces into Morecambe football club. Just one day after the Shrimps’ defeat at Bradford on New Year’s Day, he signed Toumani Diagouraga and Jordan Slew on permanent contracts as well as taking duo Adam Phillips and Ryan Cooney on-loan from Burnley.

Thirty-two-year-old Parisian midfielder Toumani Diagouraga has played for quite a number of English league clubs including Fleetwood but Derek came to know him when he was the Plymouth Manager. The boss said of his new signing: “Toumani was with me at Plymouth Argyle and did ever so well for me when he was there. He came into the midfield and used the ball well. He has got good experience and it was only a couple of years ago that he was Brentford’s player of the year and he will be a good addition to the squad.” Diagouraga has been released by rivals Swindon Town and has been offered a contract until the end of the season with the Shrimps.

Jordan Slew is a former one million pounds plus signing for Blackburn Rovers from Sheffield United. The 27-year-old striker has played for Derek Adams before both at Ross County and Plymouth. Derek said of this player:

“I have signed Jordan twice in the past, on loan from Blackburn when I was at Ross County and again at Plymouth when we won promotion into League One. He can play off the right-hand side or the left-hand side or through the middle so he gives us options in these areas and will be another good addition to our squad.”

The player himself added: “It’s amazing to be here. It’s been a tough couple of years for me and getting on board at Morecambe is the best thing that’s happened to me for a while and I can’t wait to get started. The gaffer has signed me twice before for Ross County and Plymouth and I enjoy working with him. He has kept in touch and I’m really grateful for the opportunity he has given me. He knows how to get the best out of me and when he gave me the opportunity to come to Morecambe it was a no brainer for me. I was with Sam Lavelle and John O’Sullivan when I was a youngster with Blackburn and they have made me feel very welcome and I just can’t wait to get going.”

21-year-old Adam Phillips was born in Garstang and is a graduate of the Liverpool Academy. The midfielder has had spells with Norwich City and played on-loan in the first teams of both Cambridge United and Hamilton Academical. He is a team-mate of Ryan Cooney in Burnley’s Under-23 team and both players have signed until the end of this season. The twenty-year-old Mancunian defender came through the ranks at Bury, for whom he played in the first team at the age of just eighteen.

Derek Adams also made his intention to get rid of players he sees no future for at the club when he only named five substitutes for the final game of 2019 at Cambridge. Two of those left behind – Andrew Tutte and Adam Buxton – have been listed as available to offers from other clubs. The revolution may not be televised – but it is continuing.

The Shrimps were without a fixture today but elsewhere, their nearest rivals Stevenage used-up the game in hand they have over them right at the bottom of the EFL. Borough ground-out a dour scoreless draw at home to Colchester but the single precious point they garnered was marred for them by the fact that they also had Tom Soares sent-off for a bad foul after just nineteen minutes.  The most promising thing about a disappointing draw from Morecambe’s point of view is that Stevenage were hopeless. Graham Wesley is the flashy Manager who has been in charge of them a million times before. He apparently turned-up to take charge for the latest time in a Bentley. I’m sure this impressed everyone very deeply. What might not have impressed them quite so much today, however, was that Colchester hit the woodwork; had shots cleared off the line and wasted innumerable chances as Borough offered virtually nothing going forward. Stevenage goalie Paul Farman apparently put in a Man Of The Match performance by virtually almost single-handedly keeping their visitors from Essex out all the way through the game.

But the point at the end of it all meant that Morecambe were bottom of the EFL tonight. Borough pinched their previous perch in twenty-third position.

Both clubs have eighteen points with the Shrimps’ goal difference a whole eleven worse but at least they have now played exactly the same number of games: 25.

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