Bland–ford Park, surely…
Morecambe have never beaten Scunthorpe United home or away. They have tried to on four previous occasions and lost three of them, the last time notoriously last September. On that occasion, they totally capitulated and shipped three goals without reply. This was against a team which was bottom of the table at the time and had not scored any goals against anybody previously. The Shrimps team that travelled to Lincolnshire to face The Iron today, however, is unrecognisable from the one which fell apart last September. New Manager Derek Adams has got rid of all the dead wood and signed players who – on their day – can give any team a run for their money. Equally, they can also lie down and die at times – as we saw against Cambridge and during the second half at least against Forest Green and away at Crawley as well. Morecambe were tenth in League Two prior to kick-off but on a run of only one win and two draws in their last five league games. On the other hand, their opponents had lost three out of five and were to be found only one place above the relegation positions at three o’clock. Interestingly, they were also beaten at home by Morecambe’s next opponents in the FA Cup – Solihull Moors – by the odd goal in five. Baldly stated like this, United would appear to be there for the taking – providing that the Shrimps’ players had taken their anti-Self Destruct medication today, of course. Importantly, though, Scunny won at Port Vale in midweek and Oldham last Saturday and have played two games less than their opponents and nearly everybody else in League Two due to the ravages of COVID-19, which saw them miss matches against Colchester and Salford during October.
Mr Adams had this to say about today’s match prior to the game:
“We’re obviously on a five game unbeaten run. We’ve won three and drawn two; we go to Scunthorpe looking to extend that run to six games. We’ve got the best away record in the league so far this season (and) I think that we’ve performed really well against difficult opponents in the cup as well as the league and we want to add to our points total. If we look at the table at this moment in time, our away form has been highlighted. There are obviously no supporters in the stadiums (and) I think that our players have fed off that away from home.”
His opposite number, Neil Cox, assessed the challenge facing his team today in these terms:
“It’s all about getting results. We’ve defended really well away from home and counter-attacked but at home we need to be better with the ball, keep it and make more chances, while still defending as a team like we have been doing. Hopefully at home our luck can change a little bit, as we’ve lacked a bit of luck. There is confidence growing and let’s hope it can continue. Morecambe have had a good start and are always tough to play against. They will come here, sit in and try to counter-attack us so we’ve got to be wary that we do everything properly. We will focus on what we need to do.”
Whether this assessment was any more accurate than the Iron’s own website’s view of today’s opponents would remain to be seen. An account there summed-up their opponents’ progress so far thus, which will have come as a bit of a surprise to everyone associated with the Lancashire club:
“Derek Adams’ team lost 5-0 at home to Cambridge on the opening day of the season, but have kicked on since.”
False news indeed, Mr Trump. But would the match also be stolen from Morecambe today into the bargain – even if Scunny scored more goals than the Shrimps did?
The weather was beautiful in Morecambe this afternoon. On the other side of the Pennines at Glanford Park, though, it was wet. The rain relented just before the start though. Today, legendary ex-Liverpool and England goalkeeper Ray Clemence – who started his illustrious career along with Kevin Keegan at Scunthorpe – was featured on the front cover of the match programme. There was a one minute’s silence in memory of him before the match kicked–off.
There then followed forty-five minutes of disjointed football with little shape or pattern and virtually nothing of interest to report. After nine minutes, Scunny striker Kevin van Veen – who had been an injury doubt before the game – went down off the ball, struggled to get up again and had to be replaced. Seventeen minutes had been played when the first attempt on either goal occurred as Stephen Hendrie tried his luck with a shot from quite a long way out to the left of the centre of the field – and missed. Eight minutes later, Yann Songo’o – playing against his former employees today – put another speculative attempt from a similar distance high and wide of the target. With almost half an hour played, Nathaniel Knight-Percival was clearly barged out of the way in the Iron’s penalty area but Referee Peter Wright gave nothing. Adam Phillips took his turn to miss when hitting a ball cleared from a corner kick well wide with only a few minutes of this rubbish left to play before the half time whistle finally brought a welcome end to the utter tedium. Neither goalkeeper had had a shot to save and both teams looked as if they could play all day and never break the utterly dreary deadlock.
My mind had wandered during the first half. Was Scunthorpe Centre Forward Ryan Loft destined to play in the position he found himself today just because of his surname – you know: up top on his own?
If I tried to make any sort of reference to the referee – Peter Wright – and his namesake’s book ‘Spycatcher’ which was once banned by Margaret Thatcher, would only people of a certain age know what I was on about? Would it be worth it anyway? Probably not.
I started to wonder if the Iron and the Irons – West Ham – had anything else in common as I watched Scunthorpe in their claret and blue strip in front of the same sort of adverts for Rainham Steel that were once on show at Upton Park. They are both Uniteds as well of course. Anything else?
Then I wondered if Glanford Park is an improvement on The Old Showground where Scunny used to play. The new ground – like Walsall’s Bescot Stadium – has stanchions in all the stands to spoil the view of the crowd but their old ground had a cantilever stand where stanchions are by definition missing. Yes, I know there aren’t any crowds at the moment but you get my point. Were they built at round about the same time? I don’t know. (It turns out that they were, more or less: Walsall’s in 1990 and United’s during 1988. Bear that in mind: it could save your life one day…)
These are hardly riveting questions and I’m sorry about that (with due apologies to Rainham Steel, who might actually manufacture rivets for all I know). Or care. But they are more interesting than the fare which had been served-up so far. Could it get any better in the second half?
Well – it could hardly get any worse in all truth. Apart from the weather, which was absolutely dreadful as the game restarted in the virtual darkness as thin, heavy drizzle poured from the leaden clouds. After a minute, Songo’o’s shot from the centre of the pitch missed to the right of Mark Howard’s goal. Forty minutes had been played when Adam Phillips made a decent interception on the Morecambe right, drove forward and crossed the ball low into the Scunthorpe penalty area only to see it cleared. Down the other end, United had their first attempt on target when Loft’s shot was blocked only for a fellow United forward to then blast the ball high over the bar. Cole Stockton came on as a substitute after almost an hour and was soon heading straight at Howard. With 59 minutes on the clock, he produced a superb shot from some distance which looped onto the top of the net and momentarily looked as if it might have actually gone in. Three minutes later, he did well to get away from the Scunny defence and slip an excellent pass along the ground to Aaron Wildig, whose instant shot just missed the goal to the right from his point of view – he should have at least hit the target. The visitors were on top at this point and could have taken the lead when a defensive header from a United defender had to be shovelled over the bar by the home custodian after 63 minutes. But shortly after this, the game was summed-up when Phillips took a free-kick from a promising position centrally just outside the penalty area – and put the ball straight into touch. The Shrimps lost the momentum after that effort and for the first time in the contest, the Iron started to string a few passes together and ask a few questions of the team from Lancashire. A warning shot literally arrived after 77 minutes when Jake Turner had to save with his feet to keep out an effort by Jai Rowe. But it seemed barely deserved when the home team actually took the lead after 78 minutes. Morecambe failed to clear a corner; Alfie Beestin’s fierce shot was blocked near the goal-line but Manny Onariase was quickest to react to the second ball to slam it home. Scunny immediately started playing for time and backing off. In doing this, they invited Morecambe to re-take the initiative and nobody could complain when Wildig made up for his earlier miss to head the ball home during injury time after Stockton’s initial header was well-saved by Howard but pushed back into play. As Morecambe hunted for a winner, Mr Wright probably got it Mr Wrong when Stockton seemed to be badly impeded in the home penalty area as Scunthorpe’s defence was at panic stations. But the game ended one goal each, which was probably a fair-ish result, all things considered.
The single point left both clubs in exactly the same positions in League Two which they had been in before the match was played: Morecambe in tenth; Scunthorpe in twenty-second.
Scunthorpe United: 33 Mark Howard; 5 Harrison McGahey; 6 Manny Onariase; 12 Junior Brown; 8 Alex Gilliead (C); 20 Lewis Spence (45 John McAtee 81’); 22 Alfie Beestin; 10 Kevin van Veen (18 Jordan Hallam 11; 14 Devarn Green 66’); 11 Abo Eisa (15 Myles Hippolyte 82’); 25 Jai Rowe (Y); 9 Ryan Loft.
Subs not used: 1 Rory Watson; 4 Jacob Bedeau; 24 Olufela Olomola;.
Morecambe: 1 Jake Turner; 2 Kelvin Mellor; 3 Stephen Hendrie (21 Ryan Cooney (Y) 83’); 4 Nathaniel Knight-Percival (6 Harry Davis 85’); 5 Sam Lavelle (C); 11 Carlos Mendes-Gomes (16 John O’Sullivan 85’); 7 Jordan Slew; 8 Toumani Diagouraga (9 Cole Stockton 57’); 10 Aaron Wildig; 20 Adam Phillips; 24 Yann Songo’o (23 Freddie Price 83’).
Subs not used: 12 Mark Halstead; 18 Ben Pringle.
Ref: Peter Wright.
