No Third Time Lucky at Sheffield Wednesday for Morecambe.
Yes – once again, it’s Sheffield Wednesday on a Tuesday. Morecambe travelled across the Pennines today to face a team which found itself second in the League One table prior to this evening’s kick-off. With a game in hand over Plymouth – who are two points ahead of them having played a game more – Wednesday would be looking to both continue their excellent form in league games recently as well as to improve yet further on their 100% record over the Shrimps this term. In September, the South Yorkshire side won far too easily at the Mazuma Stadium by three goals to nil. They followed this by knocking the Shrimps out of the FA Cup by two goals to nil last November. So that’s four wins out of five altogether and a single loss in historical ties between the two clubs.
The Owls went into tonight’s match on the back of four wins and a single draw in their last five league games. They were actually unbeaten in seventeen games prior to tonight’s clash, which is pretty impressive in itself. Their latest match – against Ipswich in Suffolk on Saturday – ended in a 2-2 draw after Wednesday had led 0-2 at half time. The result saw Sheffield slip from the very peak of the table to second place. Morecambe, on the other hand, arrived at Hillsborough tonight in the highest of the relegation positions in League One: twenty-first. They have won two and lost two of their last five league games and on Saturday were a bit fortunate to claw-back a point against bottom of the table Forest Green Rovers.
With both Right Backs – Skipper Donald Love and Ryan Cooney – injured last Saturday, Derek Adams was forced to ask Dynel Simeau to step into the breach again as he did throughout the second half against FGR. King Derek said of the forthcoming challenge:
“As a team, we’ve got to go there and try and cause an upset. We go to Ipswich; we go to Derby and we go to Sheffield Wednesday – three teams who have got the biggest budgets in the league. Three teams that have not only got Championship football behind them but have got Premier League football behind them as well. That’s a challenge in itself. We go to Sheffield Wednesday – a club that have done exceptionally well again this season. We go there and try to take a draw or a win from the game. When you play against a team like Sheffield Wednesday, the abundance of talent they have throughout the team is never easy. Player for player, it doesn’t equate because the Balance Sheet will tell you that. What we try and do is look at their strengths; try and deal with the strengths that they have and then, every team in this league has a weakness and can we get the better of their weakness and do better than them on the night with the strengths that they have?”
Opposite Number Darren Moore said that he had been thinking about tonight’s match from as long ago as Saturday evening:
“We keep marching on and I’ve said that to the boys. In the Changing Rooms at Ipswich, I told them we turn this page now and get ready for Tuesday. We have two home games coming up but I am looking no further than Tuesday night. I got back on the bus at Ipswich, lap-top straight open and started looking at Morecambe for Tuesday night. We’ll assess the group when they come in on Monday, hopefully all of them unscathed from the weekend and ready to go again.”
Wednesday went again on a poor surface under dry skies and scored almost immediately. The ball was played down the Owls’ right flank; two passes saw it played into the away penalty area; the low cross missed the first attacking player only for an unmarked Barry Bannon to sweep it home for afar too easy goal. As the half wore on, it was clear that Darren Moore had identified weaknesses on the Morecambe left as most of the Wednesday traffic was directed that way. We might have expected the home threat to be concentrated on inexperienced Dynel Simeu on the other wing but that rarely happened. Just four minutes were on the clock when the hosts were marauding down the right again – this time, another dangerous cross into the area was well-blocked by Simeu. But the emergency Right Back was caught out on the half way line after just eight minutes when he pulled back Marvin Johnson by the shirt when the Wednesday forward had got on the wrong side of him and was rightly booked. It’s a hell of a long time to play with a Yellow Card already on the slate.
The Owls were asking most of the questions and Connor Ripley made a good save after nineteen minutes from Josh Windass’ powerful strike from about thirty yards. This happened after Maestro Bannon had cleverly slipped the ball to him from midfield following a misunderstanding between Jason Weir and Daniel Crowley in the middle of the park.
A minute later, Cole Stockton attempted to fashion a lob from virtually the half way line in the way he did successfully against Wimbledon and – even more memorably – against Fleetwood last season. To no avail this time, sadly.
In the twenty-first minute, though, the men in the blue and white stripes went further ahead. Bannon played another killer pass which dissected the away defence and reached Johnson to the left of centre from his point of view. He played another tremendous pass right into the danger area and it seemed that Windass had the final touch as two Sheffield forwards competed for the ball just to the right of Connor and far too close for comfort.
Morecambe fashioned a proper chance straight from kick-off as the ball was worked up the left flank to Michael Mellon, whose shot was blocked by home custodian Cameron Dawson’s legs. But this was the nearest the visitors got to scoring all evening. After 35 minutes, Liam Shaw went on a tremendous run from his own half into the heart of the Wednesday defence only to be thwarted by a cynical foul by Bannon, for which Sheffield’s playmaker this evening received the inevitable yellow card.
So the home team retreated to the Dressing Rooms at half time comfortably on the way to an eighteenth unbeaten game in League One in a row. The second half was a mostly muted affair as the home side understandably took their feet off the gas and Morecambe had a lot more of the play. To look on the bright side, you could see a skeleton of a typical Derek Adams team emerging. The outstanding Farrend Rawson and impressive Ryan Delaney and Jacob Bedeau looked pretty solid at the back; blocking efforts when they had to and using the ball positively more often than not. Simeu did well in an unfamiliar position. In the middle, little Daniel Crowley tried his best as tonight’s playmaker for the Shrimps and the difference between him tonight and Ash Hunter last Saturday was that he kept the ball well against superior opponents and I don’t think he gave the ball away even once. The home crowd had fallen silent as the game became far more of a contest before the 86th minute. Then, Wednesday awake from their slumbers as substitute Fisayo Dele-Bashiru received the ball in the centre of the field, accelerated down the Sheffield left and passed Simeu as if he wasn’t there and laid the ball on a plate for Windass to score his second of the evening with an assured header.
So that was that. It was hardly a surprise that Wednesday added to their record against Morecambe a third clean sheet and three further goals in the plus column. With Plymouth winning 1-3 at Oxford tonight, The Owls remain second in League One.
However, the Shrimps weren’t totally outclassed tonight. Elsewhere, results also largely went in their favour. Recently mproved Burton lost 1-0 at Portsmouth. Forest Green lost at home by the same score to Charlton. MK Nobodies were hammered 5-0 at Bolton. Cambridge lost at home to Cheltenham 1-2. Accrington also lost at home – 0-2 to Wycombe. Further up the table, Bristol Rovers stopped their recent slide with a 0-0 home draw against Ipswich but this club remain my own Dark Horses for relegation with only a single point from their last four matches and a Manager who slags them off in public.
The Shrimps thus remained precisely where they were before the game at Hillsborough at the end of it: twenty-first in League One. They still have a (marginally) better goal difference than the five teams around them and game in hand over the frauds from Milton Keynes, who remain just one point above them.
As always, King Derek accentuated the positives after another defeat against League One’s Big Boys:
“It was always going to be a difficult night. But to lose a goal so quickly made it even more difficult. We limited Sheffield Wednesday to very few opportunities on target. I know that we haven’t done much going the other way. We played with two strikers tonight but it didn’t really work for us. To be fair to the players, they stuck in there and showed very good character. I would say that we had some good moments in the game. I thought there were some decent bits of play. And there was a resilience there as well.”
Sheffield Wednesday: 25 Cameron Dawson; 2 Liam Palmer; 4 Will Vaulks; 8 Dennis Adeniran; 10 Barry Bannan (C) (Y) (19 Tyreeq Bakinson 76’); 11 Josh Windass; 14 George Byers (17 Fisayo Dele-Bashiru 45’); 15 Akin Famewo; 18 Marvin Johnson; 24 Michael Smith (22 Rio Shipston 91’); 44 Aden Flint.
Subs not used: 31 David Stockdale; 3 Jaden Brown; 33 Reece James; 37 Adam Alimi-Adetoro.
Morecambe: 1 Connor Ripley (C); 4 Liam Gibson (Y); 5 Farrend Rawson; 6 Ryan Delaney (21 Ryan Cooney 76’); 8 Daniel Crowley (7 Jake Taylor 77’); 9 Cole Stockton (10 Ash Hunter 87’); 11 Michael Mellon (25 Adam Mayor 45’); 15 Jensen Weir; 16 Jacob Bedeau; 20 Liam Shaw (22 Josh Austerfield 76’); 29 Dynel Simeu (Y).
Subs not used: 12 Adam Smith; 14 Arthur Gnahoua.
Ref: Robert Lewis.
Att: 21,330 (about 200 from Morecambe.)
