Too Easy for Shrewsbury Town.
It was Armed Forces Day in Shrewsbury today. As part of the event, astronaut Tim Peake arrived by helicopter at the New Meadow Stadium to deliver the match ball fifteen minutes before kick-off between the town club and Morecambe. Would his appearance help the Shrews to enter the rarefied atmosphere near the top of League One with a win? Or would Morecambe be able to follow his example and bring the Shropshire club back down to earth with a bump?
Morecambe’s first match of the season was against Shrewsbury Town at the Mazuma Stadium. It was a poor game which ended scoreless. Today, though, they travelled to Shropshire to complete the reverse fixture in the hope that they would not find the match postponed because of bad weather as they had done last season. Last term, as the Shrimps seemed certain to be relegated, they were hammered here by five goals to nil. In Lancashire, though, they had managed to beat the Shrews 2-0 earlier in the campaign. In all previous meetings in four different competitions, Morecambe have won five of seventeen matches and drawn four against Town.
Shrewsbury started today’s game in ninth place in the League One table. They have only won one of their last five league games, though and lost two, most recently last Tuesday at Peterborough, where they went down 2-1- to a 87th minute goal.
The Shrimps managed a 1-1 draw last Tuesday at fellow-strugglers against relegation, Cambridge United; their second draw in League One in a row. Additionally, they have lost two of their last five League One games and won just once. They started today’s match in the highest of the relegation positions; twenty-first – but had played two more games than the clubs immediately above them in the shape of Accrington Stanley and Burton Albion. Morecambe Manager Derek Adams changed his squad slightly from the one which drew at Cambridge on Tuesday, with Adam Mayor, Dynel Simeu and Ryan Delaney all starting from the off. Jacob Bedeau wasn’t available for selection following a knee injury sustained against Bolton a week ago. New signing, 32-year-old former thirteen and a half million pound ex-Everton signing and Senegal international forward Oumar Niasse was also put straight onto the bench. Derek said before the game:
“Every run-in is difficult. It doesn’t matter if you are playing at the top or the bottom. They don’t become any easier in this division, we understand that. There’s a gulf between both clubs on and off the field. We’ll just do as well as we can to compete. We’ll look to try and get the win and get those three points. Wins are huge – they’re the three points you need because they propel you up the league very quickly. We just need to go and get those wins again to enable us to get into a position where safety does happen.”
In a part of the interview which I can’t find any trace of, King Derek again apparently underlined the difference in resources between the team he is in charge of and those of the opposition. Shrewsbury Manager Steve Cotterill obviously wasn’t aware of this either. He thus asked a journalist at a pre-match press conference:
“`Mid-table budget’ is my initial thought, is that what he said? Interesting. We are eighteenth in the league, just for your knowledge, Derek. We are eighteenth in the league for budget and it could well be less than that after the last window because two of our lads (Aiden O’Brien and Julien Dacosta) went out. It could be less than that. But we are eighteenth, just to make sure we are correct on that. But we have done really well on that. It will be a tough game against Morecambe. We’re not expecting anything different. But it’s a game we are looking forward to. We want to bounce back from the other night and get a win.”
The biggest worry for everyone concerned was whether snow in the midlands might cause a postponement – just as rain did last season at this venue initially. But the groundsmen and volunteers did a sterling job overnight and this morning. So the game started – on-schedule – with hardly a fleck of the white stuff in sight, albeit under overcast, threatening skies from which freezing drizzle was falling by the time three o’clock arrived.
It was a fairly even contest bereft of any clear chances for the first five minutes or so. Then Matt Pennington was allowed to gallop up-field from the back with eight minutes played. The defender than spoilt all his hard work with a poor shot which went over the bar as Morecambe’s five man rearguard backed-off and allowed him to do so until the very last moment. The visitors won the first corner of the match, though, with a quarter of an hour played. Sadly, it was completely wasted as the Shrews’ defence pushed-up and caught the men in the red shirts off-side. As the drizzle became fully grown-up rain, Taylor Moore was penalised for a crunching tackle on Adam Mayor with twenty-one minutes played. Ironically, he came off worse and had to be treated on the field before Referee Rebecca Welch also treated him to a yellow card when he finally got up again. Shortly after this, Connor Ripley had to make the first save of the afternoon from Tom Bayliss, which didn’t cause him too much trouble as the shot was straight at him. He did really well after twenty-one minutes though. Town attacked down the right and Luke Leahy slung over a ball to the far post where Tom Flanaghan forced an excellent save from the visiting stopper who had to get down quickly low to his left to keep the shot out. With thirty-two minutes on the clock, Shrewsbury won their first corner of the contest. Inexplicably, Daniel Crowley stuck out his arm and deflected the ball when there seemed little chance that any home player was going to get on the end of the dead-ball kick. Shrews’ Skipper Leahy took the inevitable penalty and sent Connor the wrong way to put the Shrews one goal up. They could have doubled their advantage with just three minutes of the game left to play. Rekeil Pyke won a free-kick on the Shrews’ right. As Morecambe packed their penalty area, the ball was cleared away from the danger zone. But with nobody in an away strip to pick it up, the ball came straight back in and went right across the away goal mouth before Cole Stockton headed it away for a corner. Matthew Pennington flicked this on and Crystal Palace loanee Robert Street headed the ball home all too easily at the back stick to double Town’s advantage.
But almost straight from kick-off, Crowley atoned somewhat for his earlier mistake when he picked-up the pieces after an excellent run by Jensen Weir and curled a peach of a shot out of Marco Marosi’s reach to reduce the arrears. It was the away team’s first strike on target and it wasn’t appreciated on the touchline. Shortly after this, there was a frank exchange of views between the opposing Managers. The Fourth Official drew Rebecca Welch’s attention to the altercation and the Referee wasted no time in booking home boss Mr Cotterill. On the field, Town then had the last chance of the opening period when Matthew Pennington headed Bayliss’ free-kick wide of the target during injury time.
So Morecambe went back to the Dressing Rooms in arrears yet again away from home. Only Daniel Crowley could explain why he gave away a completely needless penalty but at least he gave the visitors some reason for hope with his excellent strike right at the end of the half.
Shrewsbury asked most of the questions at the start of the second period without creating any clear-cut chances. Pike finally had a shot after being set-up by Bayliss with fifty-one minutes played but the effort went wide. At the other end of the pitch, Cole Stockton’s ambitious overhead kick with about 55 minutes on the clock was easily gathered by Marosi in the home goal. Town then broke quickly down their left flank in the shape of Jordan Shipley but his powerful final strike went inches high of the Morecambe crossbar. Bayliss was then penalised for a foul on Weir on the edge of his own penalty area with sixty-four minutes on the clock. Farrend Rawson headed Crowley’s free-kick home but the `goal’ was immediately disallowed for off-side. The away team conceded another foul on Jensen just two minutes later. Crowley went directly for goal this time but his shot went well wide of the target. Ryan Delaney did well to block a shot from Cheyenne Dunkley in the sixty-ninth minute at the cost of a corner. Ripley then used his boot as he spread himself to keep the same man’s header out of the net as a result of this – another fantastic save by the big stopper. Derek Adams sent new signing Oumar Niasse on for his first Morecambe start with a quarter of an hour left. Weir then tried his luck with a shot which went wide with just over ten minutes left to play. The visitors came closer still in the seventy-eighth minute as Morosi did well to save Crowley’s excellent shot from distance at the second attempt. As the home stalwarts made a lot of noise in Shrewsbury’s Safe Standing area by the side of the pitch, Mayor and Ripley had a misunderstanding in the eighty-third minute which led to the young defender conceding a corner. From this, Shrewsbury scored again. Another header; this time by Dunkley. Poor defending by the visitors once more. Town should have gone 4-1 up just two minutes later when Pike squandered a perfect opportunity by missing with the goal at his mercy following good work by Shipley, who found him with a cross which floated right over the Shrimps’ defence.
There was an astonishing nine minutes of injury time at the end of the game. Weir fired wide after interplay between Crowley and Niasse early in this extended period. But Ripley had to concede yet another corner shortly after this, having made a superb save from late substitute Ryan Bowman. But there was only one team whichwas going to win this game today.
So Morecambe’s poor record against Shrewsbury specifically and abysmal away form generally continued today. As their opponents went up to eighth in the table, the Shrimps’ struggle against relegation was complicated by a 2-1 win by the Plastic People against Cambridge at Milton Keynes. This puts the Wimbledon impersonators absolutely level with the Shrimps on points and goal difference. Accrington picked-up another point to widen the gap between themselves and Morecambe to two points with a 1-1 draw at Charlton. Burton did even better, beating Wycombe 2-1 at home to extend their lead over the north Lancashire club to five points, with two fewer games played: just as Stanley have. One small glimmer of light on the horizon, however, was the fact that Oxford lost under new management today against Derby by the odd goal in five at home and are now just three points ahead of the Shrimps with the same number of games played.
There are ten matches left in the League One fixture list for Derek Adams’ men. The two games against Charlton and Oxford – both at home – next week suddenly have a greater significance than ever.
Shrewsbury Town: 1 Marco Marosi; 3 Luke Leahy (C); 5 Matthew Pennington; 6 Taylor Moore (Y); 7 Carl Winchester; 14 Robert Street (18 Tom Bloxham 90’); 15 Rekeil Pyke (9 Ryan Bowman 90’); 20 Tom Bayliss (17 Elliott Bennett 77’); 22 Cheyenne Dunkley; 33 Tom Flanagan; 26 Jordan Shipley.
Subs not used: 13 Harry Burgoyne; 27 Kade Craig; 30 Josh Barlow.
Morecambe: 1 Connor Ripley; 2 Donald Love (C); 4 Liam Gibson; 5 Farrend Rawson; 6 Ryan Delaney (18 Oumar Niasse 75’); 8 Daniel Crowley; 9 Cole Stockton; 15 Jensen Weir; 20 Liam Shaw; 25 Adam Mayor; 29 Dynel Simeu.
Subs not used: 12 Adam Smith; 10 Ash Hunter; 14 Arthur Gnahoua; 17 Caleb Watts; 21 Ryan Cooney; 22 Josh Austerfield; 24 Courtney Duffus.
Ref: Rebecca Welch.
Att: 6,913 (185 from Morecambe – Safe Journey home back into the snow, folks!)
