Kick in the Teeth from the EFL as Morecambe lose to the league leaders.
We start today’s match report with some very unwelcome – but sadly all too predictable – news. In their infinite wisdom, the English Football League has decided to deduct three points from the Shrimps’ total this season for technical offences that the Manager, the team and the fanbase have no responsibility for – nor any control over either.
Deducting points is a blunt instrument which punishes the wrong people for the wrong things. The EFL are a dab hand at this. By applying points deductions and other punitive sanctions to them, they have effectively accelerated (and arguably actually guaranteed) the demise of clubs such as Darlington, Macclesfield and Bury in the past by forcing them into a downward spiral of fines and relegation. The EFL typically sit in their Ivory Tower and hold their hands up and say that the consequences are nothing to do with them when their rules are broken – but that’s not good enough. When football clubs run into financial problems because of the failures of individual owners, it is them who should be punished, not the clubs themselves. The EFL might claim that the further part of the punishment they announced this week does exactly that:
“Owner Mr Jason Whittingham has also been fined £10,000, payable immediately, whilst a suspended fine of £20,000 has also been imposed, to be activated on 31 May 2024, unless he complies in full with his obligation to replenish the Deposit Account under the terms of the Agreed Decision dated 17 August 2023.”
Surely this punishment doesn’t go far enough, though. The EFL – as the self-styled `custodians’ of the Beautiful Game – should disbar Whittingham as a fit or proper person to own any EFL club at any time. This should have happened when Rugby Union Premiership club Worcester Warriors was effectively destroyed by his Bond Group last year. So why didn’t the EFL act then? That way, the club could already be rid of the anchor it has had tied around its neck for years now altogether – and good riddance.
But being so dynamic needs a strategy and lawyers and probably a rule change into the bargain as well, doesn’t it? Clearly though, the EFL’s executives don’t see themselves to be there to do anything so progressive or revolutionary. No – their Job Descriptions are apparently designed to allow them to just sit back and watch Rome burn as they continue to draw the huge salaries they receive every year. Why not? – every other incarnation of the Football League and its reactionary, stuck-in-the-mud leadership always has. Their salaries are always paid in full and dead on time every month, aren’t they? – and that’s obviously all that matters to these overpaid sinecures at the end of the day…
Morecambe Manager Ged Brannan has obviously had a lot to say about this over the last few days. One thing he said was:
“Every point that we get, we’ve worked hard for this season. And for people to say it doesn’t really matter because we can’t get in the Play-Offs anyway: what a load of rubbish that is. You go in the Changing Rooms and tell the lads that – they’re absolutely devastated down there.”
Team Captain Farrend Rawson is one of the people he was talking about. Faz has not been quiet about the tricky ownership situation at Morecambe. He told the BBC earlier in the week:
“My message would be if your heart’s not it and it’s not making sense any more then don’t hold on to it. He is where he is because he’s done well but make it easier for someone to come in and give the lads a chance to build and kick on. On the pitch we’ve just fallen short but for the club to grow and sustain I think the owner needs to make the right decision. You’re seeing it too many times in the Football League and higher. Good clubs with a good fanbase and good people around the place are the ones who get affected. If the right decisions aren’t made at the top then other people suffer for it. Something needs to happen for this club to kick on.”
Something indeed does need to happen for our club and English football in general to kick on. Very sadly, if we wait for the EFL – proud custodians of a Closed Shop which excluded clubs like ours for decades until relatively recently – to address any of the plethora of issues which are currently blighting the English game, we will be waiting forever. It’s about time it was abolished and replaced with an organisation which is answerable to the clubs in its three divisions which can hire and sack its executive. Only then will there be any real change which will benefit clubs in the situation that ours finds itself in currently.
The three point deduction saw Morecambe fall two places to fourteenth place in League Two without a ball being kicked. Their Play-Off hopes – slim at best before the forced loss of the equivalent of a win – have disappeared altogether now because of the whim of a reckless owner and the autocratic powers of an unelected body in the shape of the English Football League. It stinks; it really stinks…
But Hey, Ho: Stockport County welcomed Morecambe to Edgeley Park today needing only a single point to assure promotion to League One. Under Manager Dave Challinor, County have managed to reverse an eleven-year stint in the non-league wilderness and not only get back into the EFL but keep the momentum going up the Football League pyramid after only two seasons of being back. Stockport started this afternoon’s match in pole position in the table and on the back of five wins in a row with no losses in their last six fixtures. In previous meetings with Morecambe, the Hatters have won two matches out of six altogether and lost three. The Shrimps were hammered as a non-league side themselves 5-1 by the then mighty Stockport 5-1 in their first ever meeting in the FA Cup almost half a century ago but exacted sweet revenge with an aggregate score of seven to nil; six points and a 5-0 drubbing of County during the season the club fell out of the Football League thirteen long years ago. In their most recent encounter in a Monsoon by the north Lancashire seaside last December, the league leaders were lucky to escape with a 1-1 draw.
After two dismal recent showings against Crewe and Doncaster at home where they were well beaten in both games, Morecambe turned-up today with little to play for other than pride even without the points sanction. Manager Ged Brannan had made it clear he hoped to attain a record points haul for his team this season – a real achievement in itself which should not be underestimated. The Shrimps should have started the game today in twelfth position in the League Two table, 23 points adrift of their hosts and having played a game more. Instead, they are now on 57 points and 26 points adrift of County.
Our Ged obviously spent more time talking about the points deduction and the effects it is having on himself and the squad alike than he did speaking about the Stockport clash when interviewed before the match. But he did say:
“It’s hard enough as it is. If they get a point, they get promotion, don’t they? So it’s going to be a big party for them. I’ve said to the lads: “Let’s spoil the party. Let’s go and put a big shift in”. And they will. There’s no reason we can’t go there and put it back a week.”
As far as Stockport and Opposite Number Dave Challinor is concerned, he added:
“I’m made up for them – I’m made up for Dave. I know Dave really well. They’ve been fantastic this year. They’ve gone straight up – it looks like they are going straight up again – hopefully not on Saturday. I was in the Championship once with Tranmere. We were away at Millwall and Millwall had to beat us to get in the Play-Offs. We drew 0-0 – we had to run off the pitch: I’ll never forget that!”
For himself, Mr Challinor’s message yesterday was simple and to the point; to win League Two as Champions as his main objective:
“We have an opportunity tomorrow to make sure we finish at least third, which is good enough to get promoted. But our main objective then is still in front of us and we want to do everything we can to go and grab that.”
It was raining quite heavily in Stockport at lunch time today. As the afternoon got older, though, the sun tried to break through the clouds occasionally. But by half past two, wet stuff was falling from them again.
Edgeley Park is a funny old spot. Take away the modern Cheadle End and you’re left with a stadium of non-league standard albeit big enough to be a throwback to league grounds of the 1960s. Except for the seats. And security bods, of whom there were legions.
Anyway, County kicked-off and there’s not a lot more to say.
What ensued wasn’t a memorable way for the Hatters to return to League One for the first time since 2008 but they did just enough to achieve the feat.
Sometimes, it was more interesting to watch the aircraft on their way to or from adjacent Manchester Airport which regularly fly over the ground. (I made it a score-draw between Easyjet and Ryanair over the ninety or so minutes…)
Stockport scored after eight minutes when Isaac Olaofe’s close range strike came about after poor defending by the men in the white shirts. Hatters’ Captain Paddy Madden found himself on the County right, lobbed a ball into the middle and saw an unmarked Kyle Wootton head the ball for Olaofe to finish. It was a very poor goal to concede.
It wasn’t one-way traffic after that, though and the Hatters barely asserted their obvious superiority on the match at any point during the first half.
Until injury time.
In the fifty-first minute, County won a corner on their left. Over it came from Antoni Sarcevic and Fraser Horsfall headed it home far too easily at the far post. It was another basic error from the visiting defence – but the game was already clearly lost.
Stockport dominated possession during the second half and drew a couple of really good saves from Archie Mair in the away goal. But they seemed almost as subdued as the home crowd itself – as if they couldn’t believe what was actually happening to them as the game grew older and older.
In fact, the most interesting action of the entire match was when the security people were marshalled en masse to prevent a pitch invasion at the end.
Did they succeed? Make your own mind up:
So the game ended with promotion for County. Most of us in the away section stayed behind, stood and applauded their fans at the end.
I suspect most of us can empathise with them. We face an uncertain future – but County fans have actually lived through a nightmare in the recent past which saw Stockport playing as a part-time professional outfit not all that long ago. So well done to them.
As for Morecambe – our team just made up the numbers this afternoon. Up front, they had no bite. Ged Garner was hopeless again and so was Gwion Edwards. But at least he tried. So did Charlie Brown. Against a defence simply as big and resolute as Stockport’s, it was always going to be a Big Ask for a little fellow. JJ McKiernan started today. This lad can play. I just wish he would do so and stop cheating: the diving he again engaged in today fooled nobody, least of all referee Lee Swabey.
Defensively, we were really poor this afternoon. Archie earned his corn. Farrend Rawson led – as ever – by example. Even County fans said they were really impressed by him afterwards: “He never gave up “
I’m just not so quite so sure about some of the rest of the team…
In the entire hundred minutes – or whatever it was – the Shrimps forced not even one solitary save from long-serving home custodian Ben Hinchcliffe. As I said earlier, Morecambe just made up the numbers today. The loss saw them fall to fifteenth in the table as the Hatters consolidated their place at the top of the division. As I also said earlier: fair play to them.
This is what Our Ged said after the game:
“We never turned-up today first half. I was disappointed with us first half. We had nothing to lose. But second half, we showed a bit more character and belief and were a lot better. I’m made-up for Dave and his staff. They are easily the best team in the league bar none.”
Stockport County: 1 Ben Hinchcliffe; 2 Kyle Knoyle (5 Neill Byrne 52’); 6 Fraser Horsfall; 8 Callum Camps (Y); 9 Paddy Madden (C) (11 Nick Powell 70’); 10 Antoni Sarcevic (22 Rico Richards 71’); 15 Ethan Pye; 19 Kyle Wootton; 23 Ethan Bristow; 25 Isaac Olaofe (24 Connor Lemonheigh-Evans 19’); 27 Odin Bailey (20 Louie Barry 71’);
Substitutes not used: 12 Jordan Smith; 21 Myles Hippolyte.
Morecambe: 30 Archie Mair; 3 David Tutonda; 4 Jacob Bedeau (Y); 5 Farrend Rawson (C); 9 Ged Garner (14 Jordan Slew 45’); 10 JJ McKiernan; 12 Joel Senior; 15 Chris Stokes (17 Cammy Smith 76’); 19 Gwion Edwards (Y) (2 Donald Love 76’); 20 Charlie Brown (Y) (8 Joe Adams 68’); 38 Nelson Khumbeni (6 Yann Songo’o 45’).
Substitutes not used: 21 Adam Smith; 28 Oscar Threlkeld.
Ref: Lee Swabey.
Att: 10, 148 (several hundred from Morecambe .)
