Morecambe blown-away by storm in Sunderland
Funny old Game, football – as the old saying goes. Sunderland is a big place with a huge potential fanbase. The city’s main club is virtually everyone’s favourites every season to start the return to the Big Time which many Black Cats supporters seem to think is their birthright. But they are also – in recent times – perennial underachievers. A succession of high profile Managers – Paulo Di Canio; Gus Poyet; Sam Allardyce; Chris Coleman; David Moyes and others in the last eight years alone – have come to the Stadium of Light. And left again with their tails between their legs because the club’s position was no better when they left or were sacked than it had been when they had arrived.
So the Black Cats have faced life in League One this time for the third season in a row. The New Manager Buzz which current boss Lee Johnson injected into the club a year or so ago seemed to have fizzled-out in recent times. Last Saturday, Oxford United came from behind to draw 1-1 with the North East team on their own patch.
In his Programme Notes for tonight’s game, Lee Johnson wrote the following:
“Yesterday marked the one-year anniversary of my appointment as Head Coach of this fantastic football club. We still have a lot of work to do, but I’ve loved the experience and I hope I am here for a long time because that means we will have been successful in fulfilling our long-term plan. There are some great people here behind the scenes and I am incredibly grateful for the way they continue to support me and the team day in, day out. That gratitude extends to you as supporters because I know you are desperate to believe in us and trust in us, which hasn’t always been the case in the past.”
This reads like a politician’s speech. At the end of their last game, the same person who wrote these words responded angrily and clearly made a very rude gesture at some of the people he suggests he owes so much `gratitude’ to. Some home fans in the crowd had been noisily calling for his name to be added to the seemingly endless list of names who have been sacked by the club in recent times. So – despite the warm words in the latest club magazine – not all is Sweetness and Light at the Stadium of almost the same name at the moment. In their last five league games, the Mackems have only won one and lost two. They found themselves in fifth position prior to kick-off this evening.
Tonight’s visitors Morecambe, on the other hand, have been most punters’ favourites for relegation ever since they reached the hallowed ground of the EFL fifteen long years ago. The Shrimps have a small fanbase and a tiny budget in comparison to the fortune available to the opposition they would face this evening. The Shrimps arrived in twentieth position in the league, just two points above the drop zone. . Morecambe’s own form – following their win in the FA Cup at Buxton last Saturday – is not good. They have lost three of their last five League One matches and won only once. Be that as it may, it is the Shrimps and not Sunderland that will be facing Tottenham Hotspur in the Third Round of the FA Cup in London next month. The Black Cats fell at the first hurdle at home against League Two strugglers Mansfield for the second year in a row to end their FA Cup ambitions at the first hurdle. This was their fourth straight defeat in all competitions only last month: so Mr Johnson’s side are far from invulnerable if teams take the game to them and don’t sit back and invite the inevitable instead.
So what is the history of previous encounters at the Stadium of Light?
(And who on earth chose such a pretentious name for the ground which has succeeded the old Roker Park? It was inevitable that Newcastle and Middlesboro fans would immediately rhyme `Light’ with a very similar word which begins with an `S’ – and I don’t mean `sight’, either.)
This history is not very promising: a two-nil defeat in the League Cup nine years ago followed by a 0-1 home reverse in the more or less meaningless Football League Trophy three years ago. So would it be Third Time Lucky for the Shrimps tonight?
Morecambe Manager Stephen Robinson assessed the task facing his men this evening in these words:
“We are not frightened of anyone in this division, for me there is no one that has come and rolled us over. Granted the scoreline against MK Dons suggests that, but the performance didn’t. We have absolutely nothing to fear. We have only lost one game in our last five and we are starting to get a settled back four. We won’t play any differently because we are going to the Stadium of Light. Sometimes it is what you do on the ball rather than what you do off it. We have shown already this season that we can perform against some of the best sides in this division and Tuesday night will be no different.”
Robbo was forced to replace the suspended Shane McLoughlin with Aaron Wildig for a rare start this season. For the home team, though, there were a lot of absences. Aiden McGeady, Luke O’Nien, Dennis Cirkin, Corry Evans and Denver Hume were all unavailable due to injury or illness. However, Lee Burge was available for selection tonight and Alex Pritchard was expected to play after being taken off during the game against Oxford with what was described as `fatigue’.
The weather on the east coast was quite wild as Storm Barra was approaching from the west as the game started. A Yellow Weather Warning had been issued as winds of up to 60mph were predicted to hit the city and possibly cause flooding in certain areas.
Morecambe Took the Knee at kick-off – but Sunderland didn’t for whatever reason. Right from the start, the Shrimps had trouble clearing their lines. It became clear that their game plan was to have Cole Stockton and Jonah Ayunga playing together up front with Aaron Wildig pushed forward on the right and Callum Jones on the left. But the ball rarely reached any of them in the opening period as Sunderland dominated possession and played most of the football. Kyle Letheren struggled to punch a corner from the Black Cats’ left away for another corner from the right after just two minutes. But he redeemed himself with a good save just two minutes later from Nathan Broadhead on the Sunderland right. After six minutes, another corner led to an effort being cleared off the visitors goal-line as it continued to be one-way traffic. But Ayunga did well after seven minutes to get past Tom Flanaghan on the Morecambe left and weave his way into the opposition penalty area. But he delayed his shot probably marginally too long and it was finally blocked. Two minutes later, the Shrimps forward was clearly body-checked but Referee Ollie Yates waved play-on. Just nine minutes were on the clock when the hosts took the lead they had been threatening to do for the whole of the match so far. Lynden Gooch easily beat Ryan McLaughlin on the Sunderland left, galloped forwards and found an unmarked Ross Stewart, who slotted home easily. They continued to press and scored again after sixteen minutes after McLaughlin was left for dead again by Gooch who this time picked-out a totally unmarked Nathan Broadhead, who headed past the away keeper as if he wasn’t there. Just a minute later, the hosts were marauding forward again and this time, Daniel Neil only just missed Letheren’s left post with a low shot from a long way out. With Manchester City loanee Callum Doyle too strong for Cole the Goal more often than not, the visitors were offering little going forward. Having said that, Stockton had the ball in the back of the net after 23 minutes only to be ruled offside. But the Shrimps could – and should – have reduced the arrears after twenty-four minutes when Alfie McCalmont played a superb ball from the left flank on the half way line straight over the Black Cats’ rearguard to Aaron Wildig, who should have buried it. But he didn’t. Shortly afterwards, Leon Dajaku was on his bike down the Sunderland right and found an unmarked Ross Stewart in the middle. He might have done better as well. Our Welsh stopper was at full stretch low down to push a dangerous cross away after half an hour and got away with pushing the ball back into play. Cole had his eye on another miraculous goal when he tried an overhead kick in the hosts’ penalty area after seeing Ron-Horben Hoffmann off his line after 38 minutes. This time, he missed though.
So Morecambe trailed back to the Dressing Rooms at half time looking well beaten. They were outplayed by the men in the red striped shirts in the first period and were perhaps lucky to be only two goals down.
Robbo shook things up at half time and withdrew Callum Jones and Arthur Gnahoua. Toumani Diagouraga played reasonably well as a midfield replacement but Courtney Duffus had very little impact further up the field. In fact, `Toums’ almost scored within two minutes of the restart when he blasted Stockton’s brilliant cross from the right just wide of the target at the near post. Later, Adam Phillips also came on and flapped his arms about a lot but offered even less than Courtney did – at least the latter tried. The Shrimps looked briefly better for a while as a unit but it wasn’t long before the Mackems took control again. They scored again after an hour when Neil fed an unmarked Alex Pritchard to fire home from within the Morecambe penalty area. They increased their lead with twenty minutes left when Broadhead dummied the entire visiting defence before scoring with a clever shot. Then they got a lucky fifth goal when Dajaku’s shot hit Shrimps’ Skipper Anthony O’Connor and looped over the visiting keeper to nestle in the back of the net right at the end of the match. The home team’s German goalkeeper didn’t have a shot to save and the nearest the visitors came to troubling him was when Cole’s shot after 74 minutes just missed his left-hand post.
Stephen Robinson said before the game that no other team has rolled Morecambe over this season. He can’t say that now. His team were completely outclassed tonight by a side which you fear never really got out of about second gear. They didn’t have to. Only the fact that other scores this evening went their way kept Morecambe out of the relegation zone at the end of proceedings. They are just a single point above Fleetwood now. On this showing, though, they will be relegated. Saturday’s game against another strong side – Plymouth – demands an immediate response from Robbo’s men. Otherwise, this could be a very long Winter for the club and its fans. In the meantime, Sunderland deservedly went up to third in League One.
Sunderland: 39 Ron-Horben Hoffmann; 3 Tom Flanagan; 6 Callum Doyle; 7 Leon Dajaku; 9 Nathan Broadhead (48 Benjamin Mbunga-Kimpioka 74’); 11 Lynden Gooch; 14 Ross Stewart (10 Aiden O’Brien 74’); 15 Carl Winchester (8 Elliot Embleton 57’); 21 Alex Pritchard; 24 Daniel Neil; 26 Bailey Wright (C).
Subs Not Used: 5 Frederik Alves; 20 Anthony Patterson; 25 Ollie Younger; 36 Ceiran Dunne.
Morecambe: 1 Kyle Letheren; 2 Ryan McLaughlin; 3 Greg Leigh; 4 Anthony O’Connor (C); 6 Callum Jones (8 Toumani Diagouraga 45’); 9 Cole Stockton; 10 Aaron Wildig (18 Adam Phillips 63’); 15 Ryan Delaney; 17 Jonah Ayunga (Y); 24 Arthur Gnahoua (28 Courtney Duffus 45’); 25 Alfie McCalmont.
Subs Not Used: 20 Jökull Andrésson; 7 Wes McDonald; 21 Ryan Cooney; 31 Scott Wooten.
Ref: Ollie Yates.
Att: 26,516.
