No Halloween Horror Show at Tranmere for Morecambe
Morecambe travelled to the Wirral today attempting to reverse their recent fortunes in League Two. Last Tuesday, they were two-nil down before they knew what had happened against Carlisle United and put on a disjointed display after that for quite some time which was not worthy of an EFL club. In their last five games, they have only won one and have managed to lose three of their last four, drawing the other. So would today – Halloween – be another Horror Show? The best hope that it wouldn’t be lay in the fact that today’s hosts – Tranmere Rovers – have not been faring much better themselves recently. Whilst Morecambe were being beaten at Carlisle, Rovers were being hammered at Crawley by four goals to nil. They started today’s game four points and five places below Derek Adams’ side in seventeenth place in the table and their record over the last five games is identical to their visitors’: lost three; won one and drawn one. In previous meetings, Tranmere have a pretty good record against the Shrimps: four out of six won and only one lost.
Rovers’ Manager Mike Jackson had this to say prior to today’s clash:
“We’ve always got to remember, and I’ve spoken to the team about this, who we represent and what this Club is all about. This Club is about fighting, grafting and working hard. You’ve always got to be mindful of that and I’ve said that to the players. I’ve told them what this Club means to the fans and representing them in the right way. On Tuesday night we didn’t do that and I’ll never hide away from the responsibilities of being manager of this football club. We’re hurting… and not for one minute do I take what happened on Tuesday lightly. We know what Morecambe are about but we’re not focusing on them too much. It’s about us being in the right frame of mind and ready to react.”
He thus shook-up his line-up from Tuesday night with Lee O’Connor, Otis Khan and Ollie Banks promoted from the substitutes’ bench. Players who weren’t in the squad at all during mid-week – Paul Lewis, Kaiyne Woollery and Manny Monthe – were also put straight into the first team today. Captain Scott Davies, however, retained his place in goal to face his former club.
For the visitors – on the day that skeletons take centre stage across the country – Derek Adams was appropriately still down to the bare bones of his squad. A-Jay Leitch-Smith is crocked again, with a recurrence of a seemingly constant hamstring strain. Defender Harry Davis is having to isolate due to Coronavirus fears and so is ex-Tranmere striker Cole Stockton, who was therefore not able to face his former club either. Alex Kenyon returned after hamstring problems of his own but there was no place in the starting line-up for Toumani Diagouraga, who was relegated to the bench today.
It was sunny and not too windy by the side of the Mersey in Birkenhead as the first half progressed. Tranmere probably just about shaded things at first but then the momentum swung towards the visitors before Tranmere recovered a bit towards the end of the period. There was nice play by Jordan Slew in particular on the Morecambe left flank after three minutes which led to a corner for the Shrimps. From this, Old Boy Scott Davies made a confident punch to clear the danger. At the other end, a long-range effort from Ollie Palmer sailed over the Morecambe bar after ten minutes before the best chance so far presented itself to Kaiyne Woollery after Stephen Hendrie allowed the ball to run to him at the edge of the penalty area: his weak shot was bundled away for a corner. From this, Jordan Slew had a golden chance to get his name on the score sheet as he was able to counter-attack down the Morecambe left unchallenged. He completely blew the chance though, delaying and delaying before his eventual shot was blocked for a corner. From this, Hendrie took a wild slash at the ball, which went miles away from the target. It was noticeable by the time Carlos Mendes-Gomes needed treatment on the pitch after twenty minutes or so that Referee Craig Hicks was allowing Man Mountain Manny Monthe to use his arms as well as his vast bulk to gain an advantage against opposing players. He had barged Carlos and Slew out of the way or clearly held onto them on a couple of occasions before the quicksilver Aaron Wildig got the better of him after 23 minutes in the penalty area, was clearly fouled but still got off a shot which hit Davies’ left post and bounced harmlessly away with the goalkeeper beaten. Aaron had to be treated for a while afterwards for what looked like a neck injury – so why wasn’t it a penalty? – he clearly didn’t do this to himself. Two minutes later, the visitors were on the attack again and Adam Phillips found Carlos with an excellent cross from the right but Morecambe’s Number Eleven just couldn’t quite get his shot on target. Carlos tried his luck again with almost half an hour played when he spun on the edge of the box and let fly – but, once more, his shot was just off target. The half ended scoreless – but this was more to do with Referee Craig Hicks’ failure to punish a succession of niggles and pushes by the Tranmere rearguard and his refusal to award a clear penalty than any failings by the Shrimps.
Morecambe started the second half on the front foot – and basically stayed on it. Wildig seemed to be caught again within the Tranmere penalty area after fifty minutes but this wasn’t as clear-cut as the foul in the first half had been. Fifty-three minutes were on the clock when Morecambe made a clever interception, Carlos took the ball forward and played-in Phillips only for Davies to make a tremendous save at the expense of a corner. From this, the ball was headed like ping-pong in the Rovers area before the ball fell to Slew, who managed to miss the far post with a shot taken from level with the near one: it was a poor effort again. But as the Shrimps continued to apply all the pressure, Mendes-Gomes was flattened for the umpteenth time during the game. This was by Calum MacDonald; it was in the Tranmere penalty area – and the referee actually not only saw it but awarded a spot-kick to the visitors this time (on the basis of Third Time Lucky presumably.) Phillips took it – and scored. After an hour, Carlos was brought down yet again – and yet again, Referee Hicks waved play-on. Right after that, Phillips was up against Monthe in the Rovers penalty area. The Morecambe player lost control of the ball but the huge defender again clearly helped him to the ground with a crafty push which the Man in the Middle yet again either failed to see or decided to apply Rugby League rules to. Up the other end, James Vaughan forced the first save of the match from the visiting custodian with an instant shot which Jake Turner did brilliantly to keep out of the net. It said everything about Tranmere’s performance today that this happened with two-thirds of the game already played – and it was their final attempt on the Morecambe goal as well as their first. Sixty-five minutes had been played when Wildig was corralled by two Rovers’ defenders as he approached their penalty area until Davies could fall on the ball. Mike Jackson sent on three substitutes for the last twenty minutes or so but none of them had any impact on the game. Instead, Mendes-Gomes, Phillips and Wildig combined well after 71 minutes only for Aaron to spoil things with a wild shot when well-placed. Shrimps’ substitute John O’Sullivan carved out a chance for himself after 82 minutes and just missed. Then he set-up Wildig with an excellent cross a minute later which the Morecambe Number Ten headed wastefully just wide. Seventy-eight minutes had passed when Carlos’ game finally ended as he was hacked-down by another late, over-the-top challenge on the Shrimps left. Once again, no free-kick was awarded. But the visitors ended the game as they had played most of it: on the attack. In the fourth minute of injury time at the end they almost doubled their lead as Nathaniel Knight-Percival’s hoof forward from a dropped-ball was misjudged by Scott Davies, who allowed the ball to bounce over his head and had to pull-off a tremendous save at full stretch to keep it out of the net.
The win puts the Shrimps back on track and they were in tenth position at the conclusion of the game. Tranmere, meanwhile, fell to eighteenth. On this evidence, the team which was relegated from League One last season are facing an uphill struggle this one.
A final thought. Premiership and Championship football is regularly beset by VAR controversy. It’s the same in League Two. VAR in this context stands for Very Average Referees. Craig Hicks had an appalling game today: in keeping with the seasonal theme, I suppose, he had an absolute nightmare.
STOP PRESS: The nightmare became real for Mike Jackson this evening. Despite his brave and confident words before it, the Powers That Be at Tranmere decided that a change was required after it and he was subsequently sacked. Being a football Manager is tough – but on this showing, it’s probably the right decision: Tranmere were truly woeful this afternoon.
Tranmere Rovers: 1 Scott Davies (C); 26 Peter Clarke; 2 Lee O’Connor; 6 Manny Monthe; 18 Calum MacDonald; 28 Ollie Banks; 17 Otis Khan (Y); 22 Paul Lewis; 14 Kaiyne Woollery; 7 Kieron Morris; 9 James Vaughan.
Subs not used: 13 Joe Murphy; 4 Sid Nelson; 3 Liam Ridehalgh; 29 Sam Smith; 11 Corey Blackett-Taylor; 8 Jay Spearing; 19 Liam Feeney.
Morecambe: 1 Jake Turner; 4 Nathaniel Knight-Percival; 2 Kelvin Mellor; 3 Stephen Hendrie; 5 Sam Lavelle (C); 10 Aaron Wildig; 7 Jordan Slew; 24 Yann Songo’o; 11 Carlos Mendes-Gomes; 20 Adam Phillips; 14 Alex Kenyon;
Subs not used: 12 Mark Halstead; 8 Toumani Diagouraga; 18 Ben Pringle; 16 John O’Sullivan; 21 Ryan Cooney; 19 Liam McAlinden.
Ref: Craig Hicks.
