Walsall Unsaddled by Morecambe
Morecambe visited the Bescot Stadium tonight to take-on Darrell Clarke’s Walsall in a bid to try and put some daylight between themselves and bottom team Stevenage in their struggle for League Two survival. The Saddlers were lying thirteenth in the table on the back of three wins and two losses in their last five league games. The latest loss came last Saturday when they went down 2-1 at Brunton Park to Carlisle United. Their Manager blamed the defeat on Carlisle’s ability to deliver their set-pieces accurately and his own team’s failure to do the same:
“Our set-pieces were absolutely woeful. It’s no good delivering great balls on the training ground, you’ve got to be able to do it in a match and on the big occasion.”
Before the game, Mr Clarke said that he was looking for the Saddler’s third win in a row at home and he must have been hoping for a repeat of the only previous meeting between the clubs in the EFL, when his team won 0-1 at the Globe Arena last September. With Fleetwood loanee Nathan Sheron in the starting line-up again after being signed on-loan from Fleetwood last week, Darrell Clarke changed the team named against Carlisle on Saturday. He started the game without James Clarke (who was injured at Brunton Park and wasn’t in the squad tonight). Rory Holden and Liam Kinsella were dropped and the trio of Cameron Norman, Caolan Lavery and Danny Guthrie were all named in the starting line-up. Derek Adams dropped Alex Kenyon and Luke Conlan to the bench from the team which played Cambridge and replaced them with Aaron Wildig and Jordan Cranston. The Shrimps’ away form under DA’s control has been poor so far: they drew his first game at Crawley but have lost every one of them since|: at Crewe and Northampton (where they were walloped); Plymouth (where they were soundly beaten) and then narrowly at Cambridge. So – with Stevenage trying to get something at Ian Holloway’s Grimsby Town tonight – the time was surely overdue for a decent performance from Morecambe’s new-look squad.
The game started on a heavy pitch but with no sign of rain, sleet or snow on a night when you could do with your Thermals. Both teams contributed to a lively start and Christoffer Mafoumbi was the first keeper forced into action when he did well to get down to a low shot from outside the penalty area by Wes McDonald after seven minutes. A minute later, Mat Sadler received the ball in the centre of the goal but his resultant shot missed the target in a situation where he might have done better. Up the other end, Ryan Cooney also missed with a long-range effort after nine minutes and two minutes later, Aaron Wildig had a shot blocked by the Walsall defence. A decisive point in the game could have arrived after 22 minutes, though. Carlos Mendes-Gomes was adjudged by Referee Ross Joyce to have fouled McDonald in the Shrimps’ penalty area. McDonald dusted himself down to take the spot-kick himself – but Congolese International Maffoumbi pulled-off a fantastic save to keep his low shot out of the net.
The visitors had the next chance when Adam Phillips missed with a long-range shot after 35 minutes. Cooney then tested the home goalkeeper when he connected with Phillips’ pass in the middle of the goal with 38 minutes played. The ball went immediately to the other end of the pitch but Josh Gordon couldn’t hit the target either. A minute later, the same player got his head to the ball from a corner but was unable to trouble the Morecambe keeper, who saved easily enough. Morecambe had the final chance of the half when Cooney played-in Phillips but the Burnley loanee missed from a narrow-angle. There were Handbags exchanged between Jordan Slew and Gordon just before the break for which they were both booked but the first 45 minutes ended goal-less due to the brilliance of the Shrimps’ loanee goalkeeper from Blackpool.
Not much happened for the first ten minutes or so of the second half. Christian Mbulu made his debut for the visitors when he replaced Ryan Cooney early doors: the Burnley loanee was taken off on a stretcher after a long delay and looked as if he might be seriously hurt. Let’s hope not for his sake most of all – this lad has improved the team tremendously since he arrived at Morecambe with team-mate Phillips. Darrell Clarke tried to change things for the better for Walsall with a double substitution with ten minutes played. It didn’t make a lot of difference though and the game changed with almost seventy minutes on the clock. Jordan Cranston took a corner, an unmarked Steven Old got his head to the ball and it went into the net off the inside of the post low down. The home team huffed and puffed after going behind and although Lavery had two headers which went close, Maffoumbi was not seriously tested at any time. Having said that, he was a spectator when Dan Scarr’s flick hit the post at the beginning of injury time and bounced back into his grateful arms. But six minutes later, a rare win for the Shrimps was assured when Carlos broke through the Walsall back-line and curled a shot unerringly past Liam Roberts in the Saddler’s goal to make it nil-two to the visitors.
This was a tremendous win for the Shrimps tonight. With Stevenage losing 3-1 at Grimsby and Macclesfield also being beaten 1-0 at Newport, Morecambe found themselves a precious four points ahead of Borough and just two behind the Silkmen. Macc have played a game less but they can still expect further points’ deductions for their infringement of EFL rules this season. Well done the lads and those of us who made the long journey to the Midlands this evening. But most of all – well done to Derek Adams.
Walsall: 1 Liam Roberts; 2 Cameron Norman; 3 Cameron Pring; 4 Mat Sadler (C); 6 Dan Scarr; 9 Caolan Lavery; 10 Josh Gordon (Y) (29 Jack Nolan 45’); 11 Elijah Adebayo (7 Stuart Sinclair 55’); 16 Danny Guthrie (15 Rory Holden 55’); 25 Wes McDonald; 34 Nathan Sheron.
Subs not used: 13 Jack Rose; 8 Liam Kinsella; 14 Kory Roberts; 24 Shay Facey.
Morecambe: 37 Christoffer Maffoumbi; 30 Ryan Cooney (27 Christian Mbulu 52’); 5 Steven Old; 16 Sam Lavelle (C); 31 Adam Phillips (14 Tom Brewitt 82’); 15 Aaron Wildig; 32 Toumani Diagouraga; 19 Carlos Mendes-Gomes (Y); 9 Cole Stockton; 33 Jordan Cranston; 29 Jordan Slew (Y) (10 A-Jay Leitch-Smith 64’).
Subs not used: 21 Mark Halstead; 3 Luke Conlan; 4 Alex Kenyon.
Ref: Ross Joyce
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