Too Easy for Wigan Athletic
Morecambe have played Wigan Athletic loads of times in the past. But this was almost exclusively last century in the Northern Premier League. Morecambe was the first club ever to visit the DW Stadium, however, being invited to play a friendly against the Latics during August 1999.
During this century though, the clubs have met just once in a competitive match. This was last January at the Mazuma Stadium, where Wigan won 1-2.
Athletic started today’s game in `Wiggin’ almost at the top of League One. They were in second position, just four points behind leaders Rotherham United but with two games in hand. So a win today could put them even closer to the pinnacle of the Division – motivation enough on its own. It would also add to their record of recent wins – three out of five plus a single loss in their last five League One matches, including a 0-2 win at seemingly doomed Crewe Alexandra last Tuesday evening.
What a contrast to today’s visitors. Morecambe were also desperate for points this afternoon for totally different reasons. Since Derek Adams’ return to the club, Stephen Robinson’s squad has lost three and drawn two of the games during which he has been at the helm. Derek is far too canny to blame his predecessor for the team’s current position – the facts say this for themselves after all – and he has consistently refused to criticise individual members of the group of players he has inherited, too. He insisted he was `pleased’ with the Shrimps’ performance at Shrewsbury for most of the first half last Tuesday but `disappointed’ that they fell apart (my words; not his) in the second half and were lucky in my view to lose by only – yes, only – five goals to nil.
But there is still all to play for at the bottom of the Division, even with only eight games – including today’s – still to contest. So even a point away from home at this stage of the season could prove to be priceless in terms of the Shrimps’ hopes for survival in Wigan’s exalted company. OK – other formerly `big’ teams’ exalted company (Latics will almost certainly be back in a Championship where they deserve to be next term, whatever happens today.) King Derek said before the game:
“It is extremely tight down the bottom of the league and that is a huge positive for us. Of the teams that are down at the bottom, they aren’t doing enough to get clear of one another. Ourselves, Gillingham, Doncaster and Crewe are in the bottom four, we are not winning the games to catch the teams above us, and if we would have done that, we would have been out of the relegation zone by now. You look back at the Ipswich game and the Bolton game and if you see them out you could have claimed some big points. We have eight games left to go and we will see where it takes us. We have to remain positive. We have to pick up wins and I have spoken a lot about that since I’ve come in.”
Survival – or the first relegation EVER for Morecambe could be in the balance today.
But far worse things could be happening. In Ukraine, whether or not a football club might be relegated is hardly worth worrying about in the greater scheme of things.
So Hats Off to everyone who has responded to Morecambe FC’s appeal to help the people of Ukraine in their dire time of need currently. To repeat our club’s website:
“Special thanks go to Alison & John Herd of Thornton Road Spar for the use of the storage facility, Chris Morrow of Homestyle Carpets of Torrisholme for loading and transporting the goods, and the staff at SJ Bargh for helping unload and accepting this van full for transportation.
We would also like to thank everyone who has brought donations to the Stadium. The appeal continues and donations can be dropped off at the Mazuma or Thornton Road Spar.
Items urgently required: Towels, sleeping bags, airbeds, bandages, nappies, formula milk, dried milk, female hygiene products, colouring books and crayons, toiletries, soft toys/teddy bears.”
In the absence of NATO – god help anyone Ukrainian. But for the sheer lottery of where we were born, their fate could befall any one of us…
It’s reassuring to know that there are good people in the world as well as bad ‘uns. So well done to the five Wigan supporters – Stuart Cadman, Darren Bolton, Neil Myers, Robert Holcroft and Paul Kendrick – who took part in a 47-mile trek from the Mazuma to the DW Stadium over the last two days with the support of other football fans. They did this for Joseph’s Goal, a charity which supports ten-year old Joseph Michael Kendrick, who suffers from a serious genetic condition called Non-Ketotic Hyperglycinemia. You can make a donation to help research into this condition at
https://www.justgiving.com/team/walk4josephmorecambe
The walkers were lucky enough to choose two perfect days for walking: dry; sunny and neither too cold nor too hot.
So, under bright blue skies, the Latics kicked-off in front of a crowd in which could be found several fans with very sore feet.
Wigan have a good side – and it shows. Here was a team which could probably easily hold its own in the Championship. Right from the off, you could see that the men in the blue striped shirts were quicker to think; quicker to react and more skilful on the ball than the men in the red strip. Will Keane headed a Tom Naylor cross from the right just over the bar after just three minutes as Wigan looked the more threatening team right from the off. From a free-kick awarded after thirteen minutes, Jason Kerr got his head to James McLean’s dead ball kick but guided it straight at Trevor Carson in the away net. Just six minutes later, the Latics were in the lead. Tendayi Darikwa got away far too easily on the Wigan right and played a perfect cross for Josh Magennis to glance the ball out of Carson’s reach. Yet again, it was a really bad goal to concede as Datikwa wasn’t challenged as he made progress down the flank and nobody in a red shirt made Maginnis’ finish any harder than it actually was. Having said that, the visitors created the occasional decent chance of their own as well. With twenty-six minutes played, home keeper Ben Amos did brilliantly to deny Aaron Wildig’s goal-bound effort after he had misjudged a cross into his area. Forty minutes were on the clock when a tremendous volley from Cole the Goal Stockton was then deflected just over the Wigan crossbar for a corner kick.
Sadly, though, the Shrimps have been making a habit of conceding just before half time in recent games. They had a warning after 43 minutes when Carson did well to push an effort from Stephen Humphrys away for a corner. From it, for the third match in a row, they conceded again – this time, in very peculiar style. McClean’s kick was flicked-on by Tom Naylor and it somehow-or-other ended-up going over the goal-line. It seems that Jason Kerr turned it just over that magic line although I personally thought that the Referee had awarded a free-kick to Morecambe before I realised he was actually pointing back towards the centre circle for the game to restart.
So there we had it: a familiar story at half time in recent times. Morecambe had played some reasonably effective stuff at times but were basically second best when it really mattered.
However, they came out and actually played a lot better at the start of the second half. They were the better side in my opinion for perhaps fifteen minutes and during this time, Athletic looked distinctly beatable. The visitors reduced the arrears in the forty-ninth minute, when a shot by Cole Stockton was clearly handled by a Latics defender in the home area. Dylan Connolly scored emphatically with the penalty kick. There was a fleeting belief in the noisy visiting contingent that the Shrimps might play their way back into the game at this point.
But it wasn’t to be. Did they run out of steam? Or did Wigan move up a gear? Perhaps it was a bit of both.
Morecambe looked increasingly vulnerable at the back as the game grew older and Will Keane scored for the twentieth time this season by redirecting Naylor’s goal-bound header into the net after an hour. It was another sloppy goal to concede. But two minutes later, things got even worse for the visitors. Morecambe defenders were Absent Without Leave as Humphrys received the ball on the right edge of the away penalty area from his point of view. Nobody challenged him so he let fly with a fierce shot which beat Carson all ends up.(He had only just missed with another effort just four minutes earlier.)
As the away supporters started chanting `We Are Going Down!’, Wigan made it 4-1 after 47 minutes. Darikwa crossed the ball; Naylor headed it back from where it had come – and Keane nodded it home. After this, the home team looked likely to score every time they attacked, so shambolic had Morecambe’s defending become yet again. There was a slightly comical moment in the eighty-first minute when Keane did all the hard work to set-up another goal for himself and then fell flat on his face trying to do so. But the Latics had finished their scoring jamboree.
It was far too easy for Wigan today. The difference in class – and we must remember that they were missing one of their best players in Morecambe Old Boy Callum Lang – was plain for all to see. So there are just seven games left for Morecambe to save themselves now. The good news is that Crewe and Wimbledon (who fell into the relegation places tonight) both lost today as well. Less good news is that Fleetwood drew with Doncaster. Worse news still was that Gillingham actually held Sheffield Wednesday in a goal-less game in Kent – and thus crawled out of the relegation zone altogether.
It got worse still after the game. Drunken Morecambe idiots pushed roadwork cones into the traffic as they marched back towards Wigan town centre. I found myself among other Shrimps supporters moving them back out of the way again to allow the traffic to pass. This sort of stupidity puts both our club and our town in a really bad light – this is no way to behave in any circumstances, let alone support a team which is in an increasingly parlous position.
Back at the DW Stadium, Derek Adams admitted that yet again, his team had been found wanting at the back. He said:
“I was speaking to the staff just now and they said that’s been the story of the season. Crossed balls into the box (and) we haven’t been strong enough.”
No such worries for Wigan, though. With Shrewsbury carrying on from where they left-off with us last Tuesday by winning 0-3 at leaders Rotherham, Latics find themselves where they deserve to be: just a point behind them with two games in hand. Manager Leam Richardson said afterwards:
“It was a pleasing and professional performance. We’ve got a lot of senior lads on the pitch to manage situations and the pleasing thing was after Morecambe’s goal, we controlled the game and got another couple of goals.”
Wigan Athletic: 12 Ben Amos; 4 Tom Naylor; 5 Jack Whatmough; 8 Max Power (18 Graeme Shinnie 78’); 10 Will Keane; (61’); 15 Jason Kerr; 16 Curtis Tilt; 23 James McClean; 27 Tendayi Darikwa; 28 Josh Magennis; 39 Stephen Humphrys (7 Gwion Edwards 88’).
Subs Not Used: 1 Jamie Jones; 2 Kelland Watts; 3 Tom Pearce; 11 Gavin Massey; 21 Joe Bennett.
Morecambe: 30 Trevor Carson; 3 Greg Leigh; 4 Anthony O’Connor (C); 5 Jacob Bedeau (22 Liam Gibson 88’); 8 Toumani Diagouraga; 9 Cole Stockton (Y); 10 Aaron Wildig; 11 Dylan Connolly; 19 Shane McLoughlin (18 Adam Phillips 74’); 21 Ryan Cooney; 24 Arthur Gnahoua (17 Jonah Ayunga 88’).
Subs Not Used: 41 Adam Smith; 14 Jonathan Obika. 16 Jacob Mensah; 27 Ousmane Fané.
Ref: James Oldham.
Att: 10,073 (700+ from Morecambe).
