Too Easy for the U’s

Morecambe approached tonight’s game against Cambridge United at the Mazuma Stadium on the crest of a slump. Manager Stephen Robinson has broken down the season into bite-sized chunks of five games. In their last five, his team has picked up just one solitary point out of a potential fifteen. By his own reckoning, they need at least six to survive in League One. The Shrimps’ away form has been appalling ever since Skipper Sam Lavelle was sold to Charlton Athletic. Having said that, they have played intelligent, effective football at times and the form of some of Robbo’s players – most obviously Cole the Goal Stockton and the superb Jonah Ayunga and Greg Leigh – give reasons for optimism.

On the down-side, though, it’s a concern that Aaron Wildig seems to have returned to a pattern all too familiar to Shrimps’ supporters from when Jim Bentley was in charge of the club. He seemed to be perennially injured or unwell then and rarely played a full ninety minutes. Last season, though, he equally rarely missed a game and usually played the full hour and a half into the bargain. Derek Adams seemed to be able to inspire what has always been one of the club’s better talents to display that skill week-in, week-out. So what’s happened? Robbo also persists with Burnley loanee Adam Phillips, whose languid performances for far too long (not tracking-back; constantly overhitting the ball and numerous other crimes against the Beautiful Game)  have not been good enough to earn him a place in a Northern Premier League side, let alone the Premier League one managed by Sean Dyche.  I don’t personally understand why Toumani Diagouraga – who is a far more skilful player with an obviously much better attitude and whose commitment to the cause has never been in any doubt – isn’t given the dead ball duties instead. Failing that – how about anyone else? Me, for instance – or even my son’s dog? None of us could do any worse…

United travelled to North Lancashire tonight also under something of a cloud – to add to the ones which have been pouring rain down for over a week now across Morecambe Bay and its environs. Their first season in League One since promotion last term has also proved pretty problematic. There is no doubt that the loss of ex-Morecambe striker Paul Mullin to moneybags Wrexham this season has had a massive effect on their form: I suspect it is the equivalent of taking his successor Cole Stockton out of our own team. U’s win by the only goal of the game against AFC Wimbledon last Saturday was their only victory in their last eight matches. Their form in their previous five League One fixtures is three draws and one loss to add to their single victory. They were fifteenth in the table at the beginning of proceedings tonight; three places and four points better-off than their hosts. In previous meetings in all competitions, it was all-square, with six victories each and three draws. (Let’s just not mention their 7-0 demolition of Jim Bentley’s Shrimps during 2016 in what remains the club’s heaviest ever league defeat – or their 0-5 humiliation of Derek Adams’ side at this venue last season in League Two…)

Manager Mark Bonner had this to say yesterday about the opposition he would face tonight:

“They are a strong side. They came up with us, but they have had a lot of changes over the summer, a change of manager as well as lots of new players arriving, so some slightly different challenges we will have to prepare for from last season. Morecambe will be slightly disappointed with their current run of form but similarly to Doncaster and Shrewsbury, their home form is excellent, and they have picked up some brilliant results. We know how tough of a game it is going to be tomorrow and we have to give ourselves the best chance of going and getting something from the game to keep adding to the total that we are on.”

For the Shrimps, First Team Coach Diarmuid O’Carroll advanced these thoughts about League One in general and Cambridge in particular:

“They’re a good side, (Joe) Ironside gives them a good foil up the pitch, they’re nice and solid, they’re very good at set plays, very good late in the games as well. We’ve seen a lot of them recently. Harry (Taylor – the club’s `Analyst’) has watched a lot of footage, myself and the gaffer and John (McMahon – Assistant Manager) have done a lot as well, so we know what to expect. They’re beatable, it’s a strange thing, every team in this division is beatable on their day, it’s just who’s more consistent, who limits the silly errors and the silly mistakes. We know we’re going to be up and down, we know we’re going to be in games. We haven’t been blown away by anybody. We’re competitive in every game we’re in. Yeah, we could close the door at the back from time to time, but we’ve been entertaining, we’ve tried to play the right way and we’ve made an impression on every team we’ve played. It’ll be great to be back, we’ve had over 4,000 at pretty much every game, I think, so it’s good. There’s a nice buzz about the place, people are enjoying the product that we’re giving them. Yes we want to get more wins than we lose, but if we can go into Tuesday confident, which all the boys are, they’re a close-knit group.”

Czech Tomas Holy – the `holy goalie’ on-loan from Ipswich – has returned to his parent club and regular stopper Dmitar Mitov returned to the first team tonight. Is he any good? Has the injury he has just recovered from done him any lasting damage?

Who knows? He was wearing a very natty pink outfit tonight which – under the lights – looked remarkably as if it was the same colour as Morecambe’s shirts from a distance. Other than that, there is virtually nothing to say about him. He had almost nothing to do and as the game wore on, he must have been more bothered by the plummeting temperature than he was by any thoughts of conceding a goal.

The match kicked-off under clear ink-black skies and for the first twenty minutes or so, the hosts looked lively. With the exception of Wes McDonald out on the left wing – who offered nothing all the time he was on the pitch once he had forced the visiting goalkeeper into what I think was his only save of the entire game after six minutes  – they looked more than a match for the team in the yellow shirts.  But as I’ve said, Mitov was only tested once and the visiting defence didn’t look like they were about to fall apart at any moment. However, I at least thought that the Shrimps were shading things and were marginally the better team.

And then the U’s scored. This was after twenty-eight minutes and it was a fantastic strike worthy of Cole the Goal Stockton himself. Ben Worman managed to control a difficult ball played into him with his chest and in an instant, he had volleyed it past a helpless Jökull Andrésson in the home goal. Wow…

And that was basically that. Morecambe’s heads dropped; their play became bitty and un-coordinated and they basically laid down and died. The U’s were pinging the ball about confidently and effectively by the end of the first half, by which time they had taken over control of the game utterly and totally.  

The second half was – if anything – even worse from the Shrimps’ point of view. The ball was repeatedly booted long by the men in the red shirts and the other men in the yellow shirts equally repeatedly played it quickly and efficiently back again. Morecambe didn’t press; they didn’t link-up well at any point – tonight, they looked beaten from the moment the first goal went in. United could have gone further ahead after an hour when the Shrimps’ young Icelandic goalkeeper did brilliantly to push a tremendous, sharp shot from Harvey Knibbs against his right-hand post. But the inevitable second goal arrived after 72 minutes when a clear penalty was awarded after Scott Wooten brought-down Jensen Weir. Joe Ironside walloped the ball home and any doubts that the Us were not going to take all three points home to Cambridgeshire were well and truly dispelled.

Jubril Okedina embarrassed himself by rolling about as if pole-axed when caught by an innocuous challenge by Jonah Ayunga before this happened. Shame on you sir! The histrionics worked though – Jonah went in the book. Also, when they scored, three young substitutes who had been discussing their conkers collections or what their mums were likely to make them for breakfast were `warming-up’ on the touchline. They ran onto the field to join in United’s celebrations. The Referee, Robert Madley, shooed them away – eventually. But one of the Herberts – white; blonde and clearly not very bright – gave him some backchat. The referee booked him. I would have personally have given him a red card for his exceedingly disrespectful reaction to this. So we faced a potential situation where – with a man silly boy sent off – Cambridge would still have had a full complement on the pitch. Bizarre...

Other than that, there is little to say. The U’s won’t have an easier win all season and if Morecambe continue to play like they did tonight, they will be relegated.

They need to improve – and improve markedly by Saturday. If they don’t, they will certainly be embarrassed at home in the FA Cup by another team who wear a yellow strip: Newport County. The only positive thing that can be said about this utterly feeble display tonight is that the young lad Shayon Harrison looks like he can play a bit.

By the end of proceedings, Cambridge had risen to tenth place in the League One table. Morecambe had sunk to twentieth place in League One – their lowest position so far. They are out of the relegation places only on goal difference. With our fixture against Wigan Athletic postponed, the Shrimps’ next game will be away at Fleetwood almost three weeks from now. By that time, the club will almost certainly be in the Drop Zone. Even at such an early stage of the season, this is looking like a really key fixture for both clubs as they struggle to maintain their current EFL status…

Would you like to look back at more positive things so far this season? You can catch up at any time on shrimplythebestfootball.com

Morecambe: 20 Jökull Andrésson; 2 Ryan McLaughlin; 3 Greg Leigh; 4 Anthony O’Connor (C); 6 Callum Jones (18 Adam Phillips 60’); 7 Wes McDonald (Y) (23 Freddie Price (Y) 60’); 8 Toumani Diagouraga (27 Shayon Harrison74’); 9 Cole Stockton (Y); 17 Jonah Ayunga (Y); 25 Alfie McCalmont; 31 Scott Wooten.

Subs Not Used:  1 Kyle Letheren; 15 Ryan Delaney; 22 Liam Gibson; 21 Ryan Cooney..

Cambridge United: Dmitar Mitov; 3 Jack Iredale; 4 Paul Digby (C); 7 James Brophy (10 Sam Smith (Y) 74’); 9 Joe Ironside; 11 Harrison Dunk; 15 Jubril Okedina; 16 Jensen Weir; 24 Conor Masterton; 26 Harvey Knibbs (17 Leon Tracey 68’); 27 Ben Worman.

Subs Not Used: 13 Kai McKenzie-Lyle; 18 Shilow Tracey; 22 Lewis Simper; 23 John Lankester; 28 Liam Bennett.

Ref: Robert Madley.

Att: 2414 (133 from Cambridge).