Owls Far Too Smart For Woeful Shrimps

Last season, Morecambe beat Sheffield Wednesday at the Maz early doors to inflict the Yorkshire team’s first defeat of the season on Darren Clarke’s men in any competition. In the reverse fixture in Sheffield, The Owls came out on top last February by two goals to nil. Prior to that, the two clubs had only met once before, in the FA Cup eleven years ago when Morecambe finally lost 1-2 at home. Tonight, Wednesday arrived in fourth place in League Two, having lost their last game at Hillsborough 0-2 to recently-relegated Barnsley in a local derby. In their last five league games, they have won three and lost two matches. Morecambe, by contrast, started tonight’s game at the other end of the League One table to their visitors: in twenty-second place having failed to win yet in the league at all this season and having lost three of their previous five fixtures.

Derek Adams had this to say about this evening’s opponents prior to kick-off:

“They’ve got quality throughout the team. They’ve got some real quality players; Barry Bannan is a prime example of that, to have the likes of Gregory, Windass as well in that area, they’ve got a very, very good squad. We all know them very well because they’ve played in the Championship, some of them have played in the Premier League as well. They’ve got international players in their squad and that’s why they’re favourites for promotion. They come here, which is always a difficult venue for any team to come to, and as a Club, as a team, we’re looking forward to it. It’s (about) what we do on the day, we’ve got to get at them and cause them problems, which we will do.”

He chose Liam Shaw to face the club he played his entire career for until June of last year. Cole Stockton was also selected to play up-front with Kieran Phillips as twin strikers. For the visitors, Welsh international Will Vaulks – playing on his birthday – was named on the bench. League One’s August Player of the Month – Liam Palmer – started as usual and had a very effective game tonight; defending well but attacking when the chance came his way both skilfully and quickly.

It was a bit chilly today after some hot episodes recently and as the skies darkened and an initially orange moon shrouded in mist gradually came up over the horizon behind the visitors’ stand, it got distinctly nippy.

There was a minute’s (almost) perfect silence before kick-off to commemorate the life of Queen Elizabeth II followed by a pretty weedy rendition of “God Save The King” by the crowd.

The game started at a fair pace and looked fairly evenly balanced most of the time during the first half. Having said that, the Owls indisputably had the lion’s share of the ball and the attacking. In the home goal, Connor Ripley was by far the busier of the two goalkeepers. Although he looked vulnerable as he punched crosses he could have caught and failed to come for balls he should have dealt with particularly from corners, his shot-stopping was exceptional tonight. It needed to be. After twenty minutes, he was at full stretch to his left to push away a neat effort from Josh Windass. Eleven minutes later, he was severely tested again and reacted brilliantly to keep out Reece James’s fierce strike from the edge of the box.

But it wasn’t all Wednesday. Cole Stockton and Kieran Phillips combined well for the only time in the game after twelve minutes and the latter forced a fine save from visiting custodian David Stockdale. Then Ryan Delaney came up from the back and headed narrowly wide from Jake Taylor’s corner with 37 minutes on the clock.

So the first half ended goal-less but with little to choose between the two sides.

That was not the case in the second period, very sadly for Morecambe fans. Sheffield upped the pace and compressed the play and for the entire forty-five minutes simply dominated the match. Morecambe offered little going forward; found it almost impossible to get out of their own half and were constantly pressurised into giving the ball away. Cole Stockton offered virtually nothing all night; failing to hold the ball up; compete effectively in the air or cause any real danger to the visiting defence. His replacement, Arthur Gnahoua, contributed even less. Morecambe looked and played like a team which didn’t understand either the formation they were supposed to be playing nor what their individual roles within the team were. But Wednesday – with diminutive Skipper Barry Bannan here, there and everywhere as he pulled all the strings in midfield – clearly knew what they were about tonight. It took them until the seventieth minute to take the lead despite a multitude of chances and further excellent saves from Ripley. Then, Bannan slung over a corner from their right and there was Windass to head home far too easily at the near post. Eight minutes later, the visitors followed exactly the same routine with exactly the same result – George Byers heading home this time. To rub it in, Windass then turned provider with a perfect ball into Michael Smith’s path which the central striker finished with aplomb with about six minutes left to play.

So that was it – another disjointed and weak display by the Shrimps against another of League One’s Big Boys. This latest defeat saw Morecambe slip one place nearer to relegation to twenty-third position with only four points on the board after eight league games. They are already four points adrift of Forest Green Rovers, who are in twentieth place – and safe. And Nailsworth is the Shrimps’ next port of call on Saturday…

After the game, Derek Adams had this to say about his team’s latest display:

“We had two big chances in the game. Kieran Phillips was through and Delaney had a header as well. We could have scored a couple of goals from that and that would have given us confidence. There were a few times when we got ourselves into good positions (and) we gave the ball away. At this level, you can’t do (that). You saw when Sheffield Wednesday had the ball and they broke and they were able to find a man and their quality shone through.”

Morecambe: 1 Connor Ripley; 2 Donald Love (C); 4 Liam Gibson; 5 Farrend Rawson; 6 Ryan Delaney; 7 Jake Taylor (8 Ousmane Fané 79’); 9 Cole Stockton (13 Arthur Gnahoua (63’); 15 Jensen Weir (18 Shane McLoughlin 78’); 16 Jacob Bedeau; 20 Liam Shaw; 23 Kieran Phillips (19 Jon Obika 87’).

Subs not used: 12 Adam Smith; 11 Dylan Connolly; 21 Ryan Cooney; 25 Adam Major; 26 Cameron Rooney.

Sheffield Wednesday: 31 David Stockdale; 2 Liam Palmer; 9 Lee Gregory (13 Callum Paterson 83’); 10 Barry Bannan (C) (4 Will Vaulks 83’); 11 Josh Windass (6 Dominic Iorfa 83’); 14 George Byers; 24 Michael Smith; 33 Reece James; 34Mark McGuinness (Y); 45 Alex Mighten (18 Marvin Johnson 63’).

Subs not used:   25 Cameron Dawson; 7 Mallik Wilks; 17 Fisayo Dele-Bashiru.

Ref: Andrew Kitchen.

Att: 5,148 (1,779 from Sheffield).