A Story of Morecambe, Accrington – and Oldham.

I had a really bad dream which actually woke me up the other day. In it, two nefarious creatures of the night had crept along the sewers to the Mazuma Arena, slithered up the waste pipes and emerged – slimy, stinking and very, very scary – from a toilet and then squelched their way to the Board Room. There, they squirted ink from various bodily orifices all over a Contract which was lying on the Board Room table. In doing so, they changed the Maz into Morecambe Stadium Limited. In a stroke (as can only happen in nightmares) these things actually owned it. The team I have supported all my life suddenly became tenants – for the first time ever. The Hospitality and all the other things which actually generated revenue to keep the club going were suddenly owned by them alone.

And how these diabolical things laughed after the dreadful deed was done. And laughed. And laughed.

I woke up with a start and then slowly realised that what I had dreamt wasn’t real.

How could it be?

If I’d noticed the following, as instead I ate my breakfast later on, maybe I would have thought differently. Joe Harvey of Talking Rugby Union wrote this about the other club owned by Morecambe duo Colin Goldring and Jason Whittingham; Worcester Warriors:

“A report by BBC Hereford & Worcester outlined much of the problems faced by the club. Starting with the company running Warriors’ operations – WRFC Trading Limited – being handed the winding-up petition by HMRC. They also outlined how the club’s owners purchased other parts of the club’s land through other companies they are directors for, including for the freehold of the club’s car park to MQ Property Ltd for £50,000 [which is operated by Whittingham and Goldring]. This was paid for using a loan from a company called Triangle Estate & Petroleum Ltd. In June, training pitches owned and used by Warriors were sold to a real estate company named Worcester Capital Investment Ltd for £350,000. Whittingham and Goldring have also registered Sixways Medical Limited, Sixways Property Limited and Sixways Stadium Limited, although the purpose of those three businesses is not known.

After the Sixways site was independently valued at £16.7m, it is uncertain whether the land which has been recently purchased has been undervalued, and what planning restrictions are in place. A source close to the Warriors camp informed Talking Rugby Union that the club’s owners have, in fact, not even spoken to the players about what the future may hold. In May, some players went unpaid after the club was unable to pay wages because of “cashflow” issues. With little direction as to what the future may hold, it is difficult to imagine what is going through the minds of all the employees that call Sixways Stadium their place of work at this moment in time, the balancing act of being in professional sport never having been more precarious.”

Sky Sports added last Monday:

“”The owners of Worcester Warriors have not met the Rugby Football Union’s 5pm deadline to evidence insurance cover, availability of funds to meet the monthly payroll, and a credible plan to take the club forward,” a statement from the RFU said. “The RFU has therefore suspended Worcester Warriors from all competitions, including the Gallagher Premiership, Allianz Premier 15s, U18s Academy Cup and Allianz Cup with immediate effect.””

The club are now in Administration. The people who once thought their new owners would take it forward to a bright new future now fear for its very existence altogether. A senior and long-time member of the old Board of the Rugby Club has gone on  record this week to say that – with the club in massive debt; no access to the revenue previously generated by the Hospitality and other revenue-generating elements of Sixfields Stadium plus a huge fee to actually use it at all, Warriors are effectively doomed.

If you don’t have a club to play at it – what is the point of having a sports stadium at all? And you could build a hell of a lot of houses on the Sixfields site, couldn’t you? – if you were a property developer of course.

So just remind me – what do Messrs Goldring and Whittingham do for a living?

Talking about nightmares, Morecambe travelled across Lancashire today to face a recurring one of their own in the shape of Accrington Stanley. As we all know, Stanley are the Shrimps’ all-time Bogey Team. They have played each other twenty-five times in the EFL so far and Morecambe have only won a truly feeble two of these matches – and lost a massive fourteen. Last season, having raced into a 0-2 lead at this venue, Stephen Robinson’s team once again capitulated and conceded two goals to finally draw the game – a reflection of the earlier game at the Maz, which ended three goals each.

Accrington started today’s game in unlucky thirteenth position in League One on the back of two victories – most recently away against Bristol Rovers last Saturday – and three losses in their last five league games. They were five points better off than today’s visitors, who lay next to bottom of the table at the start of play.

Morecambe Manager Derek Adams assessed the scale of the challenge facing his team before the game in these terms:

“We know where we are as a football club. We know where we stand and in this division, it is tough, you are going to have ups and downs. We’ve lost 50 per cent of the games and we have drawn or won the other 50 per cent of games so that is something that we have to change: draws into wins which will help us.  We have had a number of players injured such as Hunter, Melbourne and Watts, who came in to play in a variety of positions. We have done well with the formations we have played in. We have to look at the opposition’s strengths and weaknesses going forward as we always do. There is never a good time to come up against Accrington because we know what type of game it is going to be. It is a high tempo match; it is one that will go to-and-fro. They have done really well to stay in League One over the years and we have aspirations to do the same as them. We did that last year and we want to do the same this year.  To be fair to them, financially, they have done very well. They have sold a number of players on and that has enabled them to recoup and enabled them to bring others in and that has been really good for them.” 

King Derek’ Opposite Number and legendary ex-Shrimps striker John Coleman had this to say as Manager of the opposition:

“We’re going into a really tough derby game. Having beaten Bristol on Saturday and Morecambe losing at home people just think it’s a foregone conclusion that we’re going to win. They’re the most dangerous games – that’s when you’ve really got to stay on top of the players until three o’clock. Morecambe in recent years have started to improve their results against us and it won’t be easy – but that’s the message we’ve got to put across to the players. You’ve got to try and pick up points against the teams that are the financial equivalent of you. Everybody knows my affinity to Morecambe. I want to see them flourish.  I had my most prolific spell as a footballer there. Then you have the new fans; they probably won’t have heard of me playing – that makes me smile as well. They are generally really good games, the fans make it a good atmosphere and Morecambe will travel in numbers. Once you have that atmosphere, the game hots up and there has always been plenty of goals. You have got to hope we put them in one end and keep them out at the other. Derek’s done a marvellous job there when he got them promoted. He’s got a style of football. Once you get to know Derek, you see how passionate he is about football. I love seeing managers who eat; sleep; drink; breathe football – and he’s one of them. He’ll be doing his damndest to get one over on us on Saturday.”

One thing that has followed a pattern over the year as far as Stanley teams are concerned is that despite the ever-changing personnel, they are always a physically big and combative side. The latest incarnation of Mr Coleman’s blueprint follows this pattern precisely.

It was overcast at times in Accrington this afternoon. Occasionally, the game was played under bright sunshine but it ended – appropriately enough from Morecambe’s point of view – under heavy clouds from which cold rain was blown almost horizontally into the uncovered away end and even the first few rows of the covered stand set aside for visiting supporters.

The first half was fairly even. Derek Adams chose to play with Kieran Phillips as lone Centre Forward today. It didn’t really work. He was often stranded alone up-front and given very little service except long balls over the top and goal kicks from the back which Morecambe stopper Connor Ripley – as has been so often the case this season – our XL size goalkeeper booted far too long.

Having said that, though, Kieran’s effort– which was well blocked by Doug Tharme after seven minutes, was the first serious attempt on goal by either side. A minute later, from a corner, Farrend Rawson headed only just wide of Lukas Jensen’s left-hand post to almost score against another of his former employers. At the other end, a weak Tharme header was directed straight at Ripley after ten minutes. Connor has struggled with routine saves all of the season so far but on this occasion, he caught it without any trouble. But with twenty-five minutes on the clock, Rawson did really well to prevent an opening goal for the hosts by clearing a Harvey Rodgers headed effort off the line with the away goalkeeper beaten. About ten minutes from the end of the half, Jake Taylor tried his luck for the Shrimps with a shot which went wide of the target.

It had hardy been a scintillating game so far but both teams played some nice football at times and probably just about balanced themselves out on the balance of play. But in injury time, the game changed entirely – and in that moment, Morecambe’s fate was sealed.

Anyone who has ever seen Arthur Gnahoua perform knows that he is not a dirty player. Far from it – indeed I think a lot of us would like to see Arthur getting properly stuck-in from time to time. But not the way he did today. In a mid-air collision with Mitch Clark, he led with his arm. Clark rolled around as if he had been pole-axed. I thought he was play-acting at the time. And as Stanley’s Big Units surrounded the Referee, all suggesting that a Morecambe elbow had been responsible for their team mate’s histrionics, I thought it was typical Stanley intimidation. When The Man in Black – James Oldham – seemed to capitulate to them and gave Arthur a straight red card, I thought it was a diabolically weak piece of refereeing. But I am mistaken. Replays I have subsequently seen show that Mr Oldham got it absolutely right and I must eat Humble Pie for ever doubting him.

Having said that, early in the second half, Tharme’s two-footed lunge on Ousmane Fané from behind was a really poor challenge for which the Stanley man might have walked. But Mr Oldham only proffered a yellow card.

The home team had been dominating the play against the ten men for a while before they almost inevitably went ahead. Just before the hour, Liam Coyle latched on to a pass from Clark on the Accrington right and squeezed a shot into the net to Ripley’s right to open the scoring for the home team. Shortly afterwards, only the goalkeeper’s right-hand post stopped the home side adding a second as another shot hit it and bounced innocuously away. King Derek shook things up and sent on both Cole Stockton and Ryan Coney with about twenty minutes left. The visitors immediately looked to be offering more threat going forward and Cole’s harrying of Ryan Astley caused the big central defender to panic and unleash a perfectly judged lob over his own goalkeeper right into the top left corner of Jensen’s net after 77 minutes. It was an absolute classic of an Own Goal. And how the away fans cheered!

But the celebrations, sadly,  didn’t last long and this time, the visiting goalkeeper was culpable. The Shrimps conceded a free-kick just outside their own penalty area just to right of centre from Stanley’s point of view. Ripley set up his wall and left himself with a very inviting space to his right into which to shoot. Ethan Hamilton duly did so – and scored as the big stopper got nowhere near it with a low shot. This was after eighty-one minutes.

It all went wrong again just four minutes later. Substitute Dylan Connolly lost the ball on the Morecambe right to fellow-sub Jack Nolan who put the after-burners on and blasted down the Stanley left to sling over a cross which Tommy Leigh slotted home at the far post. And that was it.

I thought Morecambe were a little unlucky today. With eleven men on the field, they looked like a match for Accrington throughout the first half. But once Arthur Gnahoua let the side down by being dismissed, they were inevitably over-run at times in the second period. Once Cole the Goal and particularly Ryan Cooney entered the fray, though, the Shrimps looked a lot more dynamic in the midfield and forward areas. League One is tough – and unforgiving. But today’s performance wasn’t all bad.

The loss, though, meant that – with Burton scraping past FGR at home by three goals to two – Morecambe are now rock bottom of League One on goal difference. Accrington went up the table to ninth. Their Manager said after the game: “We’ve managed to concede a goal without them even having a shot on target.” But that’s not the whole story of this match.

Derek Adams must have been really disappointed after the game given what happened just before half time. He had the sense, though, not to criticise – at least in public – his own player.  Instead, he said:  

“The sending-off changes the game. It changes the flow of the game. It changes the aspect of the game where we come in eleven against ten – and that becomes extremely difficult in any league that you’re in. When we got back to 1-1, it looked like we became the stronger team. Did we deserve to lose today? No. I think if it was eleven against eleven, we would have had enough over the ninety minutes to have got something from the game.”

Accrington Stanley: 1 Lukas Jensen; 2 Mitchell Clark; 4 Ethan Hamilton; 5 Ryan Astley; 6 Liam Coyle; 7 Shaun Whalley; 8 Tommy Leigh; 11 Sean McConville; 16 Harvey Rodgers; 28 Seamus Conneely (Y); 34 Doug Tharme (Y)(17 Jack Nolan 74’ ).

Subs not used:  15 Mohammed Sangare; 18 Nathan Delfouneso; 22 Dan Martin; 35 Bailey Sloane; 40 Toby Savin; 50 Baba Fernandes.

Morecambe: 1 Connor Ripley; 2 Donald Love (C)(Y); 4 Liam Gibson (Y); 5 Farrend Rawson (Y); 6 Ryan Delaney; 7 Jake Taylor (21 Ryan Cooney 59’); 8 Ousmane Fané (Y); 13 Arthur Gnahoua (R 46’); 15 Jensen Weir; 16 Jacob Bedeau (9 Cole Stockton 73’); 23 Kieran Phillips (11 Dylan Connolly 59’.

Subs not used: 12 Adam Smith; 18 Shane McLoughlin; 19 Jon Obika; 22 Anthony O’Connor.

Ref: James Oldham.

Att: 2,916 (727 from Morecambe.)