Game at the Pirelli Goes Flat…

It seems a bit melodramatic to be talking about `A Relegation Six-Pointer’ this early in the season but the game which happened in Staffordshire today was exactly that. Hosts Burton Albion have played thirteen games in League One so far and have just seven points to show for it. This poor form saw them sitting in twenty-third place at the bottom of the table prior to kick-off against Morecambe this afternoon. The Shrimps, though, found themselves one place lower than the Brewers right at the foot of the Division. They have only managed to accrue six points so far but have played one game fewer than today’s opponents.

Albion’s season began disastrously. With previous saviour Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink in charge, Albion managed to take only a single point out of their first seven league games. On 5 September 2022, Jimmy resigned, saying that he had “taken the club as far as I can with the limited resources available”. Sound familiar at all? Since then, though, ex-Stevenage and Oldham boss Dino Maamria has taken over. Burton won his second game in charge, a shock 0-2 win at Exeter and also overcame another of League One’s fellow-strugglers – Forest Green Rovers – by the odd goal in five at home a couple of weeks ago. They’ve lost three of their other games under new management but forced a 1-1 draw at high-flying Peterborough last Saturday. Struggles on the field have not been helped by problems off it: defender Williams Kokolo, for instance, has rape allegations hanging over him and faces another Court appearance in June next year.

Morecambe had a fantastic record against Burton in their non-league years and never lost to them. But in the EFL, they have done less well. The two clubs have met fifteen times before and Morecambe have won five and lost eight of them. They lost here in League One last season after taking the lead, 3-2. In the return fixture last April, though, the Shrimps walloped Albion three-nil. How the Shrimps could do with a repeat performance today.

Derek Adams’ team have lost their last three league games and picked-up a mere three points out of the last five games.  However, not all their performances have been poor and with a different team of officials – who denied the Shrimps a perfectly good goal with an appalling collective off-side decision – would have drawn against or even beaten high-flying Ipswich at the Maz last Saturday.

Prior to the match, King Derek stressed the need for his team to score more goals in league matches:

“We obviously have to be seeing teams off when we get that opportunity. Kieran Phillips has scored three goals for us this season; Jensen Weir has scored four. Arthur (Gnahoua) has got two – but he’s obviously suspended. And we’ve still got to get Cole Stockton, who was second highest goal scorer in the division last season, off the mark. These are the areas we need to improve on. I think we can score goals from a variety of positions; even from set plays as well.”

As far as today’s opponents specifically are concerned, he refuted the claim by some people that this was a must-win game. Having said that, he also said that a victory this afternoon would be a definite bonus. He added:

“They’re a well-equipped team with undoubted talent on their books. But they are where they are in the table at this moment in time: a place above us. It’s an opportunity to try and get three points. I think Burton are a well-equipped League One side who have played in the Championship. We’re the only team other than Forest Green that have not been in League One more than one season. You look at all the rest of the teams: they’ve been in League One before. That shows you the gulf we’ve got to bridge. We understand that. We’re not denying that. But we’ve got to be respectful for the rest of the teams in this division and know what their capabilities are.”

Derek dropped Ousmane Fané today and promoted Jensen Weir to the first team in his place. There was also a welcome return from injury for Caleb Watts, who was named on the substitutes’ bench.

Opposite number Dino Maamria assessed his own team’s form currently with a message which will surely send a chill all the way to the Etihad Stadium:

“We keep building blocks. The structure of the team is getting better and better all the time. I’m really pleased with how they are training, and they are showing that they are all fully committed and ready to go out and fight for each other. We’re all on the same page in terms of how we want to defend and attack as a team – It’s about keeping that energy level high.

We want to have the ball as a team. It doesn’t matter who we’re playing against, we want to dominate the ball. We want to do our defending with the ball. If the opposition doesn’t have the ball, we don’t have to do a lot of defending. That’s ultimately the big goal. It took Pep Guardiola at Manchester City over a season to make big improvements in the Premier League – It takes time to build that brand of football, but ultimately we want a team that plays thrilling football with pace, power, commitment, and a ferocious will to win. There is a process to get there. We can’t just click our fingers and become that team, but the signs are there, and the progress is being made. The growth in the team is so evident, and that’s what we’ve got to keep doing. I have huge confidence that we’re going in the right direction.”

So should Pep be looking anxiously over his shoulder? Maybe not just yet…

It was blustery with occasional showers and sunny intervals in Burton before the game today. From kick-off, Albion won a corner almost immediately which Connor Ripley should have caught – but punched away for a throw. This was delivered straight back and obliged him to deal with a difficult ball as centre-back Sam Winnall got the ball over his head but he was able to grab it before it went over the line. Morecambe had the next chance when a cross from the Shrimps’ right was completely misjudged by Ben Garratt in the home goal. Sadly, Dylan Connolly wasn’t able to connect with the ball properly as it fell to him beyond the far post but his effort was cleared for a corner which Burton defended without too much trouble.  At the other end, Connolly made a poor clearance which resulted in Ripley making a fine save from Brewers’ Skipper John Brayford’s fierce volley from about twenty yards out at the cost of a corner. This was with seven minutes on the clock. Kieran Phillips then cleverly beat his man on the edge of the box about three minutes later but his cross with his less favoured left foot was poor. The game deteriorated into a scrappy affair for some time after that, with the ball being booted right out of the ground twice by Farrend Rawson. He then conceded a free-kick in a dangerous position on the Albion left after 21 minutes. But the central defender was there again to clear the ball away from the danger area. The Red Mist descended on Liam Shaw shortly after this and he was lucky not to be sent off for a two-footed lunge on Terry Taylor after 25 minutes. Three minutes later, leading Albion scorer Victor Adeboyejo then missed with a shot after Taylor cleverly set him up with a reverse pass. As heavy rain began to fall – and right on the half hour mark – Shrimps’ Skipper Donald Love headed the ball weakly into the air and was both out-thought and out-muscled by Davis Keillor-Dunn, who needed no second invitation to beat Ripley with a fine shot to put Burton into the lead. The rain quickly turned to hail as thunder rumbled in the distance and the visitors continued to struggle to cope with the storm – in more ways than one.  Winnall came close to doubling the hosts’ lead with a header which only just missed the target after 35 minutes. With just two minutes left to play before the break, Cole Stockton managed to get away from the Albion rearguard and found Liam Gibson in the centre but his effort was absolutely brilliantly saved by Garrett at full stretch in the home goal.

So the Shrimps trudged off through the sopping wetness at half time one-nil down. It was a result of poor defending by their Skipper, who had a generally poor game all round throughout the half. But it could have been worse if Referee Darren Handley hadn’t taken an unusually lenient view of Shaw’s bad challenge mid-way through the half. So Morecambe had yet another mountain to climb in the second half – against a poor team, they had looked second best almost all the way through the game so far.

Understandably, Love made way for Ryan Cooney and Ousmane Fané also replaced Connolly for the beginning of the second half. Cooney almost immediately found Ryan Delaney from a corner in a clearly rehearsed move which came to nothing. The game was really poor in the opening phase as both teams struggled to string more than two passes together. Burton might have gone further ahead after 64 minutes but Adeboyejo was just unable to connect with a cross by Jonny Smith from the Brewers’ left. Cole Stockton then tried a hopelessly optimistic shot at goal which went way off target a couple of minutes later.  As the snooze festival continued, Burton made whatever little progress there was. On their left, Smith got the better of the substitute for Donald Love more often than not. But Burton perhaps had a let-off after 77 minutes when there seemed to be a deliberate hand ball in their penalty area. Almost immediately afterwards – and right out of nothing – Ryan Delaney let fly with a thunderbolt of a shot from about twenty-five yards out right into the top corner of  Garratt’s net to equalise for the visitors. It was an unstoppable strike – and his first-ever goal for the club. It couldn’t have come at a better time. The game didn’t improve as a spectacle after that. The nearest anyone came to scoring a winner was when Davis Keillor-Dunn booted the ball right over the stand roof in injury time – an action in keeping with the very low quality of the rest of a truly dreary game.

But a draw on the road is better than nothing and Derek Adams will be more pleased with the point than Dino Maamria will be in the aftermath. Burton and Morecambe thus stayed locked together at the foot of League One. FGR drew today but so-called MK Dons lost 1-4 at home to Plymouth. Morecambe have a game in hand over both of these clubs and are just four and two points adrift of them respectively this evening. However, they are also six points from safety tonight.  Derek Adams, as ever, was still optimistic at the end of the game. He said:

“It was an eventful match. We obviously should have gone ahead in the game. We had the better opportunities in the match. They only had one shot. It was a very scrappy football match. The weather took its toll. It wasn’t pretty at times. At the end, to come away from home and score a great goal: sometimes; you have to take a point and move on. I thought the way that we fought and looked after each other was very good. To come here, it’s not easy. They changed their system today to try and get at us and I thought we stood up to that very well. We need a wee bit more quality – fight is not going to get you everywhere. That’s another draw on the road and we’ll just keep up picking up points.”

Burton Albion: 1 Ben Garratt; 2 John Brayford (C); 4 Deji Oshilaja; 5 Sam Hughes; 8 Adrian Mariappa; 9 Sam Winnall (7 Joe Powell 42’) (39 Bobby Kamwa  84’); 10 Davis Keillor-Dunn; 11 Jonny Smith (21 Mustapha Carayol 84’); 14 Victor Adeboyejo; 23 Terry Taylor; 37 Tom Hamer.

Subs Not Used: 24 Viljami Sinisalo; 3 Cameron Borthwick-Jackson; 6 Calum Butcher; 17 Elliot Thorpe.

Morecambe: 1 Connor Ripley; 2 Donald Love (C) (21 Ryan Cooney 45’); 4 Liam Gibson (25 Adam Mayor 76’); 5 Farrend Rawson (Y); 6 Ryan Delaney; 9 Cole Stockton; 11 Dylan Connolly (Y) (8 Ousmane Fané (Y) 45’); 15 Jensen Weir (17 Caleb Watts 67’); 20 Liam Shaw (Y) (22 Anthony O’Connor 81’); 16 Jacob Bedeau; 23 Kieran Phillips.

Subs not used: 12 Adam Smith; 18 Shane McLoughlin.

Ref: Darren Handley.

Att: 2,602.