LEAGUE ONE. SATURDAY, 4th MARCH 2023.
Cheats DON’T prosper at Morecambe – for once…
Well – where do we start with Bolton Wanderers? I’m tempted to begin what could easily become a rant with the bald statement that I hate them.
But this isn’t true.
To say that their supporters are a throw-back to the violence and tribalism of the 1980s is something I can justify with some evidence. We need to look no further than what happened at the Mazuma Stadium when they last visited. Pitch invasion. Objects thrown from the visiting crowd at Morecambe goalkeeper Adam Smith. People randomly attacked by Trotter’s yobs on the streets near the ground – including a disabled supporter who was pushed from his Mobility Scooter.
Or we could look closer to home – their home.
https://www.bwfc.co.uk/news/2023/january/club-statement-fan-behaviour/
Which other club in any league in Britain has had to issue a plea to its own supporters to behave themselves? Even Millwall don’t do this, do they? Part of this statement – issued less than five weeks ago – reads:
“Unfortunately, as a consequence of ongoing disorder from a small minority of fans when visiting opposition grounds this season, the club has now been warned and sanctioned by the FA as part of their new measures to tackle anti-social behaviour. This is costing the club both financially and reputationally and is incredibly disappointing when so much is being done by so many to ensure Bolton Wanderers is a stable and sustainable football club, continuing its positive journey forwards.”
The key word in this sentence is `a small minority of fans’.
I’ve met perfectly decent people who support Bolton. They are probably as embarrassed by the behaviour of a minority as I personally was when I (and other Morecambe supporters) were replacing the traffic cones which a minority of our number – all clearly drunk – had shoved into the middle of the road after the game at Wigan last season.
I’m ashamed of these morons – I wish they would either grow-up very quickly – or go and support someone else altogether.
But the fact remains that a cloud hangs over the reputation of the Trotters and this has had regrettable knock-on effects.
Today’s game, for example, kicked-off at half past midday: two and a half hours earlier than originally planned.
Why?
To give visiting thugs less time to fill up with the alcohol they can’t hold which they use as an excuse for their mindless behaviour.
Something’s not right here. Decent law-abiding people who routinely work Saturday mornings would miss the start of the game – or possibly all of it if they were travelling from the Horwich area – because of the potential behaviour of a minority of idiots.
Why should they?
The local press told us, furthermore:
“A joint statement by Lancashire Police and Morecambe Football Club says:
“We are supporting this Saturday’s match with a joint operation between Morecambe FC and Lancashire Constabulary. We’ve worked closely in the planning of this weekend’s game and our aim is to keep people safe as well as getting people to and from the ground efficiently. Officers and stewards will be on hand to assist supporters attending the match, with an appropriate policing response in place.””
However, having said all that, it would be all too easy to claim ‘I hate Bolton Wanderers’.
I have fewer reservations about expressing negative thoughts about their Manager, though.
What can you say about this person? I’m going to repeat what I wrote before the game between Wanderers and Morecambe at their place last August:
Then, I described the individual at the helm of the Trotters’ team as a
`threatening lump of a man otherwise known as Bolton Boss Ian Evatt. Evatt is a bully who is prepared to stoop to any level – however despicable – to gain an advantage for his team. Last season at Morecambe, the Bolton Manager was responsible for two innocent members of the home crowd being thrown out of the ground on totally baseless allegations made against them by himself. He then went on to complain of a `barrage’ of racist abuse being directed at his players by other Morecambe supporters. Curiously, though, a police investigation of the claims Evatt made at the time has produced no evidence of any such behaviour.
Last March, the Bolton Boss claimed that Derek Adams had entered the field of play to push one of his own players. As a result, Referee Sarginson booked our Manager. But video footage proved not only that Derek was actually innocent but clearly showed him being manhandled by his much larger Opposite Number. So what Ian Evatt had suggested had happened wasn’t true.
But that’s what this man does. And he gets away with it – nearly always. Last Saturday at Vale Park, though, he came across a referee in the shape of Ross Joyce who was not going to put up with the blatant gamesmanship and constant cheating that the Bolton Manager wears as badges of pride – and sent him off at the end of the first half.’
You wonder if his team is built in the Manager’s image. Earlier this week, midfielder Kyle Dempsey was found guilty of assaulting a Doorman at Maryport Labour Club last July and faces a potential custodial sentence as a result. This thug was in the team today and Morecambe fans weren’t slow to remind him of his impending doom.
Yesterday, The Bolton News told us:
“WANDERERS go into a potentially explosive game at Morecambe tomorrow with instructions to let their football do the talking. Though kick-off has been moved to lunchtime to try and diffuse some of the emotions which ran high in last season’s meeting at the Mazuma Stadium, Ian Evatt is expecting another hostile reception.
Last February Lancashire Police opened an investigation against claims of racist abuse aimed towards players in the Bolton dugout, which had prompted Evatt to take his players off the pitch for 10 minutes.
No charges were brought in the end, with the investigation closed nine months later.
Five Bolton supporters were arrested and the club was fined for behaviour in the away end, including a pitch invasion after Amadou Bakayoko grabbed an injury time equaliser.
Faced with a potentially incendiary atmosphere, Evatt said he and his players would look to make their point on the pitch.
“Sometimes in the face of adversity you need to show the best version of yourself,” he told The Bolton News. “What happened has happened. We are at peace with it now. We know what happened but we have moved on.””
So that’s all that matters isn’t it? As long as the delightful Mr Evatt is `at peace’ with the controversy which he single-handedly created last year, nothing else – and clearly far more importantly in his view – nobody else matters…
But let’s move away from this cesspit of a team and the charlatan in charge of it.
The Trotters arrived today in fourth position in League One. They have won three of their previous five League One games and lost two – most recently when they were beaten by three goals to one by Portsmouth at Fratton Park last Tuesday. Morecambe, on the other hand, have only won one of their last five league games and lost three of them. They were just above the Dead Zone in League One prior to the game – twentieth place. The Shrimps have never beaten Wanderers in five previous attempts to do so; drawing three and losing two of these.
Morecambe Manager Derek Adams said this before the game:
“It’s an early kick-off because of the crowd trouble last season. We’re hopeful that won’t happen again. The police will be here in their numbers to stop that. The atmosphere will be electric. The players have responded to that. Our home record has been excellent and we want to continue that form.”
He magnanimously paid tribute to Bolton’s undoubted achievement to be in contention for promotion this season. But – as far as his own players are concerned – he added that Michael Mellon was injured at Fleetwood and wasn’t in contention today. However, iconic striker Cole Stockton – who hasn’t played for more than the last one and a half games – was fit and would start.
And what did the delightful and articulate Mr Evatt have to say? Who knows? Who cares? I don’t for a start. The Bolton media entourage never ask this gentleman difficult questions. And I’d bet none of them have had the guts to ask the big oik how he justifies the allegations he made against two Morecambe fans in particular and the club in general last time we met at this venue. Maybe they’re afraid of him. Maybe they have good reason to be so…
It was grey but dry as the game kicked-off ridiculously early in north Lancashire – the only game in League One to do so. Bolton Took the Knee but only a couple of the Morecambe players did so too. I wonder if the Trotters usually do this – or was this another statement by their Manager to emphasise the perception he has single-handedly generated about our club? (I say `single-handedly’; that’s not true – as the visiting hordes chanted `We know what you are – racists!”; my mind went back to Professor Clinton Morrison and his in-depth analysis on the telly of a game he hadn’t attended last season. They should team-up as a Double Act – if they pool their brain cells, they might almost manage a handful…)
Morecambe pushed the visitors back into their own half for almost the entire first half. But the visitors had the first chance of the afternoon. After seven minutes, Aaron Morley found Conor Bradley who played a clever ball forwards to Shola Shoretire, who forced a good save from home custodian Connor Ripley. Fourteen minutes had been played when Farrend Rawson put in a towering header from Ash Hunter’s cross but directed the ball well over the bar when well placed. Eoin Toal then missed with another header for the visitors – this time after twenty-five minutes. With just over half an hour played, Farrend headed a free kick down to Cole Stockton in the Bolton box but Cole’s shot was just wide of James Trafford’s post. Liam Shaw then missed with another header from the busy Hunter as he sent an excellent cross over from the Morecambe right after 36 minutes. The visitors had the last word of the half though, as Connor again did well to save a deflected shot from Dion Charles right at the death.
In my admittedly totally biased view, though, Morecambe had the better of things generally for nearly all of the first period.
Things were very different at the start of the second period, though. Bolton moved the ball quicker than they had done in the first half and it was Backs to the Wall for the Shrimps for the first ten minutes or so. Wanderers forced a succession of corners during this time and Liam Gibson did well to block a shot from Shoretire with seven minutes of the restart played. But the home side weathered a storm during which their goalkeeper was never asked any difficult questions. Hunter totally wasted a free-kick from a promising position with just over an hour played. His shot cleared the Bolton wall but was an easy take for visiting stopper Trafford. With about twenty minutes left, the away keeper did well to block a fierce strike from Jensen Weir from the left of the Trotters’ penalty area from Jensen’s point of view.
The save of the afternoon happened at the other end of the field just over a minute later. The ball found its way to Josh Sheehan and his low shot to Ripley’s right from the edge of the area was brilliantly held by the home goalkeeper, who got down to it really quickly for such a big man. With seventy-six minutes on the clock, Wanderers’ substitute Daniel N’Lundulu forced Connor into an easier save from a narrow angle. And that was basically the end of the action.
I’ve moaned before that Referees seem to give `Bigger Clubs’ the benefit of the doubt when there are fifty-fifty decisions to be made. This afternoon, Oliver Langford didn’t deviate from this script. He gave Bolton several free-kicks they shouldn’t have had and didn’t book N’Lundulu for a succession of dives – one of which was almost comical, so exaggerated was it. There was a bit of argy-bargy at one time for which both sides were probably equally culpable. But at the end of the game, the only caution of the entire 95 minutes was issued to a Morecambe player. When Evatt predictably threw his toys out of the pram at one point in the second half, the Ref neither told the big man to calm down or proffered the yellow Card which our Manager has been shown this season for much lesser offences. Referees need to take a firmer hand with this serial cheat – and the tactics which his players unashamedly constantly get away with.
But at the end of the day, a draw against one of the favourites for promotion this season is no bad thing. Later, FGR lost 2-1 at Accrington, having led early doors and then seeing a man sent off. This makes their position at the bottom of the division even more dire but the three points propelled John Coleman’s team out of the relegation zone at Morecambe’s expense. However, the Plastic MK People lost at Port Vale 1-0; Burton lost 4-0 at Ipswich and the Shrimps’ next opponents – Cambridge United – lost at home 0-1 to Portsmouth. So things could have turned-out a lot worse for the Shrimps. King Derek had this to say after the contest:
“Over the afternoon, it’s a pleasing point for us because of the opposition we were playing against. We did try to get the three points. But a point and a clean sheet you would take.”
Morecambe: 1 Connor Ripley; 2 Donald Love (C); 3 Max Melbourne; 4 Liam Gibson; 5 Farrend Rawson (29 Dynel Simeu 77’); 8 Daniel Crowley (25 Adam Mayor 84’); 9 Cole Stockton; 10 Ash Hunter (14 Arthur Gnahoua 84’); 15 Jensen Weir (17 Caleb Watts 90’); 16 Jacob Bedeau; 20 Liam Shaw (Y).
Subs not used: 12 Adam Smith; 21 Ryan Cooney; 22 Josh Austerfield.
Bolton Wanderers: 19 James Trafford; 3 Declan John (27 Randell Williams 80’); 5 Ricardo Almeida Santos (C); 10 Dion Charles; 16 Aaron Morley; 8 Josh Sheehan (11 Daniel N’Lundulu 72’); 17 Shola Shoretire (24 Elias Kachunga 64’); 18 Eoin Toal; 21 Conor Bradley; 22 Kyle Dempsey; 28 Luke Mbete.
Subs not used: 12 Joel Dixon; 2 Gethin Jones; 20 Keiran Lee; 25 George Thomason.
Ref: Oliver Langford.
Att: 5,211 (1,626 from Bolton.)
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