LEAGUE TWO. SATURDAY, 16th SEPTEMBER 2023.

Ten-Man Morecambe Lose Again…

Neil Harris’ Gillingham team started this season like potential champions: four clean sheets and twelve points in a row. They knocked Championship Southampton out of the League Cup by three goals to one and impressed again even in defeat at Premier League Luton in the second round, where they only lost by the odd goal in five to Premiership opponents.

But three weeks ago at home to then bottom club Colchester United, the wheels started to fall off. They lost by two goals to three. A week later, they were beaten again – 2-0 this time at Grimsby. Mr Harris was far from impressed by these reverses. He basically ranted after the game at Blundell Park:

“I can’t be any more disappointed. A lot of people travelled to support us. Our performance didn’t merit their support and the money they have paid. I didn’t see it coming. That’s five really poor goals we have conceded in two halves of football. I am really angry. I’ve not raised my voice, but I’ve said some home truths. We have to respond accordingly. The players I picked haven’t performed. I was amazed to be honest. We did not compete well enough. Particularly on set plays in both boxes. Same players making the same mistakes. I don’t have to accept it. We set our stall out with four wins from four and expectation levels rose. I was trying to play it down. I can accept losing the odd game in a season but not back-to-back – that’s not good enough. If anyone in that changing room thinks because we’ve had a good start “We’re here now, that’s it” then (they have just had) a massive wake-up call.”

This wake-up call may or may not have worked: last time out, the Gills beat Harrogate one-nil. But the home crowd had to wait patiently until the ninety-fourth minute for the winning goal. Nevertheless, the three points propelled Gillingham back to the very pinnacle of League Two and they started today’s game against Morecambe at the top of the table.

The Shrimps have a very poor record against the Kent club. In ten previous meetings, they have won just one game and lost five. At the Priestfield Stadium, they have only managed a single point in five previous visits. Derek Adams’ men have an appalling away record so far this season:  two games played; two lost; no goals scored; five conceded. They arrived in the south of England in fourteenth position in the table, albeit having played one fewer game than most of their rivals in League Two. King Derek had this to say prior to the clash:

“They have got players in their squad that other teams would have probably liked to have had. A great start to the season – a lot of games they have won one-nil. But we go there high in confidence after our win against Salford. We are more than capable of going to Gillingham and taking three points.”

It seems a long time since Morecambe last played a competitive game – and a lot has happened. Both Salford and the Shrimps have been charged by the FA for failing to control their players after a brawl in injury time at the end of the last game. Morecambe have been fined £3,000 for their part in this; Salford £3,500. Last week, the match against Barrow was postponed due to the call-ups of five Shrimps’ players by various international squads. We ended the match report after the win against Salford a fortnight ago with a quote from Morecambe’s Scottish Manager about his home football Association. He registered his frustration that they had not selected the Shrimps’ leading scorer Michael Mellon in these terms:

“I’m really surprised that Scotland haven’t got Michael in the Under 21 Squad. I did make a phone call to say how well he has been doing – but nothing ever surprises me about the Scottish FA.”

Derek knew what he was doing in publicly criticising the Scottish FA in this way – in no time at all, they had relented and Michael duly joined-up with Scott Gemmill’s Scotland U21 side later in the week. He trained with them leading up to last Monday night’s away defeat against Spain by the only goal of the game. Although he didn’t make the squad which actually played, this will be a valuable learning experience for the young man and will also raise his profile right across the British game.

Michael joined Jacob Bedeau (Grenada), Eli King (Wales), JJ McKiernan (Northern Ireland) and Adam Mayor (England) in being recognised for their positive start to the campaign for the Shrimps this season.

Jacob played for the national team against Suriname on Saturday, September 9^th.  The `Spiceboys’ drew this match 1-1 but lost their subsequent one against Honduras 4-0 away from home on September 13^th. This put Grenada bottom of the group of six of the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) League. Our boy didn’t play in the hammering in Central America, apparently heeding UK government advice not to travel to Honduras. Who can blame him?  The following information is offered by the British government about a country where there is no UK consular representation:

“Crime and violence are serious problems throughout Honduras and the country has one of the highest homicide rates in the world. You should exercise a high degree of caution. Avoid travelling on public buses (repainted US school buses). Private inter-city coach services are safer but not immune from attack.”

The US State Department paints an even bleaker picture of a country wracked by civil strife:

“Country Summary: Violent crime, such as homicide, armed robbery, and kidnapping, is common. Violent gang activity, such as extortion, violent street crime, rape, and narcotics and human trafficking, is widespread. Local police and emergency services lack sufficient resources to respond effectively to serious crime.”

On the other side of the Atlantic, JJ McKiernan started September the Seventh’s Northern Ireland Under-21 game against Luxembourg in Belfast and lasted for seventy minutes before being substituted. His team lost by the only goal of the game. This was the same score as JJ again started against a Ukraine Under-21 side in Slovakia on 12^th September. On this occasion, he lasted for 75 minutes.

Eli King didn’t feature in Wales Under-21’s 4-0 friendly win over Liechtenstein on September 8th. But he played the entire game as the team won 2-3 in Lithuania in a Euro Under-21 qualifying match four days later.

Adam Mayor wasn’t actually called-up to even train with the England Under-21 group as things turned out. But his time will come. Today, he was the only one of the five players who could been away who was not available for selection in Kent due to a training injury. Jordan Slew took his place in the starting eleven. The rock at the heart of the Shrimps’ defence – Farrend Rawson – was also absent due to illness. James Connolly thus kept his place after a very impressive debut against Salford last time out.

Having calmed-down a bit since his outburst after the Grimsby defeat, Gills’ boss Neil Harris had this to say about today’s opponents:

“Morecambe are a good side. They have real energy and quality at the top end of the pitch and experience in defensive areas of the pitch. It’s another tough game against a team who have had a solid start and are as good as anybody in the league on their day. Morecambe have recruited really well to help them bounce back. Anybody who thinks that we are just going to turn up and beat Morecambe needs to change their mindset, they are a really good side who were narrowly relegated last season and have aspirations to go back up again. It will be a good match on Saturday. I want us to be difficult to play against. I want us to ask questions of the opponent.”

It was sunny and actually hot (26˚C) as the match kicked-off – summer has not yet given way to autumn near the banks of the River Medway. There was a minute’s impeccably respected silence to remember all the poor souls whose lives have been destroyed by earthquake and flood recently in Morocco and Libya.

The game opened fairly evenly. Michael Mellon was playing alone up-front and looked a threat to the home defence right from the off. James Connolly made a really good block after seven minutes to prevent Scott Malone pulling the trigger for the hosts. But just two minutes later, the Gills took the lead. Morecambe conceded a corner; Connor Mahoney slung it across and – as the men in the white strip failed to make any meaningful challenges – Ethan Coleman headed it back to George Lapslie, who was able to turn and wallop the ball home from close range.

Almost immediately, though, the Shrimps were level. With just eleven minutes gone, Joel Senior played the ball over the top to leading scorer Mellon who calmly beat former Morecambe loanee from Newcastle Jake Turner by coolly lobbing the goalkeeper as he advanced from his goal and tried to narrow the angle. It was still an evenly balanced game but Gillingham had the next decent chance after Malone crossed from the Gills’ left; Jonny Williams slipped it to Mahoney who drew a good save from Stuart Moore in the away goal. The home team netted again from the resulting corner but Referee Declan Bourne ruled it out for a foul in the penalty area. This was with twenty minutes played and at this point, the home team were asking all the questions. Williams fed Lapslie who was just unable to connect with the ball three minutes before Maloney scored the Gills’ second after 23 minutes with a fine shot after first dummying to pull the trigger as Morecambe’s defence was at sixes and sevens again. As playmaker Lapslie had to leave the field shortly afterwards with what looked like a hamstring problem, the visitors had a short spell of possession which steadied the ship a little even if they failed to threaten the blue line which was facing them. Jordan Slew had the ball a number of times but always seemed to either take one touch too many or run into trouble and his efforts came to nothing. With forty-one minutes on the clock, JJ intercepted Coleman’s attempted pass and fed Eli King. From twenty yards out, though, Eli completely fluffed his lines and his shot was way off target. Right at the end of the half, Skipper Donald Love found Mellon again with a superb pass and Michael’s instant effort from a seemingly impossible angle crashed back off the crossbar as Turner possibly got a hand to it. Whatever, it was a tremendous effort from the young man who had just been booked for kicking the ball away after being caught off-side.

Morecambe played well in the opening period of the second half. They were helped when former keeper Turner collided with one of his central defenders after a couple of minutes as Slew waited to pounce upon a loose ball which didn’t come his way. As JJ came more into the game and the Priestfield crowd fell silent, the visitors had more of the possession early doors.  The first shot of the half, though, arrived in the fifty-fifth minute when out-numbered Gills’ sub Jayden Clarke managed an effort which was easily dealt with by the Shrimps’ rearguard.

Derek shook things up a bit with four changes after an hour. The home fans loudly applauded former favourite David Tutonda when he came on and Ethan Walker made his debut for the Shrimps at the same time. Mellon warmed Turner’s hands after seventy-one minutes from a pretty tame free-kick from a long way out. This was almost his last action of the afternoon – he was guilty of a late challenge on Conor Masterton with about a quarter of an hour still to be played and received a second yellow card for it. And off he went.

With ten men, the team in the white strip huffed and puffed quite creditably after this reversal. But the fact of the matter is that they only hit the target once in the entire second period and it never really looked as if Gillingham were going to fail to take all three points.

The win kept the Gills at the top of the table; the Shrimps’ third away defeat out of three on the road saw them fall to sixteenth place in League Two. Inexperience and lack of discipline on this occasion saw them finish the match with only ten men for the second away game in a row. This must be a worry for Derek Adams, whatever he says to the contrary in public. After the match, this was his verdict:

“I think we had some really good moments in the game. Michael Mellon scores a great goal to get it back to one-one. We looked like the team on the ascendency; we hit the bar as well. Both sides were pushing. I think we had good opportunities in the match. Michael Mellon obviously gets sent off. The player and him collide at the same time and he happens to get booked. They’ve both collided. It’s not a second yellow card.”

Gillingham: 25 Jake Turner; 2 Cheye Alexander; 4 Conor Masterton; 6 Shaun Williams (C) (Y); 7 George Lapslie (17 Jayden Clarke 26’); 8 Jonny Williams (Y) (9 Tom Nichols 74’); 13 Scott Malone; 18 Ethan Coleman; 22 Shadrach Ogie; 23 Connor Mahoney (14 Robbie McKenzie 95’); 45 Macauley Bonne (10 Ashley Nadesan 74’).

Substitutes not used: 1 Glenn Morris; 5 Max Ehmer; 12 Oliver Hawkins.

Morecambe: 1 Stuart Moore; 2 Donald Love (C) (Y); 4 Jacob Bedeau; 6 Yann Songo’o (17 Cammy Smith 83’); 7 Tom Bloxham (18 Jake Taylor 59’); 8 Eli King (19 Ethan Walker 65’); 9 Michael Mellon (R); 10 JJ McKiernan; 12 Joel Senior (3 David Tutonda (Y) 65’); 14 Jordan Slew (Y) (16 Jacob Davenport 59’); 22 James Connolly (Y).

Substitutes not used: 21 Adam Smith; 15 Chris Stokes.

Ref: Declan Bourne.

Att: 5,915 (120 from Morecambe who undertook the almost 600 mile round journey.)