FA CUP FIRST ROUND.
Potential Banana Skin Avoided at Worthing
Morecambe entered new ground – literally a new ground in the shape of Woodside Road with its plastic 3G pitch – when they travelled to the south coast of England today to encounter Worthing for the very first time. The West Sussex club they faced in the FA Cup First Round are currently fifth in the National League South and have won four of their last six games – including the last two; most recently 0-2 at Bath City last Tuesday night – and lost two. The club is currently most famous – following a recent documentary about its owner – for the way one severely disabled man has forced The Mackerel Men; The Rebels or whatever you want to call them – onto the national stage, however briefly.
The House That George Built is a documentary about George Dowell – a man paralysed from the chest down in a 2010 car crash when he was just 17. You can watch a trailer for this Discovery Plus production here:
At the time of his accident, George was a Worthing player. The Rebels were at that time playing in front of crowds of a couple of hundred people in Isthmian League Division One. Using the compensation pay-out he received from his life-changing injury, George took financial control at Woodside Road and transformed the club both on and off the field. He had their all-weather pitch installed and made the club the centre of the community, with local youth, women’s’ and local league teams encouraged to use it seven days a week. The club almost immediately won promotion back to the Isthmian (Ryman) Premier League during 2016 with a team including Omar Bugiel, who scored for Wimbledon against us in League Two not so long ago. As the home crowds increased substantially, a second promotion to current National League South followed in 2021-122 after they had won the Isthmian Premier League Championship. The club remains the centre of its community and the books are balanced, not spending more money than they have coming in via the turnstiles; pitch rental; community cafe and all the other innovations which Mr Dowell has introduced. In his own very uplifting words:
“There’s still plenty that you can go and achieve after a massive setback if you’re passionate about something. It might be slightly different to how you dreamt but if you love something, there’s no reason you can’t find a way to make it work for you.”
Hats Off to him. But what a contrast this attitude makes to that prevalent at our own club. At Morecambe, the Manager and the Board have been paralysed by the failure of owner Jason Whittingham to properly back the team for years on end with proper funding. This whilst Whittingham’s Bond Group resolutely hangs on to ownership despite repeated unfulfilled promises to sell it to someone who might actually put the club’s interests first. For a very welcome change, the Board at Morecambe have gone public this week and stated the following `update’ on the current ownership position. (Will it turn out to be appropriate that they chose Halloween of all days of the year to make this rather less than informative minimal press release?:)
“This evening, 31 October 2024, an online meeting between the Board of Directors of Morecambe Football Club and a representative of the prospective purchasers of the controlling interest in the Club took place. This was a very cordial and constructive session where the many various aspects of the Club’s interests and aims were discussed in a positive way. Although we are not at liberty to reveal the identity of the purchasers at this stage, it is positive to be engaging directly with them. We will provide further updates once more information is received from Bond Group Investments, the current owners of Morecambe Football Club.”
However, as long as this sorry ownership situation remains unresolved, the bleak reality is that not a lot is likely to change for the club on or off the field in the foreseeable future. Morecambe’s current plight at the bottom of the entire EFL explains why some pundits make their non-league opponents today favourites to win the FA Cup First Round tie this afternoon – despite the two division gap between the two clubs. For example, in its infinite wisdom – and using the less than encouraging heading “Seaside Shock for Shrimps?” (I assume that the writer – Ben Ashton – doesn’t realise that Morecambe is already at the seaside) the BBC’s Sport Website predicted the following for all and sundry this morning:
“Another EFL club struggling is (surely that should be “Another struggling EFL club is...”) League Two’s bottom side Morecambe with just one league win from 14. The Shrimps have found some respite in cup competitions, winning both their EFL Trophy games, and have also made it to the third round of the FA Cup in three of the past four seasons. But Morecambe did crash out at this stage in 2018-19 to non-league FC Halifax Town who were one division below in the National League. There are two tiers separating them from their opponents Worthing, who are currently fifth in the National League South. The Rebels have won seven of their past eight games in all competitions and have only been defeated once at Woodside Road so far this season (W5, D1).”
(Interestingly, the one `shock’ that Auntie’s self-styled `Expert’ did not predict in this piece of journalistic pessimism is the first one which occurred: the defeat of League One Huddersfield Town at tiny Tamworth last night…)
Rebels’ Manager Chris Agutter was very well aware that today’s game marks the furthest his club has ever progressed in this competition and would hope for further progress against a team who so many people who know nothing whatsoever about seem to have written-off even before a ball was kicked. This is what he told the media prior to the game:
“We’re looking forward to the challenge of playing against a football league club in front of a big crowd at Woodside. We go into the game with nothing to lose, really. I think all the pressure is on them. I try to put myself in their shoes, travelling a long way; playing on 3G – and playing against a team in form when they aren’t in the best place themselves. You think of all the ingredients you wouldn’t want as a manager of a higher-level team going into this game and they’re all there. So there’s no pressure on us. We’ve got everything to gain and nothing to lose.”
Worthing would be without key forward Muhammadu Faal, who was sent off in a league game last Saturday but has to serve a suspension for his red card this afternoon.
When the draw was first made, Morecambe Maestro Derek Adams said the following:
“It’s the beauty of the FA Cup. It’s a fantastic tie from the point of view that both clubs haven’t met each other before. We go away from home as a League club – they’re a National League club. From a supporter point of view; from a managerial point view of; player point of view, it’s something you want to do in the FA Cup. You want to play someone different. You want to play someone from a different league. It’s going to be a good challenge for us.”
On the eve of the cup-tie, the King of Morecambe added:
“It’s always good to play in the FA Cup. It’s a historic competition and we’re obviously looking forward to it because in the past we’ve done well out of it. They’ve got a number of players that have played in the football league, they’ve got good experience throughout the side; it’s a very tidy team. They like to pass the ball, they start out from the back and it’s a system of play that we’ve come up against already this season. Our objective is to get through to the next round of the competition to allow us to be in the draw for the second round.”
Although Morecambe’s form has been disappointing this season and they have lost three games in a row and only won one and drawn one of their last six League Two games, the Shrimps have only rarely performed badly. Although the 2-5 scoreline might suggest otherwise, Derek’s men were the better team for much of the match against an excellent – and well-funded – Chesterfield side seven days ago in north Lancashire. Opposition Manager Paul Cook gave an unusually honest view of the game when he said this to the media after his team had won at the Maz:
“Probably the liveliest half time team talk I’ve give for a couple of years. We were the second best team on the pitch. We never got to grips with (Marcus) Dackers really in the game. Do you know, Morecambe were a constant threat – they never, ever gave up. We always say: could Coaches/Managers have got any more out of the team? Derek Adams could not have got another breath out of them lads today; they worked and worked and worked. Unfortunately when things go against you like that, you end-up on a scoreline like that which is not fair.”
Derek’s hope would be that his men would not be carried away by the Doom Mongers and the occasion today and put in a professional display which would underline the two division gap between the two clubs. In theory, they should win this tie quite easily. But theory and practice sometime have nothing to do with each other, do they?…
It was cloudy with the threat of rain as the game kicked-off on the south coast. There was a minute’s impeccably respected silence to remember the fallen of countless wars before the game started.
Morecambe won the first corner and then free kick of the game within four minutes. Rhys Williams flicked at a cross from Adam Lewis following one of these which was wide of the target after five minutes. Jordan Slew was back into the first team after injury today to start his one hundredth game for the club. Just seven minutes had been played when he connected perfectly following a throw from Adam Lewis on the Shrimps’ left which was headed up in the air and volleyed a superb shot past a helpless Chris Haigh in the home goal when it returned to Earth to put the visitors one goal to the good. With Marcus Dackers causing them constant problems, the National League South team were struggling to cope with the constant pressure from their more illustrious visitors for the first fifteen minutes or so.
Adam Lewis then tried an audacious volley with 21 minutes on the clock which ended-up in one of the suburban gardens which surround the Woodside Road stadium. The hosts then won their first free-kick and then corner shortly afterwards but neither troubled the Shrimps’ rearguard in any way. At the other end, another Adam Lewis free-kick led to the home defence scrambling the ball away with 26 minutes played. But the hosts showed they were not there just to make up the numbers when they went straight down the other end and Nicky Wheeler forced an excellent save from Stuart Moore with a shot from about 25 yards out at the expense of a corner. From this, an unmarked Joseph Cook had a free header but this went well wide of the target from about six yards out. Ben Tollitt then got away down the wing with 35 minutes played and sent over a cross which was booted over the bar by Sam Beard for another corner to the visitors. Cook was in the right place at the time with two minutes left of the half to get on the end of a patient build-up by the team in the red strips but put in a Central Defender’s finish by hitting a shot over the bar when he had the home team’s best chance of the game so far put on a plate for him. Moore made a relatively easy save following a free-kick in injury time but Morecambe had the last chance of the first period when Tollitt’s effort from another free-kick also ended-up in someone’s back garden.
So Morecambe returned to the Dressing Rooms in the lead but not entirely comfortably so. They were dominant early on but Worthing played their way back into it as the game grew older. The next goal could be very interesting…
Callum Jones won a free-kick early doors during the first meaningful action of the second half. Tollitt then got away from the non-league defence with about five minutes played but his unselfish cross into the middle was easily cleared by the Worthing defence. Luke Hendrie did well to put in an excellent block as Rebels’ Captain Colbran led a rapid counter-attack and played the ball into the danger area for Tommy Willard with 53 minutes on the clock. As the home team started to ask all the questions, Jack Spong wasted a golden opportunity to equalise when he put the ball wildly over the bar when well-placed just a minute or so later. Stuart Moore then caught a header relatively easily following this but Morecambe fashioned the next chance when Slew hit a long throw into the home box just over Haigh’s bar with an hour played. Jordan then also aimed for somebody’s garden about three minutes later and only the tall net behind the goal stopped his wild shot from a long way out doing so. Morecambe responded by upping the tempo and beginning to press higher up the field. Dackers’ effort after 65 minutes was saved by the home goalkeeper and then Haigh did brilliantly at full stretch to deny Tollitt as he bored down upon him unmarked just two minutes later. Derek shook things up with a triple change as the clock ticked down to seventy minutes played and the Shrimps continued to enjoy the lion’s share of possession. But the next really good chance fell to the hosts when Glen Rea produced a superb overhead kick from a corner with 77 minutes played which Stu in the away goal did really well to deal with. At the other end, Worthing were lucky in the eighty-seventh minute when Haigh’s clearance following a Shrimps’ attack fell to substitute Gwion Edwards and his instant effort from a long way out had to be miraculously cleared by home defender Beard off the goal-line for a corner with his keeper stranded in No Man’s Land. As the visitors had begun to take control again, Morecambe doubled their advantage when Rhys Williams scored his first goal for the Shrimps with a header following a free-kick by Jones on the left with just two minutes scheduled to play. And that was it – job well and truly done this afternoon.
Worthing gave a good account of themselves and regional National League football today. They repeatedly played the ball out from the back constructively and there was no Kick-and-Run or aimlessly booting it long from them at any time. But their FA Cup Dreams were shattered for at least this season by a team which just had a little more nous on the day then they possess. So – despite the gloomy predictions of some pundits – Morecambe’s name goes into the hat for the Second Round on Monday night. Perhaps also just as importantly, the match fee for the win (£45,000) also finds its way into the Shrimps’ paltry coffers to double their winnings from Cup competitions so far this term. This is what King Derek had to say about it all once the match was over:
“I thought Worthing were excellent today. I think that the standard of play that they have… I’ve got to say – from my players’ point of view – they did ever so well to deal with that because it’s not easy. It’s not easy coming to an Astro-turf pitch, first of all. It’s not easy coming a non league side, with the atmosphere the way it is. It’s a partisan crowd and you‘ve got to deal with that aspect of the game. The most important thing was to get through to the next round. We’ve made forty-five thousand here today – actually, we made fifty because we were on the television: we get five thousand of that. So we’ve got ninety-five thousand from the Cup competitions so far which can only help us. We haven’t had the millions pumped-in that other people have. We have to generate our own income. People (say): `what can you get for ninety-five thousand?’ We know we don’t get much but it’s something for us.”
Worthing: 1 Chris Haigh; 2 Joel Andrew Colbran (C); 3 Samuel Harry Beard; 5 Joseph Oliver Cook; 6 Jack Wadham (Y); 7 Tommy Willard (14 Temi Babalola 74’); 8 Jack Spong; 10 Danny Cashman; 11 Nicholas Wheeler; 15 Glen Rea (17 Harrison James Smith 86’); 16 Alfie Young (18 Oliver Dean Black 82’).
Subs not used: 4 Kane John Wills; 12 Arthur Gregory; 20 Ollie Sam Louie Starkey; 21 Samuel James Packham; 22 Jack Bates; 25 Danny Jordan.
Morecambe: 25 Stuart Moore; 2 Luke Hendrie (Y); 3 Adam Lewis; 4 Tom White (12 Kayden Harrack 80’); 6 Jamie Stott (Y); 8 Harvey Macadam (C) (17 Paul Lewis 70’); 11 Jordan Slew (7 Gwion Edwards 70’); 14 Rhys Williams; 18 Ben Tollitt (22 Ross Millen 92’); 19 Marcus Dackers (9 Hallam Hope 70’); 28 Callum Jones.
Subs not used: 1 Harry Burgoyne; 5 Max Taylor; 20 Charlie Brown; 24 Yann Songo’o.
Ref: Sam Mulhall.
Att: 3,310 (c.230 from Morecambe; 192 behind the goal on an open terrace. Well done to each and every one for making today’s tortuous 600-plus mile round trip.)
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