LEAGUE TWO. SATURDAY, 23rd NOVEMBER 2024.

`Hauntings’, Olly? Maybe it’s `possession’ you have to worry about!

Morecambe made the long trek through rain and storms to Wiltshire today to face a club which it might surprise most people to learn was actually a member of the top tier of English football – the Premiership – exactly thirty years ago.

Morecambe have never beaten Swindon Town, despite ten attempts to do so in the past. But they have managed to lose seven of these games. Today – against a club which is only three points and two places better off than them as they lie right at the bottom of the entire EFL – the Shrimps really needed to do something positive about this utterly dire record.

Swindon Manager – Ian Holloway – took over at the County Ground about four weeks ago. He started promisingly enough, with a 2-1 victory over Colchester in the FA Cup but has lost one and drawn one of the two League Two games the Robins have played subsequently, most recently at Accrington where four goals were shared last Saturday. He rambled on for what felt like an eternity in his own inimitable way in his pre-match press conference yesterday. This is a man who has always indisputably loved the sound of his own voice. But amongst the seemingly endless chuntering, he said this about today’s opposition:

“Wow – they’re improving. They were really unlucky last week against Port Vale. Se we’ve got a tough game on our hands. But they’ve let seventeen goals in. We’ve only let seven. So what do you think I’m telling my lads? Do I want them to worry about what we’re letting in – or are we going to focus on: Can we hurt them?; Can we get to them? It’s really important that we start on the front foot and the crowd are with us. It will be a hell of a game. We’ll be right up for it. And I think we can win. I’m looking forward to it. I’m probably the most excited I think I’ve ever been at any game. This is a wonderful chance for us to deal with some issues. The truth is we’ll either be in exactly the same place if we draw; we’ll be much worse off – right? – technically.  Or we could be feeling a lot better about ourselves. I’m really looking forward to it. Honestly. Truthfully.”

But was he really telling the truth? Was this really more exciting than being at Blackpool in the Championship Play-Offs which his team won to enter the Promised Land; Valhalla or whatever else you might want to describe it of the Premier League? Bear with my scepticism as we recall that this is a man who once admitted:

“I had a year out of football and had to think about what went wrong in my life. I was given some decent values from my mum and dad in our council house, and one of them was honesty and trust and loyalty. And I forgot to do all that at Plymouth. I left them, and I made the biggest mistake of my life.”

However, the 61-year-old had another ace up his sleeve if form, injuries and tactics would not prove to be enough to overcome today’s visitors.

Sage is a herb. It is also a noun to describe a wise man, although whether or not it could be applied to the Robins’ current boss is open to question. Make your own mind up as you read his reaction to the news that club Captain Ollie Clarke had ruptured a tendon during training last week:

“I’m absolutely devastated so I’m going to try and cleanse the training ground area because people are telling me it’s haunted. There’s a graveyard somewhere near. Honestly, I’m not joking. I think our training ground is very close to an ancient burial site so I’m going to get my wife to come up and say sorry to all these people and hopefully we’ll have a bit more luck.”

Commenting on Barry Fry’s remedy to remove evil spirits from St Andrews during his time as Birmingham Manager, “Ollie” added:

“I don’t want to do what he did, I think he had to urinate on the corners of his pitch but I’m going to get my wife to come up with her sage. I’ve done the Glastonbury stuff and the hail and welcome – great if you believe it. Do I? Really I’m not sure but I’m going to get it just to help because there’s some strange things happening.”

Perhaps one of those strangest things is that the Board at Swindon has appointed Mr Holloway in the first place. With a solid track record of failure ever since his brief spell in the spotlight with Blackpool  – spectacularly and actually disastrously at Grimsby in recent times – it’s a bit of a surprise that any club would offer him a job at all.

His Opposite Number, Derek Adams, doesn’t indulge in flights of fancy such as haunted training grounds or the sanctifying properties of particular herbs. He doesn’t need to: the British press do it for him.

In a full-page article about Derek in the Daily Mirror earlier today, he was named as the man entrusted for `meeting the challenge of keeping the Shrimpers afloat’ – so it looks like he’s already left for Southend if the Mirror’s obviously impeccably researched journalism is to be believed…

But seriously though, folks, the King of Morecambe always keeps to the point and doesn’t go down rabbit holes whilst talking out of his fundament in the way favoured by another man who once managed Plymouth Argyle This is what he said prior to today’s game:

“We’ve obviously played eleven out of the top twelve teams already this season in our first sixteen games so it’s been a really tough start for us. Now we get into it, and we play teams around us and that’s where we’re looking to try and pick up the three points. We’ve done ever so well to be competitive; we’ve been unfortunate at times not to have had the three points in the game. We have to be positive. We’re playing really well at times. The problem we’ve got is that we’ve given away soft goals and we haven’t taken our chances when they come along. But from a performance point of view, we’ve done really well – but we have to get the results. Swindon have changed manager and they’ve changed their system about a bit since Ian Holloway came in but we had a really good performance last week against Port Vale.”

Today, along with already injured goalkeeper Stuart Moore, Derek was facing the key absence of Gwion Edwards with the ankle damage he picked-up last Saturday. The Welshman could be out for six or seven weeks.

The weather – with Storm Bert sweeping the British Isles this weekend – was pretty bad at kick-off this afternoon with high winds and rain sweeping across the pitch throughout the match.

Morecambe won the first two corners of the game after three and five minutes. The first one was easily defended but from the second one, Adam Lewis took a short spot-kick before a cross was sent over by Luke Hendrie for Captain Jamie Stott in a clearly rehearsed training ground move. Jamie dived to head it past Jack Bycroft in the home goal to give the visitors a dream start.

Swindon showed little sign of responding before the Shrimps went even further ahead with only a quarter of an hour on the clock. They won a free-kick on their right as Morecambe Old Boy Ryan Delaney fouled Tom White. Lewis again took it and found an unmarked Ben Tollitt, who took a touch and then fairly smashed it home. Ben then walloped the ball over the bar when well-placed with eighteen minutes played.

Town won two corners in the first twenty-five minutes but the quality of their play so far was indicated by the second one, which was booted straight into touch with the wicked wind behind it.

With half an hour played, Marcus Dackers did well to set-up Jordan Slew for a fierce shot on goal which Bycroft did well to push away for a corner.

But the Robins pulled a goal back in the thirty-second minute as early substitute Aaron Drinan latched onto a Harry Smith header from a free-kick by George Cox and lobbed the ball over a helpless Harry Burgoyne in the away goal. As the momentum swung towards the home team. Drinan then headed over the Morecambe bar just a minute or so later.

The visitors had the next chance though as Tollitt did really well to set-up early substitute Harvey Macadam from the Shrimps’ right in the thirty-fifth minute, just after he had come on. Sadly, an unmarked Harvey blasted his wayward effort way over the bar instead of hitting the target. Then Swindon’s Dan Butterworth walloped a shot from a long way out over the away goal with forty-two minutes played. As the match neared half time, Callum Jones warmed the home goalkeeper’s hands at the expense of another corner with a tremendous shot. Down the other end, Drinan forced a superb save from Harry with his legs just after this although Referee Tom Nield had already blown for off-side.

So the Shrimps went back to the Dressing Rooms with a one-goal lead and level with the Robins on points in the League Two table as they moved above Carlisle at the bottom of the table. Could they hold onto this position by the end of the game?

Morecambe looked quite lively as the match restarted in the wind and wetness, which was blowing strongly into their faces. But Ryan Delaney came back to haunt (sorry, Ollie) his former team and dented their dreams of beating the Robins for the first time ever when he scored an equaliser after just four minutes of the re-start. Morecambe had chances to clear the ball after a long throw before he was able to get a clear shot on goal which gave Burgoyne no chance at all in the away goal.

As the home crowd belatedly came to life, the Robins started to control the game briefly with a succession of long throws which the Shrimps sometimes struggled to deal with.

They showed that they could still threaten the home side, when – with almost an hour played – Lewis played Macadam in again with a superb cross from the Morecambe left which Harvey again struck wide when well-placed. The linesman’s flag spared his blushes on this occasion.

With twenty minutes left to play, Morecambe won two quick corners in succession neither of which came to anything.

By this time, Storm Bert and the atrocious conditions created by this God of the Weather were making the game more and more of a lottery. Luck and commitment were becoming more important than skill.

But Tollitt, Macadam and then Hendrie – with a superb pass – combined to give substitute Hallam Hope the opportunity to win all three points in the seventy-eighth minute on sheer skill alone. Hallam didn’t disappoint and found the back of the net with a simply tremendous strike to make it 2-3 to the Shrimps.

The Morecambe goalkeeper then had to react really well almost immediately to keep out a shot from Drinan. Gavin Kilkenny looked about to strike the rebound goalwards but a fantastic block from Hendrie stopped it causing any further danger. And no further danger materialised. As the home crowd fell silent again, the visitors held on to a very well deserved victory in the rain and the increasingly strong wind.

Morecambe made it hard for themselves this afternoon. To be pinned-back from two up – particularly away from home – can feel like a defeat when it actually happens as the momentum inevitably swings to the other side. But Derek Adams’ men commendably did not let their heads drop this afternoon and battled away against both Swindon and the awful conditions to win a game which could prove to be an absolutely crucial one at the end of the season.

King Derek was very canny with his substitutions today. Long-term absentee George Ray made his first league appearance of the season since the opening game at Walsall this afternoon. He made a crucial tackle just moments after having been sent on and played really well from that point onwards. Derek also replaced Marcus Dackers – who was as committed and battling as ever today but still has the naivety of a nineteen-year-old striker – with older head Hallam Hope later in the match. And Hallam scored a simply phenomenal winner.

Their first-ever win against the Robins saw Morecambe draw level with them on points but with an inferior goal difference of four more goals conceded at the bottom of League Two. With Carlisle only managing a goal-less draw at home against Doncaster, the Shrimps have leap-frogged them off the bottom of the pile tonight.

Following on from his fears that Swindon’s training ground is haunted, Ian Holloway probably thought that – during his first home game as Robins’ Manager – that the ball was possessed today as well. Well, it was: possessed by the other team for far too much of the game from his point of view.

(In reality, he actually blamed lack of confidence for the defeat. Does it really help to add: “I haven’t seen one as bad as that – from any of my teams.” Is that the way to motivate your men? But who – apart from Robins’ fans who must wonder what they have let themselves in for – actually cares?)

So what did the man whose opinion is always worth listening to – Derek Adams – make of it all?:

“It was terrific today. We fought and harried to get the victory. We kept them at bay. The execution of the set-plays today was terrific.  It was a thoroughly deserved victory. To come away to Swindon – one of the biggest clubs in the division – to win: that was very pleasing.”

Swindon Town: 1 Jack Bycroft; 4 Ryan Delaney; 5 Will Wright (C); 6 Nnamdi Ofoborh (7 Joel Cotterill 63’); 10 Harry Smith; 21 Kabongo Tshmanga (9 Paul Glatzel 76’); 18 Gavin Kilkenny; 22 Daniel James Butterworth (11 Sean McGurk 76’); 24 Grant Hall (35 Jaxon Brown 63’); 27 George Cox (Y); 33 Joel David McGregor (23 Aaron Drinan 32’).

Subs not used:  12 Daniel Barden; 31 Harrison Minturn.

Morecambe:  1 Harry Burgoyne; 2 Luke Hendrie; 3 Adam Lewis; 4 Tom White; 6 Jamie Stott (C); 11 Jordan Slew (15 George Ray 82’); 14 Rhys Williams; 18 Ben Tollitt; 19 Marcus Dackers (9 Hallam Hope 67’); 23 David Tutonda (Y) (8 Harvey Macadam 35’); 28 Callum Jones (24 Yann Songo’o 67’).

Subs not used: 5 Max Taylor; 17 Paul Lewis; 22 Ross Millen.

Ref: Tom Neild.

Att: 6,494 (105 of these made the arduous 400+ return journey from Morecambe. Well done to all of them)