LEAGUE TWO. TUESDAY, 3rd DECEMBER 2024

It’s a Second Half Shambles at Tranmere…

Morecambe travelled south to Merseyside today to face another club fearful of relegation from League Two this season: Tranmere Rovers. The Wirral club started this evening’s match just four points better off than them as they lay in twenty-first position in the table. Morecambe were bottom of the division again because Carlisle drew last Saturday as the Shrimps were beating Bradford City in the FA Cup in north Lancashire.

Rovers – already dumped out of the FA Cup on their own patch in the First Round by non-league Oldham Athletic – started this game on the back of two straight defeats in the league. Their record against Morecambe has been a sorry one in recent years. Having lost 1-2 at this venue during 2021 in the League Two Play-Off semi final, they could only draw the second leg to lose the tie. Since then, they lost home and away last season against the Shrimps, most memorably at Prenton Park as Ged Brannan’s Morecambe came from 2-0 down to win the game right at the death with a fantastic third goal direct from a free-kick.

I don’t know what Tranmere boss Nigel Adkins said before the game but I do know what he said after it and we will come onto that in due course.

For the Shrimps, Manager Derek Adams said the following on Monday about the task facing his men tonight:

“As I said many weeks before, there’s a number of clubs that feel that they’re getting away but it only takes a number of wins and they’re clawed right back into the pack. We’ve had a lot of difficult games to start the season. Some teams have had easier games and been able to get wins. With the teams around about us, Tranmere are probably in a false position at the moment. They have really good experience throughout their squad and play in a certain way that is good to watch. We will have to be at it tomorrow night to get a victory. We are in a false position at this moment in time. We don’t fear anybody in this league. There’s no team that we feel we can’t win against.”

It was a really cold night by the side of the River Mersey as a wind with icy teeth blew strongly from the Irish Sea throughout. But despite the freezing conditions, rain held mercifully off until virtually the moment the match ended.

If only it had ended an hour or so earlier. This was one of the worst games of football I have ever had the misfortune to sit – or stand – through. As an advert for League Two football, it was appalling. Here were two poor teams playing without any skill or guile, aimlessly booting the ball up the field; failing to mark each other properly and generally looking like pretty average pub teams. Morecambe shaded things in the first half, when they fashioned several chances which they missed and scored one goal when the otherwise ineffectual Ben Tollitt took advantage of good work by Marcus Dackers and weak defending by Tranmere to score against his old club. Rovers rallied in the second period and scored from a corner in the second minute with an unmarked header by Jordan Turnbull. Against the run of play, the Shrimps replied almost immediately and – following another corner which was only partially cleared – one of few men in a red shirt who deserved any credit (Adam Lewis) put them ahead again. But Tranmere equalised in the 75^th minute when Connor Jennings – who was lucky to be on the pitch in my view after two appalling tackles earlier for which weak referee Oliver Mackey didn’t even book him – found the back of the net.

Morecambe were a total shambles in the second half and were really lucky to leave Prenton Park with anything tonight. Too many of their players failed to turn-up or put a proper shift in. Harvey Macadam was poor; Paul Lewis was absolutely useless and a side that had a shape and an obvious plan in the first half deteriorated into eleven men kicking the ball anywhere to try and clear their lines during the second half. Chelsea spies were apparently in the crowd tonight – they could have put the Pensioners’ team out tonight and given Tranmere more of a challenge than the Shrimps provided for the last forty minutes or so this evening. The only good thing to emerge from the tie is that the point Morecambe managed to escape with was good enough to propel them out of the relegation positions tonight. With Carlisle not playing and Swindon being tonked 4-0 at Colchester, the Shrimps are now in lofty twenty-second place in League Two and safe – at least for now. But if they continue to play like they did in the second half tonight, they won’t be for long…

I thought Nigel Adkins’ view of the match after the game was both honest and fair. This is it:

“I must say the first-half performance is probably the worst since I’ve been at the Club. We were shocking first-half, but then you flip it round, second-half I thought we were very good. We created chances. Connor Jennings scored and put one just past the post. Declan Drysdale’s got a great opportunity, middle of the goal, from a cross coming in, think it was Cameron Norman who put it in. We had more energy and we just had more about us. The crowd were great because they were trying to lift the players. We’re not in a good place at this moment in time, the crowd were trying to get behind the players which is good. Again for me, it was a game of two halves. Shocking first-half. Far better second-half.”

King Derek must have been far more relieved than angry with his men after the game. What did he make of the utter rubbish served-up by his team tonight, particularly in the second half?:

“We were very good in the first half and deservedly went ahead in the game. It was a game of two halves. I think we had the better of the first half and Tranmere had the better of the second.”

Tranmere Rovers: 1 Luke McGee; 2 Cameron Norman; 6 Jordan Turnbull; 7 Keiron Morris; 11 Joshua Stuart Hawkes (30 Omari Patrick 57’); 14 Kristian Dennis (19 Harvey Read Saunders 67’); 16 Christopher Merrie; 17 Sam Finley; 18 Connor Jennings (C); 23 Connor Wood; 35 Declan Drysdale.

Subs not used: 13 Joe Murphy; 3 Zak Bradshaw; 10 Josh Davison; 20 Samuel Taylor; 22 Lee O’Connor.

Morecambe:  1 Harry Burgoyne (Y); 2 Luke Hendrie; 3 Adam Lewis (22 Ross Millen 92’); 4 Tom White (12 Kayden Harrack 93’); 6 Jamie Stott(C); 11 Jordan Slew (23 David Tutonda (Y) 57’); 14 Rhys Williams (Y); 17 Paul Lewis 18 Ben Tollitt; 19 Marcus Dackers ; 8 Harvey Macadam (24 Yann Songo’o 70’).

Subs not used: 25 Stuart Moore; 9 Hallam Hope 20 Charlie Brown.

Ref: Oliver Mackey.

Att: Unknown. The home stands were so empty, you could see the name of the club spelled-out on the seats. I would guess there were about two hundred or so from Morecambe.