LEAGUE TWO. SUNDAY, 29th DECEMBER 2024.

Salford’s Black Arts win the day for them – again…

For the second season in a row – and the second time in just nine months – Morecambe visited Salford’s Peninsular Stadium on a Sunday. Last time, Ged Brannan’s team failed to turn up and were beaten 3-1. That was their third defeat to City, who they have met six times before in all competitions. Morecambe have won only two of these games so far.

The hosts were on a fine run of form: ninth in League Two with three wins and three clean sheets in a row; four out of six won altogether and just a single defeat in this time. They have been victorious in both of their last home league games by the same score: three-nil.  One of these wins was against high-flying Notts County; the other was against Barrow last Saturday. The good news for Morecambe was that Salford scorer Tyrese Fornah was sent-off during this game and would be unavailable for selection this afternoon. Our former star striker, Cole Stockton, seems to have rediscovered the scoring touch he lost at Burton Albion and has netted seven goals in fourteen appearances for the Ammies to date to become their leading scorer.

Morecambe arrived in leafy Prestwich on the back of just two victories in their last six games, which has included a run of three straight defeats. Last Saturday at Carlisle, though, the Shrimps convincingly won a key game against one of their relegation rivals to leap-frog them into the lofty heights – for recent times – of twenty-third in the table. The bad news for the visitors is that Salford loanee Marcus Dackers would not be able to play against his parent club this afternoon.

Earlier today, two absolutely crucial league games took place elsewhere which could have a huge bearing on today’s result for Derek Adams and his men. At Bromley, Swindon Town drew 1-1. Back at Brunton Park, Carlisle and Accrington Stanley were slugging it out at the bottom of the pile and the Blues came out victorious by two goals to one. These results pushed Morecambe back to the bottom of the entire EFL; a point behind United and two behind Stanley, both of whom have games in hand on them. So there was even more of an incentive than usual for the Shrimps to get something out of today’s game and potentially leap-frog both of their nearest rivals for the drop.

Long before these things happened, Morecambe’s Assistant Manager – Danny Grainger – had these thoughts about Salford straight after the match at Brunton Park last Thursday:

“You’ve got to back up a positive performance with a positive result, which we just did at Carlisle and now we’ve got to do the same thing again at a tough place like Salford. It’s something we’ve got to build on and it’s not just the back four and the goalkeeper that have the clean sheets, you have the players putting pressure on the ball at the top end of the pitch. This time of year is vitally important. But you rest and recover and then you’re ready to go again. They do come around thick and fast and if you can put two or three results together, you do find yourself skipping a few places up the table.”

It was grey with a hint of rain in the air in Prestwich with a strong, freezing wind blowing towards Morecambe in the first half. The period started with City bossing things and the visitors looking vulnerable down what would have once been called the inside left and inside right channels. Salford were moving the ball quickly and with purpose: they looked well- drilled and were playing with an obvious tactical plan in mind.

The same could not be said of the visitors, who seemed to be hoping for a bit of individual brilliance to take the initiative in the match. But they held on in there and – loudly encouraged by the away fans in the utterly soul-less surroundings – started to press City further and further into their own half. As ever, Gwion Edwards was a handful for their defence and only weak and ineffectual Referee Dale Baines could tell you why nobody in a red shirt was booked for the constant fouls he was on the receiving end of.

But Gwion is fouled because he gets stuck-in. On the other flank, Ben Tollitt doesn’t. He was worse than useless today. Morecambe can’t afford to carry passengers – even in the usually forlorn hope that they might come up with the occasional goal.

So, in the absence of Marcus Dackers and another at best mercurial performance from Jordan Slew, the Shrimps were offering very little offensively. But at half time – thanks largely to a truly great save by Harry Burgoyne low down to his left to keep Ryan Watson’s towering header out with just ten minutes left to play, things were still level. The Shrimps’ goalkeeper had done well earlier to deny Jon Taylor after 24 minutes when the Salford man found himself clear and with a free shot on goal. But at the other end, Matty Young had little to do and no shots to save.

It was noticeable throughout the first half the way that Salford substitutes – apparently warming-up – used their proximity to the pitch to crowd around Morecambe players every time they got a throw-in or corner on their side of the field. That’s the sort of tactic you would expect from any Karl Robinson side: he has always prided himself on this sort of gamesmanship. A stronger referee would have nipped this sort of nonsense in the bud. But Mr Baines just let it happen. Chief Culprit for City was Matty Lund, who relentlessly sledged whoever took the Shrimps’ corners throughout the first period as the man with the whistle just looked on and did nothing to stop it. 

So it was really ironic that it was Lund who scored the only goal of a poor game just minutes after the restart; heading home a cross from Taylor as the home defence were nowhere near him. It was another shocking goal to concede at a time when concentration was absolutely imperative. From then on, the Shrimps were shapeless and reverted to the shambolic defending we have witnessed from them so many times already this season: booting the ball anywhere just to clear their lines only to see it come straight back again. They looked beaten, with Harry making at least two further superb saves until King Derek belatedly shook things up after seventy-five minutes. Adam Lewis came on and played as a conventional left winger for the last quarter of an hour or so. And for the first time in the game, Morecambe started to actually compete and Salford’s defence sounded Panic Stations and were in danger of being completely over-run time and again.

As well as panicking, City’s other response was a familiar one: to cheat. Maestro of the Black Arts Robinson clearly gave goalkeeper Young the sign to go down off the ball within the last ten minutes. The game stopped; the trainers ran on – and the Referee didn’t add on the time blatantly wasted at the end of the match. Robinson took the opportunity he had engineered to coach his entire team at the edge of the pitch whilst – yet again – Referee Baines did nothing to either stop or penalise him. The Salford Manager had clearly chosen his goalkeeper to indulge in this play-acting in the knowledge that he is the only player in the team who is not obliged to leave the pitch after treatment. Given that Young moved normally afterwards, took all his spot-kicks without even a hint of discomfort and continued to waste as much time as he possibly could, the referee should have booked him – however belatedly – for cheating. But when Edwards was then literally kicked into the air following a crude lunge by Ossama Ashley and Gwion’s team-mates remonstrated with the Man in the Middle, the Referee didn’t show any sort of card to the miscreant, probably because he had already been booked during the first half.  It was an absolutely diabolical decision: the foul was bad enough on its own for Ashley to have seen red for it.

So, yet again, unacceptably bad refereeing plus poor Morecambe tactics for most of the game combined to make their dire position at the bottom of the table even worse at the end of the ninety minutes. Salford did not look like a promotion-chasing team. Cole Stockton was ineffectual against his old club and their continued use of the Black Arts – notoriously indulged in when the appalling Richie Wellens was in charge not all that long ago – is clearly in safe hands under the stewardship of Karl Robinson. Our lot might not be very good – but at least they don’t cheat.

What did Derek Adams make of it all at the end of the last game of the year?:

“I thought it was a very strong performance from us. We played in Salford’s half for most of the first half. Second half, we kept on going; kept on getting the ball into the final third; crosses into the box but were just unfortunate that we couldn’t get the goal that we probably deserved. We should have scored today – there’s no doubt about that. It didn’t fall for us. The referee today didn’t help himself. His decision-making was poor. They should have had a player sent-off in Ashley; Number Four. Then there’s a penalty towards the end: it’s a clear penalty kick but he doesn’t give it. Time-wasting from Salford was shocking – to say the least – in the second half and he didn’t really put himself about really dealing with that. That was a huge disappointment. But from our point of view, we need to put the ball in the back of the net.”

Salford City: 13 Matty Young; 4 Ossama Ashley (Y); 7 Ryan Watson (18 Conor McEleny 66’); 9 Cole Stockton (3 Kevin Berkoe; 94’) 11 Jon Taylor (5 Stephan Negru 75’); 16 Curtis Tilt (C); 22 Junior Luamba (8 Matty Lund 45’); 27 Kylian Kouassi; 29 Luke Garbutt; 31 Hakeeb Adelakun; 32 Liam Shephard.

Subs not used:  1 Jamie Jones; 2 Tom Edwards; 23 Kyrell Malcolm.

Morecambe:  1 Harry Burgoyne; 2 Luke Hendrie; 4 Tom White (9 Hallam Hope 66’); 6 Jamie Stott (C); 7 Gwion Edwards (5 Max Taylor 93’); 11 Jordan Slew (3 Adam Lewis 73’); 14 Rhys Williams (Y); 18 Ben Tollitt; 23 David Tutonda; 24 Yann Songo’o; 28 Callum Jones.

Subs not used: 21 Alfie Scales; 22 Ross Millen.

Ref: Dale Baines.

Att: 3,179 (several hundred from Morecambe.)