LEAGUE TWO. TUESDAY, 28th JANUARY 2025.

Same Old Story – Same Old Score…

Well – it doesn’t get any easier for Derek Adams and his beleaguered Shrimps team. Tonight, the club at the very bottom of the EFL travelled to God’s Own Country to encounter high-flying Bradford City, currently seventh in the table with more than twice the number of points their former Manager has accumulated at Morecambe – 44 as opposed to 20. In their previous 23 meetings in all competitions, `Bratfud’ have won ten to Morecambe’s seven. Additionally, the Bantams are on a fine run of form at the moment, with no defeats and five wins in their last six league games, most recently – and most notably – a three-nil thrashing of current run-away leaders of League Two – Walsall – at Valley Parade last Saturday.

The only hope King Derek had tonight was that in their two previous meetings this season, his men beat City in the FA Cup last November and drew against them 1-1 in a match the Shrimps really should have won back in October. His worry, of course, is his team’s consistent inability to score when creating decent positions or having dominated play, as they did for much of the game in October back at the Maz. This problem has been exacerbated by the EFL’s effective embargo on the club which means that the Manager can’t sign any more players to help with their current predicament.

And this problem was made much worse on Saturday at Colchester, when referee Sam Purkiss – who has form against the Shrimps in the past – sent-off Lee Angol for what Mr Adams has claimed subsequently was just a clumsy challenge.

Lee was beginning to show real quality just before he was injured in September and – given Morecambe’s absence of effective strikers – was hoped to be a key part of the attack from here on in. The club challenged the Referee’s ruling yesterday (Monday, 27^th January 2025) at a cost of five hundred quid. King Derek added the following thoughts just before the hearing:

“It’s the Referee who gave the sending-off. The Referee’s thirty yards away from it and there’s five players in front of him so it’s really strange how he could have seen anything. There’s a linesman who’s right on top of the situation – three yards away – (and) he gives a throw-in to the opposition. So that’s a very good vision that the Referee has been able to have – to have Superman powers if you can see round players and see the incident. There’s no reason for it to be given, none whatsoever.”

Sadly, the FA scrutinisers didn’t see things the same way and the appeal was to no avail. But you have to ask – how genuinely `independent’ is the panel tasked with reviewing these sort of decisions? The FA has a vested interest, after all, in not having their officials scrutinised and their decisions overturned – if it happened regularly, referees would lose altogether what little authority they still seem to possess in football in this country. However, the reason Morecambe lost on Saturday is that – level at nil-nil and arguably the better team at half time – they were forced to play the entire second half at Colchester with just ten men. Rescinding the puzzling decision by a man arguably not fit to referee at League Two level in the first place would do nothing to address the loss of points caused by his poor judgement on Saturday anyway – and this is not the first time by any means that the Shrimps have suffered from bad decisions by match officials this season, all of which have cost them very precious points. But even trying to find out how many red cards have been overturned by the FA’s so-called Regulatory Commission is difficult. A search using the name `Lee Angol’ and this season’s dates reveals precisely nothing on the FA’s `Rules & Regs’ site. Previous decisions by the Regulatory Commission are supposed to be published but I can’t find any record of any of them. Whatever, because of his straight red card, Angol will not be available for the next three league games, including – obviously – tonight’s. This is what Derek Adams had to say about the task he would face at his former employers:

“Both teams have changed a little bit since we played the last time. They have changed their formation a bit since Andy Cook was out injured and they’ve been able to pick up some really good wins. We need ten wins between now and the end of the season for us to get fifty points – and that’s what we have to try and do. We know we have to get wins as soon as possible.”

Opposite Number Graham Alexander saw the game in these perhaps surprising terms:

“I think it’s our biggest game of the season. I’m not trying to be clever. I genuinely think it will give me more of an impression of what we are as a group of players if I need any. All I need to see is that consistency of mindset. If our effort, commitment and focus is the same, then we’ll give ourselves the best chance of winning. You’ve seen the difficulty of winning a game last week against bottom of the table and now against the top. They are all hard challenges. If we ease off at all, we’re shooting ourselves in the foot. Morecambe have given us two tough games already and I wouldn’t expect anything different. I’ve been in this game for so long and there aren’t easy games. You have to earn the right to make it easier in the last 20 minutes or so, if that ever happens. Every game is on a knife edge. If you don’t take care of the details and the little bits, the game runs away from you.”

Derek was forced by injuries and shortage of players to shake things up this evening. With goalkeeper Stuart Moore and George Ray still on the sidelines, Rhys Williams has joined Callum Jones on the treatment table so the team started with Max Taylor, Harvey Macadam and Lee Angol replacement Hallam Hope in the starting eleven. Mr Adams himself was forced to sit in the stands tonight because his latest booking at Colchester has earned him a cumulative ban.

It was cloudy, cold but dry in Bradford as the game kicked-off.

Almost immediately, City’s Captain Richard Smallwood took a shot from distance which was deflected straight into visiting goalkeeper Harry Burgoyne’s arms. Gwion Edwards had the second shot – albeit a wild one – of the evening after just two minutes. Brad Halliday then provoked a proper save from Harry with his legs just a minute or so later. Adam Lewis gave the ball away cheaply with ten minutes on the clock but the cross which Tyreik Wright made as a result of it sailed across the away penalty area with no Bantam player anywhere near it. The closest call of the evening so far occurred after a quarter of an hour when Burgoyne was forced into a tremendous save low to his left from near the penalty spot by Smallwood– Luke Hendrie was able to clear the loose ball before any of his former team-mates could take advantage of it.

Morecambe were playing reasonably well and keeping the Bantams at bay until it all went pear-shaped again after exactly half an hour.  Antoni Sarcevic – playing his 500^th career game tonight – took a shot which was blocked but not cleared by the visitors. Calum Kavanagh was quickest to react and the ball had whistled past Burgoyne into the back of his net before the goalkeeper had any chance to respond: it was yet another really sloppy goal to concede.

The Shrimps then had a let-off when a deflected cross from Tommy Leigh into their area left goalkeeper Burgoyne all at sea as he flapped at the ball and missed it. He was lucky that there was nobody in an amber and black shirt in the vicinity to take advantage of his error as David Tutonda cleared the ball. But Morecambe played some decent football as the half grew older, stretching the home defence and forcing them back quite effectively. The closest they came to scoring, though, was when Gwion again tried a shot after 41 minutes – this time from distance – which went high and wide.

So the visitors trailed back to the Dressing Rooms in a familiar position this season: a goal down. But apart from another poor piece of defending which led to the goal, they had more or less matched their more illustrious hosts. But the obvious difference between the teams so far was that whilst City have players in their team who know where the net is, Morecambe don’t.

Ben Tollitt- who had lost the ball yet again in the build-up to Bradford’s goal – was replaced at half time by Jordan Slew. But it was all City for the opening few minutes, with Leigh firing over the top within no time at all. But Morecambe had a half-decent chance to equalise with 53 minutes on the clock, as Lewis slung over a cross from the left and Edwards was just unable to connect with it at the far post. Tom White was fouled by Sarcevic after 57 minutes but – as the travelling fans howled for a red card because it looked as if the Bradford man had used his elbow – Referee Ben Toner didn’t even book the culprit. Slew was then pulled back by his shirt by Aden Baldwin with 59 minutes on the clock but the Ref again kept his cards in his pocket as he awarded only a free-kick to the visitors. From it, the ball went into touch ahead of what was now a trio of Shrimps’ strikers. With an hour played, Max Taylor then drew a truly tremendous save from home custodian Sam Walker with a powerful header which the goalkeeper saved low to his right. Morecambe were on top at this point and Graham Alexander decided to shuffle his pack with three substitutions in the sixty-eighth minute. Callum Cooke then received a generous round of applause from his former fans as he was introduced in the place of Edwards with 72 minutes played. Morecambe had another decent period of possession at this stage but – as has been the case all season – the final pass was often either over-hit (often by Lewis from free-kicks) or missing altogether. So the Shrimps finished-up – for the tenth league game this season – losing one-nil.

Once again, Morecambe competed well in patches during this game and were in no way outplayed by a team on a fine run of form. With no chance of any newcomers arriving and the Transfer Window about to slam shut next week in any case, the Shrimps have nineteen league games to save themselves from relegation to the obscurity of the National League. Their only hope is that there could still be two clubs even worse than ours in League Two this season. Elsewhere, Tranmere took the lead at Swindon but then lost 3-1 and Carlisle also lost at Notts County by the only goal of the game. So it is As You Were among the Legion of the Damned at the bottom of the EFL tonight. Morecambe remain bottom; Carlisle one point and one place ahead of them and Tranmere just out of the relegation pack, five points ahead. For what it’s worth, Bratfud find themselves in the automatic promotion positions this evening: third in League Two.

Derek Adams must be sick and tired of repeating the same old Mantra at the end of games in which his men have competed but not been able to score. Tonight, he said:

“There was nothing in the game tonight. Not much atmosphere in the place – and that’s probably credit to us because of the way we played. Bradford don’t win the game tonight – we give the game to Bradford by giving the big opportunity away. Bradford were there for the taking tonight, there’s no doubt about it. I didn’t think there was much between the teams tonight.”

Bradford City: 1 Sam Walker; 2 Bradley Halliday (22 Callum Johnson 67’); 6 Richard Smallwood (C); 8 Calum Kavanagh (16 Alex Pattison 67’); 10 Antoni Sarcevic; 15 Aden Baldwin; 17 Tyreik Wright (3 Lewis Richards (Y) 67’); 18 Ciaran Kelly; 23 Bobby Pointon; 24 Jack Shepherd; 37 Tommy Leigh.

Subs not used:  13 Colin Doyle; 11 Brandon Khela; 32 George Lapslie; 26 Michael Mellon.

Morecambe:  1 Harry Burgoyne; 2 Luke Hendrie; 3 Adam Lewis; 4 Tom White (17 Paul Lewis 78’); 5 Max Taylor; 6 Jamie Stott (C); 7 Gwion Edwards (20 Callum Cooke 72’); 8 Harvey Macadam; 9 Hallam Hope (Y) (19 Marcus Dackers (Y) 78’); 18 Ben Tollitt (11 Jordan Slew 45’); 23 David Tutonda (40 Adam Fairclough 84’).

Subs not used:  12 Ryan Schofield; 24 Yann Songo’o.

Ref: Ben Toner.

Att: Unknown (about 200 from Morecambe.)