LEAGUE TWO. TUESDAY, 18th FEBRUARY 2025.

Normal Service is Resumed as Donny spoil the game.

It was the second home match out of three in a row for Morecambe FC this evening at the Mazuma Mobile Stadium. Doncaster Rovers arrived in sixth position in League Two with four wins and two defeats in their last six league outings. They have lost their last two fixtures, though, including last Saturday’s, where they were beaten at home by Grimsby, 1-2. If we include their defeat 0-2 by Crystal Palace on south Yorkshire soil last week in the FA Cup, Rovers have actually lost three matches in a row. So tonight, Grant McCann and his men would be looking to get the Donny train back on track. This is what the Rovers Manager had to say about the opposition before the match:

“It will be another tough game. They’ve had a really good win on Saturday. Derek is an experienced Manager – he knows what this level’s about: he’s been there and done it. We’re expecting a tough game but we going to really focus this game on us: how we want to be; how we want to play. Our aim this season is to get promoted and win the division.”

In previous contests with Doncaster, Morecambe have won two of seven but lost three. Last August, they lost the reverse fixture at the Keepmoat by a depressingly familiar score this season: the only goal of the game. In wining this fixture, Rovers certainly rode their luck: Shrimps Manager Derek Adams complained afterwards that Donny’s Brandon Fleming should have been sent-off. He complained:

“In the second half, we were the better side. We were probably unfortunate not to come away with a draw in the end. We do believe that a major decision in the game went against us. The Referee – and the officials – should have noticed that Gwion Edwards had taken his man on; was taken-out and he was denied an obvious goal-scoring opportunity. He was closing-in in the eighteen-yard box; he was going towards goal – not away from the goal that the Referee had said. If he doesn’t know the difference between `to-wards’ the goal and `away’ from the goal, then that has to be picked-up.”

As is always the case in League Two of course – it wasn’t. Mr Adams complained last week that although Referees who make major blunders in the Premiership and the Championship are effectively punished by having to officiate at lower division games as a result, no such sanction exists for the officials at League Two level. His prediction that Championship ref Andy Davies would do a better and more objective job against Accrington last Saturday than the dross in fancy dress we are often fobbed-off with proved to be all too true when – for the first time this season – none of his players were booked. Coincidence? I think not…

Anyway, this is what King Derek said he hoped for not just from tonight’s fixture but from the one next Saturday against Walsall as well:

“Doncaster are in the promotion Play-Off places. It’s at home, yes, but it’s against two teams that are high up in the table. We’ve done well against them this season from the point of view that we lost one-nil twice but they were both very tight encounters and we will be looking to win both games.”

Morecambe are currently in the relegation positions in League Two, in twenty-third place. Asked if he saw these two games as `pivotal’ to his team’s survival this season, Derek replied:

“No, I don’t think they’re pivotal. I think that they’re important. We’ve got fifteen games to go. We play against the league leaders and we play against a team which are in the Play-Offs. We have to show them respect but we come off some really positive home performances.”

Derek also announced that goalkeeper Stuart Moore is facing another operation on his troublesome thigh and will be out for the foreseeable future. He also said that Hull loanee Callum Jones is still unavailable due to a long-term injury. Turning his attention from Biology to Botany, Derek also explained that there is a disease in the grass on the home pitch which is killing it off and that improvement in the muddy surface won’t happen until Spring when the growing season starts once more.

It was bitterly cold and quite windy but at least dry as the match kicked-off on the diseased pitch which looked – in patches – more like the beach not too far away by the side of Morecambe Bay than a football field.

Doncaster’s home stadium is sponsored by a railway company and it was probably appropriate that the visitors started off  like a train. Morecambe didn’t get out of their own half until the fifth minute and by then, they were already behind.

Donny are a fairly small, nippy side and they had played fast, accurate football which stretched and tested the Shrimps’ defence right from the start of the game. Rob Street blasted an effort over the home bar after just one minute after being cleverly set-up by Harry Clifton and the visitors won the first corner of the game after two. From this, Tom Anderson’s shot was blocked for another corner. Second time of asking, Luke Molyneux put in a cross which Street headed home far too easily as the defence all around him stood by like statues.

So – in just three minutes – we had seen part of Grant McCann’s game plan. In the eighth minute, we saw another side of it. Marcus Dackers – who was manhandled, fouled and otherwise impeded all throughout the game with no reaction from Referee Ollie Yates – made a clumsy tackle on Jack Senior. The Donny player fell – apparently lifeless – onto the muddy surface and lay so still for so long that you wondered if an Undertaker rather than Rovers’ medical staff should be called for. As he lay there absolutely prone, his team-mates got in the Referee’s ear.

So did the Magic Sponge revive him? Did the disease apparently decimating the freezing ground he was lying on devour him too?

No – he was waiting for the weak and ineffectual Ref to wave a yellow card at Marcus as his pals were crowding round the fussy little chap and demanding that he should. And as soon as the Referee gave into them – guess what? – Senior sprung to his feet and was suddenly as right as rain again.

A stronger official would have booked the Donny player for time wasting and feigning injury. But Mr Yates is not that man. So he continued to indulge the visitors virtually every time they fell over with a free-kick and then allowed them – time and again – to fall over off the ball and waste time every time they found themselves on the back foot until he asked them if they wanted the trainers to come on and treat them. Then the thought that they might have to leave the field – however briefly – galvanised them to suddenly get up and somehow find the strength to carry on.

So – as stated in the headline – Normal Service was Resumed tonight at the Maz: the refereeing was an absolute joke.

I thought that – throughout the game – there was a nasty undercurrent to Doncaster’s play. This was shown later on when Senior received a straight red card for a truly appalling powerful two-footed lunge from behind at Barrow loanee Ged Garner which could have broken a fellow professional’s ankles. It also raised its ugly head at the end of the game when large, Neanderthal defender Tom Anderson started making provocative gestures at the home crowd as they began to leave the ground. The Ref should have at least booked him for this stupid and aggressive outburst which even his own team-mates tried to stop him continuing with. But nothing happened – yet again.

This big Oik needs to grow up – what on earth was that all about? Mr McCann pointedly ignored Senior as he trudged off the pitch earlier – his sending-off could have cost his side the match after all. But does he condone this sort of nonsense to add to the constant play-acting of his players?

For me, Donny’s behaviour and the weakness of the referee ruined this game as a spectacle tonight. Rovers can play – they have a lot of very skilful players in their ranks.

So why don’t they?

This culture of cheating has seen several opposition goalkeepers go down off the ball in recent games when Morecambe have put opponents under pressure. Tonight, though, it was our time to do it. Ryan Schofield went down off the ball with almost half an hour played. The Ref stopped play; the trainers came on and immediately the sign was made to the side-lines that he couldn’t continue. For Ryan – unlike many of his Opposite Numbers this season – was clearly genuinely hurt this evening.

Harry Burgoyne came on and almost immediately, did really well to block a shot from Owen Bailey following a cross from Jamie Sterry. The powerful strike was almost straight at him but his reactions to keep it out were absolutely phenomenal.

Morecambe improved as the half grew older but the closest they came to scoring in the first period was when playmaker Harvey Macadam turned the Donny defence inside out on the Shrimps’ right and slipped a low cross right across the away goal-mouth as nobody was able to connect with it.

So the visitors went back to the Dressing Rooms with a slender lead that they deserved if only for the positive aspects of their very cynical game.

Morecambe huffed and puffed in the second half as Donny dug-in and hung onto their one goal advantage and constantly wasted time. To be fair, Street came close again after four minutes of the re-start when his shot was deflected by Lee Hendrie against the outside of his own post. Ironically, the nearest the home team came to equalising was after almost an hour when a massive clearance by Harry was headed up in the air by a panicky Donny defender. He had no idea where it was going but it actually headed right towards his own goal and goalkeeper Teddy Sharman–Lowe – who was way too far up the pitch – was really lucky that it didn’t loop over him and into the net as he just about managed to catch it as it sailed above his head.

Once Senior was sent-off, Derek threw caution to the wind and sent on Gwion Edwards, Lee Angol and Ben Tollitt to try and force an equaliser. But – against ten men – the new line-up never quite had the nous to stretch the opposition and take advantage of their superior numbers.

So Normal Service truly was Resumed tonight: Morecambe lost their twelfth league match of the season by the only goal of the game. Donny’s reward after their Double over the Shrimps by this score was to go up into the lowest of the automatic promotion positions in League Two: third place. The Shrimps’ fate was to take a step backwards in their hopes for EFL survival. With neither Tranmere nor Carlisle United playing tonight, they remained As You Were in the table before the game. But Morecambe have now played one more game than both of their nearest rivals for the drop.

This is what King Derek said after the fixture:

“We should have scored tonight. We had sixteen attempts on goal. We haven’t worked the goalkeeper enough. It’s the story of our season.”

Morecambe:  12 Ryan Schofield (1 Harry Burgoyne  31’); 2 Luke Hendrie; 6 Jamie Stott (C); 8 Harvey Macadam; 14 Rhys Williams; 16 Andy Dallas (10 Lee Angol 85’);17 Paul Lewis (Y); 19 Marcus Dackers; 20 Callum Cook (7 Gwion Edwards 65’); 23 David Tutonda (3 Adam Lewis 86’); 33 Ged Garner (18 Ben Tollitt 85’).

Subs not used:  4 Tom White; 24 Yann Songo’o.

Doncaster Rovers: 19 Teddy Sharman–Lowe; 2 Jamie Sterry; 4 Tom Anderson; 5 Joseph Olowu; 7 Luke Molyneux (20 Joe Ironside 78); 8 George Broadbent (16 Tom Nixon 72’); 9 Rob Street1(4 Billy Sharp 80’); 11 Jordan Gibson (22 Patrick Kelly 80’); 15 Harry Clifton (Y); 17 Owen Bailey (C) (Y); 23 Jack Senior (R).

Subs not used: 1 Ian Lawlor; 18 Ethan Ennis; 27 Charlie Crew.

Ref: Ollie Yates.

Att: 2,952 (423 from Doncaster.)