LEAGUE TWO. SATURDAY, 15th MARCH 2025.

Morecambe throw it away as Barrow escape with point.

This morning, Barrow set off on the short journey to the other side of Morecambe Bay to attempt to deny their nearest Lancashire rival any of the precious league points they need to ensure that this local derby can be replicated next season. Last October, Morecambe won at third-placed Barrer to register their first three League Two points of the season in a game where both Andy Dallas and Ged Garner featured for the opposition. But since then, our nearest geographical neighbours have slipped right down the division. Manager of the time Stephen Clemence was sacked in mid-January this year.

Bluebirds fans must be wondering why the club got rid of Pete Wild – a man who took them to the fringe of promotion last term – for a person whose sole previous managerial experience at Gillingham – where he was sacked after just five months – wasn’t a lot to write home about even before he took over on the Furness Peninsular. Given Mr Clemence’s previous record – and seen from outside – it was hardly a surprise to watch the Bluebirds failing to maintain their excellent early form of this season. He was shown the door just over seven week ago with Barrer seventeenth in the table and on a downward spiral.

The local fans were generally relieved to see the back of him but many of them were puzzled by the Powers That Be at Holker Street’s decision about where to go next. They managed to tempt the Solihull Moors Manager Andy Whing away from the National League club to replace him: a decision that left the Bluebirds having to pay substantial compensation to the Midlands club to add to the not insignificant cash outlay they had already made to pay-up Stephen Clemence’s two-year contract.

The club’s record under the new man is three losses, one of which – very disappointingly from our point of view – was at home against Carlisle to give Mark Hughes his only win so far as the boss of the struggling Cumbrians. But Mr Whing’s new outfit have also enjoyed five wins, including their last two matches where they won at high-flying Notts County and then beat Accrington at home last Saturday. They started the game today in sixteenth place in League Two; seven places higher than today’s hosts and with fourteen more points in the bag with one game fewer played than the Shrimps.

So Morecambe – increasingly desperate to hold onto their League Two status – really needed to win today. Their record since Barrow returned from the Outer Darkness of non-league football to which the Shrimps seem to be rapidly heading is pretty encouraging: five wins and one defeat in six games in all competitions. Today, they needed a double over the Bluebirds more than they have ever done before.

This is what Morecambe Manager Derek Adams said before the match:

“We’ve got thirty points to play for. If you look at it over the last ten games, we’ve got the same number of points won as Carlisle; we’ve gained two more points than Tranmere and we’ve won more games than Tranmere or Carlisle. Home form is going to be important. Barrow have changed formation a number of times. They started the season a 4-2-3-1; they changed it to 3-5-2; Andy’s come in and he’s playing a three at the back; either playing a 3-4-3 or at times playing a 3-5-2 as well. So they’ve changed formation – like all teams have in this division.”

Turning to the element of the game being a local derby and the importance of the fans’ role in this, he added:

“Every game is the same: the supporters back us all the time; on their travels; at home – they’re very vocal. And that’s a great help to the players but not only that, the football club as well: it’s their football club.”

The Morecambe manager also added that there have been serious consequences as a result of the team’s last home match. Harvey Macadam will not play again this season as a result of the injury he sustained in the win over AFC Wimbledon. This is a real blow as the midfielder was at last beginning to show some of the undoubted promise he clearly possesses in recent games for the Shrimps. Luke Hendrie faces possibly as long a lay-off and Paul Lewis will also be out for some time following the injuries they picked-up in the same fixture. Today, to limit King Derek’s choices still further, Ged Garner would be ineligible to play against his parent club. On the up-side, though, Andy Dallas would be able to show Bluebirds’ fans – and their boss – what they have been missing since he returned to Barnsley earlier this season.

For the visitors, Andy Whing had these thoughts on the eve of the game:

“I said after the defeat to Carlisle that we needed to go on a run, and that the next three games were massive for us. We beat Notts County, and then at the weekend we won 2-0 at home to Accrington Stanley. In both of those games I think we got the fine details right and we have to keep getting those fine details right. Tomorrow’s game with the Morecambe is the third of those three games, so I want the lads to go out and do it again. Now it is easy for me to say that, but they have shown in the last two games that they can do it. I think tomorrow’s game is massive for both teams. Obviously, Morecambe are fighting to try to avoid relegation, but I also feel it is a massive game for us. We want to keep climbing the table and keep putting more distance between ourselves and the relegation places. It is important that we go out there and keep performing and keep trying to get the results. We have shown that we can get the fine details right in both boxes and now we have an added challenge. That challenge is: can we keep getting the fine details right and can we perform consistently? Can we be consistent? Can we perform well week in week out? If we keep doing the right things and making the right decisions, then yes we can. So that is the challenge now for the players to go out and perform well consistently. Obviously, you can perform well in games and still not get the result you want. But if you are performing well and you are doing it on a consistent basis then more often than not you will get the right result. Winning breeds confidence and it can become a habit. Doing the right things in both boxes and making the right decisions also becomes a habit. And that is what we are looking to do, to makes these good habits which we take into every game.”

The match started under blue skies but with a keen breeze blowing from the Barrow end of the pitch.

Before kick-off, there was a reminder that some things are far more important than local derbies and even potential relegation. As the teams gathered around the centre circle wearing black armbands, everyone in the ground stood and scrupulously observed a minute’s silence to remember Poppy Atkinson.  The ten year old was tragically killed after soccer practice in her home town of Kendal ten days ago in a freak accident. I’m sure all our thoughts are with her friends and family at this really sad time for all of them.

The pattern of the game was quickly established. Barrow are a pretty physically large side with some big lads who are prepared to mix it in their squad. Aaron Pressley offered little else all game until he was taken-off later on. How he escaped without a yellow card only fussy, inconsistent Referee Scott Simpson could tell you. Clearly, the entire team have been coached to get in the Ref’s face on every conceivable occasion they might get an advantage from doing so. Again, a stronger Man in the Middle would soon snuff this out – but not the man in charge today. So it was fairly attritional at times; Barrer’s Bruisers trying to bully Morecambe but the home team trying to play effective football largely on the break. One statistic on its own describes how the game went: In the whole match, the visitors racked-up no less than eleven corners, many of them in the first period. Morecambe, by contrast, had only one during the entire game.

The stats also tell us that Barrow enjoyed 72% possession altogether. Harry Burgoyne had eleven saves to make, doing well on nine occasions and badly just once. By contrast, visiting veteran Paul Farman had just three attempts on goal to face – and he conceded from two of them.

But that doesn’t tell us about the key moments in the match. The first of these arrived after ten minutes. Ex-Barrow player Tom White found Gwion Edwards clear with a superb pass from the Morecambe right. Gwion took the ball towards the left, dummied the goalkeeper as he committed himself and brilliantly flicked the ball past him to register a truly outstanding opening goal. But I thought that it was the Welshman who forced Burgoyne into his first exceptional save of the game after 23 minutes when his attempt to clear the ball in his own area instead headed powerfully at point-blank range towards his own goal-line. Harry was in the wars again just a minute later, doing well this time to rush off his line to deny Tyler Smith as he bore down on the home goal. But the talking-point of the half – and arguably the entire contest – arrived after half an hour. Max Taylor’s arm made contact with Ben Whitfield and the Barrow man went down as if he had been pole-axed, later claiming on Barrow’s X feed that ` it  was well worth the concussion’. What concussion? Who’s he kidding? Oh – the Referee…

Mr Simpson initially awarded only a free-kick but Whitfield’s histrionics; the crowding-in around him of other Bluebirds players all brandishing their elbows and the intervention of the Fourth Official saw Max sent off. Did he deserve it? Technically – perhaps. But for him to take an Early Bath whilst players like Aaron Pressley were allowed to commit continual niggly and sometimes downright bad fouls with impunity yet again underlines the basic weakness of officiating in League Two.

However, any idea that the visitors might have had that the hosts were now there for the taking were quickly dispelled. Morecambe played as well with ten men as they had with eleven. Andy Dallas put a shot right across goal with three minutes left to play. Then Lee Angol showed some really nifty footwork to take two opposition defenders out of the game and work his way into the penalty area, where he was just unable to get a shot away right at the death. But he deservedly put the Shrimps further ahead in first half injury time. As the Bluebirds defence was at sixes and sevens, he took a shot which was deflected on its way past Farman and into the net. Meanwhile, Burgoyne was equal to everything Barrow threw at him at the other end of the field.

The visiting fans must have been hoping that – even at two-nil down – their one man advantage would tell in the second half. Initially, it didn’t: Barrow’s tactic of repeatedly trying to work the ball from their left flank towards the right until Morecambe ran out of defenders simply didn’t work because they kept giving the ball away. They should have paid for this in another key moment of the game, which arrived in the fourth minute of the re-start. Andy Dallas – with Lee Angol just behind him to his right – ran clear from his own half right down the centre of the pitch with only Farman to beat. He had all the time in the world to pick his spot but delayed too long, allowing the goalkeeper to bravely dive at his feet and smother the ball. It was an appalling miss of the sort his Manager has no doubt been having sleepless nights about all season. Shortly afterwards – his contribution to a game where he could have made a real statement to current and former fans alike having been minimal – he was substituted. And with his wasted opportunity, so disappeared Morecambe’s chance of getting three points from this afternoon’s match.

Finally – as the away supporters were noisily getting on their own players’ backs – Barrow’s tactic of stretching the Shrimps’ thin red line until it snapped paid off. In the sixty-fourth minute, the pressure which the visitors had been gradually building on the home goal saw Robbie Gotts bundle the loose ball home after several other attempts had been blocked by the Shrimps’ defence. A minute earlier, Sam Foley had headed against the post and ten minutes later, the Bluebirds were level. They had been attacking again before sub Dean Campbell chanced his arm with a shot from distance which Harry would save ninety-nine times out of a hundred. But he allowed the ball to bounce off him straight towards Tyler Smith, who walloped it straight back past him to equalise in front of the large away following.

And that was that. Against ten men, Barrow were the more dangerous team in the second half and could have conceivably won the game. But Morecambe were the better side in the first half even with ten men. That controversial sending-off – plus Dallas’ hopeless finishing – proved to be decisive this afternoon. But at least Morecambe didn’t lose. Elsewhere, Carlisle did so yet again, 1-2 this time at home against AFC Wimbledon. But Tranmere made it two wins on the spin with interim Manager Andy Crosby in charge. They won at Valley Parade by a penalty to nothing against League Two’s current form team Bradford City. Rovers are now a formidable six points better off than Derek Adams’ men as they lie in twenty-second position in League Two tonight. Harrogate are ten points ahead of us, just above Tranmere in the table. The Yorkshire team’s form is dire – they lost at Newport 3-0 this afternoon and could still be sucked into the mire. But Morecambe are well and truly in it, despite a battling display today. This is what King Derek made of it all at the end of play:

“As a team, we were technically very good. Our work ethic was excellent. But – individual errors mean that we don’t take chances. Individual errors mean that we make mistakes that cause goals. There is no team out-playing us. We were down to ten men after twenty-eight minutes. That takes a lot (out of you) especially when you’re down that end of the table.”

Morecambe: 1 Harry Burgoyne; 22 Ross Millen; 3 Adam Lewis (Y) (23 David Tutonda 67’); 4 Tom White; 5 Max Taylor (R); 6 Jamie Stott; 7 Gwion Edwards (Y); 10 Lee Angol (19 Marcus Dackers 77’); 16 Andy Dallas (11 Jordan Slew 67’); 20 Callum Cooke (28 Callum Jones 77’); 24 Yann Songo’o (C).

Subs not used: 9 Hallam Hope. 14 Rhys Williams 18 Ben Tollitt.

Barrow: 1 Paul Farman; 6 Niall Canavan (C); 8 Kian Spence; 9 Ben Whitfield; 11 Elliot Newby; 14 MJ Williams; 15 Robbie Gotts (Y); 16 Sam Foley (Y); 39 Loe Duru (4 Dean Campbell (Y) 50’); 33 Aaron Pressley (20 Emile Acqua 74’); 34 Ben Whitfield (23 Connor Mahoney 74’).

Subs not used: 21 Wyll Stanway 5 Kyle Cameron; 30 Ben Jackson.

Ref: Scott Simpson.

Att: 4,351 (1.213 from Barrer.)