LEAGUE TWO. SATURDAY, 12th APRIL 2025.

Morecambe Go Down – with a whimper…

BBC Sport published a piece during the week concerning the four clubs – Morecambe; Carlisle United; Accrington Stanley and Tranmere – who they identify to be the ones to be in the frame to make up the duo to be relegated out of the English Football league this season. They stated:

“For Morecambe and boss Derek Adams, this season has been a struggle, basically from the moment the last one ended. A transfer embargo was only lifted in early July and it meant Adams had to quickly scramble a squad together. Not surprisingly, they did not win any of their first 10 games and only two of their first 16. Problems with the club’s owners again came to light in January as transfers were blocked until funds to see out the season were guaranteed. Against this backdrop, Adams and his players deserve credit that they are still fighting for survival.”

They went on to quote King Derek:

“The belief has always been there. We have pushed a lot of big teams a long way this season. We’ve dealt with the pressure exceptionally well and we’ll have to do that on Saturday. We’ve had to have a group of players come together very quickly and they’ve done that. We’ve been unfortunate at times this season, we shouldn’t be where we are, but we have to deal with it.”

So – if any match ever could be truly described as a six-pointer, today’s was it. Carlisle are the only club in the entire EFL between Morecambe and the abyss which leads to the National League. They have both played forty-one games so far; Carlisle have 34 points and Morecambe just two points more. In the reverse fixture last December, the Shrimps actually won at Brunton Park in a game where Jon Mellish was sent-off: a dismissal which was later rescinded by the authorities – much good did this do United at the time. But Morecambe’s record overall against the Cumbrian club is generally dire: they have only won five of twenty-four games in senior competitions and have lost twelve, not including their reverse against United last November at the Maz in the FA Trophy where Carlisle came from behind to win 1-2. With just five league games left to play this season, it was imperative for Morecambe to win again today.

There have been many changes at Brunton Park since Morecambe won there last year. Derek Adams’ successor as Bradford Manager – former Welsh International Mark `Sparky’ Hughes – has taken over after Mike Williamson’s costly but disastrous time in charge. At the beginning of the season, having spent the best part of a million pounds on new players, United were one of the favourites to be promoted back into a League One from which they were relegated last term. But `Sparky’ has struggled to improve the fortunes of the Blues, despite further big spending by the club.  This is what he had to say prior to the clash by the north Lancashire seaside:

“Our recent home form has been good, two wins and a draw in the last three games. So the expectation now is that we play well at home. We’ve got to translate that to away games as well. It’s not going to be easy at the weekend. Morecambe are fighting for their lives as well. It’s unusual, really, in my view. We’ve got decent points on the board, given our circumstances. They’re starting to pick up points. Tranmere have been on a great run. I don’t recall that happening on too many occasions: where a lot of teams, all three of them, are picking up points at key times and crucial times in the season. So, yeah, it’s a huge game for everybody, for ourselves and Morecambe, but the teams around us as well. Both sides will want to win, obviously. I think Morecambe are very direct, you have to say, having watched a number of their games. They get the ball forward very quickly. They’ve got decent talent at the top of the pitch. I worked with Lee Angol at Bradford, and he’s a talented boy. They’ve got threats, and they keep recycling, keep putting the ball into areas and hope for mistakes. So we’ve got to deal with that. But then when the time and the place presents itself, we’ve got to play our stuff. We’re still in that place where we just have to get on with what we can affect and all we can do is try and win all the games that we have left. And that’s what we’ll attempt to do.”

Derek had these thoughts about the upcoming fixture:

“We’ve got Carlisle at home and that is a big game for us because we’ve got five games left and six points left to make upon the teams that are directly above us. Success is staying in the league. We are focused on trying to win the remaining games of the season and see where that takes us. We understand that we have a lot to do – ourselves and Carlisle – because at this moment in time, Tranmere and Accrington are in a better position than us. We’ve got to win three games between now and the end of the season to have any opportunity – that’s without anyone doing anything else. It is a huge game because the winner has still got a lot of opportunity. The loser isn’t finished.”

It was a perfect day for playing football by the side of the Irish Sea today. The stadium was packed; the crowd expectant; everything was set for the two groups of players to show everyone their commitment to either the red or blue cause. 

Sadly, only one team turned up this afternoon. Right from the off, only Carlisle looked like they were going to win. They were right up for it: quicker to the ball; more determined; better organised and simply better than our lot right across the pitch. On this of all days, Morecambe were absolutely pathetic. 

What more can you say?

Last week, I wrote this about the second half display by the Shrimps at Grimsby:

Offensively, the visitors offered absolutely nothing… It’s not good enough in a situation such as the one the Shrimps currently find themselves in.

On the historic day that Morecambe really needed to not only win but put on a performance worthy of a League Two side, the players in the red shirts would have to radically transform this feeble performance if they were to have any chance whatsoever of remaining in the Football League.

Instead, today they let down themselves, their manager and all the fans who basically could not believe the way their men simply capitulated without a fight today. They were an absolute disgrace to the shirt.

During the entire first half, the Shrimps only put together one decent move. This came in injury time when – for the first time in the game – Morecambe constructed a passing move which included more than two players. For once, the ball was moved  creatively down the left flank to Tom White who then  slung a perfect cross over to Hallam Hope at the far post. Hallam had an open goal to aim at but somehow contrived to miss the target altogether. 

The half had been a scrappy affair littered with niggly fouls and punctuated by regular blasts of  Referee Ben Toner’s whistle. Mark Hughes and his entourage wasted no opportunity to get in the officials’ faces from the side-lines and Derek Adams was clearly not happy about it. He should know better than this – Hughes is a wind-up merchant and Derek fell for it today.

But in a half of few chances, United took the lead after 28 minutes with one of the only decent bits of play of the entire match. Jack Ellis received the ball on the Carlisle right and played a perfect cross over 40 yards or so to George Kelly – who was a handful in the mould of Kevin Ellison all afternoon for the home defence – and he made no mistake with a powerful header past a helpless Harry Burgoyne. It was no less than the Blues deserved.

You’d hope that Derek would have been able to rouse his troops at half time. There was still all to play for and they surely couldn’t be as lackadaisical and ineffective during the second period as they had been in the first one – could they?   The boss shook things up with four changes. Off went defenders David Tutonda and Rhys Williams plus the wayward Hallam Hope and – perhaps surprisingly – Andy Dallas. But their replacements – an Academy kid with virtually no League Two experience in the shape of Adam Fairclough; a player who Derek obviously favours for reasons that have always been completely lost on me at least in the shape of Paul Lewis and a man who we can all see doesn’t ever really need to have his kit washed after the game because he never gets stuck-in – Ben Tollitt – didn’t exactly inspire confidence. Max Taylor was an exception: he at least held his own once he appeared on the field.

And if anything, Morecambe were even more hopeless after these changes than they had been before them – if such a thing is possible. Carlisle scored again after an hour when Ellis was once more the provider as defender Terell Thomas slid the ball home to the delight of the massed ranks of Blues fans on the terrace behind him.

But the game was already won.

Morecambe at least tested the away goalkeeper a couple of times in the second half but they looked beaten from the minute they came onto the field. Yann Songo’o can’t be faulted in his endeavours to lead the team by example on his ageing legs. Tom White never gives up and is a role-model to his team-mates in both attitude and determination. Adam Lewis was poor today: perhaps over-hyped by the occasion:  his aimless long balls into Carlisle territory time and again went to men in blue more often than not and his set piece kicks were unusually poor. But nobody can doubt his commitment to the cause.

For me, Marcus Dackers was Man of the Match for the skill and Never Say Die attitude he exhibited once he got onto the field. At the back, Harry Burgoyne cannot be blamed for the loss today either.

But as for the rest of the players, today’s game against a poor team (Carlisle weren’t bottom of the table for no reason) showed – as if any further proof was needed – that you can’t make a Silk Purse out of a Sow’s Ear. We have never been good enough collectively to survive in League Two this season. Nobody can blame players who lack the skill to perform at this level for failing to do so. But today, far too many of them didn’t even try to do so and that is unforgivable for any professional footballer.

Whatever your heart suggests, anyone with even half a brain saw that today was the final twist in this year’s League Two relegation saga at least as far as the Shrimps are concerned. Morecambe slipped to the bottom of the entire EFL tonight and will be playing National League football next season – if the club survives at all. Carlisle will almost certainly accompany them. Good riddance to United. The ethos that `Sparky’ Hughes emanates by his own antics on the side lines is carried onto the field by such players as goalkeeper Gabriel Breeze. His goading of the home crowd; time-wasting and feigning injury is right out of the Hughes’ Story Book: there is a nastiness about the entire team which the EFL will be well rid of.

Results elsewhere are now effectively irrelevant. But – for the record – Accrington looked like they were going to annihilate Tranmere when they took a 3-0 lead against the team from the Wirral in east Lancashire this afternoon. But the visitors fought back to draw 3-3. Harrogate also drew – 2-2 against Grimsby in Yorkshire. Effectively, all of these clubs are now out of reach of Morecambe as they slipped to the very bottom of the entire EFL tonight.

King Derek – of course – will not accept defeat until the shooting match is over this season and it is statistically impossible for the Shrimps to survive. Suggesting that Morecambe had actually been the better team today, this is what he said tonight:

“Some of our play today was a bit slack. We didn’t do well enough in certain areas. We saw that there was opportunities to get the better of them. It didn’t work for us because the (substitutes) that came on didn’t do enough – similar to the ones in the first half. It was a difficult afternoon for us because we knew the stakes in the game and we probably haven’t done enough to deal with the situation.”

Morecambe:  1 Harry Burgoyne; 3 Adam Lewis; 4 Tom White (19 Marcus Dackers 71’); 6 Jamie Stott; 9 Hallam Hope (18 Ben Tollitt 45’); 10 Lee Angol (Y); 14 Rhys Williams (5 Max Taylor 45’); 16 Andy Dallas (Adam Fairclough 45’); 23 David Tutonda (17 Paul Lewis 45’); 24 Yann Songo’o (C); 28 Callum Jones.

Subs not used: 12 Ryan Schofield; 11 Jordan Slew.

Carlisle United: 13 Gabriel Breeze (Y); 3 Cameron Harper; 4 Terell Thomas(C); 6 Aaron Hayden; 9 George Kelly; 18 Jack Ellis; 19 Matthew Dennis (17 Joe Hugill 80’); 39 Stephen Wearne (37 Joe Bevan 89’); 40 Kadeem Harris; 43 Corey Whelan (Y) (8 Callum Guy 89’); 45 Sean Fusire (16 Josh Vela 76’).

Subs not used: 1 Harry Lewis; 5 Sam Lavelle; 22 Charlie McArthur.

Ref: Ben Toner.

Att: 4,901 (over 1,700 from Carlisle.)