LEAGUE TWO. EASTER MONDAY, 21st APRIL 2025.

Freddie `The Texas Cannonball’ King was right…

Well – Freddie King was right. And if you don’t know who Freddie King was, I’ll enlighten you at the end of this piece.

Morecambe played their penultimate home game as a Football League club this afternoon at the Mazuma Mobile Stadium. In any circumstances, this would be a sad occasion. Today – although the Shrimps were still mathematically safe before the match started – everybody knew that the game was already up as far as avoiding the descent into the hell that is National League football is concerned. Or, to be even more pessimistic – something even worse, such as the collapse of the club altogether.

All Derek Adams and his men had to play for today was pride, really. But recent performances: three defeats on the spin; only one goal scored and six conceded – did not augur well for a positive result this afternoon. Visitors Salford City have always been a tough, physical team and – encouraged by previous Managers such as Richie Wellens and current boss Karl Robinson – are past masters of all football’s Dark Arts. The Shrimps’ record against the Ammies isn’t much to write home about either. In seven previous meeting in all competitions, they have only won twice and lost four of them including the reverse fixture in their final fixture of 2024. City didn’t deserve to win as they shamelessly cheated as Morecambe belatedly threw the kitchen sink at them later in a game where the former Salford Amateurs were simply hanging on – by fair means or foul – for the last twenty minutes or so. This is what King Derek had to say after this particular one-nil loss:

“I thought it was a very strong performance from us. 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 arrived in tenth place in League Two on the back of three draws and just one win in their last six league games. They lost at home in the latest outing, at home to Accrington Stanley last Friday 1-2: a result that basically books Stanley’s place in the EFL for another season. How we envy them from our berth right at the very bottom of the Football League, four points adrift of Carlisle United and a hopeless eight behind Tranmere Rovers. Today, following his frankly stupid sending off at Bromley last Saturday, Derek would be without the services of suspended David Tutonda. Marcus Dackers would also be unable to play against his parent club. So – with so many injuries to key players in his already weak squad – the Morecambe boss was down to the bare bones again today and the fact that the utterly hopeless Ben Tollitt and Paul Lewis were again named in the starting line-up shows how desperate the King was just to be able to name eleven men to take to the field this afternoon.

This is what Derek had to say about the task facing his men prior to the match:

“Unfortunately, at times, we’ve not had the fortune of getting the results, but Salford is another game. We look forward to it, it’s back at home and we will have to be ready for it. It’s a tough game, we understand that Salford have lost on Friday, so we need to get the three points. We’ve got no choice anymore. We can see how well we’ve been structurally and tactically and game understanding at times, we just need that extra bit of brilliance in the game to get a goal. The (players) are trying ever so hard and that’s the one thing you want from your team is to try hard. The fans have been fantastic, we can’t ask anymore. They’ve supported us throughout the season.”

His Opposite Number, Karl Robinson, was banned from the touch-line during the loss to Accrington for previous antics for which he was already infamous from his days as the boss at Oxford United and the plastic club in Milton Keynes. I’ve been unable to find anything relevant to today’s game on the Salford on-line feeds but this is what the City boss said after the defeat to Stanley and his continuing aspirations to reach a Play-Off position at the end of this campaign:

“There looked like there was an inconsistency in the way that we played today and that was forced. In this time of the year, you just want to keep your best players on the pitch and ask consistent questions of the opposition. Some of our players massively underperformed today and I need to drive more out of them and I accept responsibility as I am the manager and we will certainly do that for the next few games. We are four points off it with three games left to go. I am proud of the players for getting into this position and now I am going to make sure that we capitalise with nine points to play for.”

It had been wet right across north Lancashire for most of the day leading up to three o’clock. But it had dried up by the time the game started and the sun even threatened to come out at times.

Anyway, it was Business As Usual for the Shrimps once the match actually started. Morecambe actually tested visiting goalkeeper Matty Young within a minute or so when Andy Dallas connected with Ben Tollitt’s cross from the right but hit the ball straight at the visiting custodian. But within three minutes, they found themselves already behind. Goalkeeper Harry Burgoyne had already excelled himself to push a shot from away for a corner. From a free-kick conceded shortly afterwards, though, the men in the red shirts – seemingly transfixed by the presence of ex-Morecambe top scorer Cole Stockton among their ranks again – basically stood and watched as Ossama Ashley walloped the initially cleared but loose ball into the net. The reaction this gentleman made to the home crowd – presumably remembering his luck not to be dismissed in December last – really let him down. But that was the only stain on the Salford copy-book today: for the only time I at least have seen them, they won this game fair and square.

After that, it was basically like watching an episode of Worzel Gummidge as far as the Shrimps were concerned, with Harry Burgoyne playing the part of Aunt Sally between the sticks. Without his input, the score could have easily been five or even six by half time, so exposed was he to Salford’s nippy and creative midfield and forwards. First of all, he did brilliantly after twelve minutes to deny the impressive Kelly N’Mai’s shot after he had been fed by Kevin Burkoe. Ten minutes later, he managed to turn Ben Woodburn’s fierce effort away at the expense of a corner after Stockton had initially set him up for the shot. Two minutes later, he was at it again: this time excelling himself to keep out a free-kick by Ammies’ Skipper Luke Garbutt. Deserved Man of the Match, Captain Yann Songo’o then made a brilliant block after 33 minutes to deny City a second. But they weren’t going to be denied much longer. It just had to be Cole `The Sulk’ Stockton who scored their second, didn’t it? As has happened so often this season, Tollitt lost the ball tamely on the Morecambe right, made no effort to recover his effort and ambled back towards the half way line as Salford worked the ball quickly and accurately down the pitch for Cole to do what we all know he is exceptional at: score. To be fair to him, he didn’t celebrate and to be fair to City, they were easily the better team as they returned to the Dressing Rooms at half time.

They took their collective feet off the gas in the second half initially and there was a brief hope for jeopardy when Songo’o pulled a goal back with fifty-two minutes on the clock. But this faint hope didn’t last long. I got the impression that the visitors never really got out of second gear all afternoon today. And – even at this level – it was only a matter of time when they went further ahead when N’Mai scored another goal for Salford after 86 minutes.

So that was it. Stockton came off to a very generous and arguably underserved round of applause from the home supporters. Derek gave young Billy Whaite his first senior game in a Morecambe shirt as he shook things up belatedly to no avail. But Morecambe were finally relegated today with a whimper: they were outclassed virtually right across the field

Results elsewhere this afternoon thus became academic from our point of view. But Salford went up a single position to ninth in League Two to keep their hopes of a Play-Off place alive. Carlisle equalised in the ninety-second minute at Accrington to keep their slim hopes of survival just about intact as Stanley are now totally safe. Tranmere, meanwhile, escaped with a goal-less draw across the Bay at Barrow to keep them four points better off than Mark Hughes’ suddenly revitalised team with just two league games left to play. So it’s between the Cumbrians and the ersatz Scousers who will accompany us into the National League next season.

This is how Derek Adams interpreted what – even for him in his private moments – has probably been his biggest fear since being forced into a position where he had to sign many players not deemed good enough to compete at two levels lower than League Two at the start of the season:

“We were without eleven players today. Any club would struggle without that. Yes, people could say that’s an excuse. It’s not an excuse. If you’ve got the calibre of player that’s out or the ones that have played a lot of games this season, then it was going to be very difficult.  All I can say is that the players that took the field tried their best and you could see today that we were short.”

So let’s give the last word to Freddie King, legendary American blues guitarist. This is a song he might have co-written with Leon Russell or it may have actually been created by legendary rock producer Don Nix. Whatever, over to you, Freddie…

Morecambe:  1 Harry Burgoyne; 3 Adam Lewis (Y); 4 Tom White (Y); 5 Max Taylor; 6 Jamie Stott; 10 Lee Angol (32 Billy Whaite 83’); 16 Andy Dallas (11 Jordan Slew 66′); 17 Paul Lewis (9 Hallam Hope 76’); 18 Ben Tollitt (29 Adam Fairclough (Y) 83’); 24 Yann Songo’o (C) (Y); 28 Callum Jones.

Subs not used: 12 Ryan Schofield; 20 Callum Cooke; 31 Nathan Snowball.

Salford City: 13 Matty Young; 4 Ossama Ashley (7 Ryan Watson 94’); 3 Kevin Berkoe; 6 Tyrese Fornah; 9 Cole Stockton (11 Jon Taylor 94’); 10 Kelly N’Mai; 14 Ben Woodburn (8 Matty Lund 90’); 19 Haji Mnoga (25 Rosaire Longelo 45’); 29 Luke Garbutt (C); 31 Hakeeb Adelakun (2 Tom Edwards 89’); 33 Josh Austerfield.

Subs not used: 1 Jamie Jones; 28 Lewis Warrington.

Ref: Benjamin Speedie.

Att: 3,027(330 from Salford.)