LEAGUE TWO. SATURDAY, 26th APRIL 2024.

Chesterfield: a Plan For the Future?

Morecambe made the long trek across the Pennines again today to complete their last ever away fixture in the English Football League. Relegated for certain at Easter, the Shrimps arrived in Derbyshire sitting right at the bottom of League Two, four points adrift of second-bottom Carlisle United.

Their hosts – Chesterfield – are on a reverse journey to that of Morecambe. With a virtually brand-new ground built on the site of the former Dema Glassworks (home of Mazda lightbulbs and an extraordinary range of beer and wine glasses), things are certainly looking-up for the Derbyshire club. Having spent seven years in the National League wilderness since relegation from the EFL in 2018, the Spire-ites’ first season back in the Football League has seen them still hopeful of further advancement via the Play-Offs this season. They started today’s game on a run of one loss but two wins in their last six league games. Last Monday, having initially fallen behind 0-2 to visitors Bradford City, Paul Cook’s team fought back to draw the game 3-3. At the start of play today, they were in tenth position in the division but just three points short of a Play-Off spot.

In previous meetings with Chesterfield, Morecambe have won five of fifteen games in various competitions and lost just three. Their latest meeting, though, ended in a 2-5 win for the Derbyshire team in north Lancashire during October. It sounds very comfortable for Paul Cook’s men – but it was far from it. The Chesterfield Manager said this after his team had won at the Maz in a reverse fixture which was tied at two goals each after an hour:

“Probably the liveliest half time team talk I’ve give for a couple of years. We were the second best team on the pitch. We never got to grips with (Marcus) Dackers really in the game. Do you know, Morecambe were a constant threat – they never, ever gave up.  We always say: could Coaches/Managers have got any more out of the team? Derek Adams could not have got another breath out of them lads today; they worked and worked and worked. Unfortunately when things go against you like that, you end-up on a scoreline like that which is not fair.”

This time, Assistant Manager Danny Webb faced the media prior to the Spire-ites final home game of the season.

“We can get in the Play-Offs. Once we’re in them, we can win them. It’s not necessarily in our hands. If we don’t win tomorrow, we’ll be extremely lucky to be in there. We need to start on the front foot – we certainly can’t start like we did on Monday. Morecambe are down but they’ll come with a freedom. Derek Adams is a very good, experienced Manager. They’re bottom of the league. If we don’t turn-up, Morecambe will cause us trouble.  We could get mullered tomorrow. Anything can happen on any given day.”

For the visitors, Morecambe Manager Derek Adams said this:

“We have a squad of players at this moment in time wanting to go to Chesterfield and put on a performance. We know how difficult that’s going be because Chesterfield are pushing for the Play-Off places. It’s important that we do our best. Chesterfield are an excellent side.”

Confirming that he intended to still be Morecambe’s Manager next season, Derek continued:

“What I’ve tried to do is protect the football club; keep us going; keep the players motivated and I think that that’s shown in the way that the players have kept on going all season. Credit to them. I’ve done my best for this football club. It’s been difficult – it’s been extremely difficult. I love the football club – I think it’s a very, very good football club.”

Amen to that.

Derek changed goalkeepers for the final away game of the season – replacing Harry Burgoyne with Ryan Schofield – but persisted with Ben Tollitt in the first eleven for reasons only the Manager could explain. Callum Cooke was initially preferred to Paul Lewis in midfield as well and David Tutonda returned to the defence after suspension.

It was shirt-sleeves weather in Chesterfield this afternoon and the game started in their tidy new stadium on a perfect playing surface in dappled sunshine. Morecambe were on the back foot for most of the first half. After five minutes, Kyle McFadzean headed Jenson Metcalfe’s corner wide of the target. A minute later, Ryan Schofield managed to grab Metcalfe’s powerful strike at the second attempt. Then Morecambe Old Boy Liam Mandeville had a tame effort which the away goalkeeper dealt with easily enough with almost a quarter of an hour played. As the visitors dealt well with Chesterfield’s attacking threat – with David Tutonda keeping Michael Olakigbe quiet on their right wing throughout the opening half – the next chance for the hosts occurred in the thirty-eighth minute. This time, Dylan Duffy found McFadzean’s head in the middle but again his attempt missed the target. Then, with time running out, substitute Michael Jacobs put the ball in the Morecambe net but Referee Matt Corlett had already called play back for a foul on the goalkeeper.

Meanwhile, Morecambe had offered precious little going forward. The two Callums – Cooke and Jones – beavered away in midfield but Lee Angol was tightly marked and Mr Tollitt’s contribution to the game – as ever – was to lose the ball virtually every time he received it and then make no attempt to get it back. He took a shot which went way off target from the Shrimps’ left near the end of the half only to see Angol fluff an excellent chance when he really should have hit the net with 44 minutes on the clock. But – just as it seemed that Morecambe were going to hold out until the break, Ash Palmer took a header which seemed to me to have gone over the goal-line before it was cleared only for old stager Will Grigg to slot the ball home on the rebound for the messiest of all messy goals.

Derek threw caution to the wind after the break. Off came Tollitt and Angol to be replaced by Jordan Slew and Hallam Hope. Hallam made little impact but Jordan was effective from the moment he came on. He scored – as Morecambe were making a real fist of it – after exactly an hour, heading an excellent cross from Tutonda home to make it potentially Squeaky Bum time for Chesterfield. But going behind seemed to galvanise the men in the blue shirts and Palmer would have scored just two minutes after Morecambe had equalised if it wasn’t for an excellent save by Schofield. But just a minute later, as the visiting defence was at sixes and sevens, the Spire-ites went ahead again as Palmer tapped Mandeville’s corner home far too easily at the far post. They went further ahead after 76 minutes as  an unmarked Olakigbe swept substitute Ryan Colclough’s low cross into the penalty area into the net. Slew had another attempt saved by Ryan Boot with ten minutes left as the visitors offered little going forward. But Chesterfield’s day was not quite done. Morecambe conceded a free-kick on their left in the eighty-first minute. You feared the worst as Mandeville stepped-up to take it. And his precision cross was headed back across goal  by Palmer to be turned home far too easily by the head of Captain Tom Naylor. Morecambe might have reduced the arrears after 85 minutes when Adam Lewis’ fierce, dipping shot cleared Boot in the home goal but crashed back off the crossbar. Four-one was perhaps a bit harsh today but nobody could begrudge Paul Cook’s men their win this afternoon.

So it was a routine victory in the end for Chesterfield which pushed them one place higher in the table to ninth, just one point short of Salford in the lowest of the Play-Off berths. Good luck to them: they play some effective football at times without any histrionics or Black Arts.

Morecambe stayed rock-bottom of the EFL and will deservedly end the season there regardless of the result next Saturday against Harrogate. Elsewhere, Carlisle United lost by the odd goal in five at Cheltenham and will accompany us into the National League as Tranmere beat Crewe 2-0 and will remain safe for at least another year.

However outclassed and out-gunned their team may have been right from the start of the campaign, I think that most Shrimps’ fans appreciate that most of the men in the red shirts who waved goodbye to them today have tried their best this season. Sadly, National League North rejects and players who have struggled to attract permanent contracts elsewhere never had any realistic chance of competing at elite Football League level. Whatever, it was good to be among the loyal Morecambe fans who applauded their men and their Manager off the field at the end of the game today. We’ve enjoyed the ups in recent times together – now it’s time to face-up to the downs…

What did King Derek make of it all at the end today? Normally, his interviews are available shortly after the game on both the official Morecambe website and on Morecambe X.

But not tonight, where both outlets chose to broadcast a less incendiary interview with scorer Jordan Slew instead. Why was this? My guess is that it is because the Morecambe Manager was so unswervingly critical of the hierarchy at our club right after the match. Derek Adams was very emotional – as well he might be – as he told Derek Quinn on Radio Lancashire the following:

“I thought that our work-rate was exceptional today. I couldn’t have asked any more from the majority of my players. It was absolutely outstanding: the way that they pressed; the way that they ran… Yes, we don’t have the quality: we understand that. We’re coming to a team that has spent millions and millions of pounds. I get that. I hold my hands up: they’ve got quality; they pass the ball well but my players – to a man – work ever so hard and I can’t ask for any more. This football club can’t ask for any more from these players and that’s the one thing, as a Manager when you stand on the touch-line and you’ve got players who try hard: you can’t ask for any more. We didn’t pick the right pass; we made errors defensively. That’s the nature of the business. If you’re not given the resources to go out and get the players, then that’s a problem for us. These players have given absolutely everything all season. And that’s why our supporters stood in the corner and clapped them off to a man. I want to tell you as well: Chesterfield football club and their supporters were absolutely magnificent. They understand where we are as a football club because they have been there. You have a tear in your eye when you come off there – when they’re all standing, clapping us off. Because they understand where we’re having to go. And we’re having to go to the National League and they’ve been there and they’ve come back up. And I hope they get promoted because this is a fantastic football club. This is a model that our football club has to look to and take on – on and off the pitch. We need to start thinking and talking and planning. We don’t have a plan in place for next season yet; not one plan. That’s a problem from up there (pointing towards the stands) and that is a huge problem. And if they don’t start – up there – getting it right, then they’re letting this football club down because we’re giving everything to this football club; our soul; our heart; our workrate. We haven’t had two days off consecutively this year – and everybody else has. Think of that! We’ve worked tirelessly for this football club, day-in and day-out and we haven’t had the rewards that our play has deserved. Yes, we’ve made errors. Yes, we’ve made things (go) wrong. That’s what happens in life; in sport – but do you know what? – we can go to sleep at night and we can put our head on the pillow and say: “We’ve given all for this football club.” And that’s all that anybody can ask for.”

As the pent-up frustration of a whole season clearly threatened to get the better of him, Derek concluded with some impassioned but very sensible – and obviously extremely heart-felt – words of advice for the people who hold the purse strings at Morecambe:

“This is where the problem lies. The Board of Directors (and) the owner need to start planning. (Pointing towards the stands again:) They don’t have a plan. And until they get a plan, we’ve got a problem. They’re the ones who are custodians of this football club. We’ve got supporters who pay week-in and week-out for this football club. It is their responsibility – from up high – to give us a plan going forward – where they want to take this football club. We’ve worked ever so had to keep things alive; on the deals that we’ve had to do; the transfer embargo at the start of the season; the non-payment of being to take players in at the beginning of January. We’re a very, very loyal football club; loyal supporters and I feel for them. I feel for some people inside this football club as well because we’re having to pay a price for someone else’s errors. I haven’t got a plan. I can’t have a plan. They’re the ones who need to start having a plan. And until they get a plan, then we’ve got a problem.”

Sleep well everyone.

Chesterfield:  23 Ryan Boot; 4 Tom Naylor (C); 7 Liam Mandeville; 9 Will Grigg (27 Aribusitamunoipirim `Bim’ Pepple 63’); 13 John Fleck; 18 Dylan Duffy (11 Ryan Colclough 63’); 19 Lewis Gordon (5 Jamie Grimes 77’); 21 Ash Palmer; 25 Kyle McFadzean (Y) (8 Darren Oldaker 45’):  26 Jenson Metcalfe (10 Michael Jacobs 32’); 34 Michael Olakigbe.

Subs not used: 1 Max Thompson; 33 Paddy Madden.

Morecambe: 12 Ryan Schofield; 3 Adam Lewis; 4 Tom White; 5 Max Taylor (Y); 6 Jamie Stott (Y); 10 Lee Angol (9 Hallam Hope 45’); 18 Ben Tollitt (11 Jordan Slew 45’); 20 Callum Cooke (29 Adam Fairclough 83’); 23 David Tutonda; 24 Yann Songo’o (C) (17 Paul Lewis 70’); 28 Callum Jones.

Subs not used: 1 Harry Burgoyne; 16 Andy Dallas; 19 Marcus Dackers.

Ref: Matt Corlett.

Att: 8,725 (308 from Morecambe.)