ENTERPRISE NATIONAL LEAGUE. TUESDAY, 2nd SEPTEMBER 2025.

Morecambe Run Out Of Steam.

Forest Green Rovers.

We must start once more with news of yet more additions to the Morecambe squad this season. Bearing in mind that the Transfer Window does not affect National League clubs but the limit on loanees (five maximum) still does, the Shrimps have signed two new players; one on a permanent contract, the other borrowed for this campaign. 26-year-old Belgian Joshua Eppiah forward is another player his new Manager first encountered at Leicester City. He has signed from a Brazilian club but has EFL experience in the past with Northampton Town. Tom Tweedy has also signed on-loan from Burnley for the season. So they now have two Welsh Wizards on the wing because 20-year-old Tom is from the Principality and his new boss, Ashvir Singh Johal, said about him:

“Tom is going to add to our attack, he is a winger that can play either side, he is comfortable cutting in and shooting and he can go on the outside and beat players One v One.”

Morecambe faced their greatest test of the season so far when the only Vegan football club on the planet visited the Mazuma Mobile Stadium this evening. Forest Green Rovers arrived in second position in the National League and unbeaten so far this term.

Unlike their hosts, they have enjoyed a proper pre-season and appear to have a settled team who probably know each other’s names plus a style of play which they all understand as explained by new Manager for this campaign, Robbie Savage.

This particular Welshman holds several accolades as a player: some of them good (39 full Welsh Caps, for example) and others less so (more yellow cards than any other Premiership player – 89 – at the time he actually played in it.) He’s also been fined ten grand and two weeks’ wages for using the Referee’s toilet at Leicester before a game without permission. What on earth a) had he been eating; or b) what did he do to attract this sort of punishment? – a) I bet it wasn’t Vegan and b) it doesn’t bear thinking about, either!

He’s was also head-butted by Aston Villa’s normally placid Dion Dublin when playing for Birmingham City during 2003; struck in the face (apparently accidentally) by Referee Matt Messias in the same year and later – as a pundit – had his nose bust when a clearance by a Villa player scored a Direct Hit on it whilst he was commenting on a match during 2010. When performing on Strictly Come Dancing with Ola Jordan during 2011, Robbie performed a knee-slide as part of his routine but overdid it, collided with a camera and broke his nose live on air. Ouch! Whether he phoned Radio Five Live to complain to long-term (and even longer-suffering) colleague Chris Sutton after any of these incidents on the 6-0-6 programme is doubtful but there never seems to be a dull moment with this particular sort of Savage around.

So what do we know about FGR? This is what I wrote in my assessment of the National League earlier this year:

Forest Green Rovers has a unique claim to fame: it is the only Vegan football club on the planet. Its old Hippy of an owner – Dale Vince – has guided a small club based in the village of Nailsworth, Gloucestershire from non-league obscurity to the giddy heights of League One to a double relegation back to the National League one year ago.

Their ground – the New Lawn – can be found 197 miles south west(ish) from the Mazuma Mobile Stadium but plans are still in place to re-locate it to the middle of nowhere to play at a place called the Eco Stadium.  This environmentally-friendly edifice will be made out of wood and other sustainable materials in a catchment area of a few sheep and the occasional cow somewhere near the M5. 

But at least these animals are safe in the knowledge that nobody at the club will eat them.

Meat and dairy products are banned from the New Lawn, which has an organic grass surface; recycled water resources and various other innovations rare at most football grounds. The team play in strips made from recycled coffee beans and if only they had a decent Manager (or an owner who knows how to select one), they might be doing ok.

Last season, FGR finished third in the National League but their push for an immediate return to the Football League was thwarted by Southend United, to whom they lost in the semi-finals. Steve Cotterill – FGR’s umpteenth Manager in just two seasons – was rewarded for his efforts by the sack in June 2025. Mr Vance may be absolutely Right-On as an individual but his recent managerial choices have all been absolutely Right-Off: to the Labour Exchange usually…

Morecambe and FGR have met lots of times in the FA Cup, EFL and the Conference prior to that but I can’t find the full record of all their contests. So we’ll have to make do with five wins for the Shrimps; four for the (very) Green Devils and three matches drawn in recent times in the EFL and FA Cup.

Not many players have been employed by both clubs but a notable exception was Farrend Rawson, the loss to Accrington Stanley of whom – as influential Team Captain on and off the field – is one of the reasons Morecambe is now a non-league club – and Stanley isn’t….

Morecambe will start their re-acquaintance with Forest Green Rovers at the Maz on Tuesday, 2^nd September 2025. The Shrimps’ final game of the campaign will be at the New Lawn on Saturday, 25^th April 2026.

It poured it down as the game kicked-off at quarter to eight this evening and remained windy and occasionally wet throughout the contest.

The visitors started brightly, as might be expected from a team looking to take-over top spot in the National League tonight. Throughout the game, Morecambe looked vulnerable at the back on their right-hand side and Neil Kengni caused them problems throughout the evening. But despite FGR’s good approach early on, Morecambe had the first really good chance of the evening. Official Man of the Match Gwion Edwards slung a long looping cross over from the Morecambe left to the other wing, where Ben Tollitt possibly shoved Kengni in the back before winning the ball and setting-up Jake Cain as he ran in from the right for a shot which Luke McNicholas in the away goal did brilliantly to keep out.

On the touch-line, the visiting Manager predictably did his nut at the Fourth Official. Nothing changes there, then. But it was good to see John McMahon – former Assistant to Derek Adams at the Maz who left the club under something of a cloud – active among Mr Savage’s Backroom Staff tonight.

Five minutes after causing their first real scare – with twenty-two minutes on the clock – the Shrimps were showing signs of playing their way back into the match. At this point, the FGR keeper was beaten all ends up as Gwion again found himself with the ball deep down the Morecambe left wing. This time, he cut inside, drew three covering defenders with him and then unleashed an unstoppable shot when went like a rocket past a helpless McNicholas and up into the top left-hand corner of his net.

At the other end, Archie Mair was forced into action a couple of times with good saves after this from Tre Pemberton and Tom Knowles as Morecambe were matching their well-fancied hosts. But it all started to go wrong when Mo Sangare tried a crazy back-pass after 34 minutes which Kyle McAllister latched onto and then easily stuck the ball home. It was an appalling goal to concede – and worse was to come. It seemed to me that there were already signs of fatigue showing in the Morecambe team when Danger Man Kengni rode a weak challenge on the Shrimps’ left-hand bye-line and crossed to McAllister, who netted far too easily again.

So Morecambe trailed back to the Dressing Rooms basically the authors of their own destruction: too many mistakes particularly on their right and only Edwards and Tollitt looking either determined or simply fit enough to pose any threat up front. Rovers, on the other hand, looked fit and were playing some good stuff with an obvious game plan. So the next goal became crucial. If the home team scored first, it would be Game On. If FGR went further ahead, though, it would be Game Over.

And it took the visitors less than a minute of the re-start to score again and win the game.

This time, Forest Green attacked down their right and as the Morecambe rearguard was nowhere to be seen, Kairo Mitchell’s header was initially blocked by Mair at full stretch only for an unmarked Knowles to score all too easily from the rebound.

And that was basically that. Ash shuffled his pack to no effect and FGR should have scored at least once again as Archie pulled off several more good saves to keep them out. Presented with an open-goal from point-blank range after 85 minutes though, McAllister somehow contrived to miss the target altogether. The miss, though, was immaterial tonight. Robbie Savage’s men played some progressive football throughout the evening and were far too good overall for a Morecambe team still lacking fitness, understanding and any sort of cohesion. That’s three defeats in a row now for Ash and his mis-firing side which remained next to bottom of the National League tonight. FGR , by very sharp contrast – shot to its very zenith as Rochdale – who were leading the pack this morning – had their game at York postponed.

This is what the Morecambe Manager said after the game:

“I thought the boys did really well to have a competitive performance again today.  They gave everything. There’s things we need to change for sure. But the progress we have made in two weeks with a brand new set of players – players that haven’t trained for a number of months in a footballing environment; in a team context – I thought there were a lot of positives.”

Morecambe: 1 Archie Mair; 3 Raheem Conte; 6 Ludwig Francillette; 7 Gwion Edwards (21 Joe Nuttall 82’); 8 Miguel Azeez  (Y); 10 Jake Cain (15 Ben Williams 78’); 11 Admiral Muskwe (Y) (9 Harrison Panayiotou 78’); 14 Alie Sesay (4 Terrell Agyemang 67’); 18 Ben Tollitt; 20 Mo Sangare (17 Paul Lewis 67’); 24 Yann Songo’o (C).

Subs not used: 25 Alfie Scales; 19 Ma’kel Bogle-Campbell.

Forest Green Rovers: 1 Luke McNicholas; 3 Neil Kengni; 6 Laurent Mendy; 7 Kyle McAllister (20 Yahaya Abdoul Bamba 88’); 8 Nick Haughton (14 Jayden Clarke (Y) 70’); 11 Tom Knowles; 15 Jordan Moore-Taylor (C) (5 Ryan Inniss 45’); 21 Tre Pemberton; 25 Harry Whitwell (16 Harvey Bunker 92’); 29 Kairo Mitchell (26 James Balagizi 70’); 32 Abraham Kanu.

Subs not used: 12 Fiachra Pagel; 18 Isaac Moore.

Ref: Zac Kennard-Kettle.

Att: 2,595 (57 from FGR.)