ENTERPRISE NATIONAL LEAGUE. SATURDAY, 20th SEPTEMBER 2025.

Seven-Goal Thriller Against Wealdstone.

First of all, another squad update.

Morecambe Manager Ashvir Singh Johal promised further signings for his team after the 4-4 draw at Solihull Moors last Saturday. As we have already come to expect, he has been as good as his word.

Last Tuesday, Elijah Dixon-Bonner signed on loan until January from Championship club Queens Park Rangers. The 24-year-old midfielder is a graduate of the Liverpool Academy and played four times for the first team. He also captained the England Under-16 team as a Liverpool Scholar. Elijah has also featured occasionally in the QPR first eleven. Earlier this year, he gained valuable experience with Swedish Superetten club Västerås. Ash said of his latest signing:

“I’m really grateful to QPR for allowing Elijah to join us on loan. As soon as we knew there was a possibility of getting him to the Mazuma, we wanted to get it done as soon as possible. Elijah is a player that I’ve known for a long time, a very experienced player and is somebody with outstanding qualities in the final third.”

The next man to walk through the door at the Mazuma Mobile Stadium was Maldini Calcurri. The 19-year-old Albanian international is on-loan from Arsenal. This is what Ash said of his new Number Five, who played as a loanee for Bromley in League Two last season:

“It’s great that Maldini has decided to join us on loan. We thank Arsenal for their cooperation and deciding that Morecambe was the right place for Maldini. We feel he will have an immediate impact on the game. Maldini’s understanding of the game as a defender – and his eagerness – is a standout quality and he’s someone that can also help build an attack, whilst also being strong in defence.”

Midfielder Arjan Reikhy has also been borrowed from Morecambe’s National League rivals Boston United. Ash knew him as a result of his association with Leicester City in the past. The 22-year-old has also had previous experience on-loan with Grimsby and Stockport County in the EFL. Ashvir explained the reasons for the move thus:

”He is a defensive midfield player who has got a really intelligent understanding of the game. He’s got the ability to make a difference in this league. Arjan has been on loan a number of times to this league already and he’s been promoted from this league so we’re looking forward to having him as part of the squad.”

Finally for now, another footballer with links to Queens Park Rangers – Emmerson Sutton – has also signed on the dotted line of a loan deal. This winger is another really young lad: he is only eighteen years of age. But – according to his new Manager, he `is someone who `will excite the crowd whenever he plays.”

Ashvir has made so many signing in a relatively short time that the Shrimps Trust has decided to name them all this week and the positions they are expected to play. Here’s their list:

Goalkeepers: Archie Mair, Alfie Scales.

Right Backs: Lewis Payne, Terrell Agyemang.

Centre Backs: Maldini Kacurri, Ludwig Francilette, Yann Songo’o, Alie Sesay.

Left Backs: Raheem Conte, Ben Williams.

Central Midfielders: Miguel Azeez, Elijah Dixon-Bonner, Mo Sangare, Arjan Raikhy, Paul Lewis.

Advanced Midfielders: George Thomas, Jake Cain, Ma’kel Campbell.

Wingers: Jack Nolan, Gwion Edwards, Emmerson Sutton, Ben Tollitt, Tom Tweedy, Josh Eppiah.

Centre Forwards: Admiral Muskwe, Joe Nuttall, Harrison Panayiotou, Daniel Ogwuru.

History was made this afternoon as the Shrimps played a club whose path they have never crossed before: Wealdstone FC. So if you read the following piece about them which I posted on this site as part of my exploration of National League clubs earlier this year, you will know almost as much about them as I do:

Wealdstone FC is currently a semi-professional club which has its roots in what was once known as amateur football in this country. As we have mentioned previously, amateur football and snobbery have always gone hand-in-hand in England. So it’s appropriate that when they were founded in 1899, the club was initially based in Harrow at the Lower Mead ground, not too far away from the awfully posh school there where young gentlemen from the genteel Home Counties play equally genteel Rugby Union football. (These splendid chaps would not be seen dead in a `professional’ Rugby League shirt because that game is so frightfully rough, common and – shudder – Northern, don’tchaknow? )

Anyway, this snobbery even extends to one of the club’s nicknames: the Royals (for no other reason than they play in Royal Blue, apparently…)

But I suppose this is preferable to being sponsored by Prince Andrew, isn’t it?

Moving quickly on, these particular Royals have had to borrow other people’s palaces for some of their recent existence: after over a century at Lower Mead, they had to ground-share for two decades with other local clubs from 1991 until they finally found a new ground – Grosvenor Vale – in the London Borough of Hillingdon, about eight miles away to the south west (and 243 miles south from the Mazuma Mobile Stadium) only as relatively recently as 2011.

Given our own experiences at Morecambe in recent times, it is worth remembering that dodgy dealings off the field by shady people is not a modern phenomenon. Such dodgy deals very nearly did for Wealdstone when what Wikipedia very tactfully describes as `financial problems caused by boardroom impropriety’ led to the sale of the Lower Mead – for housing development, curiously enough. This caused a wee bit of a stramash – to say the least – as some people lined their pockets – but the club was well and truly short-changed. (Stramash? – what am I saying? In the circumstances, I suppose I should describe this controversy as a `Right Royal Bust-Up’…) 

Originally, the club played in the Athenian League (with all its connotation of Classical Greece and Byronic Romanticism) and actually won it in 1951. But the Royals chose to transfer to the equally prosaically named Isthmian League during 1964. A year later, they were knocked out of the FA Cup at the First Round Proper stage by those frightful ruffians known as Millwall by three goals to one at the Den but they also won the FA Amateur Cup Final at nearby Wembley, beating local rivals Hendon 3-1. They never won the Isthmian League, though and in 1972, they were off again. Perhaps anticipating that the amateur distinction in English football was about to be abolished by the FA (this ruling was made in 1974), they turned semi-professional and joined the Southern League. (It is a little-known fact that when the England Amateur International team was scrapped in that year, a semi-professional team was created to take its place and this still exists. It is now administered by the National League, not the FA…) But I wander from the point…

Wealdstone won their new competition in 1974 and were rewarded with a place in the Southern League Premier Division. They hardly set the world on fire in this Division but took their first-ever EFL scalp in 1978 when they overcame Hereford of Division Three 2-3 at Edgar Street in an FA Cup First Round replay before beating fellow-Royals, Fourth Division Reading 2-1 at Lower Mead in the next round. Despite only finishing fifteenth in the Southern League Premier, Wealstone became founder-members of the new Alliance Premier League in 1979. They slipped into the Southern League Southern Division in 1981 for a year before immediately returning as Champions. During 1985, they achieved a unique non-league Double: they won the FA Trophy (beating Boston United at Wembley, 2-1) and also won the Alliance League Championship at the same time. If they had done this just two years later, they would have been promoted to the EFL. Sadly for the Royals, though, the Football League was still a Closed Shop and the club soon fell back into the Southern League Premier again after relegation during1988. Down they went again to the Southern League Southern Division in 1992 only to jump ship back to the Isthmian League (Division 3) in 1995. (This move was forced on them by the utterly dire state of their finances. Very sadly, they could simply no longer afford to travel the longer distances required as a member of the Southern League.) Undaunted, they won Division 3 after two seasons; went up again to Division 1 a year later and entered the Isthmian League Premier Division in 2005 where they stayed until 2014, when they came top. This success brought them back to just one step below where they had been the best part of 30 years earlier when they entered the re-named Football Conference South. In 2020, they were Champions and as a result – 35 years after they last reached this exalted position in the English Football Pyramid, find themselves where they are now.

Jolly well done chaps – spiffing effort! Seriously though – Hats Off to them as well: to the considerable credit of everyone associated with the club, they never gave up – even in the very darkest days. And this must give hope to all football fans, wherever they are…

Last season, Wealdstone finished twentieth in the National League.

Morecambe have never come across the Royals before and I can’t find details of anyone who has played for both clubs.

Their first ever encounter will be at the Maz on Saturday, 20^th September 2025. Morecambe will then travel to Wealdstone on Saturday, 31^st January 2026.

Wealdstone arrived by the north Lancashire coast today in ninth position in the National League on the back of three defeats in their last five games. They broke this spell with a win over Southend United three games ago and a draw against Gateshead at home last Saturday. But in their previous game – at Glanford Park – they provoked controversy by failing to complete their fixture against Scunthorpe United. At a point when they were losing 2-1, they collectively walked off the field in injury time at the end of the match – and refused to come back on. This was because forward Daniel Nkrumah had received an injury which resulted in him being carried off the field on a stretcher. There had been no clash of heads or anything else that might justify even a temporary stoppage of the game – but off they all trailed anyway.

As you might expect, opposition Manager Andy Butler was not impressed by this. Nkrumah turned-out to have had his shoulder dislocated. The Iron’s boss said afterwards:

“Their players refused to come out. The referee wanted them to come out and the league wanted them to come out, but they refused to come out, for whatever reason. This wasn’t a spinal injury, it was a shoulder injury – it popped out and has popped back in now. I remember popping my shoulder on this field and walking off. If (the result) doesn’t stand, it sets a precedent further down the line for every game – if you’re not getting the result and are down to ten men and used your substitutes, you go off and refuse to go back on the pitch. They’ve forfeited it by refusing to come out.”

But have they actually forfeited the points they clearly were unlikely to collect as a result of this extraordinary incident?

 Yes, they have.

The official Wealdstone website responded to this outcome thus:

“The Wealdstone FC Board of Directors were in direct contact with the National League in the aftermath of Saturday’s events. We made clear our view that the correct outcome was for Scunthorpe United to be awarded the three points. This position was taken to demonstrate the values of sporting integrity and fair play that underpin our football club. While disappointed that the match was unable to be completed, we believe it is important to uphold the principles of the game and support an outcome that reflects the spirit of competition.”

Oh really? Downing tools in a situation where you suspect someone at the club – it surely couldn’t have been the management, could it? – thought they might benefit from going on strike surely does not `demonstrate the values of sporting integrity and fair play that underpin our football club’, does it? Last season, I have lost count of the number of times opposing Managers in League Two clearly instructed their goalkeepers to feign injury in order to get games stopped in situations where Morecambe were getting on top. This was cheating: simple as that. But they got away with it. I don’t trivialise Daniel Nkrumah’s pain or genuine suffering but I can’t help wondering if his injury presented an opportunity to unscrupulous management to try and affect the result to their benefit.

Even if I am being far too cynical and casting undeserved aspersions, surely the fact that the goals scored by both sides have been struck from the record is simply not fair. Losing a plus-one goal difference which could be absolutely crucial at the end of the season is effectively a sanction against Scunthorpe, isn’t it? Equally, effectively scrubbing-out a minus one goal difference despite goals they actually conceded in real time is surely a reward to Wealdstone which they really don’t deserve.

So has the National League fined the Royals for breaking their rules?

No it hasn’t.

So what’s the point of having these rules in the first place?

Leaving that thought there – and with the hope that today’s game would actually be completed without the opposition staging a Sit-In within the Changing Rooms – Morecambe started in bottom position in the National League. Their run of four defeats in a row came to an end with their draw at Solihull last Saturday. Manager Ash said the following prior to the game:

“It’s going to be a tough game. For us, we’ve analysed them; we have looked at their last few games. We’ve looked at some trends in data; we’ve looked at some of their individual players – as we do for every game – and we have formulated what we think is a really strong game plan. If we make the improvements from last weekend; if we improve the strengths as well and tailor that to the opposition – and how they play and how we can hurt them – I think we have a good process at the moment. As we move closer to the end of October, I’m confident that the performances will get better and better week on week.”

For the opposition, former Wealdstone Skipper and current Manager Sam Cox said this about Morecambe:

“For me, they have one of the most talented squads in the National League on paper. They are still building their methodology and their league position at the moment is certainly false.”

The weather in north Lancashire has been appalling this month. Fields which were virtually baked by a long-terms drought just a few weeks ago can now be found underwater right across the area as streams and rivers burst their banks and the heavens show no signs of brightening up. Today dawned wet and a bit misty – and got worse as the day grew older. This was the scene at half-time as fans abandoned the front rows of seats in the Main Stand because of the atrocious conditions:

In fact, the weather threatened to be the dominant aspect of this match today. It certainly dissuaded some people from attending in the first place because there were lots of empty spaces in the stadium – usually towards the front of the stands – where the rain was regularly blown in by the very blustery conditions.

But anyone who chose to keep dry today missed an absolute cracker of a game.

So credit must go, first, to the groundstaff at Morecambe this afternoon: the playing surface looked literally perfect despite the deluge it was played in. But the biggest accolade must go to the teams – both of them – who put on a tremendous advert for National League football. This was one of the best contests I have seen in a very long time. Both sides kept the ball on the deck and tried to play their way through the other one from start to finish. There was no long-ball kick and rush; diving; or feigning injury.

Right from kick-off, both teams went for it. After four minutes, Morecambe played the ball the length of the field after a Royals’ attack. It was worked from the right to the left, where Ben Tollitt picked it up, drove up the left and slipped the ball to Man Of The Match Jake Cain in the middle. Jake made a quick pass to his right into the path of Jack Nolan, who sent an instant sublime strike curling up into the top corner of visiting goalkeeper Dante Baptiste’s net to his right as he made a valiant attempt to keep it out.

So that’s two phenomenal goals in two games for Jack the Lad.

Baptiste was the Royals’ saviour after 37 minutes when he did brilliantly to keep out another tremendous strike from Nolan after more slick, quick approach play by the Shrimps. But the escape was short-lived and Cain was again instrumental in setting-up a lovely pass from the right into the danger area to impressive debutant Lewis Payne. He played it into the Danger Area for Elijah Dixon-Bonner (who had been instrumental in the build-up) to slide in and mark his first appearance for the club with a really good goal.

Just before half time, Morecambe seemed to have put the game to bed when Admiral Muskwe scored a third. This time, Maldini Calcurri – who had a simply magnificent debut as a Centre Half with ball skills and the vision to make them count with decisive passes today – slipped the ball up the right to Cain who once more played the killer ball into the middle for the Admiral to finish it.

But – as a sign of things to come – the visitors managed to pull one back just before half time. Baptiste kicked the ball long and Opposite Number Archie Mair decided – for whatever reason – to leave his penalty area and head it away. Unfortunately, he directed it straight to Max Kretzschmar, who wasted no time in lobbing the ball back over him and into the net.

But – given both the conditions as the rain grew ever heavier and Morecambe’s recent habit of running out of steam because of lack of fitness – you felt that the next goal could be crucial.

The hosts should have scored it: the Admiral missed after an hour after another lovely piece of play between Payne and Cain had set him up for a shot which he put over the bar when the target was surely easier to hit. He did even worse four minutes later when he managed to put a shot from a similar position right over the stands and out of the ground altogether after being played-in by Birthday Boy Miguel Azeez.

So we were all on the edge of our seats when Wealdstone reduced the arrears after 74 minutes. They had been attacking when the ball was deflected into impressive Skipper Jack Cook’s path. He unleashed a simply phenomenal shot from outside the area on the Royals’ right which apparently stuck substitute Micah Obiero – who didn’t know much about it – and was past Archie in the home goal before he probably even saw it. It was Cook’s last action of the match: the sheer audacity of the strike probably pulled or even tore something and he had to be helped from the field afterwards. Enzio Boldewijn took over the Captaincy and saw his team equalise with another tremendous strike just six minutes later. This time – after really good approach play down their left, the ball found its way following a deflection to  Alfie Massey on the edge of the penalty area and he simply walloped the ball home with as good a strike as you could ever expect to see.

So – a three-goal lead lost.

Would it get worse? – the Stones had most of the momentum without a doubt at the point they equalised.

But as the home faithful continued their noisy backing of the team, Morecambe pinched it in the eighty-sixth minute. Nolan was again instrumental on the right before substitute George Thomas’ shot bounced towards fellow replacement Emmerson Sutton, who scored decisively after less than twenty minutes in a Shrimps’ shirt for the first time.

And that was that. This was a tremendous victory today. Wealdstone is a good side which tries to play the Beautiful Game: they will play much worse this season and win. 

Morecambe, however, were marginally too good for them today. The defence still needs work but new boys Payne and particularly Calcurri simply oozed class this afternoon. Some of the interplay in midfield and going forward was an absolute pleasure to watch. Nobody wants to tempt fate but I can’t help feeling that we saw the first steps today towards a team which will be a match for anybody in the National League – and possibly higher. As already stated in my Totally Unofficial Preview of the Season, I think the standard of football we have seen so far is better than League Two at least – even if Referee Paul Cooper let both sides down this afternoon with a really poor performance.

The win saw Morecambe move off the bottom of the table into twenty-second position in the National League; just one point from safety with two or three games in hand over the strugglers in the basement.

This is what Ash made of today’s performance:

“I think the possibilities are going to be limitless. We’re not ready yet: we’re still unfit. I think we have had seven games; we’ve had sixteen training sessions. The ratio is not good. Fitness-wise, we’re still not where we want to be. We saw that in the last twenty-five minutes when they pinned us back. But we found a way to win and I’m pleased about that.“

I’m going away next week to a place from which I frankly don’t have the technical understanding to submit match reports. So my next effort will be the game against Gateshead, the day after I expect to return.

I have good reason to believe that our league position could be much improved by then. 

Let’s hope so…

Morecambe: 1 Archie Mair; 2 Lewis Payne; 5 Maldini Calcurri; 8 Miguel Azeez; 10 Jake Cain (99 Arjan Raikhy 89’); 11 Admiral Muskwe (9 Harrison Panayiotou 82’); 18 Ben Tollitt (28 Emmerson Sutton 69’); 20 Mo Sangare; 24 Yann Songo’s (C) (Y); 29 Elijah Dixon-Bonner (16 George Thomas 82’); 36 Jack Nolan.

Subs not used: 99 Harry Ascroft; 3 Raheem Conte; 14 Alie Sesay;

Wealdstone: 1 Dante Baptiste; 2 Jack Cook (C) (29 Junior Tiensia 76’); 4 Omar Mussa (3 Anthony Georgiou 45’); 5 Deon Woodman; 7 Enzio Boldewijn; 10 Max Kretzschmar (Y) (17 Dom Hutchinson 61’); 11 Sak Hassan; 15 Phillip Chinedu; 20 Nathan Muya Tshikuna; 25 Alfie Massey; 27 Sean Adarkwa (14 Micah Obiero 61’).

Subs not used: 28 Lucas Covolan; 16 Mussa Diarra; 26 Marcus Day.

Ref: Paul Cooper.

Att: Unknown. (I would guess between 70 to maybe just over 100 from Wealdstone. Well Done to them all…)