FA TROPHY. TUESDAY, 13th JANUARY 2026.

Nadir surely reached at Kidderminster.

Morecambe have only encountered Kidderminster Harriers once before: during 2006 at Christie Park, where they beat the Midlands team 2-1 in an FA Cup game. So today was the first trip for the club currently managed by Ashvir Singh Johal to the Aggborough Stadium in the former Carpet-Making Capital of the Midlands, Kidderminster in Worcestershire. They should have made this trip last Saturday but the chaos and bad weather caused by Storm Gorelli meant that the game was abandoned on Friday due to a waterlogged pitch.

The Harriers were never going to be push-overs. The former EFL club are fourth in National League North – where Morecambe seem to be inevitably heading – on a run of six consecutive league victories. They have lost just five of twenty-five league matches this season. The Harriers also won at Worksop in the last round of the FA Trophy to put themselves in the hat for today’s game.

The Shrimps, by sharp contrast to today’s opponents, have won only five of twenty-five league fixtures so far. In the FA Cup, they have already been humiliated by a club from the same Division as Kidderminster: Chester, who outplayed them at times and showed more sheer grit and determination to win than a supposedly superior side ever did.

So: one team on the up; the other on a downward spiral. One team with a habit of winning; the other with a habit of losing. One team with a Manager – Adam Murray – who fronts-up to the media and answers their questions; another who responds only to scripted drivel asked by his own employees. Ash seems to be increasingly living in a world of his own, where `ifs’, `buts’ and `maybes’ are apparently more important than the harsh reality. His tactics don’t work and never have; other Managers have sussed him out in any case – and the team is stuck in the relegation zone of the National League with little hope of escape because their boss sticks to the same old recipe for failure week after unchanging week.

So what could possibly go wrong for the Lancashire club tonight?

By contrast to ours, Kidderminster Manager Mr Murray was very clear about his own and his team’s objectives this evening – and you will note that there is no reference to a `process’; any `video room’ techno-babble or any of the other tired old staples Ashvir like to trot-out in what his Opposite Number said:

“I want to win and get through to the next round. We’re going up against a team in a higher league, and we want to win it. We’re at home and I expect us to perform at home. I think we put our own pressure on ourselves to be the best version of us. It will be a good challenge for us to show that. They’ve had a tricky season and obviously had a tricky time as a club. They play a certain style of football that is pleasing to watch, and we’ve got to make sure we put our style on it. So it’ll be a really good game, and I think it’ll be a good one for the supporters as well, but we’re just enjoying being at home at the minute.”

We must remember, however, that Adam Murray is a former professional footballer who once played in the Premiership. He understands what it is to be part of a team because he has been in several: he hasn’t just talked about it, read about it in a book or on-line as the rank amateur in charge of our players has. He has also just been awarded National League North Manager of the Month for December. Maybe just as importantly, he has experience of actually wining the FA Trophy: six years ago when he was the boss at AFC Fylde and they beat Leyton Orient in the Final by the only goal of the game.

What did Ash say before the game? We can probably all guess because we’ve heard it all before – and who cares anyway? – the important thing is what his men actually do on the pitch. He had more than usual to worry about prior to the game this afternoon. One of his better players – Maldini Kacurri – has been recalled by his parent club Arsenal and won’t be playing for the Shrimps for the rest of the season – or probably ever again. He will be missed: the Albanian international defender has obvious class and is basically wasted in a team as disorganised and thoroughly poor as Morecambe have become under Mr Johal’s leadership this season. You fear that the management at Arsenal have taken a look at Maldini’s performances at Morecambe and decided that he will improve far more as a player (which is the object of the exercise from their point of view) at virtually any other club in the lower leagues – and who could blame them? Elijah Dixon-Bonner has also gone: parent club Queens Park Rangers have sent him to rivals Wealdstone instead, presumably working on the same logic: The Stones are thirteenth in the National League as opposed to Morecambe’s twenty-second place. Emmerson Sutton, however, will not be following him out of the club: he has signed-on until the end of the campaign.

For a welcome change, the Morecambe Manager actually gave an interview to Radio Lancashire on January 8^th. In this, he said he expected two new signings to be made by the home game against Scunthorpe United next Saturday. The first one was signed on Monday, the twelfth of January. 18-year-old Aston Villa full-back Ashton McWilliams has joined on a loan deal. He was on the bench tonight. There was no place for and unwell Jamal Blackman in the squad tonight, with Archie Mair getting another chance as the first-choice goalkeeper. Ben Williams was moved to left full-back this evening as Mr Johal chose to play with a back three.

The pitch at the Aggborough Stadium was waterlogged just three days ago. Tonight, it was understandably heavy as the game kicked-off under a dry sky.

It took the National League North side less than three minutes to take the lead. Reece Devine seemed to be aiming to cross the ball from the Harriers’ left but the ball looped over everyone including Archie Mair to nestle in the back of his net. The home team had the next decent chance just five minutes later: Ryley Reynolds headed narrowly wide of the target following another dangerous cross which the visiting defence failed to cut-out. The hosts had an even better chance with 13 minutes on the clock as Morecambe Captain Alie Sesay was caught in possession (yet again) in his own half only for veteran Kiddy Skipper David Davis to fail to test Archie when he had an ideal opportunity to double his side’s lead. Emmerson Sutton was then also caught in possession by Devine only for Ludwig Francillette to concede a free-kick on the edge of his own area which didn’t amount to anything. Meanwhile, Morecambe were offering absolutely nothing going forwards.

However, they broke away after 21 minutes as Miguel Azeez took the ball forwards, played it to Jack Nolan on the right and saw the ball end up at the feet of Ben Tollitt in the middle. But Ben couldn’t sort his feet out and was unable to test home custodian Christian Dibble with his eventual shot.

Azeez then was immediately booked for a needless foul in a dangerous position. Owen Evans took it and found defender Emeka Obi virtually on the Morecambe goal-line. He scored with ease as nobody challenged him to put the Shrimps in double arrears with 25 minutes played. It for even worse just two minutes later as Morecambe’s defence was Absent Without Leave as Toby Onanaye scored easily from about fifteen yards out after a shot from George Walker had been blocked only for the ball to run loose.

The visitors pulled one back after half an hour when George Tomas was pulled-back by the arm in the home penalty area and Admiral Muskwe scored confidently from the spot. But it was still more or less one-way traffic after that until the end of the half. Mair saved another effort from Davis after 38 minutes and Kiddy won a fifth corner kick of the match so far. By contrast, Morecambe had to wait until the fortieth minute before they won their first corner of the game. Davis then dispossessed Sesay on the edge of the away penalty area and should have scored but Archie did well to keep his shot out. But the non-contest continued in injury time as Davis finally got his goal from a cross by Walker and the Harriers then scored a humiliating fifth almost straight from the re-start as the visitors yet again lost possession and Ryley Reynolds found the back of the net after Onanaye’s effort had been blocked.

I actually felt sorry for the Harriers’ `X’  Correspondent at half time. He posted: “Scoring faster than I can type is outrageous”. It wasn’t quite as outrageous as Morecambe’s utterly inept and spineless performance so far though.

In the second half, it was just a question of how many more goals the Harriers would score. It took them just six minutes to add a sixth: Paul Kalambayi this time as the Shrimps failed to clear a corner. Archie made at least one good save to keep the score down and could not be blamed for the goals he actually did concede. With just seven minutes scheduled to play, Azeez pulled a goal back with a fine strike but it was far too little and far, far too late.

Elsewhere, Halifax won their match against Anstey Nomads of Leicestershire tonight by four goals to nil. So Kiddy will visit the Shay in the Fifth Round on a date still to be announced. Nobody could say they don’t fully deserve it.

There have been some very low points for Morecambe already this season. But tonight surely must be the absolute nadir. They were absolutely pathetic. Manager Ash has often invoked lack of time to train and prepare as excuses for previous defeats. He can’t say that this time though: this was his team’s first game of the year and they were – if anything – worse than they were at the end of 2025; bad though that was. Nothing the Manager could say at the end of this humiliation could sweeten the pill of a thrashing from a supposedly inferior team in which – barring the penalty and Azeez’s late goal – the home goalkeeper didn’t have any other saves to make. If he actually has the nerve to attempt to justify what happened tonight, I will update this report. But what he really needs to say is

“I resign!”

He really needs to go: at any other senior club in Britain, he would have been sacked ages ago. Ashvir Singh Johal has been a disaster for Morecambe FC from the moment he walked in the door. But tonight, he was exposed as the clueless tactician, utterly ineffective motivator and completely useless leader that he has been since Day One. If he had any self-respect – or respect for the club and its long-suffering fans – he would step-down now, before it is absolutely too late to save the club from a third relegation in four seasons. New signing Ashton McWilliams must wonder what on earth he has let himself in for as he watched-on from the bench tonight. Aston Villa isn’t too far away from Kidderminster: I don’t think anybody could blame him if he sneaked back there tonight and refused to leave again. Not a million miles from Kidderminster to the West, Derek Adams reminded us all what we are missing as he masterminded Plymouth to yet another victory in a better Trophy competition: the EFL Trophy. Argyle won at Bristol Rovers tonight, 3-4. We, meanwhile, are as far away from the EFL as we have ever been even back in Lancashire Combination days. So I leave you with this message as I remember to put my own bin out tomorrow:

Kidderminster Harriers: 21 Christian Dibble; 3 Reece Devine; 4 Kam Kandola;  5 Emeka Obi; 12 Joe Foulkes (19 Louis Francis 79’); 20 George Walker; 24 Owen Evans; 25 Paul Kalambayi (23 Kurt Willoughby 77’); 26 David Davis (C); 29 Toby Onanaye (8 Jack Clarke 77’); 30 Ryley Reynolds (16 Pierse Lowth 90’).

Subs not used: 1 Tom Palmer; 9 Amari Morgan-Smith; 29 Tobi Sho-Silva.

Morecambe:  1 Archie Mair; 6 Ludwig Francillette; 8 Miguel Azeez (Y); 11 Admiral Muskwe (21 Joe Nuttall 84’); 14 Alie Sesay (C); 15 Ben Williams; 18 Ben Tollitt (3 Raheem Conte 45’); 28 Emmerson Sutton; 33 Arjan Raikhy (Y) (17 Paul Lewis (Y) 45’); 32 George Thomas (7 Gwion Edwards 45’); 36 Jack Nolan.

Subs not used: 41 Myles Boney; 19 Ma’Kel Bogle-Campbell; 29 Ashton McWilliams.     

 Ref: Unknown.

Att: 1,596 (105 from Morecambe.)