ENTERPRISE NATIONAL LEAGUE. SATURDAY, 15th MARCH 2026.

Braintree Grab Last-Minute Point.

Ok – hands up: who’s missing Ashvir Singh Johal? Be honest now…

No, me neither. In late November last, Morecambe played Braintree for the first time ever. This is what our former Manager said before the game:

“We’ve worked on a lot of areas, not just on the pitch but in the video room; some sessions with the whole team indoors… It’s been a really positive week. You don’t really train physically; it’s more psychological; it’s more mental; it’s more positioning; it’s more thought process. That’s all we’re focused on.”

His team then went on to hand the game to Essex’s version of the Iron with a typically weak and uncommitted display in which their lack of physical fitness was obvious for anyone to see. I wrote the following after it:

“Ash’s choices and tactics are increasingly puzzling: surely everybody knows that you can’t play without a forward line and expect to win at any level of football. But that’s what he did today. To play out from the back, you have to have players who are properly coached and are – to use a cliché I suspect the Manager would like – on message. But the fact that they are neither was shown in a single kamikaze moment when Jamal Blackman set-up Goran Babić with a golden chance that I doubt even our own `Hopeless Harry’ (Harrison Panayiotou) could have missed. But there again…

It’s been apparent probably since the Panjab Warriors’ Experiment began that Mr Johal simply doesn’t know what he’s doing. The players he has at his disposal are more than good enough to succeed in the National League. So why aren’t they doing?

You have to wonder how many of these men are here just for the pay-check. Where’s the commitment? We can’t keep relying on players like Songo’o, Cain, Edwards and Nolan to give our team any backbone on the pitch. If the Manager can’t motivate the rest of them, the jaws of the National League North are growing ever wider.”

In my opinion, he should already have been sacked at least a month before the clash in Essex occurred. The fact that he wasn’t has simply made successor Jim Bentley’s task to keep Morecambe in the league all the more difficult. The signs are promising, nevertheless. Jimbo’s Shrimps have won their last two games; both on the road – first 2-3 at Wealdstone and last Saturday at Sutton United, where they hammered the hosts by five goals to nil. They started the game today on the back of three wins and two losses in their last six league games. This saw them level on points with today’s visitors but ahead of them in twenty-first place in the National League table because of a superior goal difference at three o’clock in the afternoon. By the time the match had started – half past five – the position had changed again. Brackley were hammered 1-4 at home by Woking; Truro also lost at home: 0-1 to Hartlepool and Gateshead could only draw at home 1-1 against Sutton. Three points for Morecambe could see them leap-frog Brackley tonight on goal difference and take them out of the relegation positions at the same time. So there was a lot for the Shrimps to play for.

There was a lot for Braintree to play for as well. They arrived on the back of two losses on the spin (the latest 1-4 at home against Wealdstone last Saturday) and four defeats in their last six league games with just a single win. Manager Steve Pitt described his men’s efforts against the Stones as `the worst performance in 100 games’. So he would be looking for a considerable improvement this evening if his charges aren’t going to become a fixture in the relegation zone of the National League. I can’t find any reference to what he said prior to the match tonight other than even more negative stuff from after the 1-4 defeat:

“No excuses. Nothing to offer of any positive nature whatsoever – nothing. Just told them in there: absolutely disgraceful performance; shambolic. I’ve got nothing positive to say about that performance in any shape or form.”

Would veteran striker John Akinde offer any more hope to the Iron’s supporters when he was brave enough to face the cameras prior to setting off for Lancashire?:

“We don’t look to make excuses. We know we underperformed. We ‘re just trying to put that right.”

For Morecambe, Manager Jim Bentley had this to say:

“I said it all along when I come in: eighteen cup finals. This game’s no bigger than the last one. It won’t be any bigger then the next one. So it’s another big game; a game we’re looking forward t. We’ve got a bit of momentum; a bit of confidence. Big opportunity for three points. Always respect the opposition but we’re all systems go – we want to win the match and we’ll be all-out to do that. There’s nine games left – twenty-seven points to play for – the likelihood is we won’t win them all but our mentality is to try and win them all – and if we do win them all (huge grin) we’ll be safe!”

Jim changed the team from the line-up that started again at Sutton a week ago. Lewis Payne was re-introduced at full-back and Miguel Azeez also returned to the first team. I personally thought he had a poor game; being caught off-side more than once and constantly giving the ball away. It was no surprise when Jim took him off after an hour. Official – and in my view deserved – Official Man of the Match Gwion Edwards – played in an unusual position today. Against Sutton, he had been withdrawn to effectively right wing-back; today he started in the same position except this time on the left.

The weather has been wet and exceptionally windy in north Lancashire in recent days. Today, though, it dawned sunny, bright and reasonably warm. It stayed more or less like this all day although the temperature really plummeted as soon as the sun disappeared this evening.

I don’t think there’s a lot to be said about the game. It was poor entertainment with little skill and few chances. Braintree must have won the toss and elected to change ends and play with their backs to the home support.

The visitors had quite a lot of the ball in the first half and never looked like a team who were simply there for the taking. Morecambe had the first shot of the contest but Gwion Edwards’ shot was way off target in the first minute. Then Sahid Kamara put one over the bar for the visitors ten minutes later. But Morecambe had the first really good opportunity of the game. Jack Nolan got round the Iron’s defence on their right after 22 minutes and played a low cross into the middle which Chris Popov hit first time to bring a superb save from Mason Terry in the away goal. The same combination featured again four minutes later when Lewis Payne struck Nolan’s corner-kick goalwards from the edge of the penalty area and Chris swung a foot at the loose ball, directing it straight at Terry, who collected it easily.

Braintree’s best chance of the first half arrived in the twenty-ninth minute. Liam Hogan’s attempted clearing header simply hit a Brains’ player and set-up John Akinde with a clear shot at goal from about thirty yards. The big man fairly walloped the ball and Jamal Blackman was obliged to turn it away for a corner. The Morecambe stopper made an even better save with 35 minutes played when he did really well to save Zavier Massiah-Edwards’s shot from close to the penalty spot after the Iron player had cleverly created space for himself. Nolan then came close with a free-kick after 34 minutes which went over the wall but was well saved by Terry once more.

So – even though they had marginally shaded the play so far – Morecambe went back to the Changing Rooms empty-handed.

The second half saw both teams more or less cancel each other out for most of it. Then substitute Mo Sangare played a killer ball through to Popov in the seventy-eight minute but Chris was thwarted by another superb save from Terry. Then the Shrimps won a corner in the eighty-fourth minute. Nolan slung it over from the right; the ball made its way to Sangare on the far left; he did well to tease the away defence and then drew a foolish and clumsy foul from Elliot Thorpe in the penalty area. Thorpe was so distressed with his error that he had to be substituted. Nolan scored convincingly from the spot. So that seemed to be that: this was the sort of game where a single game was always likely to win it. At this time, Morecambe were actually out of the relegation positions for the first time since last August and the team from Essex were facing falling ever further into the mire.

But Referee Andrew Miller added seven minutes of injury time. And – for the first time in the game – the Iron threw the kitchen sink at the hosts. In the ninety-sixth minute, the Brains won a corner on their left. Terry came out of his goal to compete for it and was the quickest to react as the ball was played towards the Iron’s right after a poor clearance by Nolan. He slung a perfect cross straight back into the mix and saw team-mate and substitute Lewis Walker control the ball with his chest and then smash it home with a tremendous volley to equalise right at the death.

It was heartbreaking for the home fans but it would be churlish to say that Braintree didn’t deserve it if only for their tremendously committed response to finally going behind. So Morecambe stay at the top of the relegation pack tonight, two points behind Brackley but with an identical goal difference.

This is what Jim Bentley made of it at the end of the match:

“The game can be cruel – that’s proven again today. I don’t think we were as good as what we have been. I don‘t think we passed it well enough. I don’t think we dropped on enough second balls as we have been doing really, really well of late. Having said that, I think we had the better chances. We were so close. There’s no footballing gods there tonight for us. We should have won the game in the position we were in. Everyone’s gutted in there.“

Morecambe: 40 Jamal Blackman; 2 Lewis Payne (Y); 5 Harlee Dean; 7 Gwion Edwards (15 Ben Williams 89’); 8 Miguel Azeez (20 Mo Sangare 62’); 12 Kyle Jameson; 16 Liam Hogan (Y); 17 Paul Lewis (10 Jake Cain 89’); 24 Yann Songo’o (C) (23 Dan Ogwuru 78’); 36 Jack Nolan (Y); 42 Chris Popov (Y).

Subs not used: 41 Myles Boney; 18 Ben Tollitt; 33 Timothy Akindileni.

Braintree Town: 11 Mason Terry; 2 Aiden Francis-Clarke (Y); 3 Ryan Clampin; 6 James Vennings; 14 John Akinde; 15 Tommy Smith (C); 18 Sahid Kamara (9 Lewis Walker 67’); 21 Ben Drake; 24 Zavier Massiah-Edwards (19 Matthew Dibley-Dias 76’); 33 Emmanuel Okunowo; 39 Elliot Thorpe (23 Adrian Akande 87’).

Subs not used: 13 J Blunkell; 11 C Cooper; 10 Amir Hadi 16 Goran Babić.

Ref: Andrew Miller.

Att: 2, 762 (24 from Essex.)