ENTERPRISE NATIONAL LEAGUE. GOOD FRIDAY, 3rd APRIL 2026.

Very Good Friday for Morecambe at Rochdale.

There was brilliant news last Saturday as far as all Shrimps fans are concerned. The official website told us:

“Morecambe Football Club are delighted to announce that our in-house catering team has been recognised on the national stage, securing two Silver Awards at the prestigious British Pie Awards. Our Bramley Apple Pie and Moroccan Chicken & Apricot Pie both impressed judges, earning silver honours in their respective categories against some of the finest producers from across the UK.”

Well – at least we can do something right these days.: congratulations to everybody concerned. And it soon got even better. Despite cynicism expressed in many quarters (for example: right here on this blog), owners Panjab Warriors went on to tell us the following:

“Morecambe Football Club can provide a further update following its previous communication regarding the winding-up petition issued by KPM Groundworks Limited. The Club can confirm that it has now reached an agreement with KPM Groundworks Limited in relation to the matter, including arrangements to settle the outstanding debt in full. As a result of this agreement, the Club has provided the relevant evidence to the National League, which has confirmed that the embargo placed on Morecambe Football Club has been lifted with immediate effect. This outcome represents a positive step forward as the Club continues to address historical matters and move towards greater stability both on and off the pitch. Morecambe Football Club would like to thank its supporters for their continued patience and backing during this period and will provide further updates as appropriate.”

So there we go – everything in the garden’s suddenly bright and rosy, isn’t it?

Oh – except we were also next to the bottom of the National League and face likely relegation to the underworld that is the National League North in the next few weeks. Our Manager is about to retire. The owners have told us nothing about their plans for the club’s future. Are they going to invest? Will the club remain full time professional? Have they got a new Manager lined-up for next season? A new kit supplier? Perhaps a new sponsor?

These and other questions may well be being discussed at this very moment in the Boardroom at Morecambe Football Club for all we ordinary supporters know. But that’s the entire problem: we as fans – despite the best efforts of the Shrimps Trust – know next to nothing about what is happening behind the scenes at our club. This – on past performance and despite repeated promises from the Panjab Warriors to be more transparent – is no surprise. The new owners have made it abundantly clear that Morecambe is their football club, not ours. We are just the mugs who go along and support it week after week; season after season; year after year; relegation after successive relegation. What do we matter?

On the field today, the seemingly doomed team faced high-flying Rochdale at Spotland. Dale started the game in the exalted position of leaders of the National League. They had accumulated a superb 98 points from 41 games (Morecambe had a paltry 34) and were three points clear of nearest rivals York City (we were just six points ahead of bottom club Truro City). Dale had won four of their last six matches (we had won two) and lost just one (as opposed to our three in a row). Chalk and Cheese hardly describes it…

Rochdale have had problems of their own over the years, some of them when they were managed by current Shrimps boss Jim Bentley. Three years ago was not a happy time for either club. Rochdale were demoted from the EFL for the first time after over a century of being a Football League fixture. Morecambe meanwhile experienced a major shock when they were relegated for the first time ever in over a century of playing in various leagues over the years. Derek Adam’s underfunded side was sent back down to the Division below from League One – where they had been competing on equal terms with clubs such as Ipswich; Sunderland and Derby. This disaster occurred on the last day of the season when they had struggled to the top of the relegated pack and looked like they might still prevail. Two years later, down they went again to join Rochdale in the Outer Circle of Hell otherwise known as the National League. This time, a team of players – many of whom had been deemed at the start of the season not to be good enough to be offered National League North contracts – came hopelessly bottom of the EFL. That was less than twelve months ago. Now – although the squad the club had at its command is clearly of a much higher calibre than that palmed-off on King Derek last season – the ruinous reign of rookie Ashvir Singh Johal meant that the teams he put out were so badly coached that they had no chance of seriously competing in the National League proper.

Altogether, Morecambe’s is a truly shocking fall from grace. Now, we are on the cusp of dropping even further into non-league obscurity whilst Rochdale have managed to turn things around and look likely to regain their status as an EFL club once more. Good luck to them – all we can do is hope to emulate their reversal in fortunes sooner rather than later.

Morecambe and Rochdale have met fifteen times in various competitions, all within the last twenty years. The Shrimps have won five of these; Dale six, most recently in north Lancashire when they took a 1-2 victory away from the Mazuma Mobile stadium as a Christmas present on Boxing Day. This is what a man who had managed both clubs thought about today’s clash prior to it:

“It’s all well and good saying we’ve just got to go for it because you can find yourself unstuck. Obviously we’ve got to try and win the game because of the position we find ourselves in. There’s no tougher game than Rochdale away. We’ve got to find a way to take three points from the game: simple as that.”

Jim Bentley’s hopes were not helped by a hamstring injury to first choice goalkeeper Jamal Blackman – who saved two penalties in rapid succession against Rochdale last Christmas. Injuries meant there was still no Jake Cain in his squad today either and Mo Sangare was missing for what were unfortunate personal reasons: a family bereavement.

The weather was wet in this part of old Lancashire/modern Greater Manchester earlier but the game started and finished under dry skies – and the sun came out in injury time as if to salute what was happening on the pitch.

Rochdale asked the first question of the game when Dan Moss’s shot was deflected wide after he ran onto a cross from the Dale right with three minutes on the clock. Devante Rodney then produced some magic of his own on the left only to be frustrated by a superb block by Morecambe Skipper Yann Songo’o with seven minutes played. Morecambe won the first corner of the game in the tenth minute when Paul Lewis ran onto a good pass from Gwion Edwards and had an attempted cross blocked. From this, the ball finally found its way to Miguel Azeez on the edge of the Dale penalty area to the right but his cross towards the danger area was far too long. The hosts dominated possession in the first half and asked nearly all the questions. As the visitors offered little going forward, Luke Hannant’s shot was deflected just over the Morecambe crossbar for another corner to the home team after sixteen minutes. Two minutes later, Dale went ahead. They had been probing for some time before the ball was switched from their right to left; Aidan Barlow received it and started to run at the away defence. As Songo’o backed-off and backed-off, the man in the all-blue strip looked up and saw Myles Boney too far off his line and lobbed him with a superb shot which left the goalkeeper rooted to the spot as the ball looped over him and nestled in the top left-hand corner of his net. Rochdale forced a number of corners after this and from their seventh one – in the twenty-seventh minute – Kyron Gordon headed over the bar when he might have done better. At the other end a minute later, Lancaster native and Manchester City loanee Ollie Whatmuff was called into action for the hosts for the first time, easily plucking a cross out of the air as his team continued to dominate. But – with their first shot on goal – Morecambe were level with thirty-one minutes on the clock. Jack Nolan sold an outrageous dummy on the Morecambe right and slipped a ball into the home penalty area which Lewis Payne hammered home with an instant low volley which beat Whatmuff all ends up at his near post. Dale immediately almost re-took the lead but Boney made an excellent save from leading scorer Mani Dieseruvwe at the cost of a corner. The home team then continued to ask all the questions until half time, when they returned to the Dressing Rooms all-square. For Morecambe, it was Job more or less Done so far: they had withstood everything the league leaders could throw at them after they had equalised with their only effort on goal during the entire period.

The second half carried on in the same vein as the first with Rochdale continuing to ask all the questions. Boney made a really poor clearance after 51 minutes which Rodney volleyed straight back at goal only for the goalkeeper to redeem himself with a save at full stretch. Two minutes before this, I thought Luke Hannan was really lucky only to receive a Yellow Card from Referee Declan Bourne after a pretty horrendous challenge on Morecambe’s outstanding player Gwion Edwards. But the Welshman was about to have the last laugh…

Paul Lewis had a shot save after 61 minutes before Payne slid a tantalising low ball right across the Dale penalty area from the right wing a minute later which nobody in a red shirt could take advantage of. But little Lewis was in the right place at the right time again three minutes later. Edwards went on a superb run on the Morecambe left and got round the back of the home defence before lobbing the ball into the path of an onrushing Payne, who struck an instant low shot into the back of the net to double his tally for the afternoon and put the visitors into an unexpected lead. And in the seventy-second minute, Morecambe entered fantasy land when Nolan put them even further ahead. Jack started the move on the counter-attack on the right. The ball was played via Chris Popov and Azeez to Edwards, who dropped his shoulder and progressed well again before slinging another cross into the centre which a diving Nolan brilliantly headed home.

It was All Hands to the Pump then for the visitors as Dale Manager Jim McNulty shook things up with three changes and Rochdale attempted to redeem a losing position. One of his replacements was 41-year-old Ian Henderson, who had scored a decisive goal against us at Xmas. And Ian did what he has been doing for more years than he probably cares to remember when he reduced the arrears after 77 minutes. He received the ball with his back to goal in the away penalty area, swivelled and screwed a perfect shot into the far corner, beating Myles to his left.

Thirteen minutes left. Twenty when Mr Bourne added on a massive amount of injury time to a half where there had been very few stoppages.

So it was Hearts In Mouths time for everyone associated with the Shrimps. Until the ninety seventh minute when substitute Ben Tollitt scored a fourth for the visitors with a lovely finish after Nolan had set him up for the chance with a decisive pass. That finally made the game safe for Morecambe.

Elsewhere, all the other clubs in the bottom four of the  National League lost: Brackley 4-0 at FGR; Braintree 3-2 in the Essex derby at Southend and Truro 1-0 at West Country rivals Yeovil. Gateshead and Eastleigh both drew.

So Morecambe still find themselves six points adrift of safety with just four games left. But all you can do at this stage of the season is find a way to win – and as Jim had suggested pre-match, his men were able to do that today.

Rochdale will be less happy. Nearest rivals York won 0-1 at Boston to replace them at the top of the National League on goal difference this evening.

So it really was a Good Friday for Morecambe – and Many Happy Returns for Jimbo as he returned to a former stomping ground and won. Here he is after the game:

And this was what he thought about what he had just seen:

“Nobody round the country would see it coming. We went with a certain set-up but we always have a Plan B and a Plan C. The Plan B worked well today where we had to cover-up. We just sat in a little bit; tried to nullify any central balls into their big Number Nine; protecting our half centrally and forcing things wide. When they did get in, there were a couple of little bits we could have done better but we defended really well. Usually, it went out for a corner. So – outstanding commitment; dedication; desire – a team that really give it their all. To go and score four against the league leaders is absolutely fantastic. A big three points. Let’s try and do it again on Monday!”

Many thanks to Neil Palmer for the excellent photos.

Rochdale: 1 Ollie Whatmuff;2 Kyron Gordon; 4 Ryan East (21 Connor McBride 87’); 6 Ethan Ebanks-Landell (C) (Y); 9 Mani Dieseruvwe; 10 Devante Rodney (8 Harvey Gilmour 69’); 12 Luke Hannant (37 John-Kymani Gordon 64’); 16 Casey Anthony Pettit (38 Tyler Smith 69’); 18 Aidan Barlow (40 Ian Henderson 69’); 22 Dan Moss; 25 Callum Perry.

Subs not used:  35 Archie Baptiste; 36 Ed Francis.

Morecambe: 41 Myles Boney; 2 Lewis Payne; 5 Harlee Dean; 7 Gwion Edwards (33 Timothy Akindileni 80’); 8 Miguel Azeez (32 George Thomas 80’); 12 Kyle Jameson (3 Raheem Conte 88’); 16 Liam Hogan; 17 Paul Lewis; 24 Yann Songo’o (C) (18 Ben Tollitt 83’); 36 Jack Nolan; 42 Chris Popov (23 Dan Ogwuru 88’).

Subs not used: 25 Alfie Scales; 28 Tommy Fogarty.

Ref: Declan Bourne.

Att: 4,183 (369 from Morecambe.)