ENTERPRISE NATIONAL LEAGUE. SATURDAY, 25th APRIL 2026.
Full Circle for Morecambe at FGR.
Almost three short years ago – on 4th May 2023 – Morecambe FC was facing a meaningful final match of the season as a Third-Tier, EFL League One club. They played at Exeter City and needed to win to stay in the division. They didn’t – they lost the game 3-2 and were thus relegated for the first time ever in their 103-year history at that juncture.
Today, Morecambe would be playing their final game in the Fifth Tier in a meaningless game at the end of a season where they had already been relegated for the third time in three years. My – what a nightmare Runaway Train ride. Next season, they will play in the Sixth Tier for the first time this century and return to the same level they last inhabited in 1996; thirty years ago. So it’s been Full Circle for the Shrimps during that time: a gradual but steady rise up the ranks for over a quarter of a century followed by a spectacular death plunge in no time at all to end up back where they started.
So there was a lot to say goodbye to today. Farewell to the National League for a start and Thanks and Hard Luck to Manager Jim Bentley as well. The club legend had done his best with someone else’s team to keep us up – but he arrived too late to pull it off. If the ownership had sacked their pet Ashvir Singh Johal last Xmas, we might have had a chance. But their determination to Stand By Their Man in absurd circumstances resulted in the inevitable demise of a club that anyone a with half a brain could see were in serious trouble as long ago as last October.
But it’s all water under the bridge now: the club are down yet again.
At Nailsworth in his final match, this is what Jimbo said prior to taking-on the only Vegan football club on the planet – Forest Green Rovers:
“We don’t want to go there and simply go through the motions. It’s a game that we want to win – it’s a simple as that. There’s professional pride; we owe it to rest of the league – whatever it may be – we want to win the game. We’ll have a go.”
Morecambe have played FGR loads of times in the EFL and the Conference in the past with a roughly equal record of success. Earlier this season, Robbie Savage’s team won in north Lancashire 1-3 after initially falling behind to a superb shot by Gwion Edwards. Today, though, they still had something to play for. They started the game in seventh position in the National League with a guaranteed place in the Play-Offs. But a win could improve their standing and thus give them a more advantageous draw in the knock-out matches still to come. This would be important particularly to their soccer pundit Boss, knowing that FGR Chairman Dale Vince’s treatment of previous Managers at the New Lawn in recent years could be summed-up by his own surname: Savage. Robbie could be facing the chop if his stint at the club ends in failure in exactly the way Steve Cotterill was sacked when Forest fell at the final hurdle last season. (I wonder what Mr Savage dreads more: the Order of the Boot – or the ribbing he would certainly receive from co-presenter Chris Sutton on Radio 5 Live for all eternity?)
Fancy a souvenir of today’s historic match? You can download the Official FGR programme here:
This is the final page of this document showing the entire squad Jim Bentley theoretically had at his disposal today. How many will be with us at the start of next season? How many would you want to re-sign?:
For the record, Robbie Savage said the following about his team’s visit to Morecambe last September, paying due respect to Gwion’s `wonder goal’ as he described it:
“The fans were amazing. When I applauded their home fans after the game – because there was over three thousand there – I meant it. I know what the club was going through because I had a similar situation at my previous club (Macclesfield). In Jim now – who’s a brilliant football person – he nearly kept them up and that would have been a great achievement. They’ll be coming here looking to finish the season in style. It’s a brilliant football club. Next season, the National League North is a real, tough league. Our Macclesfield side got 109 points and broke every record. That record will be hard to be broken – ever. If one team could do it, it could be Morecambe. I want to show my appreciation to them because I know what they’ve been through.”
Let’s hope he’s right as far as our own future is concerned…
It was a lovely day in Gloucester today – sunny and warm with many spectators in short sleeves. You could tell you were on a Right-On football club right from the off, with occasional pleas to end world poverty; more frequent promotion of Quorn and their Vegan products but – almost continually, appeals to Free Palestine chased by the beleaguered country’s flag around the hoardings all match long.
On the pitch, the home team were in charge right from the start. Myles Boney made his first save in the sixth minute, diving to his left to brilliantly turn a shot from Kyle McAllister away for a corner kick. The visiting goalkeeper made a poor clearance after ten minutes which McAllister instantly volleyed goalwards from the centre-circle. It cleared Myles but fortunately went just over his bar instead of under it as well. But a goal which already seemed inevitable arrived after 24 minutes. GFR took a corner on their left and the ball was worked to Jili Buyabu on the goal-line to the left of the Morecambe goal from his point of view. He did brilliantly to keep it in play – and even more brilliantly to create an angle for himself from which he squeezed a powerful shot to Boney’s right and thus beat him at his near post to put Rovers one-nil up. As Morecambe offered absolutely nothing up-front, the visiting stopper was forced into another save after a quarter of an hour by defender Laurent Mendy.
Just after this, though, Gwion Edwards did brilliantly to intercept a ball on the Morecambe left, race forward, cut inside and unleash a shot which home goalkeeper Fiacre Pagel couldn’t hold. He pushed the ball into the centre of the pitch towards an incoming Paul Lewis. But Paul’s effort – faced with an open goal – was woeful beyond words. Edwards was then on hand to block a goal-bound low shot from Tre Pemberton on the FGR right with nineteen minutes on the clock.
The hosts doubled their lead, however, after 22 minutes. Raheem Conte had been troubled by the pace and skill of quicksilver winger Buyabu all afternoon but this time, he found himself on the wrong side of Jayden Clarke as the striker bore down on goal. Raheem simply shoved his opponent over in his own penalty area and McAllister scored easily from the spot, sending Boney to his right as the ball passed him to his left. Shamefully, this was the one hundredth goal Morecambe have conceded in the league alone this season.
Pemberton then came close to a third for Rovers after half an hour but his shot ended-up in the side netting to Boney’s left. Ben Tollitt had a rare chance to reduce the arrears when a lovely pass from the right found him unmarked in front of goal. But he was typically too slow – and too timorous – to take it as an FGR defender bundled him and the danger away from the target. The Morecambe goalkeeper then made a tremendous save to push an absolutely ferocious shot by Buyabu over the bar with 37 minutes on the clock. The hosts were basically passing the ball around at will by this point in the match. Right at the end of the half, though, Tollitt tried his luck with a shot from the left which Pagel in the home goal spilled. His own desperate reaction and that of no less than three green-clad defenders defeated Oscar Wright’s valiant efforts to turn it into the net.
So it ended at half time with FGR in full control and looking forward to an easy three points.
They duly got them. It took them about ten minutes to add a third goal. The Shrimps conceded a corner on their right; failed to defend it properly as has been the case all season and substitute Gabe Kircough – who had just come on as a substitute – rose highest to head home probably the easiest goal he will ever score. Nobody in a red shirt got anywhere near him.
Home icon Christian Doidge entered the fray for the final time with an hour gone. The Fairy-Tale ending to his career would have been to score. But he didn’t. Instead, substitute Ricardo Rees took the honours. He headed home from the centre of the area after 78 minutes following a short cross from the right by Pemberton after Rovers had been popping the ball around for fun in the build-up. Then he scored again five minutes later, sweeping the ball home following a long-range effort from Tom Knowles on the FGR left which Myles could only parry. It could have been more: the visiting goalkeeper did well to deny Knowles with his legs in the seventieth minute. Morecambe, meanwhile, were virtually toothless. Substitute Adam Fairclough hit a wild shot way over the bar after a brilliant run by Edwards when well-placed with ten minutes left. And in injury time, fellow-sub Dan Ogwuru did superbly to weave his way between Rovers defenders from the right and force a superb stop from Pagel.
But at the end of the day, it was a routine win for Forest. They will now face Boreham Wood away next Wednesday in the Play-Offs. Good luck to them.
Elsewhere, Jim Bentley’s former charges Rochdale left it until the last kick of the game to score against leading side York City at Spotland. This goal would have put them back in the EFL. Unbelievably though, the Minstermen turned the tables on them in the lucky/unlucky (depending on your viewpoint) thirteenth minute of added time to steal back the title and a return to the Football League after ten sometimes tempestuous years. Well done them: the table doesn’t lie and they have been the best team on the division this time around.
In the National League North, another of Jim’s former sides – AFC Fylde – won 2-4 at Merthyr to win the National League North title and with it, our place in the National League next season. Good luck to them too.
So Morecambe’s season ended much as it has progressed since the disastrous appointment of Ashvir Singh Johal at the start of the campaign: pathetically. They were outclassed yet again today by a team you felt never really even got out of second gear. But, to quote one of Jim Bentley’s favourite phrases: it is what it is. This is what he made of it at the end of the game:
“We were a little bit makeshift. I’ll accept responsibility for formation and personnel and things like that. But what I won’t accept responsibility for is (not) picking your man up from a corner and tracking your runners; defenders following things in; defenders getting hit with shots; communication. (They are) one of the quietest groups I have worked with to be honest. When you come away from home, you’ve got to dig-in; you’ve got to communicate. We didn’t do that. We’ve had a go but defensively, it’s been poor. One big positive – again – which looks good for the future is the amount of people who travelled down to support us. I thank every one of them from the bottom of my heart. Since I come back to the club, the love – the feeling that they have for me and I have for them to travel down when they know that the writing’s on the wall for us; clap us off and sing: that shows that they’re together. We’re going to need the fans more than ever next season. We know our situation and there has been some experimenting. We’re already starting the re-set ready for next season. I didn’t enjoy today – I’ve got to be honest. We have now hit rock-bottom. Thirty-one years: full circle.”
So that’s it for another very disappointing season. Thank you for reading this blog and I hope we can all share better news in the near future. For now, I will publish a Review of the season next week and a little bonus for the summer months the week after that: a spoof of everything that’s befallen our club in the last little while which has taken-on a life of its own.
Keep the faith!
Roger, Over and Out.
Forest Green Rovers: 12 Fiacre Pagel; 6 Laurent Mendy; 7 Kyle McAllister (45 Ricardo Rees 65’); 11 Tom Knowles; 14 Jayden Clarke; 15 Jordan Moore-Taylor (8 Nick Haughton 54’); 18 Tate Campbell; 21 Tre Pemberton; 24 Jili Buyabu (3 Neil Kengni 65’); 28 Sean Etaluku (25 Gabe Kircough 54’); 44 D’Mani Bughail-Mellor (9 Christian Doidge 60’).
Subs not used: 42 Harry Isted; 26 Chibuzo Nwoko.
Morecambe: 41 Myles Boney; 3 Raheem Conte (12 Kyle Jameson 70’); 7 Gwion Edwards; 16 Liam Hogan; 17 Paul Lewis; 18 Ben Tollitt (19 Ma’kel Bogle-Campbell 82’); 24 Yann Songo’o (C) (10 Jake Cain 67’); 28 Tommy Fogarty; 31 Oscar Wright (23 Dan Ogwuru 66’); 33 Timothy Akindileni; 36 Jack Nolan (27 Adam Fairclough 66’).
Subs not used: 25 Alfie Scales; 42 Chris Popov.
Ref: Matthew Russell.
Att: 2,482 (122 from Morecambe.)
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