ENTERPRISE NATIONAL LEAGUE NORTH. SATURDAY, 22nd AUGUST 2026.

The only way is up for pathetic Morecambe.

Morecambe travelled the relatively short distance south to a place just a 25-minute Number 524 bus ride from Bolton to visit Radcliffe this afternoon.

So what do we know about the Boro? We know this:

Radcliffe is a small former industrial town in Greater Manchester which can be found 55 miles south of Morecambe. Wikipedia tells us this about the creation of the original club, Radcliffe Borough:

“The club was formed on 24 May 1949 at the Owd Tower Inn in Radcliffe by Jack Pickford and a committee of 17 and became a member of the South East Lancashire Football League. It had two players (Tommy Entwistle and Bert Nutter), £1.2s.6d (£1.12½p) in the bank, and no ground, but arranged to lease a field off Ashworth Street for two years. In 1951–52 the club moved across Eton Hill Road to a pitch on Betley Street leased from the Earl of Wilton. The following year the club turned the pitch 180 degrees parallel with Bright Street which became the name of the ground.”

The Earl of Winton isn’t a pub, I hasten to add – it’s a person. During the 1950s the club changed allegiance to the Manchester League before joining the Lancashire Combination in time for the 1963-64 season. They lost their home ground when the Earl decided to sell-up in 1966 and found themselves playing at a venue owned by the long-defunct Manchester Corporation Transport Department: the White Horse sports ground on Middleton Road. They then moved to Radcliffe’s current ground at Stainton Park, to which they were able to transfer the stands which still existed at Bright Street.

Just staying in the new league was a struggle for the Boro until things started to improve in the late 1990s. They won the 1996-97 NPL campaign but their reward – promotion to the Conference North – lasted only one season. They continued to struggle and relegation and failure in relegation Play-Offs followed before new ownership saw improvements at the ground, including a new main stand and promotion from the Northern Premier League First Division – which they had slipped back down to into – to the main division during 2019. Having dropped the term `Borough’ from their title in 2018, Radcliffe finally won the competition again in 2023-24. Their reward was promotion to the National League North. Last season, they ended-up in lucky Thirteenth position.

The stupendous Jordan Slew and Alie Sesay are two players who have performed for both clubs.

The only previous meeting I can find between the clubs is when, Lawrence Bland and Derek Quinn tell me, they played in the Lancashire Junior Cup First Round at Christie Park on 20^th January, 1968 in front of 1100 spectators. The Shrimps won 2-1.

In fact, they also played on Tuesday 9^th January 2001 at Radcliffe, also in the Lancashire Junior Cup. The Shrimps’ side featured players such as Andy Banks; John Hardiker; Phil Eastwood; Adriano Rigoglioso; Lee Evans; Stewart Drummond; Andy Wright and Garry Thompson. The tie ended 1-1 but it was the end of the road for Radcliffe for whatever reason – penalties, perhaps.

They will meet again when Morecambe travel to Stainton Park on Saturday 22^nd August 2026 for a 15:00hrs kick-off. The Boro will then travel to the Halo on Saturday 6^th March 2027: kick-off at 15:00hrs.

The big news since I wrote the above originally is that Radcliffe’s Manager for the last three seasons – Bernard Morley – resigned his position last Wednesday after their third defeat in a row at Hereford the previous night. Assistant Manager Steve Halford and First Team Coach Luke Clark went with him. So today’s game would be under the direction of interim Manager Nicky Adams, who steps-up from a coaching position within the club. He will be assisted by Academy Coach Frank Sinclair and Goalkeeping Coach Paul Oakes with a supporting role going to `Head of Medical & Performance’ Stephen O’Halloran.

As kick-off approached today, both teams found themselves in the relegation positions at the bottom of the National League North. Morecambe have a single point but certainly deserved more against high-flyers South Shields last Tuesday at the Halo, where they were unlucky – or perhaps a little naive – to lose by the only goal of the game right at the death.

Boro, on the other hand, have no points at all and sit right at the bottom of the table. They lost 3-0 at Hereford last Tuesday; 2-1 at Macclesfield a week ago and 0-2 against Spalding at home in their opening game of the season. Like us, they have only managed a single goal so far. But they have conceded seven to our paltry three. After the reverse against the Mariners on Tuesday, Morecambe Manager Adam Lakeland reminded us all that there are no easy games in this league, though:

“Every game in this league is hard. Radcliffe is not an easy place to go. It’s going to be a tricky game but if we can replicate that level of performance we’ll start winning games – I’ve no doubt about that.”

The weather was absolutely perfect in Radcliffe for a game of football this afternoon: sunny; warm and barely a breeze.

Even before kick-off, though, you couldn’t help noticing the disparity in size between the two teams. Although not giants, the men in the blue strip were clearly much bigger than the men wearing the white shirts and red socks. This has already been an issue for Morecambe this season: from set-pieces in particular, they have struggled against much physically bigger sides. You need to be exceptionally skilful as a smaller footballer to get the better of a bigger one. And right across the piece this afternoon, Morecambe simply weren’t.

This was a really weak display from Adam Lakeland’s side. Against a winless team at the bottom of the table, they looked outclassed, outthought and were largely outplayed. Apart from the excellent goal he scored when the Shrimps were already two-nil down; Joe Garner offered virtually nothing up-front this afternoon. The defence struggled throughout; the midfield played aimlessly for most of the game and Tom Donaghy in the home goal had virtually nothing to do all game.

This was a match of low quality with two poor teams struggling to string more than three successive passes together all afternoon. The only thing worthy of comment from a Morecambe perspective was the fact that Cameron Coxe was injured early doors and was wheeled off the pitch on a stretcher after prolonged treatment on the grass. The only chance worthy of note was a powerful strike on goal by the home team’s Rio Clegg after 19 minutes which Joe Young did really well to push over the bar for a corner.

I thought that the visitors were getting on top as the half wore on but that all changed within nine minutes of the re-start. Young was at fault as he failed to clear an admittedly suicidal throw-in from his own player in the shape of Ben Williams and Clegg did enough to force the ball to trickle over the line into the net. What a shambles…

It got worse when debutant Joe Pritchard fairly burst the net with a tremendous volley from the right into the top left corner of the Shrimps’ goal from his point of view after 62 minutes as the Boro hit Morecambe on the break.

Unlike our lot, Radcliffe aren’t full-time professionals and I suspect we were all hoping at the away end that they would tire as the match grew older.

Despite Joe Garner reducing the arrears with an excellently-taken first goal for the Shrimps after 81 minutes, though, there was very little sign of it. Instead, the match ran its course and the Shrimps lost alarmingly tamely almost with a whimper.

There’s not a lot more to say. Morecambe swapped places with Radcliffe at the end of the game to see the Boro fourth from bottom in the National League North and the Shrimps right at the bottom of the table with a single point after four games. If they continue to play in the haphazard, disorganised and utterly toothless way they did today, they will stay there.

This is what Adam Lakeland had to say after the game:

“Just another bad day for us. Unfortunately now there’s been too many of those. We can’t shy away from that. We were too safe in our play; not playing with enough tempo; enough urgency; playing a little bit with the handbrake on. I have no idea why we have this knack of only being a bit more aggressive when we fall behind. That needs to change. We find ourselves disjointed and all over the place again. Did we show a little bit of fight when it went 2-1? Not enough for me. We need to do far better than that. I need more character. I need more personality. I need more from the players. I didn’t see us giving enough or doing enough there today. And that’s not going to give us a chance of winning any games of football.”

Radcliffe: 1 Tom Donaghy; 3 Callum MacFadzean; 5 Tom Davies; 6 Lois Maynard (C); 7 Brad Jackson; 10 Michael Afuye; 12 Josh Seary; 17 Rio Clegg; 20 Max McCarthy (9 Jordan Hulme 45’); 27 Charlie Raglan; 29 Joe Pritchard (16 Tyler James 73’).

Subs Not Used: 4 Rick Smith; 11 Jon Taylor; 15 Brad Roscoe; 23 Jude Oyibo; 24 Harley O’Grady-Macken.

Morecambe: 1 Joe Young; 2 Cameron Coxe (6 Lewis Baines 11’); 3 Ben Williams (Y); 4 Liam Hogan (Y); 5 Will Smith (C); 20 Jake Cain; 9 Joe Garner ; 10 Matty Daly; 11 Elliot Newby; 14 Elijah Buckley-Ricketts; 17 Paul Lewis (Y) (7 Teddy Collis (Y) 68’).

Subs Not Used: 13 Myles Boney; 27 Adam Fairclough; 26 Lennon Dobson; 30 Corey Goodyear.

Att: 1,279 (Probably nearly half of these from Morecambe.)