ENTERPRISE NATIONAL LEAGUE NORTH. SATURDAY, 5th SEPTEMBER 2026.

Morecambe wake-up against Buxton.

Morecambe welcomed Buxton FC for the first time in the Twenty-First Century to north Lancashire today to see if they could improve on their recent winning streak of two games in a row.

So what did we know about the visitors prior to kick-off?

Buxton is a really agreeable Spa town to be found in the middle of the Peak District National Park in rural Derbyshire 96 miles south-east of Morecambe.

Often described as `the Bath of the north’, it is a prosperous place with some beautiful Georgian buildings and few of the social problems or poverty to be found not too far away in Greater Manchester to the north-west or places like Derby itself or Nottingham to the east.

As is the case with so many football clubs (including our own); Buxton’s was an off-shoot of the town’s cricket club. Founded in 1877, the Bucks initially played in the Combination as from October 1877 at the cricket club’s Park ground but came bottom at the end of the 1895-96 season and transferred to the Manchester League.

They played at various venues in the town after moving from the Park but finally settled on their current Silverlands stadium during 1884. (This remains the loftiest English Association football ground at 310 metres [1,020 feet] above sea level.) So – in at least once sense – Buxton FC can always look down on the rest of English football clubs. (No prizes for guessing, I’m afraid – but what’s the second highest? Answer at the end of this entry…)

The Bucks won the Manchester League in 1932 and joined the better quality Cheshire County League as a result.They became Champions in 1973, which earned them a place with Morecambe in the relatively recently established Northern Premier League.

The Bucks’ very first game in their new surroundings was against the Shrimps on August 11^th 1973: Morecambe won 4-1 at Christie Park.

The Derbyshire club finished bottom of the Premier Division of the NPL in 1997; were relegated to the First Division and then came bottom of that too in their first season to be banished to the Northern Counties East League.

They won this in 2006 to return to the First Division of the NPL and were immediately promoted back to the Premier Division as Champions.

At the end of the 2021-22 season – during which time they were beaten 0-1 by Derek Adams’ League One Morecambe in the FA Cup Second Round in a game that was televised live on the BBC – they won the Premier Division of the NPL and were promoted to the National League North as a result.

Last season, they ended-up fifth in the table only to be knocked-out in the Play-Offs by the narrowest of margins in the semi-finals: South Shields won 1-0.

 (In case anyone wonders why the club’s Mascot has the name it currently possesses, the Bucks helpfully posted the following on Facebook:

“Meet Duck the Buck, our new mascot from the 2024/25 season. As part of a recent internal marketing review, it was decided that Bucky, our current mascot, was creating too much brand confusion amongst those not familiar with the club’s nickname.”

So that’s cleared that up nicely then: now, they presumably just think: “Buck the Duck? What the…”)

Morecambe have met Buxton in the past – as we have just seen – in both Northern Premier League and FA Cup fixtures. How many times and what the other scores were, though, I haven’t a clue and A.I. is absolutely no help…

Next season, we will travel to the Silverlands on Saturday 13^th March 2027 for a kick-off at 15:00hrs. We will have already entertained the Bucks at the Halo on Saturday,  5^th  September 2026 at 15:00hrs.

Last season’s giant of a goalkeeping Coach at Morecambe – Jon Stewart – was poached from Buxton, for whom he was once a player. One of his charges – Joe Young – was the club’s first-team choice for all of last season. He is now a Shrimps’ player. Joe McGee and, oddly enough – one Adam Buxton – have also enjoyed spells at both clubs.

(BTW – as I believe modern parlance has it – the second highest stadium above sea level in the English Football Pyramid is apparently the Hawthorns; West Bromwich Albion’s home ground. If this turns out not to be true: please blame A.I., not me….)

Buxton arrived this afternoon on the edge of the National League North Play-Offs, in eight position; three positions and five places better off than today’s hosts on the back of two wins and two losses in their last four games.

Manager Adam Lakeland told the media before the game that he expected:

“Another tough game. They’re a good team. They have a lot of pace in the front line. They’ve got a lot of legs in the middle of the pitch. They’ve recruited quite well. They’ve got some good players. It’s going to be a difficult game. But we’ve got good players and we’ve got to make sure it’s a difficult game for them as well. So hopefully we can put in a big performance and get another positive result. But we’re going to have to play well to achieve that.”

It was breezy with occasional sunshine but plenty of cloud as the match started by the side of Morecambe Bay.

The visitors had the first chance of the game with Liam Hogan’s mistake allowing Devlan Moses to set-up Kian Scales for a clear run on goal only for Myles Boney to stand strong and smother his fairly weak shot.

The home fans had to wait until the eighth minute for a Shrimps’ effort worthy of note. Elliot Newby’s shot was deflected for a corner which Hogan then headed wide. From another corner-kick by Jake Cain, Joe Garner also missed the target with a header over the bar with eleven minutes played.

Paul Lewis was injured and had to leave the field after just twenty minutes.

Hogan made another mistake with almost forty minutes played. Buxton pounced on the ball in the middle of the park and Devlan Moses set-up Sisa Tuntulwana for a shot which was deflected by the home defence for a corner.

So that was basically that at half time: no goals scored and little between the sides but with the visitors having come closest to scoring and forcing a number of corners, one of which ended-up with the ball being put into the net by George Cooper just before the break: it was ruled out for a foul in the build-up.

It was a different story in the second half, though as Morecambe started far more assertively than they had been at any time in the first half: and kept on playing like that. Just five minutes was on the clock when the Bucks’ defence failed to clear a free-kick; the ball bounced around in their penalty area and then Matty Daly walloped it into the bottom corner through a forest of legs.

The men in the red strip doubled their advantage after an hour. Cain drove forwards after a quickly-taken free-kick and picked out Newby with a sublime pass. Elliot beat a man in the away penalty area before smashing the ball into the roof of the net past away stopper Logan Stretch.

Cain was instrumental again in the 79^th minute. He plonked a precise free-kick onto the head of Garner, who headed into the path of Official Man of The Match Daly who had time to pick his spot to make it three-nil.

Isaac Buckley-Ricketts had come on as a substitute five minutes earlier. He cut inside from the left flank after 86 minutes before launching a tremendous shot which curled around the away defence and beat the goalkeeper low to his left as he was not able to Stretch sufficiently to keep it out. Many apologies for that really crass remark Logan.

And that’s how it ended. After a first half that could have gone either way, the Shrimps came out firing on all cylinders in the second. When’s the last time they beat anybody four-nil?

Adam Lakeland summed-up his thoughts after the game by saying he wasn’t happy with the way his men played in the first half. He added:

“The message at half time was that we just needed to go through the gears a little bit really. Just be a little more positive and adventurous in our play. I thought – second half – the players were tremendous.”

His Opposite Number – Jordan Broadbant – said that he thought his men were the better team in the first half and should have scored at least once. In the second, he also claimed that Morecambe’s first two goals should have been disallowed and came about as a result of `clear refereeing mistakes.’ But he conceded that the performance of what he claims is the youngest team in the National League North `had not done enough to win that football match’ after that.

The three points pushed Morecambe further up in the table to tenth position. Buxton, meanwhile, fell to twelfth.

Morecambe:  13 Myles Boney; 3 Ben Williams; 4 Liam Hogan; 5 Will Smith (C); 6 Lewis Baines; 7 Teddy Collis (14 Isaac Buckley-Ricketts 74’); 9 Joe Garner (19 Ronnie Blois 85’); 10 Matty Daly; 11 Elliot Newby (2 Cameron Coxe 85’); 17 Paul Lewis (8 Lewis Leigh 20’); 20 Jake Cain (22 Ruben Curley 85’).

Subs Not Used: 1 Joe Young; 26 Lennon Dobson; 27 Adam Fairclough 29 Oscar Wright; 30 Corey Goodyear.

Buxton: 1 Logan Stretch; 2 Will Trueman; 5 George Cooper, 6 Kieron Burton (C); 9 Sisa Tuntulwana; 10 Tony Weston (29 Owen Devonport 70’); 14 Liam Brockbank; 19 Devlan Moses; 20 Kian Scales (Y) (16 Ashton Mee 70’); 21 Ollie Tipton; 23 Guilherme Siqueira (7 Johnny Johnston 59’).

Subs Not Used: 13 Logan Melville; 11 Max Woltman; 17 Josh Pescatore; 18 Josh Shaw.

Att: 2,267 ( Unknown number from Buxton.)