“#♭Jordan Slew ♪– Ah! Ha! ♬”

ENTERPRISE NATIONAL LEAGUE NORTH. TUESDAY, 8th SEPTEMBER 2026.

Having a achieved three wins on the spin, Adam Lakeland’s Morecambe travelled to Haig Avenue this evening to take-on a team which was once head-and-shoulders above them in the English football pyramid:

Let’s cast our minds back the best part of a hundred years. If we had bought a very serious and rather scholarly book called The Football Encyclopaedia (subtitled A Historical and Statistical Review of the Game of Football since it became a National Sport) in 1934, we would have seen the following, complete with its arcane use of the word `knickers’:

Staying with this historical theme, this is the entry for Football League Third Division North Southport as published by the News Chronicle & Daily Dispatch Football Annual of 1957-58:

(And yes – that is Stan Mortensen; former Blackpool and England star who ended his career at Lancaster City, believe it or not.)

So how have things changed in the intervening years?

Some things have stayed the same: their home ground, for example. But a club founded as Southport Wanderers and then Southport Central’s most significant experience since these tomes were published was one their supporters would definitely prefer to forget. Southport remains one of virtually a handful of Football League clubs which failed to be re-elected by their peers when that Fiefdom was a Closed Shop – which was for the entire Twentieth Century right up until 1987. In 1978, they had come next to bottom of the Fourth Division for the third year in a row. Pressure was increasing on the Football League dinosaurs in their Lytham Headquarters to allow in new blood and members of the Northern Premier League (which Southport were about to join) in particular were increasing the clamour for change. One of its better clubs in the shape of Wigan Athletic replaced them and whereas Wigan went on to win the FA Cup and reach the pinnacle of English Football as a member of the Premier League, Southport basically stagnated.

During 1998, the club reached the FA Trophy Final at Wembley but lost to Cheltenham Town by the only goal of the game in front of 10,000 supporters from Merseyside. By this time, they had been members of the Football Conference North for five years. In 2003, though, they slipped back into the Northern Premier League once more. Bouncing straight back into the re-named National League North, they won this at the first attempt and entered the uncharted waters of the National League. They returned to the full-time professional outfit they had been in the Football League at this time but were relegated again in 2007 and became part-time professionals once more. Since then, they struggled back to the National League in 2009 via the Play-Offs and have had significant ex-Shrimps players at the helm of the club in the shape of John Coleman and, latterly, Jim Bentley. Before Jim arrived at Haig Avenue, the Sandgrounders suffered yet another relegation in 2017 into the place they find themselves currently. Last season, Southport ended-up eighteenth of the twenty-four clubs  

As well as Messrs Coleman and Bentley, many players have performed for both clubs. The outstanding one is Carl Baker but Jordan Slew and Kevin Ellison – both icons of the Shrimps in their time – are just two examples of several others.

Morecambe will travel the 56 miles to Southport on Tuesday, 8th September 2026 at 19:45hrs. The return fixture at the Halo will be played on Tuesday, 23^rd February 2027 at 19:45hrs. 

Since I wrote this original assessment of the club earlier in the season, Southport have also been drawn against us in the Second Round of the FA Cup on September 19^th next or thereabouts at the Halo stadium. Of more relevance to Sandgrounders’ fans, Manager Neil Dunns relinquished his position as the first team Manager on 6^th September. Our ex-star midfielder and currently Assistant Manager at Haig Avenue, Mark Duffy, will take charge of the Southport team for tonight’s meeting. Morecambe signed Mark from Southport and we last encountered him last season when – as a Hyde United player – he scored from the penalty spot against us in a friendly game and was an outstanding talent on the night.

His new charges started the game in twenty-second position among the Legion of the Doomed in the National League North after losing their last three league games, most recently 2-0 at Spalding. Morecambe started the contest in tenth position. Isaac Buckley-Ricketts replaced the injured Paul Lewis and Morecambe played without a goalkeeping substitute tonight because Joe Young has picked up a hamstring injury which will keep him sidelined for several weeks. This is what the Manager made of the task facing his men prior to kick-off:

“Southport is never an easy place to go and, with Neil recently stepping down, we expect another difficult game in which we will need to perform well if we are to get the result we want. You always have to show resilience and grittiness in moments of games when you go away from home. You expect spells where the home team will ask questions of you, so it’s about standing up and being strong in those moments before capitalising on your own when they arrive. That’s something we have demonstrated an improvement in over the last few games and hopefully that will continue to grow and support results. It’s important to start well in any game because, if you don’t, you can find yourselves on the back foot from the off. The game is hard enough without giving the opposition a head start, so we want to begin strongly and hopefully we can do that.”

The weather had been windy with sometimes heavy showers on the edge of Merseyside today and although the rain held off, the wind strengthened steadily right throughout the game. The Shrimps faced the gale in the first half during which the hosts attempted to play on the front foot, funnelling much of their early play through Jordan Slew.

Morecambe won their first corner of the game after almost a quarter of an hour which debutant Everton loanee home goalkeeper Douglas Lukjancicks – who signed literally just before the game started – caught confidently. It took until the twenty-fourth minute for either team to fashion a presentable chance. Joe Garner was caught in possession in the middle of the park; Port’s Danny Lloyd slipped the ball through to Adam Moseley and he would have scored but for a tremendous stop by his foot by Miles Boney in the away goal. The Shrimps couldn’t clear the ball though and from the resulting corner, Wigan loanee Moseley made-up for his earlier miss simply by being more determined to reach the ball before any of his opponents. To add insult to injury, in the ensuing fuss made by the visiting Management team, Adam Lakeland appeared to pick-up a booking.

In response, Will Smith and Isaac Buckley-Ricketts combined well to try and set-up a chance for Elliot Newby which was well cut out by the home defence. With thirty-seven minutes played, Luke Griffiths then tried to beat the visiting goalkeeper with a free-kick from distance but Miles stood firm in the away goal and held it confidently. The Shrimps lost possession for about the umpteenth time in the game so far after 38 minutes and allowed Slew to smash an excellent shot against Boney’s crossbar from about 25 yards out with the goalkeeper beaten all ends up. Morecambe were lucky again right at the end of the half when a poor back-pass by Jake Cain allowed Moseley to run onto the ball and take it around Boney before the Ref blew for off-side to save Morecambe’s blushes.

So he Shrimps were doing a Radcliffe all over again so far this evening. Against a demoralised side, they were too slow to come out of the traps, were second-best all over the field and showed no commitment, skill or basic competence against a poor team in a really scrappy match so far.

The Shrimps were playing with a very strong wind behind them in the second half. The hope for the away fans was that Adam Lakeland would have read his men the Riot Act during the break and that they would respond by playing some half-decent football as opposed to the Kick & Run rubbish they had served-up during the first half.

But Southport – with Slew again prominent – won the first corner of the re-start which the visitors struggled to clear after about three minutes. But Morecambe finally strung a few passes together between Ben Williams; Newby and Cain and forced a corner after 53 minutes which ended-up in the back of the net but was disallowed as Garner pushed Lukjancicks into the back of his own goal. They won another corner two minutes later and Liam Hogan headed the ball narrowly wide. Lukjancicks then dropped a cross from Cain but got away with it as – at last – the visitors started to mount some concerted pressure on the suddenly shaky-looking home side.

The Shrimps won their fourth corner of the second period with 63 minutes played but Port managed to clear it. They should have equalised when Garner headed the ball straight at the goalkeeper instead of to either side of him following an excellent cross by Smith with 65 minutes on the clock. The Morecambe boss shook things up after 70 minutes with a triple change.

But the Shrimps finally drew level through a man who had been on from the start. Substitute Cameron Coxe was the provider as Newby controlled the ball well before smashing it into the back of the net with an unstoppable shot.

However, the Shrimps were then immediately caught with a counter-attack. Slew did all the hard work on the wing before sending the ball towards another ex-Shrimp – substitute Dan Ogwuru – who had the easiest of all jobs to slot the ball home to renew the Port’s lead in the eighty-fifth minute. Lukjancicks made a good save from a Garner header straight after this but Southport saw out the game far too easily.

So Morecambe’s really promising track record came to a shuddering halt under the lights against a poor side. The Morecambe Manager spent a lot of time arguing with the match officials during and after the game and that doesn’t do him any credit. His players also got involved in a bit of argy-bargy at the final whistle and the worry is that instead of trying to impose their way of playing and their standards onto other teams, Morecambe are getting sucked into clogging their way against inferior opposition – and getting the worst of it.

The loss saw Morecambe fall to fourteenth place in the National League North tonight.  Southport move out of the Legion of the Doomed to nineteenth, just two points behind us.

As soon as I know how the Manager attempted to explain this utterly woeful display this evening, I will share it with you.

Southport: 27 Douglas Lukjancicks; 2 Dan Pike; 3 Dylan Dwyer; 4 Ted Lavelle; 5 Kyle Jameson; 6 Max Davies; 7 Danny Lloyd (C) (18 Regan Griffiths 60’); 8 Luke Griffiths (Y) (11 Malaki McKenzie 72’); 9 Jordan Slew; 12 Matty Williams; 26 Adam Moseley (19 Daniel Ogwuru (Y) 78’).

Subs Not Used:  1 Soloman Honor; 7 Christy Edwards; 10 Sol Soloman; 24 Miracle Orisakwe.

Morecambe:  13 Myles Boney; 3 Ben Williams; 4 Liam Hogan; 5 Will Smith (C) (2 Cameron Coxe 70’); 6 Lewis Baines; 8 Lewis Leigh (22 Ruben Curley 70’); 9 Joe Garner; 10 Matty Daly (19 Ronnie Blois 76’); 11 Elliot Newby (Y); 14 Isaac Buckley-Ricketts (7 Teddy Collis 70’); 20 Jake Cain.

Subs Not Used: 26 Lennon Dobson; 27 Adam Fairclough.

Att: 2,003 (510 from Morecambe )