FA TROPHY SECOND ROUND. SATURDAY, 14th NOVEMBER 2026.

Poor display at Leek but Morecambe get away with it.

Morecambe played an FA Trophy game for the first time in twenty years today as they travelled for the second Saturday in a row to rural Staffordshire. This is who they faced:

The club was founded as Leek Lowe Hamil – Lowe Hill is part of the town – just after the Second World War. It played in various local leagues over the years before becoming founder-members of the North West Counties League in 1982. They were promoted from this to the Northern Premier League five years later. Town reached the final of the FA Trophy in 1990 but lost at Wembley 3-0 to Barrow. In 1994, Leek were runners-up in the NPL but were denied promotion to the Football Conference at the time due to financial irregularities at the club. Instead, they were placed in the Southern League, which put a severe strain on their already overstretched resources due to the travel costs involved alone. After a season, they were allowed back into the Northern Premier League. Leek won this by a massive ten points in 1997 and they were promoted to the Football Conference as a result but only stayed at that exalted level for two seasons. Life since has involved several promotions and relegations but Leek have been in the Premier Division of the NPL for two seasons currently. Last season, they ended-up eighth.

One of the problems that once beset Harrison Park was that it has been flooded in the past and the pitch was frequently a mud heap. Now it has an artificial surface.

Town are on a ropey run of form currently. Having beaten Lancaster City 1-2 at Giant Axe on 17^th October; they contrived to lose three league games in a row. Last Saturday, though, they got back to winning ways with a 3-2 home victory over Ilkeston Town. Despite this, they currently find themselves in the highest relegation position in the Northern Premier League Premier Division – nineteenth place.

As Morecambe arrived to play the fixture, news had emerged from the club this week that their so-called `Chief Operating Officer’, Steve Dewsnip, has `resigned’. As always, we don’t know why but it’s very unusual for any executive of any organisation to simply leave with immediate effect: notice is usually given and then served. We noted when he was first appointed nine months ago that this individual has what might be charitably described as a very `colourful’ background. So, as his epitaph at the club, let’s quote The Times:

“Following his February 2026 appointment as Chief Operating Officer of Morecambe FC, the UK’s Independent Football Regulator opened a review into the club. The inquiry examines whether Dewsnip should be disqualified under the Football Governance Act 2025 due to his financial regulatory ban in Guernsey.”

So did he jump – or was he pushed? Your guess is as good as mine and – given the Warriors’ tried-and-tested version of `transparency’ (sweeping everything under the carpet and saying precisely nothing), we may never know the truth of why a man who should never have been given the post in the first place because of previous misdemeanours departed so very suddenly…

As the ridiculous conceit of `Chief Operating Officer’ had been scrapped, Martin Thomas has been given the job of `General Manager’ on an interim basis. Good luck to him – he is going to need it…

Anyway, it was dry but cold despite the weak sunshine as the game kicked-off. Skipper Liam Hogan was injured on the artificial surface almost immediately after a seemingly innocuous tackle. He tried to run the injury off but was replaced after just five minutes by the recently shaky Cameron Coxe as Lewis Baines took the Captain’s armband.

Myles Boney made the first save of the game after ten minutes as former Port Vale winger Alex Hurst – playing his one hundredth game for Leek today – beat Coxe far too easily and forced the visiting goalkeeper into a really good stop. Morecambe did some probing early doors but – possibly because of the artificial surface – kept getting their passes wrong. By contrast, Leek won their third corner to nil within a quarter of an hour.

It took until the twenty-fourth minute for Morecambe to have a shot at goal: Matty Daly’s attempt was well blocked by the part-timers’ defence and Jake Cain’s effort on the rebound was also blocked.

Daly took another shot after 27 minutes but again failed to test Liverpool loanee Kornel Misciur in the home goal as he hit the effort over the bar. Luca Davis then had time to pick his spot from a Cain free-kick with 29 minutes played but headed the ball wide of the target instead.

Increasingly – as Morecambe tried to play their way through the Leek defence and usually failed with a poor or careless final pass, the hosts looked towards Hurst on their left to hit back on the counter-attack and – with Coxe standing off him more often than not – constantly looked a threat.

Cameron then found himself with the best chance for Morecambe with 37 minutes played. But his free header from about seven yards out was straight at the home goalkeeper and bounced off his legs into the path of Teddy Collis, who should have buried it. Instead, he contrived to wallop the ball over the bar.

Morecambe had a further warning after 40 minutes when a Leek attack resulted in Davis putting the ball into his own net. Hurst yet again got away on the left and slung over a cross which the Everton loanee smashed past his own goalkeeper. But the Referee disallowed it for reasons only he could explain.

So the Shrimps were lucky to trail back to the Dressing Rooms on level terms. Leek had asked most of the questions throughout and but for a brilliant save by Myles Boney and a questionable decision by the Ref, could well have been in arrears. It was yet another poor, lackadaisical display by the supposedly full-time professionals away from home.

Morecambe fans would all be hoping for a reaction from the men in the red shirts in the second half. But they were again indebted to their goalkeeper as he did brilliantly to thwart Connor Heath as Morecambe had lost the ball yet again in the fifty-third minute. Myles left his line and was able to use a leg to tackle the centre forward as Heath tried to take the ball around him on the edge of the away penalty area. Daly then should have scored as his shot beat Misciur but was cleared off the line after Marcus Neill’s shot have been saved initially only for Collis to again miss the target from the rebound in the fifty-seventh minute.

After another excellent counter-attack by Leek in the seventieth minute, Coxe was a bystander once more as Hurst found AFC Fylde loanee Hayden Campbell for a shot which yet again Myles did well to keep out.

But Daly finally got his eighth goal of the season after 82 minutes when substitute Isaac Buckley-Ricketts did well to get a cross into the centre which Matty was able to slide-in and convert from three yards out.

As the Shrimps booted the ball anywhere at the death, the part-timers created all the chances in the last five minutes or so. But a header straight at Boney by Jack Griffiths after 90 minutes and a shot at him by Campbell in injury time was as close as they got to taking the match to penalties.

So Morecambe rode their luck today. But for a doubtful decision by the Referee and a tremendous performance by their goalkeeper, they could well have lost.  Their inability to take the match by the scruff of the neck once they had taken the lead against a part-time side which surely must have been tiring was also quite alarming. But a win is a win and Morecambe will be in the hat for the Third Round draw next Monday.

This is what Adam Lakeland made of it after the game:

“I thought we made incredibly hard work of it. Probably got to give Leek some credit as well. We turned the ball over far too frequently. They’re a dangerous team. We have to acknowledge that we got very fortunate in the first half where I think they’ve had a goal disallowed which probably should have stood. It was a tough game but all that matters in Cup football is that you win and we’ve kept a clean sheet and we’re through and we’re obviously delighted that that’s the case. We got away with it today.”

Leek Town: 1 Kornel Misciur; 2 Tom Curl (12 Liam Buckley 65’); 3 Ollie Heywood; 4 Scott Holding; 5 Haydn Hollis (Y); 6 Billy Reeves (C) (Y); 7 Alex Hurst (17 Alex Panter 72’); 8 Lucas Weir; 9 Connor Heath; 10 Jack Griffiths (Y); 11 Hayden Campbell.

Subs Not Used: 13 Jacob Towns; 14 Alex Porter; 15 Cullen Meadowcroft.

Morecambe: 13 Myles Boney; 3 Ben Williams; 4 Liam Hogan (C) (2 Cameron Coxe 5’); 6 Lewis Baines; 7 Teddy Collis (Y) (14 Isaac Buckley-Ricketts 62’); 10 Matty Daly; 11Elliot Newby (26 Lennon Dobson 92’); 16 Marcus Neill (17 Paul Lewis 62’); 18 Taelor O’Kane (22 Ruben Curley 72); 20 Jake Cain; 24 Luca Davis (Y).

Subs Not Used: 31 Alfie Scales.

Att: c.600 (unknown number from Morecambe.)