"With turbulent, violent, brush-like strokes
Of sky, and sea, and grey,
The rain and mist obscured our views
Of what was Morecambe Bay"
(Gary Radice)
Here we are two-thirds of the way through the season, with only 15 games still to play (assuming that we don’t have to feature in the lottery known as the play-offs) and we visit Morecambe for an early kick off. They are going through troubled times, having had run-ins with the likes of HMRC (five separate occasions) and the EFL because of late payment of players’ wages. Having started this season with only 5 first team squad players, a transfer embargo was lifted in January this year enabling Morecambe to sign 15 players. Director Jason Whittingham is on record as stating "With every fibre in my body … I can’t wait to get out of Morecambe … I no longer want to be the owner of the club". Chief executive Ben Sadler left the club at the close of last season to join us, while their Chairman Rod Taylor described the club as “a circus” on 8th May 2024.
Morecambe currently occupy bottom-but-one position in League 2 having scored 29 goals in their 32 fixtures, with a goal difference of minus 20. Their current form looks like this:-
January 28th Bradford City (A) Lost 1-0
February 1st Fleetwood (H) Won 4-2
February 4th Newport Cty (A) Lost 2-1
February 8th Notts Cty (A) Lost 2-0
February 15th Accrington Stan (H) Won 2-0
February 18th Doncaster Rovers (H) Lost 0-1
Morecambe’s current captain will be familiar to many Saddlers’ supporters - none other than Yann Songo’o, who could only watch from the bench in their most recent game. Their main goalscoring threat would seem to come from Andrew Dallas, with the Shrimpers on loan from Barnsley. Morecambe’s manager Derek Adams is in his third term in that function, having also been manager at Ross County three times.
Mat Sadler will be glad of the depth of his squad this week, bearing in mind the injury situation. In addition to the long-term sicknotes, recent problems with Josh Gordon and Harry Williams may well see Sadler dipping in to his recent loan signings, particularly in midfield. Harrison and Amantchi would be disappointed if they didn’t start, having scored against Chesterfield - and fortunately Jamille Matt looks to have shaken off his hamstring tweak. We may even see young Wheatley given some minutes, possibly depending on how the game goes.
Prediction? Having re-discovered the winning formula it would obviously be a positive sign if that could be continued. We are currently 7 points clear of the 2nd placed side, and 9 points ahead of the play-offs. Three points would preserve that cushion no matter what anyone else does, so really a 0-2 away win would be best for all concerned (Matt and Harrison to score).
UTS