Morecambe (A) February 22nd, 12.30pm

Match Centre 24/25
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"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

15 Likes
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Thanks Welsh - lovely intro as usual…

Hopefully playing on a fairly awful surface at home last week will prep the lads for what is to come on Saturday…

A strong squad should get the job done and I’m hopeful in predicting a 1-2 win and 3 points taken back down the M6

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Thanks Welsh. Will not be easy in my view but 1-0 will do.

4

Is Jellis suspended for this match?

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Thank you Welsh, a very good read. I hope you will continue to start these pre match threads and I’m sure many others on UTS appreciate the effort you put in.
Their pitch looks awful and it’s not going to be a stroll, we are going to have to dig in because we are fighting to get promoted and they (obviously) are fighting to retain their league status.

6

Probably regret this but think we’re due to wallop someone away, and with them having played midweek and at the bottom and us being rested this looks a very good candidate.

0-4 to us

7

I do enjoy these match previews my Welsh.
Normal service has resumed prediction wise so i will revert to type with a 2-0 defeat and a miserable drive home.

8

Hate these 12.30 kick offs would have almost certainly have gone if it was 3pm as I’m sure many more would have.

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9

We are now entering the business end of the season. If we can get a minimum of 3/4 points from Morecambe and Cheltenham. We will be in a great position with confidence good and we will see a boost in attendance at the bescot for Swindon and the remaining games as we all truly believe this is our year.

10

A draw, 0-0, due to playing on the beach.

11

Needs one more yellow card for a suspension

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If it’s a foul that prevents them scoring an equaliser in the 95th minute then I’d take it and accept the suspension… :man_shrugging:t2:

13

Don’t go getting all optimistic again, look what happened last time🤣

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14

I can’t see anything other than a handsome romp.

15

And your prediction for the game?

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As Bags10 said, he’s on 9 bookings so one more card would see Jellis suspended for two games.

Other players that could possibly hit this are Barrett (8 bookings), L Gordon (7) and Okagbue (7).

They get wiped after 37 games so for us, that’s the Bromley game on March 13th.

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Need to win this one really… notts play tannere sat so that should be an easy win for them as they are awful

18

:100:, if there was ever a must win game then this is it!

This lot really are crap.

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19

As bad as Sutton United last year?

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I’ve just worked out that if we win this one we can mathematically no longer be relegated … so that’s nice !

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