FAN’S VIEW 22/23 – No.42 – MORECAMBE AWAY

MORECAMBE 1 OXFORD UNITED 1

This is a season almost totally devoid of joy on the pitch. Off the pitch news has been miserable too with Stratfield Brake being declared an almost certain non-starter and despite being told we would be constantly kept informed of progress regarding the crumb – (I’ll call it a crumb because I’m feeling down) – of the Triangle, I don’t think there’s been any communication from the club of progress since the Cabinet meeting back in January. That’s almost two months ago. Tick, tick, tick goes the clock. Every year is made up of six two month periods. There are not many years left before we become homeless.

The only respite comes in pre-match pints in decent drinking holes with fellow yellows and even with that we’re getting edgier, given our plight. Morecambe doesn’t have that much appeal when it comes to real ale offerings but I made a new discovery this time which would be worth returning to:  The Brew House which is the Cross Bay brewery tap situated on an industrial estate only a couple of miles from the ground. The downside being I was the driver of the day so I only had a half of weak-ish beer in there before driving closer to the ground and parking up. The town seems to have as many boarded up pubs as those still open for business. Nevertheless I managed another three halves knowing I wouldn’t be behind the wheel again for over three hours after the last one.

For all that it’s the football of course that I was there for. No football, no Morecambe, no Brew House, no driving over 400 miles in a day.

543 of us were there to witness Liam Manning’s first game in charge of the team. They got behind the side but there was no deep rooted belief that we were likely to play better and get the job done in whatever way it would take. The players themselves didn’t seem to have been boosted by any new manager bounce either.

I have no idea why this game was made “all ticket” for us. We were given 400 terrace and 400 seat tickets to sell with the option of more if required. I have a friend who was staying with his daughter up north and had intended to go to the game. He had not bought a ticket and didn’t realise it was all ticket until too late to get them from OUFC, so he rang the Morecambe ticket office to be told “No, you can’t pay on the day”. So much for customer service – and football clubs struggle to make money. Is there any wonder why.

I covered Morecambe finances and ownership in some detail when we played them at home at the beginning of the season. Their latest published accounts showed that they were not in debt but were very poor payers. Perhaps they think they don’t need the extra twenty quid here and there.

As for ownership, I referred to the “wrong‘uns” hovering around football clubs and also doing their evil work inside many once they’d been able to worm their way in.

The Bond Investment Group, whose founders are Jason Whittingham and Colin Goldring, own 80% of Morecambe FC. They also owned Worcester Warriors, one of rugby union’s top-flight clubs. Warriors went into administration and was then liquidated owing £6m in unpaid tax. Their total debt had been £25m.

At the back end of last year Whittingham and Goldring were both disqualified from serving as company directors for 12 months after failing to file accounts for one of their companies that had links to Worcester.

Morecambe FC is up for sale. One potential buyer is supposedly Sarbjot Johal a 20 year old “entrepreneur.”   He has been chairman of a company called Sarb Capital, a private equity firm, since January 2022. In Companies House Johal is recorded as a director of Vitanic Limited, a company incorporated as Vitanic Group in May 2019.

Be afraid be very afraid. Think back to teenage Spencer Trethewy and Aldershot in 1990.

By contrast we have owners that, based on all the evidence available, are trust worthy and have the financial clout and some to ensure we don’t get into (much of) a mess. What I don’t think they get at all is the reality of League One football, let alone that of the division below.

Before this game I had us down for relegation at a bit over 50:50. After it I’m at 61% down, 39% staying up. Call me negative if you want but if you’ve got a more positive take then please provide the evidence to make me feel better and don’t just base it on blind loyalty.

From the start I detected that we were moving the ball slightly quicker than under the last knockings of the Robinson regime and that was a good thing. Nevertheless we didn’t look like a team that was set up with attacking intent nor were we playing our football of seasons gone by.

That wasn’t what it was all about though. It was about getting all three points and Morecambe didn’t look much either. They were not posing much of a threat so well done to us for being defensively competent.

Without being that good at all we were much better in the first half than the second but when we went a goal up just before the break I couldn’t argue with the iFollow commentators “You can’t say they’ve deserved it but Oxford United are ahead”.

We’d kept the ball and played it simply across our back line. After he’d received it from Stuart Findlay, Ciaron Brown played a pass to Yanic Wildschut who had cleverly stopped his run to make space. That pass was very nearly cut out but not quite. Wildschut then made strong progress towards goal, knocking it and heading for the bye-line. His low pull back was met by Marcus Browne to score from inside the six yard box.

It was a great bit of simple but effective football. The best thing Wildschut did by some distance. For the most part I was very disappointed in him. No influence on the game and more likely to run into trouble with the ball than ensuring his team retained possession.

On the other flank there were glimpses of the undoubted ability that Browne has. Morecambe defenders were worried when he had the ball at his feet and it was clear that he could go past them. We should have been looking to feed him all the time but didn’t. It was an opportunity we didn’t capitalise on – particularly as one of the home side was booked in the fourth minute for cynically fouling Browne. Excellent refereeing by Samuel Barrott.

Given what it was evident Browne was capable of I couldn’t understand why Tyler Goodrham didn’t get some game time. Josh Murphy got a quarter of an hour. WTF? I suppose our new head coach has reasoned that he needs to play players to see what they have to offer in the heat of the relegation battle in addition to the evidence he has gleaned from training sessions. Still don’t get it at all though.

In the second half I thought we came up with a nothing performance. When confidence is shot and clean sheets are as rare as hens’ teeth it was difficult to know how to approach the remainder of the game to make sure the lead obtained remained intact. Try to get another goal? If we had attempted that and had gone two up then fantastic but if instead we had left ourselves open and conceded, criticism would have come. We do though know we will concede. I just don’t understand what our game plan was in the second period. It looked like just defending on the fly. I didn’t detect any time wasting shithousery. I didn’t detect any tactic of getting the ball up front and holding it up to frustrate and run the clock down. Mind you I don’t think we’ve got the players to do that. Willing that he is I don’t think that is young Gatlin O’Donkor’s game. (To be honest I’m not sure what is but will work it out the more I see of him and the more he develops).

We nearly got there by doing what we did which gives a clue as to the quality of the opposition. Cole Stockton came on for them in the 52^nd minute but this season is not the goal-scoring man of last and looked a bit overweight.

I did think the best player on the park was the Morecambe number 8. I had to look up who he was. Dan Crowley who signed from Willem II in January. A diminutive skilful midfielder who started two games for us in 2016 on loan from Arsenal. A bit of a difficult lad to handle apparently but still only 25. We do seem to like those sort of players at our club but I’m coming to the conclusion that whilst they’re good to watch and I initially rate them very highly, once I step back and force myself into a more considered assessment I come up with “flatters to deceive”. Unfair? Jack Payne? Herbie Kane? Lewis Bate was on the bench and didn’t come on until the 89^th minute.

By then it was 1-1. We got so close. There were just three of the ninety left. It felt like a defeat. We had a throw in on our left. Brown threw it long and high down the line. Morecambe won it then nodded it on a couple of times. When the pass came to the scorer, substitute Ashley Hunter, he was unmarked. He put the ball on to his right foot and that was it. Sam Long stood off. That didn’t help nor did the fact that we’d not won the headers that led up to the goal. We have not got that little bit extra to win games of football even when they are very much there for the winning.

Still a point is a point and if we’d lost Morecambe would have had two more than they currently have. Perhaps we were lucky that we did get this single point. After we’d been pegged back, there was a strong case for a penalty to be awarded to the Shrimps. Oisin Smyth didn’t appear to make contact with the ball so perhaps we got away with one. He had looked very tired towards the end of the game yet was not replaced.

Is there a bright side? I’m struggling massively but I’ll try – on the bright side Manning has got a fortnight before we play again because of Cheltenham’s international call ups so should be able to start to get his methods instilled on the training ground.

On the return journey we stopped at a couple of motorway service stations. In one there were supporters of other clubs. Coventry, winners at Blackpool. They’d seen their team score four goals at Bloomfield Road. And another set of supporters who had witnessed their side getting four but only drawing against the team at the bottom of League Two. All four scored by Charlie Austin. If only we’d got a scorer like him, or actually him. Just saying.

Four goals from one player, crikey! Can you imagine that from an Oxford player? It’s easy to forget but we have scored four twice in the league this season. Four at Exeter. Scorers Kyle Joseph 2, no longer a nailed on starter and not as good after returning from injury. Long 1, Brannagan 1. Even though he’s not having the best of seasons by any stretch of the imagination CB has found the back of the net eight times in the league. Four at home to Port Vale. Two each from Matty Taylor and Billy Bodin. The former now at Vale Park on loan after falling out with KR, allegedly. The latter injured.

We are unbeaten under Mr Manning.

Our next game is not until April Fool’s day at Peterborough.

Some of the 543 yellows present