Another turgid defeat - the current state of play
Posted: Mon Nov 29, 2010 8:35 pm
Another game, another defeat. I’ve never posted here before but read regularly, and I thought that my first post wasn’t going to straight after the defeat and take the emotion out of it.
As a club now, we are now staring down the battle of a relegation battle for the first time since when we were near the bottom in the Ipswich season the first time round where we got out of jail with a few games to go.
Now, the game on Saturday, we played alright to be honest so long as we had the ball, with the ball we looked pretty good, played some nice stuff and on the balance of play, were unlucky not to get a point. The problem was pretty simple though, we didn’t have the quality or pace to turn their defence and were left to pinging good long shots from distance. Crewe aren’t brilliant, we know Arts is solid but last season with him in the side we conceded the same goals and chances we conceded on Sat. In essence, play in front of us we’re fine, play the alehouse ball over the top to some strong nippy forward and time and time again, Barrington of Roche is having to either keep us in it, or pick the ball out of the back of the net.
Last season was excellent, but papered over the cracks of an aging team having a last swansong and we have all the same problems this term. 64 goals we conceded last year, 71 including the playoffs. To put this in perspective, only 8 conceded more and 5 of those populated the bottom 5 places. What covered this up was having a strong large team that scared the bejesus out of teams at set pieces and we had Bentley, Artell, Mullin and Drummond all of which were busting a gut to get on the end of a whipped in corner.
This season we have the same problems, but none of the positives. When we were where we were last year, you could see that the team had the ability and the desire to change it, and they did. What were we treated to on Saturday? Clayton Donaldson taking the piss out of Chris McCready for 20 mins before he came off “injured” no doubt. To me, it looked like a man who didn’t fancy it and couldn’t get off the park quick enough, which was the first time I’ve ever seen that by anyone in Morecambe shirt with the exception of Rene Howe and a gentleman we signed from Southport who I’d rather not mention. Look at last years outfit. Would Bentley, Artell, Drummond, Mullin, Stanley give up when the chips are down? No doubt one of the posters on here close to the club will no doubt tell me that he had a cold/tight hamstring/sick grandmother, but that’s what I saw out there.
I can only liken it West Ham at the moment. Their best player and heartbeat is Scott Parker, which for as good a player as he is, he’s not going to keep them up because he’s not going to stop a team conceding shit goals that pub teams should keep out and he’s not going to score 15 goals to keep them up. Our top player is Craig Stanley, and falls into exactly the same mould. We are playing well, but conceding shit goals and not scoring at the other end. That says “Hello Blue Square Bet Premier” with loud shiny flashing lights.
One of the biggest quibbles I see on here and talking to friends at the ground is McIlroy’s player recruitment, and to me in turn, one of the major problems I have with the set up right now. Last season, only 2 teams spent more on agents than we did. Two, a deuce, snake eyes, a pair. We are in League 2. We are plucky little Morecambe, bloodying the nose of established League teams from the Great 92, endeavour, battle and good football triumphing over money and the establishment, and its something that Sammy bought into, yet all of a sudden, only Notts County (250k) and Grimsby spent more and both are sides far bigger than us. Now, everything has changed with the Globe Arena. We have gone from being a top amateur outfit to a club that now has the belief, and in my mind rightly so with the catchment area, that we can and should be a professional League 1 outfit getting 5000 at home. We have one of the best schools that produce Rugby Union talent in the country with the Grammar school, yet what attendances do Vale of Lune or any of the big sides in the area get? Well, I’ll wager not many, and the nearest you get to watch a top flight Rugby Union game is Stockport.
The pubs in Morecambe and Lancaster, for big Premiership/Champions League games are rammed. I’ve not checked recently but I’d wager that the supporters clubs for Blackburn, Preston, Blackpool, Liverpool and United are still going strong and taking at least a coach to the home games. Not a problem if we are a small non league outfit making a small loss each year, but if we are spending the most on agents, it would be safe to assume we are paying top dollar to the players each and every week. If we are doing that the money comes from somewhere, and as much as I am indebted for a club to support in the league 2 thanks the Directors that write off vast swathes of money each and every year, they are surely entitled in these hard economic times to say “hang on” and enquire what the commercial department do, the signs are never updated and I don’t hear adverts running on the Bay for home games, for christs sake, they sponsor an entire stand, why don’t we get more exposure on there? Surely if they sponsor the club, they’d want more people in to see the hoardings to in turn tune into the Bay, it’s the original “gift that keeps giving”. The rest of the sponsors by and large appear to be either the directors companies, firms that generically sponsor football teams or firms who get a lot of business out of the club – we should be further into the businesses of the area. Why don’t we offer concessions to season ticket holders of the bigger clubs?
Another point that brings us onto is the scouting in the club. Who does it? We spent £17000 on agents, 14 clubs didn’t even bother. Do we end up with gems like Dagenham and Accrington that no one has ever heard of, or win the signature of top players that other clubs don’t get, or do we continue to miss out on the bigger names whom favour the bigger clubs in bigger cities, or end up with journeymen from teams below us? The only one is Carl Baker to my knowledge, and Mark Duffy (who in my eyes is vastly overrated and certainly not work 30k or whatever we paid), and the possibility of this Hendrie kid if we get round to playing him, and whatever off casts Huddersfield don’t want that particular season. So our current player recruitment appears to be A) What the agents have got that no one else wants as we pay top dollar, B) anyone Liam Watson and Charlie Clapham have unearthed and need some cash for C) anyone Lillis can drag in by freeing up Huddersfields wage bill a bit. Does Dario Gradi worry about the age of a player or bung him in the deep end and see if they sink or swim? Why are we surprised that agents who are paid every time a player moves keeps hawking out the players they bring into our club? We reap what we sow there I’m afraid.
For this club to progress, we need to change our outlook. The ground is a prime example. Late, with design faults and little thought to what we might need past the function room facilities in the PMG Stand. I agree that the business plan required the new ground. Instead of 500 in the main stand and 1500 in the North Stand paying money to catering vans paying for pitches at the side, we need 1500 in seats buying beer from the club and not the York Hotel, and then the kids and singers in the home terrace with access to food and drink.
The internals of the PMG stand are amazing, really top notch, you won’t find the quality of finish in some Premier League players lounges and I’m not joking. So why didn’t they think about the rest of the ground? Why did they accept the MBW Stand when clearly they got the gradient in the steps wrong, hence those wooden boxes at the back? Why is the away end a potential crush problem waiting to happen? Why do the advertising hoardings look like a potential hazard for a player waiting to happen? We need to move from this blinkered mentality of being a non league club in the league to being a League Club looking upwards to League 1, as that is clearly what our budget suggests and the ambitions of the club. The ground is what it is saying that and hopefully is bringing in the revenues it was expected to and hopefully we will continue to see Victory Shield games at the ground and more things like the upcoming Charity Boxing event, things we wouldn’t have even considered 2 years ago so that’s going in the right direction, I’d just like to see more movement quicker.
Enough of the ranting but the problems are easy to see on the pitch.
1. No pace.
2. An imbalanced squad top heavy with high earning players. We have 4 wingers and not one was deemed good enough for the starting 11 on Saturday (why are we playing so narrow at the moment?) No right back but 6 centre halves and a left back who was deemed too shit after 3 games despite being a full international and drawing the attention of Blackpool when they were in the Championship 18 months ago. A wing back being played in a hamstrung role at Left Back.
3. Too many players whose legs have gone
4. A side bereft of fight and confidence, no leader. Charnock admittedly looks a good start
Now for the positives. Sammy McIlroy took the base of the Jim Harvey team, installed a belief that we could win away from home and brought in some Macc old boys that got that team over the line at Wembley. Turned Thommo into a player who turned up every week, not just the big games and a Championship player. Got us 250k for Carl Baker. League Cup run (twice now) JPT area final, 4th place finish last season, improved every year. He deserves and has earnt time to put right the obvious mistakes he’s made and deserves our unwavering support whilst he tries to turn it round, but at the moment, we are in serious danger of relegation, and look more like becoming Rushden and Diamonds than Wycombe Wanderers. We shouldn’t request a knee jerk reaction as both short and long term that gets us nowhere fast, but business is results based – the board need to sit down and set a mutually acceptable target and work towards hitting it. For me he has until after the Accrington home game and if we are not 14th or better, that would be the time to look hard and fast about the management structure at the club.
Hereford on Saturday another 3 points to be won or lost, and all is far from lost. We shouldn’t bin the manager for one bad season by any stretch, but equally we need to see that action is being taken to point us the right way. So - Health Abounds, Beauty Surrounds, come on Morecambe, Bring me some bloody sunshine as its chuffing freezing out here!!
P.S. Apologies to Mr Fitton for my impatience, I'd worked a long time on this bloody essay and wanted to put it up!
As a club now, we are now staring down the battle of a relegation battle for the first time since when we were near the bottom in the Ipswich season the first time round where we got out of jail with a few games to go.
Now, the game on Saturday, we played alright to be honest so long as we had the ball, with the ball we looked pretty good, played some nice stuff and on the balance of play, were unlucky not to get a point. The problem was pretty simple though, we didn’t have the quality or pace to turn their defence and were left to pinging good long shots from distance. Crewe aren’t brilliant, we know Arts is solid but last season with him in the side we conceded the same goals and chances we conceded on Sat. In essence, play in front of us we’re fine, play the alehouse ball over the top to some strong nippy forward and time and time again, Barrington of Roche is having to either keep us in it, or pick the ball out of the back of the net.
Last season was excellent, but papered over the cracks of an aging team having a last swansong and we have all the same problems this term. 64 goals we conceded last year, 71 including the playoffs. To put this in perspective, only 8 conceded more and 5 of those populated the bottom 5 places. What covered this up was having a strong large team that scared the bejesus out of teams at set pieces and we had Bentley, Artell, Mullin and Drummond all of which were busting a gut to get on the end of a whipped in corner.
This season we have the same problems, but none of the positives. When we were where we were last year, you could see that the team had the ability and the desire to change it, and they did. What were we treated to on Saturday? Clayton Donaldson taking the piss out of Chris McCready for 20 mins before he came off “injured” no doubt. To me, it looked like a man who didn’t fancy it and couldn’t get off the park quick enough, which was the first time I’ve ever seen that by anyone in Morecambe shirt with the exception of Rene Howe and a gentleman we signed from Southport who I’d rather not mention. Look at last years outfit. Would Bentley, Artell, Drummond, Mullin, Stanley give up when the chips are down? No doubt one of the posters on here close to the club will no doubt tell me that he had a cold/tight hamstring/sick grandmother, but that’s what I saw out there.
I can only liken it West Ham at the moment. Their best player and heartbeat is Scott Parker, which for as good a player as he is, he’s not going to keep them up because he’s not going to stop a team conceding shit goals that pub teams should keep out and he’s not going to score 15 goals to keep them up. Our top player is Craig Stanley, and falls into exactly the same mould. We are playing well, but conceding shit goals and not scoring at the other end. That says “Hello Blue Square Bet Premier” with loud shiny flashing lights.
One of the biggest quibbles I see on here and talking to friends at the ground is McIlroy’s player recruitment, and to me in turn, one of the major problems I have with the set up right now. Last season, only 2 teams spent more on agents than we did. Two, a deuce, snake eyes, a pair. We are in League 2. We are plucky little Morecambe, bloodying the nose of established League teams from the Great 92, endeavour, battle and good football triumphing over money and the establishment, and its something that Sammy bought into, yet all of a sudden, only Notts County (250k) and Grimsby spent more and both are sides far bigger than us. Now, everything has changed with the Globe Arena. We have gone from being a top amateur outfit to a club that now has the belief, and in my mind rightly so with the catchment area, that we can and should be a professional League 1 outfit getting 5000 at home. We have one of the best schools that produce Rugby Union talent in the country with the Grammar school, yet what attendances do Vale of Lune or any of the big sides in the area get? Well, I’ll wager not many, and the nearest you get to watch a top flight Rugby Union game is Stockport.
The pubs in Morecambe and Lancaster, for big Premiership/Champions League games are rammed. I’ve not checked recently but I’d wager that the supporters clubs for Blackburn, Preston, Blackpool, Liverpool and United are still going strong and taking at least a coach to the home games. Not a problem if we are a small non league outfit making a small loss each year, but if we are spending the most on agents, it would be safe to assume we are paying top dollar to the players each and every week. If we are doing that the money comes from somewhere, and as much as I am indebted for a club to support in the league 2 thanks the Directors that write off vast swathes of money each and every year, they are surely entitled in these hard economic times to say “hang on” and enquire what the commercial department do, the signs are never updated and I don’t hear adverts running on the Bay for home games, for christs sake, they sponsor an entire stand, why don’t we get more exposure on there? Surely if they sponsor the club, they’d want more people in to see the hoardings to in turn tune into the Bay, it’s the original “gift that keeps giving”. The rest of the sponsors by and large appear to be either the directors companies, firms that generically sponsor football teams or firms who get a lot of business out of the club – we should be further into the businesses of the area. Why don’t we offer concessions to season ticket holders of the bigger clubs?
Another point that brings us onto is the scouting in the club. Who does it? We spent £17000 on agents, 14 clubs didn’t even bother. Do we end up with gems like Dagenham and Accrington that no one has ever heard of, or win the signature of top players that other clubs don’t get, or do we continue to miss out on the bigger names whom favour the bigger clubs in bigger cities, or end up with journeymen from teams below us? The only one is Carl Baker to my knowledge, and Mark Duffy (who in my eyes is vastly overrated and certainly not work 30k or whatever we paid), and the possibility of this Hendrie kid if we get round to playing him, and whatever off casts Huddersfield don’t want that particular season. So our current player recruitment appears to be A) What the agents have got that no one else wants as we pay top dollar, B) anyone Liam Watson and Charlie Clapham have unearthed and need some cash for C) anyone Lillis can drag in by freeing up Huddersfields wage bill a bit. Does Dario Gradi worry about the age of a player or bung him in the deep end and see if they sink or swim? Why are we surprised that agents who are paid every time a player moves keeps hawking out the players they bring into our club? We reap what we sow there I’m afraid.
For this club to progress, we need to change our outlook. The ground is a prime example. Late, with design faults and little thought to what we might need past the function room facilities in the PMG Stand. I agree that the business plan required the new ground. Instead of 500 in the main stand and 1500 in the North Stand paying money to catering vans paying for pitches at the side, we need 1500 in seats buying beer from the club and not the York Hotel, and then the kids and singers in the home terrace with access to food and drink.
The internals of the PMG stand are amazing, really top notch, you won’t find the quality of finish in some Premier League players lounges and I’m not joking. So why didn’t they think about the rest of the ground? Why did they accept the MBW Stand when clearly they got the gradient in the steps wrong, hence those wooden boxes at the back? Why is the away end a potential crush problem waiting to happen? Why do the advertising hoardings look like a potential hazard for a player waiting to happen? We need to move from this blinkered mentality of being a non league club in the league to being a League Club looking upwards to League 1, as that is clearly what our budget suggests and the ambitions of the club. The ground is what it is saying that and hopefully is bringing in the revenues it was expected to and hopefully we will continue to see Victory Shield games at the ground and more things like the upcoming Charity Boxing event, things we wouldn’t have even considered 2 years ago so that’s going in the right direction, I’d just like to see more movement quicker.
Enough of the ranting but the problems are easy to see on the pitch.
1. No pace.
2. An imbalanced squad top heavy with high earning players. We have 4 wingers and not one was deemed good enough for the starting 11 on Saturday (why are we playing so narrow at the moment?) No right back but 6 centre halves and a left back who was deemed too shit after 3 games despite being a full international and drawing the attention of Blackpool when they were in the Championship 18 months ago. A wing back being played in a hamstrung role at Left Back.
3. Too many players whose legs have gone
4. A side bereft of fight and confidence, no leader. Charnock admittedly looks a good start
Now for the positives. Sammy McIlroy took the base of the Jim Harvey team, installed a belief that we could win away from home and brought in some Macc old boys that got that team over the line at Wembley. Turned Thommo into a player who turned up every week, not just the big games and a Championship player. Got us 250k for Carl Baker. League Cup run (twice now) JPT area final, 4th place finish last season, improved every year. He deserves and has earnt time to put right the obvious mistakes he’s made and deserves our unwavering support whilst he tries to turn it round, but at the moment, we are in serious danger of relegation, and look more like becoming Rushden and Diamonds than Wycombe Wanderers. We shouldn’t request a knee jerk reaction as both short and long term that gets us nowhere fast, but business is results based – the board need to sit down and set a mutually acceptable target and work towards hitting it. For me he has until after the Accrington home game and if we are not 14th or better, that would be the time to look hard and fast about the management structure at the club.
Hereford on Saturday another 3 points to be won or lost, and all is far from lost. We shouldn’t bin the manager for one bad season by any stretch, but equally we need to see that action is being taken to point us the right way. So - Health Abounds, Beauty Surrounds, come on Morecambe, Bring me some bloody sunshine as its chuffing freezing out here!!
P.S. Apologies to Mr Fitton for my impatience, I'd worked a long time on this bloody essay and wanted to put it up!