Another turgid defeat - the current state of play

[SupermarketShrimp]

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!

[George Dawes]

well thats easy for you to say


nah thats well said, some very good points in there

[outsider]

Welcome to the mad house,

[marky]

A very well written and inciteful piece. Actually, it's a great critique of the club and one I wish our local journalists would have more balls to write. There's very little I would disagree with, other than the timing of assessing Sammy McIlroy's position.

[Seasider9601]

That guy "who we signed from Southport who you'd rather not mention" is on the verge of signing for League 1 AFC Bournemouth would you believe .... Unbelievable how this doofus keeps on attracting attention of League clubs.

Anyway, great post, great points made.

[Caged Lion]

Phew

That was one hell of a first post goneshrimping!

Lots of interesting points, many that I would agree with. However, I thought the team played quite well on Saturday. It was a good game of football but Crewe had the speedy, dangerous cutting edge that we lack, and we lost despite trying hard. Stanley, Duffy, Parrish, Jevons didn't give up all game and with that kind of attitude we will begin to cobble together enough points to avoid relegation.

My solution is for everyone with an interest in Morecambe to focus more on the positives, roll the sleeves up another notch and drink from a glass half full whilst wearing dense rose tinted glasses. Even if that doesn't improve results we will at least feel happier.

Come on Morecambe.

[SupermarketShrimp]

That was the best I've seen us play all season and still should have conceded at least 4 and were only ever restricted to long shots on goal. 4 people contributing is not enough. The whole thing needs to be changed almost from the captain all the way down. McIlroy deserves his chance to sort it as he's taken us so far, but given the last 4 games I've been to all I've seen is Jim marshall the subs and offer support to the back 4 whilst warming up and Lillis contributing from the technical area. I'm worried that he's not got the inclination or fight to sort it out, we need to write off the season, get the squad sorted, finish 12th and be happy with it and have a firm plan for next year.

However I fear that the ship has already sailed and some people in the club are waiting for contracts to be paid up or move in the next window. I hope to be proven wrong.

The worst situation I can envisage is one where we have no decision, which is obviously the wrong decision and we amble into March needing results to stay in this league. You need to be monumentally shit to get relegated from this division, we'd get turned over by at least the top 5 in the conference at the moment, but we are currently hitting all the notes of being that monumentally shit.

[Heysham_Shrimp]

That was the best I've seen us play all season and still should have conceded at least 4 and were only ever restricted to long shots on goal. 4 people contributing is not enough. The whole thing needs to be changed almost from the captain all the way down. McIlroy deserves his chance to sort it as he's taken us so far, but given the last 4 games I've been to all I've seen is Jim marshall the subs and offer support to the back 4 whilst warming up and Lillis contributing from the technical area. I'm worried that he's not got the inclination or fight to sort it out, we need to write off the season, get the squad sorted, finish 12th and be happy with it and have a firm plan for next year.

However I fear that the ship has already sailed and some people in the club are waiting for contracts to be paid up or move in the next window. I hope to be proven wrong.

The worst situation I can envisage is one where we have no decision, which is obviously the wrong decision and we amble into March needing results to stay in this league. You need to be monumentally shit to get relegated from this division, we'd get turned over by at least the top 5 in the conference at the moment, but we are currently hitting all the notes of being that monumentally shit.

listening to Sammy on Radio Lancs tonight , he says he is working hard to sort things out and confident that he will.
I think it is a very small minority who want to change leaders immediately.
Sammy has enough goodwill to be given the January window and beyond to turn things round. History shows that clubs who make knee-jerk management changes during the season very rarely benefit in the end. Think Darlington and Grimsby last season.

[Sammy h]

History doesn't always show that it is a bad thing. History is history!

SAMMY OUT

[George Dawes]

not just yet

although SM as brought this on himself, he deserves i bit more time and a ace card of a forward in the next transfer window whos goals can shoot us up the table

and if he signs any more fricking defenders then that will finish me with SM..

[mrpotatohead]

which striker, doing well anywhere else is going to come here in january

[marky No.1]

which striker, doing well anywhere else is going to come here in january

Craig Bellamy is fed up with the snow in Wales so is coming on 3 months loan till the weather gets warmer. However the management consider him not quick enough so until we get him up to speed he will be warming the bench for the first few games

[P/T Indie]

You have just summed up the club perfectly an excellant post and all backed up with evidence.

I agree that when we have the ball we do play some good stuff but when we don't we strugglr it's just the team has no organisation without Jimbo and like you say no pace. However our problem since we got promoted has always been when teams run at us we just back off and let them run right through us.

Also you provide an excellant summary of our recruitment policy we seem to be bringing in all these journeymen that are coming just to pick up a wage, now I remember Jim Harvey saying the reason he wanted to bring kids through was because these older pros dropping down the leagues just want a final pay day, I think we are now seeing this.

The Lawrence Wilson signing still baffles me when Chester went down you would have thought Sammy would have been banging on their door for Ryan Lowe and Wilson instead halfway through the summer Wilson asked Dave Artell if he could come for a trial because he still hadn't found a club, why wasn't Sammy onto him earlier. That was the same summer that Mark Hudson came on trial because he asked Danny Adams if he could have a trial you start to wonder what players Sammy actually goes out and scouts and which ones are just done off recomendations of other people.

[Posh]

The Lawrence Wilson signing still baffles me when Chester went down you would have thought Sammy would have been banging on their door for Ryan Lowe and Wilson instead halfway through the summer Wilson asked Dave Artell if he could come for a trial because he still hadn't found a club, why wasn't Sammy onto him earlier. That was the same summer that Mark Hudson came on trial because he asked Danny Adams if he could have a trial you start to wonder what players Sammy actually goes out and scouts and which ones are just done off recomendations of other people.

This is a bit confused Phil but I know what you're getting at. Lawrence Wilson was a recommendation from a fan who had badgered the club about him but finally got a hearing when agent and former Morecambe player Neil Sang sent a fax through of available players. He'd never been watched.

Ryan Lowe I was told was disruptive in the dressing room. This was at a time when he had fallen out with Mark Wright, which to be honest should have counted for him.

[P/T Indie]

The Lawrence Wilson signing still baffles me when Chester went down you would have thought Sammy would have been banging on their door for Ryan Lowe and Wilson instead halfway through the summer Wilson asked Dave Artell if he could come for a trial because he still hadn't found a club, why wasn't Sammy onto him earlier. That was the same summer that Mark Hudson came on trial because he asked Danny Adams if he could have a trial you start to wonder what players Sammy actually goes out and scouts and which ones are just done off recomendations of other people.

This is a bit confused Phil but I know what you're getting at. Lawrence Wilson was a recommendation from a fan who had badgered the club about him but finally got a hearing when agent and former Morecambe player Neil Sang sent a fax through of available players. He'd never been watched.

Ryan Lowe I was told was disruptive in the dressing room. This was at a time when he had fallen out with Mark Wright, which to be honest should have counted for him.

I must have heard another story then but the question still is why he wasn't on Sammy's radar it was obvious Chester were in trouble and we had all seen how good Wilson was against us so you thought he would be worth a look. Really I would have expected us to be sending someone to watch Chester quite a few times that season to see if there was anyone worthwhile grabbing.

[The Fury]

you start to wonder what players Sammy actually goes out and scouts and which ones are just done off recomendations of other people.

I think it's time to accept that there isn’t even a semblance of a scouting network at the club. Any sensible manager will surely, by the second half of every season, have identified, or at least have an idea of, which areas his team needs strengthening, and whom he is going to get rid of. Sammy simply doesn't think like this. In short: he panics, and this is evident year on year. For example, as the original poster pointed out, we now have a ‘top-heavy’ squad with too much competition for players in one position and not enough in another. The reality is that Sammy doesn’t identify which players he needs; he looks at who is available, whom his contacts can get him (speaking of this why haven’t we exploited his very public long-standing association with Manchester United?), and who possesses Sammy’s sacred buzzword of ‘experience’ in their CV. Honestly, look back at the reports announcing Sammy’s signings on the official website and try and find me more than five instances where he hasn’t uttered the phrase “bring great experience” or a variation thereof. As the original poster pointed out, this policy was all well and good get8ting us to the Football League but 4 seasons later the cracks in the system are beginning to show.

Furthermore, he also offers silly contracts to existing bit-part players (Neil Wainwright, Matthew Blinkhorn anyone) further enhancing the notion that, come April/May, he doesn’t have a clue what he is going to do in the next season. In my view, this is one of the fundamental reasons why we continually start so slowly; Sammy spends the first couple of months of the season fannying about with his formation and line-up trying to work out where his new recruits can fit into the team.

What needs to be change immediately is the scouting network at the football club. It’s simply unacceptable that we can pay the amount we have done for players in agent and signing on fees and not be identifying players that not only can help us progress but whom we can make a profit on in the long-run.

[SupermarketShrimp]

you start to wonder what players Sammy actually goes out and scouts and which ones are just done off recomendations of other people.

I think it's time to accept that there isn’t even a semblance of a scouting network at the club. Any sensible manager will surely, by the second half of every season, have identified, or at least have an idea of, which areas his team needs strengthening, and whom he is going to get rid of. Sammy simply doesn't think like this. In short: he panics, and this is evident year on year. For example, as the original poster pointed out, we now have a ‘top-heavy’ squad with too much competition for players in one position and not enough in another. The reality is that Sammy doesn’t identify which players he needs; he looks at who is available, whom his contacts can get him (speaking of this why haven’t we exploited his very public long-standing association with Manchester United?), and who possesses Sammy’s sacred buzzword of ‘experience’ in their CV. Honestly, look back at the reports announcing Sammy’s signings on the official website and try and find me more than five instances where he hasn’t uttered the phrase “bring great experience” or a variation thereof. As the original poster pointed it, this policy was all well and good get8ting us to the Football League but 4 seasons later the cracks in the system are beginning to show.

Furthermore, he also offers silly contracts to existing bit-part players (Neil Wainwright, Matthew Blinkhorn anyone) further enhancing the notion that, come April/May, he doesn’t have a clue what he is going to do in the next season. In my view, this is one of the fundamental reasons why we continually start so slowly; Sammy spends the first couple of months of the season fannying about with his formation and line-up trying to work out where his new recruits can fit into the team.

What needs to be change immediately is the scouting network at the football club. It’s simply unacceptable that we can pay the amount we have done for players in agent and signing on fees and not be identifying players that not only can help us progress but whom we can make a profit on in the long-run.

I couldn't agree more and why we don't pay some of the long standing fans of the club expenses to go and watch non league games and potter round parks on Sundays expense money for petrol and a bovril is a mystery to me. I'm not talking some of the kids that bang a drum and support the club, as needed as what they are, I'm talking about some of the long suffering fans that's watched our level of football for 15 years plus and can bring some names back to the table for the management to at least go and look at themselves. Saying that, do we actually have a scout? I'm so that Jim Bentley would happily go and watch a few Liverpool based fixtures to further expand his learning of the management side of things in the same way that Colemans assistant who's name escapes me do.

As I said at the start, we need to progress from a top non league looking up to the league to a league club feasting on the non league experience and players to take us on to the "next step" a self financing football club relying on its own talent and growing as a result, not merely a bloated club living off a few sugar daddies with an attendance that doesn't support it, because I'll tell anyone now, as we move up, the players demand more and the agents demand more and we will be in the same situation of writing off between 250k and half a million a year. How long can we do that for?

The parallels to the recent economic recession are quite apt really. We are not producing anything, we are merely pumping a mechanism full of money it can never pay back to get it to be as big as it can. Whereas going to Bradford is fun for a few years, I want to be going to places like Huddersfield or Oldham in League 1 for 20 years, not bombing round shitholes in the Lancashire cup in Feburary again.

To do that we desperately desperately need to produce our own to make the present business plan work. It is all fine and well building a new stadium to increase match day revenues but if the playing staff and transfer costs increase with it the whole project has been in vein.

[P/T Indie]

What needs to be change immediately is the scouting network at the football club. It’s simply unacceptable that we can pay the amount we have done for players in agent and signing on fees and not be identifying players that not only can help us progress but whom we can make a profit on in the long-run.[/quote]

I couldn't agree more and why we don't pay some of the long standing fans of the club expenses to go and watch non league games and potter round parks on Sundays expense money for petrol and a bovril is a mystery to me. I'm not talking some of the kids that bang a drum and support the club, as needed as what they are, I'm talking about some of the long suffering fans that's watched our level of football for 15 years plus and can bring some names back to the table for the management to at least go and look at themselves. Saying that, do we actually have a scout? I'm so that Jim Bentley would happily go and watch a few Liverpool based fixtures to further expand his learning of the management side of things in the same way that Colemans assistant who's name escapes me do.


Funny you mention this me and mate were talking about it the other day that we can’t imagine Sammy going standing in a field on a Thursday night watching lower league games or local under 18’s games etc. We then said I bet Jimbo would quite happily go and watch some local games around Liverpool.

[essex_shrimp]

I am enjoying reading about this topic.

I personally think every game I go or listen to about Morecambe before and after is always dull defensive errors.

And personally I would play in the next game.

Roche

Wilson McCready/Haining with Bentley(bring the legend back) Parrish

Duffy Stanley Fleming Shucker/Brown


Jevons and Spencer


And keep the back for the same please sammy I know alot of stupid goals (soft goals letting in) but if sammy keep the same back four injury free for 2-3 games things could improve and Jevons is starting to score again

[Christies Child]

you start to wonder what players Sammy actually goes out and scouts and which ones are just done off recomendations of other people.

I think it's time to accept that there isn’t even a semblance of a scouting network at the club. Any sensible manager will surely, by the second half of every season, have identified, or at least have an idea of, which areas his team needs strengthening, and whom he is going to get rid of. Sammy simply doesn't think like this. In short: he panics, and this is evident year on year. For example, as the original poster pointed out, we now have a ‘top-heavy’ squad with too much competition for players in one position and not enough in another. The reality is that Sammy doesn’t identify which players he needs; he looks at who is available, whom his contacts can get him (speaking of this why haven’t we exploited his very public long-standing association with Manchester United?), and who possesses Sammy’s sacred buzzword of ‘experience’ in their CV. Honestly, look back at the reports announcing Sammy’s signings on the official website and try and find me more than five instances where he hasn’t uttered the phrase “bring great experience” or a variation thereof. As the original poster pointed out, this policy was all well and good get8ting us to the Football League but 4 seasons later the cracks in the system are beginning to show.

Furthermore, he also offers silly contracts to existing bit-part players (Neil Wainwright, Matthew Blinkhorn anyone) further enhancing the notion that, come April/May, he doesn’t have a clue what he is going to do in the next season. In my view, this is one of the fundamental reasons why we continually start so slowly; Sammy spends the first couple of months of the season fannying about with his formation and line-up trying to work out where his new recruits can fit into the team.

What needs to be change immediately is the scouting network at the football club. It’s simply unacceptable that we can pay the amount we have done for players in agent and signing on fees and not be identifying players that not only can help us progress but whom we can make a profit on in the long-run.

It's no secret that our manager isn't on my Christmas Card list, but in fairness he has identified the 3 players he wants in January and passed those names over to our Chairman, who with assistance from our Vice Chairman will open negotiations with the player / club / agent concerned. Graham H is basically the one who puts any deal together.

As for his former colleagues at Man Utd, he has never gone back to his former employers throughout his managerial career at any club. As to why....form your own conclusions!

His record on new signings isn't that good, but a lot of clubs could say the same about their management team.

[Seasider9601]

I once had a fascinating conversation with the (very) well educated Iain Dowie when he was manager of Oldham Athletic around 8 or 9 years ago now.

We got chatting about Morecambe (we were in the Conference at the time of course) and Iain knew all about the talents of Stewart Drummond and told me (and I can remember this word for word) "that there are plenty of unpolished diamonds to be found in Non League."

A couple of weeks later he went out and signed Fitz Hall from Chesham United of all people. A quality defender who has changed hands for a few million quid to various clubs ever since (most notably Wigan Athletic and QPR). Fitz went STRAIGHT into the Oldham team (as did Wayne Andrews too, also from Chesham).

We have signed Mr Hendrie from Atherstone who could also be this "unpolished diamond". But Sammy seems reluctant to play him for whatever reason ?

[Seasider9601]

I couldn't agree more and why we don't pay some of the long standing fans of the club expenses to go and watch non league games and potter round parks on Sundays expense money for petrol and a bovril is a mystery to me.

This is precisely how Wayne Curtis was spotted and recruited years ago as I recall.

A good shout and good idea to start implementing again Indie.

Having said that ... we also recruited Mickey Waller from Bishop Auckland (?) in the same way and Jeeeeeees .... he was absolute dobbins !!!

(Coley's assistant is Jimmy Bell btw mate)

[Freez]

Barrow wasnt he?

At least Mickey Waller quit!!!

[marky No.1]

And personally I would play in the next gam

If you can run like a gazelle you are in!

[Posh]

Barrow wasnt he?

At least Mickey Waller quit!!!

Wasn't it Holker Old Boys? Thommo was playing junior football in Kendal when he was spotted.

Paul Mullin mentioned to me that Coley watches over 100 games a season other than his own. John Still reckons he watches 150 games a season. Imagine the savings on signing on fees and agents of a Paul Benson from White Ensign. Sammy says he prefers experienced pros and that's what we're likely to see playing for us.