Morecambe 1 [Mendes-Gomes] Barrow 0 LIVE thread

[tim-sanchez]

Looks like a back 5 again with Songo'o at CB, to be honest I'd have subbed him. He's been sloppy in possession and I think he'll be off if he so much as looks at one of their players the wrong way.

[vanillaturtle]

Songoo CMG overrated worst players this game. phillips is horrible defensively and his balls in have been poor today. thank god we have halstead in or we would have lost this game. halstead has been class.

[Keith]

Weird game. We should have had a penalty before we scored. Looked head & shoulders above Barrow and I thought we were going to win easily. They go down to ten men and I was expecting a cricket score. Instead, we go to pieces. Barrow made all the clear chances for the rest of the game and should have had a penalty. In the end, I think we're lucky to have won. Which team had ten men?

A good three points, but far from convincing against ten men.

[dannymorc1]

The frustrations of watching Morecambe! So inconsistent!! Great to get the win though.

[tim-sanchez]

3 points are what matters, but a poor performance. Maybe the 120 minutes on Saturday showed tonight. I think Derek got it wrong tactically as well, we looked comfortable with 5 at the back, when NKP came off suddenly it opened up space for them to exploit and we lost confidence.

[Little Shrimp]

I thought playing against 10 men meant that you should have the advantage!?

Scintillating opening and a deserved lead. Then after the red card, just awful. Can't really single out anybody as there were lots of shoddy performances. Looked like there was a bit of post extra time fatigue maybe?

Brilliant against Salford and lose, then awful against 10 men of Barrow and win. Football is a daft game!

[lancaster shrimp]

May not have been a great performance, but as mentioned, did extra time have an impact? Anyway home win, clean sheet, fantastic 72 hours. Up the reds

[BerlinWaller]

Great result against local rivals. A hard 120 minutes on Saturday followed up with 3pts and a clean sheet tonight. What a week.

[Vinny]

Great start from us. We should have had a pen, then a great goal from Carlos. Shock red card for them, then we were second best to everything, very poor and disappointing for an hour Well done to 10-men Barrow for making a game of it. Missed Wildig tonight, and Kenyon as said by others, but at least he was on the bench. 3 points and clean sheet, take that. Onto the next when we'll need to be much better. Well done for the all important 3 points if not bragging rights!

[Westgate Wanderer]

A hard fought win against a spirited 10 man Barrow. 3 points, clean sheet AJ playing, a good few days really. Onwards and upwards

[Screenster]

Didn't think I'd say this but Songo'o is fast becoming one of my favourite players. Definitely not the most technically gifted but does the simple stuff well and looks brilliant out of possession, broke up lots of attacks today and goes after every ball.

[Slanester]

3 points against Barrow......that’ll do nicely. Good of the lads to ease up on them, after what looked like a pretty harsh sending off. Next!!

[black morse]

The frustrations of watching Morecambe! So inconsistent!! Great to get the win though.

You hear it said often that 'The good teams manage to get 3 points even when they don't play well'.
Well done to get the 3 points lads!

[Little Shrimp]

Had a watch of the highlights - in hindsight I think the ref was actually spot on with the red. Not sure CMG really does enough to cause Hird to go down.

Feels more like he tries to buy a free kick (doing a Beeley, and now a Mellor) and handles the ball when going down, or taps it with his hand and tries to buy a free kick.

[Alan]

Some thoughts on last night......

One pass in particular made me smile. It was probably to most people a nothing pass, but to me it showed a bit of class that I sometimes think we lack.

AJ picked up the ball just over the halfway line with the full back making a run down the wing. He pinged the ball out with purpose making the player speed up to get possession and hopefully the momentum to
continue with a quick attack. Often we see passes to our wide players forcing them to wait for a slow
pea-roller of a pass or even go back for it. Ping the passes to them..they are professional players they should be able to control it. A good pass can help take away any indecision by the receiver, rather than
costing vital time wondering what to do next.

David (Freez) commented on a 'Hollywood ' pass by Philips last night which came to nothing. Drummy also used to take some stick for such passes.One in 4 or 5 might come off, so may seem a waste, but is it the passers fault? Such passes need other players in the team to be aware and alert that such balls could be on, even if they are on the other side of the pitch.
After a few games together as we all know, John Norman and Justin Jackson seemed to get an understanding which worked really well- JJ realised that JN was capable of putting the ball on the spot
and JN knew that so long as the ball was within his vicinty JJ would get on the end of it.
Possibly because of more rotation in team selection players are not getting chance to get on the same wavelength. Even the commentators on PL and Euro matches go into raptures over a 50-60 yard pass these days. I'm not advocating that we should be trying them all the time, but we should be aware that one could be on.

Apologies for the rant but sometimes I feel the match threads are a little superficial and not enough
fans give their opinions on the way we play, and what we would like to see, but flock to post on
Brexit, political and Covid threads which I am sure have turned many away from posting or even looking in.

[BerlinWaller]

I'm with you Alan but I do wish you passed a little more at fat knackers instead of shooting from the corner of your own box all the time

The pass from Phillips caught my eye. I've been critical of Adam because i feel he hides a bit when he has the ability to really dictate a game. His ball for Carlos was so good it only needed one touch.

We do tend to be sloppy when passing. There is nothing more frustrating than a misplaced 10hard pass or when the ball is played behind an attacker making a forward run. I used to feel sorry for the winger waiting for one of Drummy's passes to come out of the sky. They must have had one eye on the ball and one on the full back steaming in.

[Little Shrimp]

I think you make a couple of excellent points Alan.

In regards to Phillips, I think he is very much a risk and reward player. He ballooned some daft passes that were never on, but also pulled out a seriously good pass that set us up for the only goal of the game. Whoscored gave him MOTM based on their ratings (which isn't the be all and end all), but I think the most important stat is the fact that was recorded making eight key passes last night, which is phenomenal.

https://www.whoscored.com/Matches/14869 ... mbe-Barrow

To a degree, you don't want to muzzle Phillips too much and stop him trying these passes as while a few go astray, he generally consistently produces assists and goals. On the flip side, I think he does need to learn to moderate better and pick his moments. It's a balancing act, a few stray passes can be forgiven as overall it's him trying to make things happen, but he also does need to learn when to play it a bit simpler. And with some of his short passing he needs to concentrate a bit more as a few easy passes get mislaid I notice.

He's not far from being comfortably one of the best midfielders in League Two in my opinion. He just needs to make sure to pick his moments better and make sure that when he's not pulling off match winning moments, he's still contributing in helping the team tick over.

In general, I think passing and possession play is a problem with our side. There are moments in the game when we put ourselves under more and more pressure by not keeping the ball very well. I like our style but there are times when we need to be better at keeping the ball and take the sting out of opposition momentum, and shift them back a bit towards their own goal.

[BerlinWaller]

The way we use the ball now is streets ahead of where we were in recent years. We were ponderous with the ball with no clear strategy to get in in to a goal scoring opportunity. The slow passing between Old and Sam with numerous pass backs was so hard to watch and invited pressure from the opposition. Derek has a more simple and direct style. The CB's have minimal time on the ball and you can see how we are trying to move it forward more. We have CMG who can carry it and midfielders who keep it moving with short passes.

Totally agree about your comments regarding Adam. We don't want to limit him or suppress his flair but we need to demand more from him because he is good enough. I don't mind a wayward pass if the intention is to create and attack. Much rather see him trying that than passing on the responsibility with short easy passes. He is top top quality.

[Freez]

Adam Phillips reminds me, passing wise, of Brian Healey, from the point of view of he has two good feet and isn’t afraid to keep trying the passes even when they don’t come off, for whatever reason.
He has the courage to keep trying, which reminds me of Brian, who would keep playing his game, something that Drummy learned from him I suspect.

[Keith]

Apologies for the rant but sometimes I feel the match threads are a little superficial and not enough
fans give their opinions on the way we play, and what we would like to see...

I didn't read it as a "rant" in any way, it was a thoughtful, decent post. I agree, I'd love to see more people posting views on the match thread, either live, while we're all stuck at home watching, or once fans are allowed back in games, soon after.

I thought the comparison with a young Drummie is a fair one, and Norman/Jacko partnership as a great example of what happens when two players are on the same wavelength.