1st signing

[Keith]

You have big Stockton type shoes to fill (hope you don't have a shit attitude like him), but you have joined a great family type club and we will back you to the hilt.

If he gives 100% in every game, he'll be far more useful than Sicknote-Stockton was last season.

[Phoenix Shrimp 2017]

You have big Stockton type shoes to fill (hope you don't have a shit attitude like him), but you have joined a great family type club and we will back you to the hilt.

If he gives 100% in every game, he'll be far more useful than Sicknote-Stockton was last season.

Too true. Stockton a great player for Morecambe (no one else like), but severely blotted his reputation in that last season. Only came to life near the end when he was looking for a new club and decided to start playing again with that in mind.

[Freez]

Alex Gilliead is an interesting one. He was Scunthorpes best player in the 1-1 draw at Glanford Park in our promotion season, and got himself a two year deal at Bratfut, Hughes doesn’t want him but he did a job for DA. Very skilful and can pick a pass. Hope this comes off as I’ve always liked him.

[CityShrimp]

No hatred towards Stockton but it’s good to see the striking department get freshened up.

[redrobo]

No hatred towards Stockton but it’s good to see the striking department get freshened up.

Good to hear BUT there is some hatred towards Cole which I find totally uncalled for.

I've said it before but it was our shambolic defense that resulted in our relegation .....

[Keith]

No hatred towards Stockton but it’s good to see the striking department get freshened up.

Good to hear BUT there is some hatred towards Cole which I find totally uncalled for.

I've said it before but it was our shambolic defense that resulted in our relegation .....

If he'd played for the first two-thirds of the season, like he played the last third, we wouldn't have been relegated. Most games at the start of the season, we had ten men.

[Redalert1970]

Simple fact is Stockton spat his dummy out and cost us relegation

He as done well for us in the past but it`s the past

Lets concentrate on players who want to play for MORECAMBE FC (next season and beyond)

[Keith]

I've said it before but it was our shambolic defense that resulted in our relegation .....

2021/22 Goals for 57: Goals against 88: Goal Difference -31
2022/23 Goals for 47: Goals against 78: Goal Difference -31

Our "shambolic defence" conceded ten fewer goals last season, when we were relegated, than the season before, when we weren't. That's an 18% improvement.

Meanwhile...

2021/22 Stockton played 44 Scored 23
2022/23 Stockton played 39 Scored 11 (with just 5 goals in the first 33 games and zero goals until December)

If Stockton hadn't sulked for the start of the season, we'd have picked up enough points to stay up. Not saying it was 100% his fault, but an awful lot of the responsibility was his.

[CityShrimp]

If Stockton hadn't sulked for the start of the season, we'd have picked up enough points to stay up. Not saying it was 100% his fault, but an awful lot of the responsibility was his.

Arguably true, but Cole single handedly kept us up in 21/22 with his goals. To my mind, his 21/22 exploits cancel out his temper tantrum last season and vice versa, hence overall I think I’m neutral towards him. It is a shame though because he could have achieved legendary status with us.

[redrobo]

The final league table for EFL1 shows Lincoln in 11th place with 47 goals for and 47 goals against. Exactly the same number of goals for as we had....

If our defense had been a lot better we would have still been in EFL1....no matter how many or few Cole scored.

I still maintain that it was our horrendous goals against that cost us relegation.

[RapidShrimp]

The final league table for EFL1 shows Lincoln in 11th place with 47 goals for and 47 goals against. Exactly the same number of goals for as we had....

If our defense had been a lot better we would have still been in EFL1....no matter how many or few Cole scored.

I still maintain that it was our horrendous goals against that cost us relegation.

The final league table for EFL1 also shows Burton conceded 79 goals (one more than us!) and finished healthily in mid-table, 11 points from the dropzone.

If our attack had been a lot better we would have still been in EFL1....no matter how many goals we conceded.

We could do this all day RR. It's over, we're down, move on. We had no penalties all season, that lack of fortune is what cost us, nothing else.

[redrobo]

Most certainly time to move on, it's just that everybody appears to blame Cole for our relegation which for me is simply not true.....and that's my final word on this subject everybody will be pleased to read.

Time to concentrate on supporting OUR relatively new team in what will be a difficult season BUT this is now 100% DA's team so no excuses for nothing less than mid table although a promotion push can't be ruled out....

Eagerly looking forward to more news of new signings this coming week plus maybe a surprise or two.....

[black morse]

Most certainly time to move on, it's just that everybody appears to blame Cole for our relegation which for me is simply not true.....and that's my final word on this subject everybody will be pleased to read.

Time to concentrate on supporting OUR relatively new team in what will be a difficult season BUT this is now 100% DA's team so no excuses for nothing less than mid table although a promotion push can't be ruled out....

Eagerly looking forward to more news of new signings this coming week plus maybe a surprise or two.....

Have you been asleep for the last 6 months RR? Our financial troubles are NOT over and the ownership problem has no end in sight and you say no excuses for not being at least mid table?

I'l be happy to stay up this year if the ownership is not resolved.

[jbc.shrimp]

Alex Gilliead is an interesting one. He was Scunthorpes best player in the 1-1 draw at Glanford Park in our promotion season, and got himself a two year deal at Bratfut, Hughes doesn’t want him but he did a job for DA. Very skilful and can pick a pass. Hope this comes off as I’ve always liked him.

Freez, do you know that D.A. has been interested in him, or are you suggesting a player we could go for ? Just curious.

[Old Man Kensey]

Most certainly time to move on, it's just that everybody appears to blame Cole for our relegation which for me is simply not true.....and that's my final word on this subject everybody will be pleased to read.

Time to concentrate on supporting OUR relatively new team in what will be a difficult season BUT this is now 100% DA's team so no excuses for nothing less than mid table although a promotion push can't be ruled out....

Eagerly looking forward to more news of new signings this coming week plus maybe a surprise or two.....

Jesus wept. The guy spent months doing absolutely nothing. I bet he didn't need a shower after a game until January. We Carried the no doubt talented but work shy fucker for half the season. Yes he cost us big time.

[Freez]

Bradford have offered him a pay cut contract, so he is weighing up his options according to the rumour mill!!

[Redalert1970]

Looks like Baccus is going from St Mirren to Bolton for £275.000 (according to Daily Record) - which would boost their coffers to come hunting for Jacob Badeau

Cant` see Jacob been a Morecambe player come the 1st game of the season

[turnbull-9]

Most certainly time to move on, it's just that everybody appears to blame Cole for our relegation which for me is simply not true.....and that's my final word on this subject everybody will be pleased to read.

Time to concentrate on supporting OUR relatively new team in what will be a difficult season BUT this is now 100% DA's team so no excuses for nothing less than mid table although a promotion push can't be ruled out....

Eagerly looking forward to more news of new signings this coming week plus maybe a surprise or two.....

Jesus wept. The guy spent months doing absolutely nothing. I bet he didn't need a shower after a game until January. We Carried the no doubt talented but work shy fucker for half the season. Yes he cost us big time.

Jesus wept. Football is a team game not an individual game, how on earth can you blame one player for our relegation, that's just absurd. After all his goals kept us up last season and that was easily his best season across his career, he has never been a prolific goal scorer prior to that, it was unlikely he was going to score as many goals as than the season before..

We conceded too many goals, Donald Love, Max Melbourne and Liam Gibson were just not good enough. If it wasn't for Connor Ripley then we would have conceded a lot more goals. And would have still gone down.

The fact is we were not good enough all round as a team to stay up. Yes in parts we were unlucky but in football you get good luck and bad luck. Swings and roundabouts.

Hopefully we can assemble a team good enough to keep us in League 2 this season, as that is our main concern as in our current situation being relegated again is a real possibility, so attempt to stay up and build from there.

[vvm]

Agree that it's probably unfair to pin the blame on one player but we only needed 2 or 3 more points to stay up. Turn a couple of draws into wins and we'd have achieved that.

Cole showed he hadn't completely lost it with his performances in the last 4 games so if he hadn't have sulked for months he could have got those extra goals for us no problem.

[Old Man Kensey]

Most certainly time to move on, it's just that everybody appears to blame Cole for our relegation which for me is simply not true.....and that's my final word on this subject everybody will be pleased to read.

Time to concentrate on supporting OUR relatively new team in what will be a difficult season BUT this is now 100% DA's team so no excuses for nothing less than mid table although a promotion push can't be ruled out....

Eagerly looking forward to more news of new signings this coming week plus maybe a surprise or two.....

Jesus wept. The guy spent months doing absolutely nothing. I bet he didn't need a shower after a game until January. We Carried the no doubt talented but work shy fucker for half the season. Yes he cost us big time.

Jesus wept. Football is a team game not an individual game, how on earth can you blame one player for our relegation, that's just absurd. After all his goals kept us up last season and that was easily his best season across his career, he has never been a prolific goal scorer prior to that, it was unlikely he was going to score as many goals as than the season before..

We conceded too many goals, Donald Love, Max Melbourne and Liam Gibson were just not good enough. If it wasn't for Connor Ripley then we would have conceded a lot more goals. And would have still gone down.

The fact is we were not good enough all round as a team to stay up. Yes in parts we were unlucky but in football you get good luck and bad luck. Swings and roundabouts.

Hopefully we can assemble a team good enough to keep us in League 2 this season, as that is our main concern as in our current situation being relegated again is a real possibility, so attempt to stay up and build from there.

I never said that Cole was the only reason that resulted in us going down. However he was a major factor in our downfall. In 30 years of following Morecambe I cannot remember anyone putting in so many below par performances over such a prolonged period of time.

[Keith]

Jesus wept. Football is a team game not an individual game, how on earth can you blame one player for our relegation, that's just absurd. After all his goals kept us up last season and that was easily his best season across his career, he has never been a prolific goal scorer prior to that, it was unlikely he was going to score as many goals as than the season before..

Not saying it was all his fault, but you surely agree, until December, we were generally playing with ten men? I remember one instance, where he'd ambled out to the wing. Gibson (I think) beat two opposition players, only to find Stockton stood still, directly in front of him, so Gibbo had to go around him too. He was then left with no one to pass to, as Stockton strolled towards the half-way line. If he'd given 100% commitment all season, I am sure we'd have picked up the extra couple of points that we'd need to stay up.

We conceded too many goals, Donald Love, Max Melbourne and Liam Gibson were just not good enough. If it wasn't for Connor Ripley then we would have conceded a lot more goals. And would have still gone down.

But, as I pointed out, the defence was a huge improvement over the season before, conceding almost 20% fewer goals. It wasn't a great defence, but it was a lot better than in the season before.

Sulking-Stockton last season was a clear demonstration of the old cliche;

'Hard work beats talent, when talent doesn't work hard'.

[black morse]

Jesus wept. Football is a team game not an individual game, how on earth can you blame one player for our relegation, that's just absurd. After all his goals kept us up last season and that was easily his best season across his career, he has never been a prolific goal scorer prior to that, it was unlikely he was going to score as many goals as than the season before..

Not saying it was all his fault, but you surely agree, until December, we were generally playing with ten men? I remember one instance, where he'd ambled out to the wing. Gibson (I think) beat two opposition players, only to find Stockton stood still, directly in front of him, so Gibbo had to go around him too. He was then left with no one to pass to, as Stockton strolled towards the half-way line. If he'd given 100% commitment all season, I am sure we'd have picked up the extra couple of points that we'd need to stay up.

We conceded too many goals, Donald Love, Max Melbourne and Liam Gibson were just not good enough. If it wasn't for Connor Ripley then we would have conceded a lot more goals. And would have still gone down.

But, as I pointed out, the defence was a huge improvement over the season before, conceding almost 20% fewer goals. It wasn't a great defence, but it was a lot better than in the season before.

Sulking-Stockton last season was a clear demonstration of the old cliche;

'[b]Hard work beats talent, when talent doesn't work hard[/b]'.

In the case in question I think you could leave out the last word in the last sentence Keith!

[turnbull-9]

Not saying it was all his fault, but you surely agree, until December, we were generally playing with ten men? I remember one instance, where he'd ambled out to the wing. Gibson (I think) beat two opposition players, only to find Stockton stood still, directly in front of him, so Gibbo had to go around him too. He was then left with no one to pass to, as Stockton strolled towards the half-way line. If he'd given 100% commitment all season, I am sure we'd have picked up the extra couple of points that we'd need to stay up.

We conceded too many goals, Donald Love, Max Melbourne and Liam Gibson were just not good enough. If it wasn't for Connor Ripley then we would have conceded a lot more goals. And would have still gone down.

But, as I pointed out, the defence was a huge improvement over the season before, conceding almost 20% fewer goals. It wasn't a great defence, but it was a lot better than in the season before.

Sulking-Stockton last season was a clear demonstration of the old cliche;

'Hard work beats talent, when talent doesn't work hard'.[/quote]

I completely agree that hard work is the most important, and yes Stockton performing at 100% all season would have helped, but i was just saying its a team game and Stockton is not the reason we went down.

As for the defence, we may have conceded 20% fewer goals than the season before, but we STILL had the 2nd worse goals against in the league. Which means we were still not good defensively.

Without Ripley it would have been much worse.

Saying that i don't think CB's were awful and neither was Cooney.

With Gibson making errors and Love and Melbourne not being up to standard it was always going to be an issue.

Hopefully they will be more suited to league 2.

As stated the most important thing now with the issues we have, is to focus on the upcoming season make sure we stay up and build from there

[Little Shrimp]

I wouldn't pin relegation on Stockton, but his poor performances were very unhelpful. I'd actually say for a majority of the season as well, rather than just until December. Picked up for a few games around Jan/Feb and then dipped again.

I don't really see the issue with Stockton being the lack of goals, more the lack of effort and application. There was none of the fight we'd seen over the previous two seasons, when his main aim seemed to be giving defenders and absolutely horrid game. And yes creating chances is a team effort, but if your striker is motionless then it makes it much harder. In comparison, Kieran Phillips would hunt down any sniff of a chance he could get with his work rate and movement.

On the defence, that's also a team effort. I'd that agree our centre backs weren't too culpable. I think the lack of an experienced defensive midfielder and struggles at full back were the main issues. Love had a very poor first half of the season, picked up in the second half but still had an error in him. Melbourne spent most of the season injured and was unable to build any real form. Gibson was solid but often needed in midfield. Cooney struggled a lot more than people are willing to admit. He had some good moments but his fitness was a massive hinderance a lot of the time, more so than I think gets acknowledged. There's a reason why two managers in a row lost faith in him, despite his abilities.

[Gone_Shrimping]

Derek's car in his space at the stadium at 9 this morning. Maybe another bus is just arriving (check twitter for what a bus is code for !)