The Lads went to Morecambe, took an early lead through Broadhead, and basically held onto it until the final whistle. In a game low in quality but high on effort, Morecambe showed why they're near the bottom by repeatedly failing to control the ball, while we showed why we're not going up automatically by giving the ball away a lot.
While many had arrived yesterday to make a weekend of it, we had a simple and scenic couple of hours over the Pennines and a relaxing hour in the Exchange before taking up our station in the standing end, part of the Shrimps' record attendance. In our blue and yellow away kit, we lined up:
Patterson
Wright Batth O'Nien
Gooch Evans Embleton Roberts
Pritchard
Broadhead Stewart
You work out the formation. In the bench were Hoffmann, Clarke, Neil, Matete, Xhemajli, Hume, and.....McGeady!
Pritch set things in motion as we kicked away from our end and the fans took up the cause, with several beach balls stotting around our end - a D a D inflatable hammer. How very 1999.
There was plenty of noise to encourage the Lads to do what was necessary, and we got the ball forward quickly. There had been a few nearly.moments for us without Trevor Carson (62 times an unused sub in five years on Wearside, currently on loan from Dundee Utd) needing to do much in the Morecambe goal in the opening minutes. In fact, the home side probably edged the opening exchanges but our back line made sure Patto had nowt to do. That back line of Wright, Batth, and O'Nien was solid, and had Roberts and Gooch to play it to wide.
Then it went right for us. A clever ball from Evans through the middle set Broadhead away, and an equally clever little shimmy sent his marker the wrong way and created the space to run at the keeper and shoot -which he did, planting the ball firmly beyond Carson on ten minutes. Magic, just magic.
News of goals elsewhere had folks regularly showing the league table "as live" throughout the first half, but the next action of note was our scorer going down, and as he got up, Evans went down. With a potential three games in the offing, the last thing we needed was to lose those two. Thankfully, we thought, both got up and continued to press for a nerve-settling second. For another ten minutes we sort of controlled the game, but kept giving the ball away just as a break looked possible.
When Broadhead went down again on about 25 minutes, even from a distance you could see that he knew he was goosed. Off he went, and in came Clarke in a straight swap. A fair amount (unfair amount?) of physicality was dished out to Stewart - and if you've a few big lads in your side, why not play to their strengths - especially when the ref wasn't inclined to punish.
Stockton, their wannabe Billy Whitehurst centre-forward, was proving a real handful for our back three, but they worked hard to make sure he got nowhere dangerous. Scores from around league one kept coming in, but the bottom line was that we just had to maintain our lead and we were in the playoffs. Perhaps this was why things never really got going for us, and Morecambe's basic lack of ability meant little threat in front of Patto. Things stuttered on to halftime, after four added minutes, and we studied the table to see who we might be playing and when. Not Plymouth, please! Thankfully, they were three goals and one man down, so thoughts turned to Sheffield and Milton Keynes. 3-1 up and.... winning at Plymouth, obviously. Oh, and Wycombe were a goal up at Burton.
No changes for the second half, and we looked a bit leggy in the opening exchanges but the Morecambe ball control had got worse, if anything, so there were a series of throw-ins to us as it rolled beneath their boots or bounced off their shins.
Seven minutes in, Clarke and Roberts swapped sides, and with almost immediate effect when the former cut in from the left and found Stewart in the box - but the shot brook a deflection and flew out for a corner. That was defended effectively, but it sparked a bit of life into us, and Pritch did well to roll the ball into the path of Roberts, steaming in from the right. Carson was big enough to get a hand to the shot and the ball was hoofed away.
The home side were tiring, evidenced by a flurry of yellow cards, but the noise from their fans (and their bloody drum) told them that results elsewhere were in their favour and they'd be staying up. Stewart, who'd been taking a fair amount of clattering, was replaced with 17 minutes left - by Matete. Protect what we've got was the obvious message from the gaffer. Clarke moved to centre forward, meaning that we were attempting to batter a fairly huge Hume defence with a combined weight, Roberts and Clarke, of about 16 clem. That was never going to work, but it did at least keep the home team on the back foot. A foul on the former had Embo and Pritch standing over the ball twenty yards out in the inside right position. Pritch whacked it off the head of a defender in the wall, and the chance was gone.
Evans, looking a bit tired, eventually made way for Dan Neil, and he plugged away, mostly on the eighty, for the last eight minutes if normal time and the four added. We were probably the last final whistle of the regular season, so the league tables were at the ready when it did sound.
Sheff Wed on Friday and Monday it is, then.
Truth be told, it wasn't much of a game as the result meant far more than the performance, and both sides got what they'd set out to get. Morecambe stay up, and we have a chance to avoid playing them next season. Another three games unbeaten will see us achieve that
Man of the Match? Embo ran things in the first half and Roberts ran his legs off, while the back three were generally solid - to the extent that Patto didn't have a save to make. However, for general organisation, being a proper captain, and that lovely pass to create our goal, I'll give it to Evans.
