FL2: Morecambe v Torquay 15 Jan 2011

Apologies for my belated observations and ramblings about Morecambe, a match which is almost ancient history by now. I was up there from Friday to Monday staying in a seafront boarding house run by a former Merseyside police officer who hasn’t attended a match since he went to Hillsborough to support Liverpool on that fateful day. He’s not really into Morecambe – he needed to ask the score at breakfast on Sunday – but somehow he’s been persuaded by a relative to sponsor a player. As it happens his original choice has now left the club and he’s now sponsoring “some new fella. Can’t remember his name. Came from Torquay I think”:



As for Saturday’s game, I’m glad we haven’t had the stream of “Mark Duffy is a diving little cheat” posts that I feared. The post-match consensus seems to be that both penalties were fair decisions and, watching the scenes on the pitch after the final whistle, there certainly weren’t remonstrations towards the referee nor anything unduly directed towards Duffy. My conclusion would be that, in all probability, some players may be more adept at obtaining penalties than others. They may also appear to relish doing so and fully-embrace the process as part of their armoury. But that does not mean the penalties awarded are not penalties. And I also suspect that quick players, who run at defenders in the penalty box, are fairly high on the list of players who are likely to be fouled in the box.

Another observation would be that – just as football supporters enjoy glamour and pedigree (as we agreed recently) – we also enjoy a sprinkling of demons and mythology. Cue chants of “cheat” on Saturday and, most likely, on all the subsequent occasions Mark Duffy plays against us. That’s mythology for you. Our manager, players, reporters and many observers may have accepted the award of both penalties but I suspect the folk memory will be somewhat erroneous from now onwards. And, yes, Duffy is a tidy little player who has regularly tormented us since that day at Southport in the FA Trophy.

I enjoyed Chris H’s remarks about the Globe Arena almost being a re-creation of Christie Park. The story is that Morecambe announced plans for a new stadium shortly after winning promotion in 2007 – they beat Exeter at Wembley in case you’ve forgotten – with every intention of building four seated stands. That was progressively cut back whilst the completion date was deferred from 2009 to 2010. The end product is “fit for purpose” as you can never imagine Morecambe getting particularly big crowds.

From the latest Groundtastic:



Other than the result, I enjoyed Saturday which started with my own pitch inspection at 10am. After heavy overnight rain I’ll confess to a bad outbreak of Postponement Fear Syndrome (PFS) but I was reassured by the kindly, welcoming groundstaff who let me wander around the pitch perimeter as we exchanged memories of Brian Healy, that fine player who appeared for both clubs. And, for the record, I later enjoyed an excellent pie, gravy and peas followed by a post-match coffee in the Midland and “final reduction” sandwich and apple pie in Morrison’s cafe.

Morrison’s you’ll note rather than Sainsbury’s which now occupies Morecambe’s old home at Christie Park. The groundstaff told me there was something of a race between Sainsbury’s opening and Morecambe playing their first game at the Globe. I’ve taken the picture below from Geograph. And to think we were only there as recently as last March:



Morecambe’s achievements of the last few years are admirable but, with only 1,600 at the game on Saturday, you wonder about their long-term viability as a Football League club. Dave often refers to Torquay as a “small seaside resort” but Morecambe is more Paignton-sized. And, just as Paignton adjoins Torquay, Morecambe runs into the neighbouring inland town of Lancaster. Together the two towns have a smaller population than Torquay and Paignton and, you imagine, an even more restricted catchment area. Indeed, given Lancaster has its’ own semi-pro club (a match for Morecambe until about thirty years ago), you have to ask how many supporters Morecambe attract from outside the town. When in the Lakes on Sunday, I noticed the club operates a community programme with the Westmorland FA but I doubt they lure too many paying customers away from the fells, sheepdog trials and Cumberland wrestling. Maybe too there is support in North Lancs for PNE and Blackpool (and, to a lesser extent, the other Lancashire "Bs”) due to tradition, migration or family background.

Meanwhile, down in Bolton, the weekend saw the death of Nat Lofthouse, the Lion of Vienna. I had reason to be in Bolton on Monday and noticed the flag was flying at half-mast on the famous town hall. Old Nat had a good innings – he was eighty-five – so I guess he’d consider it a fair result that he was still around more than fifty years after he held up the FA Cup on the town hall balcony. There was, of course, only one story for Monday’s Bolton News:

I see Scunthorpe are interested in signing Duffy.

An interesting point there Nick, although if every player approached the penalty area like Duffy then we would be watching a version of basketball. I'd rather see him use his skill and ability to take on defenders and put a decent cross in. In my opinion there's a very fine line in between using skill, ability and cleverness to win a penalty and unsportsmanlike behaviour as I think certain players go down far too easily.

I can imagine a penny dropping in the heads of Sammy Mac and Mark Lillis who start using this ploy more and more. But, I guess, is it any worse than Tony Pulis using the extraordinary throwing ability of Rory Delap like a counterweight Trebuchet and turning the Brittania into a modern day Siege of Acre? It's debatable isn't it? You could argue that Stoke have a lot more to them these days than before with the signing of some very good players.

After watching both penalties on the BBC again I'm probably more annoyed that we put ourselves in a position where we were vunerable to these sorts of situations rather than want to contest the legality of the decisions. Although I still think the first one was a dive! What's not helping Mr Duffy's cause was his reaction after the second penalty with his injury histrionics. This shaking of the triumphant fist after winning a penalty leaves me a little cold. You don't get this sort of rubbish at Wealdstone you know?

Has signed......why couldn't he have signed last Thursday

www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11750_6678991,00.html

I’m not sure if anyone has mentioned this but there was an episode involving Paul Bastard at Morecambe last Saturday.

The basic deal at the ground is £16 to sit on the side; £15 to stand behind the goal. For ourselves, we wanted to sit and paid our £16 without enquiry. As it happens it became apparent the home club had withdrawn away standing accommodation for the day; most likely on the grounds of easy stewarding given the relatively small number of our supporters.

Tucking into my pie, gravy and peas – which involved a high level of dexterity – I was oblivious to whether any of our supporters were upset by this arrangement. Then, with about twenty minutes to kick-off, Paul Bastard appeared to make a lone protest by taking up position behind the goal with only a handful of ball boys for company. Although this was acknowledged by a chant of “There’s only one Paul Bastard” I don’t think anybody made an attempt to join Paul.

Inevitably, a steward arrived and Paul flailed his arms around in time-honoured fashion. Eventually he must have made a “take me to your leader” request and was led in front of where we were seated in the direction of the club offices. He then disappeared into the bowels of the main stand only to re-emerge shortly before kick-off with an important-looking official. The conversation continued for a while before Paul, still with plenty to say, was led to our seated area by a steward.

A highly-principled stand by our man? Or a display of eccentricity? Take your pick….

No it isn't debatable... One is using the strengths of a player to legally improve the teams chances, the other is cheating.

If a player is nudged or pushed but is still able to stay on his feet and fight for the ball, that's what he should do.

Too many commentators are prone to saying; 'oh, he should've gone down there, he would've got a penalty'. Why? Why should he have 'gone down'? He wasn't pushed or nudged enough to put him out-of-play so why 'go down'?
If the ref sees the contact and deems it foul-play he'll give the appropriate punishment. To try and influence a ref by undertaking to make something look worse than it is is cheating and I abhor it more than any other aspect of the game.

It is cheating, plain and simple, and is the one thing that could put me off watching professional football.