Morecambe 1-1 Bolton

From the Morecambe official club site -

Club News
Club Statement: Bolton Wanderers

Morecambe Football Club are aware of a series of incidents and allegations that have been made during Saturday’s fixture against Bolton Wanderers in Sky Bet League One.

The Club will work with all relevant authorities to investigate the above.  

Morecambe FC will be making no further comment at this time.

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An announcement says "Play was suspended because of the behaviour of both sets of supporters." [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

— Marc Iles (@MarcIles) [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

With Ian Evatt furious with something said in the stands by a home fan behind the dugout, the referee has pulled the players off the pitch. One home fan had already been ejected a few minutes ago.

1-0 [88'] [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

— Bolton Wanderers (@OfficialBWFC) [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Allegations of racism apparently.

Miserable conditions but it's the same for both sides - with that in mind they were better than us overall. We were lucky to get a point. Probably a bit too casual after the excellent past couple of games. Lee had a poor game - I don't know if that was the reason he was subbed at half time.
Rico sending off was rubbish. Anyhow now in 10th so onwards.

Putting aside the red card - which shouldn't have been IMO - the appalling weather conditions and the lengthy delay the bottom line is that we didn't do enough to deserve to win that game.

Playing into the wind first half, we had chances to put pressure on their goal but whenever we got near their box every attack fell apart due to inadequate movement and some woeful passing notably by Kieran Lee - and a lot of it was simple stuff along the ground that shouldn't have been affected by the wind. To compound matters, we lost far too many challenges and second balls in the middle.
Morecambe had chances to score, we didn't and we ended the half with zero shots on target. Unsurprisingly Lee was subbed.
Second half was worse. Despite having the wind at our backs we overelaborated the build up play and spurned numerous chances to shoot from the edge of the box. Morecambe's build up was more precise and again they created chances leading up to the penalty.
Great save but it was no surprise when they took the lead shortly after.

Baka's late equaliser turned out to be the only shot we had on target during the entire game.
Again Bodvarsson failed to impress in my opinion (sorry TROY) and we didn't really see enough of Dempsey to form an opinion.

The gap between us and the promotion slots has widened to 13 points and today's banana skin serves to underline the value of points on the board - and that every team in this league can beat just about every other team on their day - and that includes us.
I still believe that for us to have any chance of closing that gap we're going to have to regain our top form immediately and find a way of beating teams regardless of their league position, style, weather conditions, disruptions, injuries, suspensions, dickhead fans etc etc. Because today we just weren't good enough to do that.

wanderlust wrote:Putting aside the red card - which shouldn't have been IMO - the appalling weather conditions and the lengthy delay the bottom line is that we didn't do enough to deserve to win that game.

Playing into the wind first half, we had chances to put pressure on their goal but whenever we got near their box every attack fell apart due to inadequate movement and some woeful passing notably by Kieran Lee - and a lot of it was simple stuff along the ground that shouldn't have been affected by the wind. To compound matters, we lost far too many challenges and second balls in the middle.
Morecambe had chances to score, we didn't and we ended the half with zero shots on target. Unsurprisingly Lee was subbed.
Second half was worse. Despite having the wind at our backs we overelaborated the build up play and spurned numerous chances to shoot from the edge of the box. Morecambe's build up was more precise and again they created chances leading up to the penalty.
Great save but it was no surprise when they took the lead shortly after.

Baka's late equaliser turned out to be the only shot we had on target during the entire game.
Again Bodvarsson failed to impress in my opinion (sorry TROY) and we didn't really see enough of Dempsey to form an opinion.

The gap between us and the promotion slots has widened to 13 points and today's banana skin serves to underline the value of points on the board - and that every team in this league can beat just about every other team on their day - and that includes us.
I still believe that for us to have any chance of closing that gap we're going to have to regain our top form immediately and find a way of beating teams regardless of their league position, style, weather conditions, disruptions, injuries, suspensions, dickhead fans etc etc. Because today we just weren't good enough to do that.

90% correct Wander - Boggers looks useful to me so far - as for the rest of it spot on. Unfortunately, because we left our improvement a tad too late it means all our games are must wins to have any chance of playoff spot. One shot on target against Morecambe is obviously not good enough. 
We have to win on Tuesday to consolidate us at 10th as we can't move up any further in the table after Tuesday - It's not fair to expect a run like last year but that's where we are now.

Don't panic. 
A red card for this kind of offense is a one match ban. And might yet be over turned.

Reposted: Don't want any confusion with the pics - so best to stick with the police statement. A 61-year-old man has been arrested after yesterday's game.
Read the statement and if you can help, please do. [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

— Marc Iles (@MarcIles) [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

terenceanne wrote:
90% correct Wander - Boggers looks useful to me so far

Not saying he's a bad player - he undoubtedly has talent - but I don't see what he brings to our set up and style of play that Baka doesn't already. Early days - we'll see.

A different perspective on the alleged racist abuse incident came from one of the Morecambe iFollow commentators I had to endure.
The incident came almost immediately after the Morecambe goalie had complained to the ref about objects being thrown at him by the BWFC contingent behind his goal and he indicated he had been struck by something.
When Evatt then kicked off, the commentator implied that it was a tactical move by Evatt to disrupt the flow of the game and divert attention away from the actions of the Bolton fans (perhaps to avoid an EFL investigation and penalty?)

And watching it in real time, that was a credible interpretation - although TBF to the commentator he eventually stopped banging on about it and said something along the lines of "we'll have to wait and see what's going on" - albeit rather belatedly.

Personally I don't believe it - but if it was a tactical move by Evatt, it was genius and he deserves an Oscar nomination for his acting.

wanderlust wrote:A different perspective on the alleged racist abuse incident came from one of the Morecambe iFollow commentators I had to endure.
The incident came almost immediately after the Morecambe goalie had complained to the ref about objects being thrown at him by the BWFC contingent behind his goal and he indicated he had been struck by something.
When Evatt then kicked off, the commentator implied that it was a tactical move by Evatt to disrupt the flow of the game and divert attention away from the actions of the Bolton fans (perhaps to avoid an EFL investigation and penalty?)

And watching it in real time, that was a credible interpretation - although TBF to the commentator he eventually stopped banging on about it and said something along the lines of "we'll have to wait and see what's going on" - albeit rather belatedly.

Personally I don't believe it - but if it was a tactical move by Evatt, it was genius and he deserves an Oscar nomination for his acting.

That’s exactly what I thought until I knew the circumstances. Evatt did what any manager should have done though - it has to be stopped.

I got the feeling when watching it unfold that it was good for us tactically. But who really could say. I'm sure managers get abuse all the time from the crowd. 

The old guy being arrested on racist comments doesn't sit well with me. Even less well if its made up. Could bring a shit storm into the guys life.

From Morecambe fan forum:

As someone who was sat right here, no racists comments were made at all. The entire thing was caused by Ian Evatt and his behaviour throughout the game. Unbelievable he was asked to calm his hooligan away crowd when his own behaviour and treatment of fans in that section was a disgrace.
Their bench players and staff played the racist card to hide/cover their own appalling and unprofessional behaviour. Who do BWFC think they are?? Unaccountable? [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

They told a grown woman sat next to an 11 yr old to “shut up you slag”…. Why’s that not on the sky sports ticket tape? Because BWFC got their accusation in before anyone can work out what ACTUALLY happened!

Well played BWFC you got a point when you was down and out, by playing the darkest or arts to get play stopped and divert attention from the missile throwing hooligans (that couldn’t be handled by the stewards btw- that needs seriously looking at, we can’t handle big crowds in that end. Need a moat digging or stairs putting on the back of the stand instead of the front!)

That club (BWFC) are a disgrace to football. Worst group of players and staff to ever occupy the away dugout at MFC.



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If that is true then why have the police arrested a man on suspected racism at the match?

Reposted: Don't want any confusion with the pics - so best to stick with the police statement. A 61-year-old man has been arrested after yesterday's game.
Read the statement and if you can help, please do. [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

— Marc Iles (@MarcIles) [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

The Morecambe boss didn't stick around for much longer after this game...

Stephen Robinson: Ex-Motherwell boss leaves Morecambe to become new St Mirren manager

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