Shrimps Battered As Cod Army T-Hake All Three Points
On Saturday the Globe Arena in Morecambe was the plaice to be as ESDB Football attended the ‘seafood derby’ between Morecambe (the Shrimps) and Fleetwood Town (the Cod Army). Both teams went into the match fly(fish)ing high in 6th and 8th respectively. This was the first time we had visited the Globe Arena and the first thing to say was that the bar in the ground is very nice and well worth a visit (home fans only though). ESDB Football made some new friends from Inverness who were down due to no football taking place in Scotland this weekend but luckily we kept our views on Scottish league football and its general crappiness to ourselves!
The game started off fairly evenly with both sides seeming to f-eel each other out and getting into the game slowly. There were a lot of Fleetwood fans who packed out the away end and seemed in expectant mood for the game. Morecambe fans seemed fairly quiet and almost nervous. The reason for this didn’t become apparent to us until after the game when we found out that since moving to the Globe Arena from Christie Park Morecambe have played 48 League games and won just 12! The last time these two teams played in the league was in 1993 and both seemed anxious to gain one over their local rivals with Fleetwood being the new squids on the block having had a meteoric rise from the non-leagues.
Fleetwood took the lead after 21 minutes after Morecambe goalkeeper Barry Roche had a turtle disaster and missed a cross from the right leaving ‘Big’ Jon Parkin (which he shall henceforth and forever be known as) to tap into an empty net. Morecambe were very blunt up front and there was a lot of industry in the Fleetwood half but no cutting edge at all. They were restricted to mainly long range shots and the front trio were blunt. Richard Brodie in particular had an awful first half and was booed throughout by the Fleetwood fans after he spent a period on loan with them last year. He seemed affected by the abuse as his first touch was absolutely pollocks and time and again he miscontrolled seemingly routine passes into his feet.
Fleetwood passed and moved the ball very well and Junior Brown on the left hand side looked particularly bright in the first half but they couldn’t really create any more chances and went into half-time 1-0 up.
After half time Fleetwood manager Micky Mellon’s half time teamtalk buoyed the players and it was immediately fruitful as they started by pressing Morecambe back in their half swinging in cross after cross. The pressure told in the 50th minute as Big Jon Parkin musseled his way into a position to have a free header after Barry Roche again flopped at the ball.
Morecambe quite simply couldn’t deal with crosses in this game and every goal for Fleetwood came from a cross. In particular Fleetwood exploited Morecambe’s weaknesses down their right hand side and Shaun Beeley the right back for Fleetwood had a very good game. He almost got on the score sheet as Fleetwood put together a lovely counter attack involving a lot of incisive passing ending with Beeley rattling the crossbar from about 20 yards out.
By this stage of the match it was all one way traffic and it was more a question of how many Fleetwood would get. Big Jon Parkin deservedly grabbed his hat trick in the 76th minute after another break-away left Andy Mangan in the clear and he slotted the ball over to Big Jon who had got his skates on (as much as he can) and tapped in for the match ball which he was very keen to keep as you can see!
By this time the Fleetwood fans were having a whale of a time and a conga line was even started in the stands. The icing on the fish pie was then provided by Big Jon Parkin as he unshellfishly put a magnificent cross in with the outside of his boot for the onrushing sub Barry Nicholson to dive onto and stick in. It was great to see Big Jon Parkin put on a goal for salmon else and it was done with the swagger of someone on top form, and capped a brilliant man of the match performance from the target man. Though one fan found it all too much and tried to storm the pitch pretty unsuccessfully, but it took ESDB back...we remember our first beer too.
It seems that Big Jon Parkin has definitely found his level. He was excellent on Saturday and his clinical finishing were a big part of why Fleetwood won so easily. A mass exodus of Morecambe fans occurred as they had haddock enough, and the game ended with no further incident.
Overall, it was an excellent day for the Cod Army and they were truly supreme over their local rivals, and if they can keep Big Jon Parkin in such good form all season they will definitely be in or around the promotion mix. As for Morecambe – they could do with improving their home form soon. The fans seem very subdued at the Globe Arena and that is probably not helping the dismal home run, and the cycle of this will continue until Morecambe start to pick up more victories at home or they could face a long uneventful season well outside of the promotion picture.
We would both like to thank you all for bearing with us through all the fish puns if indeed you did read all the report. We had to get this in for the Seafood derby and we can assure you it won’t happen again!
C&J
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