TICK TOCK

[mrpotatohead]

The sound of the relegation clock









I do not enjoy saying this, we never really paid any money for anyone since we entered the football league, the town have shown total apathy towards having a team in the league, roachy does his best to keep things respectable, the rest do their best, and i think the small but avid fan base are doing their best to get behind the team, we made bad signings last year, dunno this year, but it looks a bit shit at the minute, I like a wind up but am being serious for once now, I do not think the manager has a solution, we have no decent striker, no settled midfield, and a load of defenders who are shipping in goals like nobodys business,I personally think we are in a very tricky situation.

[Abbo]

Could be time running out for Sammy ??????????????????????????????

[P/T Indie]

The problem for Sammy is it looks like this year the board have backed him and given him plenty of money as the wages for Jevons, Craney, Panther, Haining can't be cheap so if the money has been there and he doesn't produce the results the board would have every right to ask questions.

[yozzer]

We have only played three games lads. Settle down.

[mrpotatohead]

Dunno if its his fault really, budget due to low fan base is a major issue, but if he did well he would be poached anyway, survial seemed a formality pre season, but now, I see a struggle ahead

[George Dawes]

i wouldn't panic just yet, just need to get Jimbo back, and get a settled team, this season is starting to remind me of last when SM didn't know his strongest team

and in the end-up most of the new signing got shipped out, could this be another repeat with this seasons new signings ? so far

[philbigmfcfan]

well i think that the board should be having a look at sammy ... i no sammy is a great guy but really what has he done for us since we won promotion ... two 11th place finished ish .. naybe his time has run out .. we havnt got a decent striker and i thin ksammy has tried and failed at that and i think the board should be looking at him and maybe thinking of getting a big name manger in ...

[marky]

this season is starting to remind me of last when SM didn't know his strongest team

Isn't that one of the purposes of friendly games? To work out your strongest line up? Especially in the last couple? There are 43 games to go but if you have serious ambitions, you can't keep giving other teams a head start during the first couple of months whilst you try and work out what you should really already know!

[parceldave]

Could be time running out for Sammy ??????????????????????????????

Well something has got to change , we're supposed to have the strongest squad ever at C.P. The Chairman has put his hand in his pocket and wont want wat to see the opening game of next season in the new stadium playing Conferance football.. I dont think.

[Crooky MFC]

IT'S 3 GAMES FFS !!!

[philbigmfcfan]

ye thing is if you were the chairman and you splashed out quite a bit of cash on the quite and then she your team loose thre games in a row i wouldnt be happy and then sammy would of told the chairman that these signings are a good idea but then see some fail (moss) i would be more angry ...

[parceldave]

IT'S 3 GAMES FFS !!!

And we' ve probably let in more goals already than some teams will do all season. BUT hey we havn't give the team time to settle yet. . I wonder what Dagenham are gonna do when they get settled .

[George Dawes]

IT'S 3 GAMES FFS !!!

And we' ve probably let in more goals already than some teams will do all season. BUT hey we havn't give the team time to settle yet. . I wonder what Dagenham are gonna do when they get settled .

lets be positive! we are still UNBEATEN at home

[Christies Child]

...and we haven't played anybody yet who will be in the frame come the end of the season.....that's my worry!

[shrimper]

well i think that the board should be having a look at sammy ... i no sammy is a great guy but really what has he done for us since we won promotion ... two 11th place finished ish .. naybe his time has run out .. we havnt got a decent striker and i thin ksammy has tried and failed at that and i think the board should be looking at him and maybe thinking of getting a big name manger in ...

I'm assuming you're very young and have only ever known the relative success of the past few seasons.

What Sammy has done has been to get us promoted in his first full season and then get us to a healthy position in League Two and then maintain that position, despite us hardly paying out any money on transfers.

And just what 'bigger' name than Sammy McIlroy do you think the mighty Morecambe could attract?

If we were a club like Bradford, or even Grimsby, with a Football League history and the potential for decent gates then perhaps...

But we've been in this position before and Sammy's turned it around.

[mrpotatohead]

With all due repect glen, a team needs fans to breed results, my post is aimed at asking the question, why a town the same size as burnley cannot put bums on seats, I think you and the visitor are doing the best effort, but 3 games in we are in the mire, I think macclesfield will bring a good away turnout and there will be less than 2000 at the match

[campdave]

With all due repect glen, a team needs fans to breed results, my post is aimed at asking the question, why a town the same size as burnley cannot put bums on seats, I think you and the visitor are doing the best effort, but 3 games in we are in the mire, I think macclesfield will bring a good away turnout and there will be less than 2000 at the match

Morecambe isn't the same size as Burnley.

[Keith]

my post is aimed at asking the question, why a town the same size as burnley cannot put bums on seats,

Morecambe isn't the same size as Burnley.

Well, kind of...
2001 census:
Burnley population 89542
Lancaster population 133914

Morecambe population is included in Lancaster for census purposes but is probably about 50,000. The potential is there if Lancaster folk see Morecambe as their football club (as some are doing).

But to answer the specific question as to why Morecambe can't put bums on seats, you have... to know... your history...

First off Burnley have had a league club with strong rivalry, since the very beginning. If you are a football fan in Burnley, you support Burnley. you don't see that many Liverpool, Chelsea or Man U shirts around Burnley (well, tonight you might see the latter!) And if you were wearing a Blackbum shirt in Burnley, the police would record the death as suicide.

In Morecambe, we had a couple of decades where if you were a Morecambe fan you belonged to a very select band of less than a thousand. A lot less. Crowds dropped to the low 200's. We had less turn up for games back then, than now go to watch reserve matches. Every Saturday coaches left Morecambe to go to Man Utd, Liverpool, Everton & City. The people who grew up in Morecambe didn't see Morecambe as a team worth watching so they 'chose' another team.

Also, Morecambe has always been a migrant town, so people remained fans of the club they initially supported. There are even Bradford fans living in the town (burn them!) Okay, an Exeter fan in Morecambe is extreme, much like a Morecambe fan on the Isle of Man, but there are lots of Celtic & Rangers fans in the town from the years when the Scots moved down and still enough elderly who retired there who support Leeds etc.

These people, often disparagingly referred to as 'glory hunters' will come along for the bigger games but with Morecambe still firmly classed as their 'second team'. And be sure, if Morecambe ever draw Liverpool or Man Utd, there will be a great many Morecambe people in the away end.

The club could market itself in a better manner and can still come across as a bit amature for not doing, but in general, they are doing very well. The younger fans are coming through with MORECAMBE as their club and hopefully that is a healthy trend that will continue to grow but we will need a great deal more time, effort & success before we can establish bigger crowds.

And that is why, we can't EASILY put bums on seats.

[The Marksman]

ye thing is if you were the chairman and you splashed out quite a bit of cash on the quite and then she your team loose thre games in a row i wouldnt be happy and then sammy would of told the chairman that these signings are a good idea but then see some fail (moss) i would be more angry ...

From what I've seen so far (admittedly one game) and heard from this board - while Moss has been a bit ropey, Jevons, Craney, Wilson and Duffy have been successful signings so far. Let's get some sense of proportion here...

The one game I saw was v Burton and as far as I could see we always looked like we could score, the problem was the fact that several buses at once could have driven through the back three. I thought the gap between Adams and Bentley was the main culprit, and those two aren't exactly unused to playing along side each other. I think this can be remedied easily enough on the training field, no need to panic.

[HALMA 1983]

I'm still of the opinion that this bunch of players will come good and a win of any kind on Saturday will be just the tonic needed, I agree fully with what The Marksman has to say and although I can't make the game on Saturday as i'll be in the Highlands by Kick-off, I can count on all of you and my eldest to cheer the lads onto victory in my absence

[Christies Child]

well i think that the board should be having a look at sammy ... i no sammy is a great guy but really what has he done for us since we won promotion ... two 11th place finished ish .. naybe his time has run out .. we havnt got a decent striker and i thin ksammy has tried and failed at that and i think the board should be looking at him and maybe thinking of getting a big name manger in ...

I'm assuming you're very young and have only ever known the relative success of the past few seasons.

What Sammy has done has been to get us promoted in his first full season and then get us to a healthy position in League Two and then maintain that position, despite us hardly paying out any money on transfers.

And just what 'bigger' name than Sammy McIlroy do you think the mighty Morecambe could attract?

If we were a club like Bradford, or even Grimsby, with a Football League history and the potential for decent gates then perhaps...

But we've been in this position before and Sammy's turned it around.

Everything you say about us is true, but I just wonder if by playing a more aggresive type of game we'd be better off than our results of late have been. Remember we didn't finish last season in the best of form. It's continued through to this season and that with a relatively new defence.

For me I look at the signings we've made throughout Sammy's tenure and there have been very few who have impressed. Roche; Adams; Baker; Artell?; Yates?; Drummond? Fraser? but after that lot there's been nobody who in my opinion has really proved themselves. Maybe it's the system we play that the players can't get their heads around . Whatever it is, Sammy really needs to look at who he's brought in and ask some serious questions of himself.

I want to believe that he can get us out of the mire AGAIN, but this season there's no point deduction cushion for us to fall back on. Things need to change. We can't continue to put all the blame on the players. Sammy and co have to shoulder some of the blame for the style of play.

Watching all the goals on Sky Sports this morning, the difference between ourselves and the vast majority of other teams is that they all attack the ball in both defence and attack. We back off and play pretty pretty football especially in and around the box instead of having a go at goal. At corners, we never attack the ball, giving the opposition goalkeepers an easy time.(Watch the Daggers game and you'll see what I mean about attacking the ball). It's very rare that we have more than a couple of players making runs into the box in anticipation of crosses from the wing. Our midfield doesn't support our striker(s). In defence we quiet simply have no pace and that only invites the opposition to go at us from the off.

The very prospect of starting life in the new stadium other than in the fotball league, is too frightening even to contemplate. But things need to change quickly otherwise it's going to be a very hard and long season, both on and off the pitch.

[Lic]

Doom doom doom! Give them a chance for heavens sake! Tough friendlies, Bentley injured and only just back but out again with virus, Stanners just back from injury, Wainwright just back from injury, several new signings who seem to have been doing well but haven't trained or played that much with their captain, Hunter injured etc etc. Come on, be fair and give them and Sammy a chance...the great thing about disappointing results is that the team can learn from them...and at least they're happening now and not later in the season so there's plenty of opportunity to turn things around. No doubt the team is just as p****d about it all as we are...at least we could support them constructively...

Oh, and count me in the Morecambe end if we do ever play MUFC or LFC...

[campdave]

i no sammy is a great guy but really what has he done for us since we won promotion ... two 11th place finished ish .. naybe his time has run out ..

Where do you think a club of our resources should be finishing then?

Whilst the last few results have been worrying, the expectations of some concern me - we've moved from being a bigger fish in a small pool to a smaller fish in a big pool, and some peoples expectations don't seem to have adjusted accordingly.

[P/T Indie]

i no sammy is a great guy but really what has he done for us since we won promotion ... two 11th place finished ish .. naybe his time has run out ..

Where do you think a club of our resources should be finishing then?

Whilst the last few results have been worrying, the expectations of some concern me - we've moved from being a bigger fish in a small pool to a smaller fish in a big pool, and some peoples expectations don't seem to have adjusted accordingly.

but we don't know how much money the board have put in this year when you say our resources.

The chairman talks about wanting league 1 football so he obviously doesn't think we are punching above our weight he wants us to be competing.

If the chairman pumps a load of money in and says to Sammy you can have all this money if you get me to the playoffs but we don't even make midtable will the chairman say "oh well we are little old Morecambe don't worry about it"

We don't know what money Sammy has been given and we don't know what targets the Chairman has set this will be between Sammy and him. If he has given him nothing and said sorry your on a reduced budget keep us in the league fair enough but if he has made money available that is a different matter.

[Posh]

With all due repect glen, a team needs fans to breed results, my post is aimed at asking the question, why a town the same size as burnley cannot put bums on seats, I think you and the visitor are doing the best effort, but 3 games in we are in the mire, I think macclesfield will bring a good away turnout and there will be less than 2000 at the match

It's a ridiculous analogy. Burnley have a history of playing in the Football League and at the highest levels. Morecambe have a history in the lower echelons of Northern non-league football. Consequently the family tradition of supporting Morecambe FC barely exists.

For pretty much 1974 to 1989 we were getting gates lower than Lancaster City and in the low hundreds with many seasons averaging under 300. That's a whole generation of people who bar a hardy few kept the club alive.

Since we entered into the Conference gates have risen consistently and our final season attracted more people to Christie Park than at any time since 1962. Our first season in the Football League was our highest ever cumulative attendance and by some margin. By my estimates we've got a hardcore of around 1,600 fans who'll turn out thick and thin, with probably another 700 who would attend at least five times a season guaranteed. The club's job and our job is to convert people up the levels and build the crowds. It doesn't happen over night its a long-drawn out process to change habits and life-long allegiances but it is happening.