Bromley 1-0 Morecambe

The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

Three games to go. 59 points. How many more can Bromley claim before the end of the season?

The scoreline may only have read 1-0, but the victory over Morecambe was a comfortable one. And it was a result that all but confirmed the Shrimps’ relegation to the National League.

As ever, join me as I reflect on The Good, The Bad and The Ugly from Bromley’s 1-0 home win against Morecambe.

Have a read and let me know your thoughts in the comments below.

The team vs Morecambe

The Good

The most impressive thing about this performance was the clean sheet. You know Andy’s mantra: clean sheets win you football matches and put you where you want to be in the league.

Other than a brief rally after the goal, Morecambe didn’t really threaten Bromley’s backline and played like a team that simply didn’t have the quality to ask more questions.

As always, when called upon, Grant Smith showed up with a couple of important saves. That makes 14 clean sheets for the Bromley custodian. If Cheek didn’t have 22 league goals, would Smith win Player of the season? Should he win it anyway?

There were a lot of solid performances on the day without any one player standing out. Perhaps that’s because Bromley kept Morecambe at arm’s length and didn’t really have to get out of second gear to do so.

Of course, Michael Cheek scored the winning goal, which moves him to 22 for the season. If he doesn’t win the League Two Player of the Season award we have to riot.

Cheek has 29 goal contributions (22 goals + 7 assists) in a side playing their first-ever season in League Two. If that doesn’t win you the award, nothing will.

I had a conversation with some mutuals the other day regarding the right way for the club to recognise Cheek. My take is simple: When the new stand is opened, it’s the Michael Cheek Stand. It matters not that he is a current player, he will be the club’s record goal scorer and is literally the guy who fired us to National League promotion and FA Trophy glory.

Over to the club to do the right thing.

Morecambe didn’t look like a team that was fighting for their lives. Perhaps that’s harsh, but while they huffed and puffed, they lacked any killer instinct. In my match preview, I wrote that the Shrimps had scored the third-fewest goals per match in the league. After this game, they are bottom of the league in that regard.

Harry Burgoyne was their Man of the Match, which probably speaks to the one-sided nature of the game. Lee Angol and Andrew Dallas offered bits and pieces in the second half, but based on this showing, I predict Morecambe will struggle in the National League next season.

To merely tread water at that level you need a bare minimum level of robustness, and as I said in my post-game video review, The Verdict, they didn’t show enough fight to suggest they could cope with going to Maidenhead.

It’ll take a season for Morecambe to acclimatise in the National League, and given the troubles in the boardroom, their fans will have to hope they don’t suffer back-to-back relegations in the process.

The Bad

If it's possible to win 1-0 at a canter, then that’s what Bromley did. However, where I do have a critique is the volume of opportunities wasted. The Ravens had more than their fair share of last-third penalty box entries but were guilty of overplaying.

Perhaps the players felt it was so easy that they could score the perfect goal, but if you fail to kill the game off, particularly against ten men, it leaves you open to dropping points to a shock goal against the run of play. Had Ashley Charles not cleared off the line, or Grant Smith not shown safe hands, Bromley might have done.

These are small gripes, of course. More important than all of the above was the fact the team won. But whether it’s nit-picking or not, Bromley should have ended the contest long before the referee brought the game to a close.

It’s fair to say that Morecambe’s David Tutonda had a horror second half. Having come on as a substitute shortly before half-time, minutes after the break, he gave away a penalty with a foul on Danny Imray – a soft one perhaps, but a penalty all the same. Tutonda then picked up a yellow card in the 66^th minute for dissent aimed at the referee, then picked up another one a few minutes later for dissent shown to the assistant referee when he felt a foul given against him was incorrect.

I think Tutonda had a right to be aggrieved by the decisions going against him, but it is a shocking dereliction of duty to your team to receive your marching orders in such a scenario, particularly given what was on the line. This was a monumental head-loss, and the whole palaver was a perfect summation of the situation Morecambe find themselves in.

The Ugly

If ever there was a game to give Nicke Kabamba a run out it was this one, especially when Morecambe went down to ten men.

I am certain that when Nicke was signed, it was made clear to him that Cheek is Plan A. And while we saw Cheek and Nicke play together in the 0-1 loss against Colchester in January, the partnership hasn’t been repeated since.

Let me be clear. I’m not saying Andy is wrong to have Nicke as a Plan B, and he has been very useful in picking up the slack towards the end of matches. I am also sure that Nicke knew the deal when he signed for Bromley and would have been set the goal of challenging Cheek for his starting place.

That said, substitute appearances or not, if Nicke is unable to get the goal-scoring monkey off his back, it will slowly but surely become a thing.

Then again, maybe like Harry McKirdy, he just needs a full pre-season with the squad and we will see how this is all part of a wider masterplan for next season.

Lastly, a word for Morecambe. At one point in the second half, the travelling fans broke into what felt like a 10-15 minute rendition of a song against their club’s owner, Jason Whittingham.

In short, the song accused Whittingham of not caring about the club or the fans, and they want him out.

As I alluded to in the match preview, Whittingham himself wants out, but his failure to sell up has caused him to handicap his manager and club with severe financial limitations that have undoubtedly contributed to their demise.

He says Morecambe are good to go regardless of what division they are in next season, but I do wonder if the club becomes harder to sell following relegation to the ‘non-league’.

The thing is, while it’s true that Morecambe were in League One just two seasons ago, it’s not like they don’t have a non-league tradition. In fact, they might simply be returning to their natural level.

But whether they are or they aren’t, it shouldn’t have happened in this way. And, as usual in this kind of situation, it’s the fans who end up losing out.

What did you make of this one? Get at me in the comments below.

Match ratings

Grant Smith (9)

Kamarl Grant (7)

Omar Sowunmi (7)

Deji Elerewe (8)

Idris Odutayo (7)

Jude Arthurs (7)

Ashley Charles (7)

Danny Imray (8)

Ben Thompson (7)

Cameron Congreve (7)

Michael Cheek (8)

Subs:

Corey Whitely for Ben Thompson 63’ (7)

Brooklyn Ilunga for Cameron Congreve 62’ (6)

Harry McKirdy for Danny Imray 83’ (n/a)

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Thanks for taking the time to read the match synopsis above.

Please note all match photographs in this article are by Martin Greig - please follow him on Instagram here

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