Morecambe manager looks to recover from midweek defeat

Morecambe travel to Adams Park tomorrow, looking to bounce back from their midweek defeat at Cheltenham Town.

Having beaten a top-six team in Barnsley last weekend, the Shrimps lost at a Cheltenham side who started the game in 20th position.

On the same night, Wycombe were beaten at home by Cambridge United to leave them in the bottom half of the table.

The Morecambe boss said: “I think we’ve seen it a number of times this season that teams have lost games and the next one becomes more important.

“Wycombe have been in the Championship and are a team that has done well over the years.

“What it shows is the division is extremely tight and you can’t read the way the season’s going.

“You could perhaps say the ones down the bottom of the table could be down there at the end of the season – though you wouldn’t expect MK Dons or Oxford United to be in the bottom five at this stage.

“You only have to look at the number of games teams have lost; Barnsley and Peterborough have lost six, we’ve lost eight, Cambridge have won six and lost nine.

“It’s such a difficult division and it’s the wins that are really important – but we haven’t been able to pick up many.”

Morecambe’s performance at Cheltenham was doubly disappointing given the display which had brought three points the previous weekend.

The Shrimps have impressed against two of the higher profile sides in Barnsley and Ipswich Town but struggled against teams at the wrong end of the table.

When asked why, Adams said: “We haven’t been able to find the killer pass or the right goalscoring opportunities at times.

“We’ve missed players like Caleb Watts, Ash Hunter and Jake Taylor, who can find a through ball.

“Kieran Phillips is always a bright spark for us though, he always has an opportunity in a game where he either scores or hits the target.”

Ousmane Fane and Farrend Rawson are suspended following their midweek cautions at Cheltenham, adding to Adams’ list of absentees.

The injured Taylor, Hunter and Max Melbourne remain unavailable, though all three have started jogging or running work this week.