Town's New Era Starts in Earnest as Morecambe Visit Portman Road Saturday, 7th Aug 2021 09:15 Town host Morecambe as the Blues’ new era under their US ownership and Paul Cook gets under way in earnest. The match is the first ever league meeting between Town and Shrimps - and the visitors’ first fixture at League One level - with fans back at Portman Road en masse for a competitive match for the first time since February 2020. The Blues’ 1-0 defeat at Coventry was the last time spectators were at the ground before the pandemic, although 2,000 fans were present for the games against Portsmouth and Burton in December last year. Town go into the match looking to get what’s hoped will be a promotion campaign off to a positive start against the Lancastrians, who were promoted from League Two via the play-offs by beating Newport County - coincidentally at Portman Road on Tuesday in the Carabao Cup - 1-0 after extra-time in the final in May. Speaking at Monday’s PLC EGM, Blues manager Paul Cook said he anticipated sides visiting Portman Road parking the bus as they looked to achieve results against the Blues. “How sides play is purely up to the coaches and managers. [Morecambe boss] Steve [Robinson]’s had a very, very successful career, he did amazingly well with Motherwell up in Scotland - getting in Europe, selling players, continually beating big teams probably above the level where Motherwell are at,” he said at this morning's press conference. “I’m sure that Morecambe and the board of directors there will be expecting Steve to do the same again. “He’s a very, very good lad, I know Steve a little bit, I’ve spoken to him quite regularly on the phone even when he was the manager Motherwell, we’ve had dealings. “He sets his teams up to play in the same style. Morecambe will come into the league with no fear at all. They had an amazing achievement last year getting promoted, it was an amazing achievement for a club like Morecambe. “It’s great to see that they can go into a league where they can play the big clubs and they’ll play them feeling that they can win the games, so it’s a very tough game for us tomorrow.”
Cook is looking forward to walking out in front of a 20,000-strong Portman Road crowd for the first time. “It’s just amazing,” he said. “It’s such a privilege and an honour to be manager of a great club, isn’t it? You carry all the hopes and expectations of all those people, especially the younger ones, the young kids that come to the ground. “And it’s great as a manager when you arrive at the stadium to see the atmosphere building and then my big thing is making sure the team goes and performs. “It’ll be the message all day at the training ground this morning — go and enjoy the game, go and believe how good you are. “Hopefully tomorrow, if we can win the game, that will be great. If we draw, that’s life, and if we get beat, that’s life. “We certainly respect Morecambe as an opponent. What we know is there’s a lot, of lot of hard work ahead and you certainly don’t win a race at the first stage, so we’ll be prepared for every eventuality.” Cook’s team looks set to be an almost entirely different XI from the one which beat Fleetwood 3-1 on the final day of 2020/21. Vaclav Hladky will be in goal with Kane Vincent-Young at right-back and Matt Penney at left-back.
With new signing George Edmundson injured, Luke Woolfenden and Toto Nsiala will be the centre-halves with Corrie Ndaba likely to provide cover from the bench. Lee Evans will wear the captain’s armband in central midfield alongside another of the summer additions, Rekeem Harper. Cook has confirmed that Scott Fraser will start, probably on the left, with Wes Burns on the right and Joe Pigott and Macauley Bonne up front with the former AFC Wimbledon man likely to drop deeper. If that’s the XI Cook picks, Woolfenden will be the only player who started the game against the Cod Army in May, while Vincent-Young and Nsiala survive from last season but didn't play in the final match. Eight players would be making their debuts with Conor Chaplin probably making it nine from the bench. Louie Barry joined on loan from Aston Villa in time for inclusion in the squad tomorrow, while the Blues are in the process of completing the moves for Michael Jacobs from Portsmouth and free agent Sone Aluko. Cameron Humphreys and Matt Ward, who came off the bench in the final friendly against Millwall last week, could be in a league matchday squad for the first time. The EFL has reverted to the use of three subs from seven rather than last year’s five. Morecambe, who have made 15 new signings themselves this summer with more expected, have one or two injuries ahead of their visit to Portman Road with striker Jon Obika out for five months having suffered a hamstring injury in pre-season and on-loan Rangers winger Josh McPake sidelined with an ankle issue and Aaron Wildig has picked up a knock. Manager Stephen Robinson, who took charge in June following former boss Derek Adams’s departure for Bradford City, says he’s looking forward to the game, even if he admits it’s a baptism of fire for his club. “I’m very excited about it,” the Northern Irishman told the Lancaster Guardian. “It’s a very tough first game, we couldn’t pick a harder or more exciting game. “The expectation around Ipswich will be a lot higher than ourselves but we’ve trained well and we’ve got good standards. That’s very important, we certainly don’t want to go and make up the numbers. “We know what type of football club Ipswich is. They have got plenty of areas where they are a threat. “They are a good side that passes through the lines and they have threats up front and in the wide areas. “They have spent a bit of money and we will treat them with the respect they deserve. They have signed some very good players but we have got some good players as well and it makes for an exciting game.” He added: “Budgets don’t decide anything in a one-off game and we believe we have a competitive squad. “Our main aim is to retain League One status and, the earlier we can do that, the better. We can start looking up the table and I believe we have a good group of players who will achieve that.” While Saturday’s match is the first league meeting between the teams, they have met twice in the FA Cup, once at Morecambe’s old ground Christie Park in January 2001, when the then-Premier League Blues beat the non-league Shrimps 3-0, and once at Portman Road two years later with Town winning 4-0. The Morecambe squad includes two former Blues. Midfielder Toumani Diagouraga was with Town on loan in the second half of 2016/17, making 10 starts and two sub appearances. Another midfielder Shane McLoughlin moved to the Shrimps this summer from AFC Wimbledon. The Irishman joined the academy at 16 and made one senior start and one sub appearance for the Blues. Saturday’s referee is Craig Hicks from Surrey, who showed 95 yellow cards and four red cards in 34 games last season. Hicks was last at Portman Road in May for the FA Youth Cup semi-final against Liverpool which Town’s U18s lost 2-1. His most recent senior Town match was the 0-0 draw at Charlton in April in which he booked Andre Dozzell and two Addicks. Hicks was also in charge of last season’s home game against the South Londoners in November in which he booked Stephen Ward, Alan Judge and one visiting player as Charlton won 2-0. He also refereed the 2-0 win at Bristol Rovers in September in which he yellow-carded Gwion Edwards, James Norwood and two home players. Prior to that he was in charge of the 0-0 draw at AFC Wimbledon in February 2020 in which he booked Flynn Downes and one home player. Before that he refereed another 0-0 draw, at home to Gillingham on Boxing Day 2019 in which he showed yellow cards to Alan Judge, Nsiala, Edwards and Norwood. Hicks’s first competitive Town match was the Leasing.com Trophy tie with Tottenham’s U21s in September 2019 in which he showed just the one yellow card to one of the visitors. He also took charge of Town’s July 2017 pre-season friendly against Gillingham at the Priestfield Stadium, which the home side won 2-1. The Kent side, who had current Blues keeper Tomas Holy in goal, went in front via a soft penalty awarded by Hicks, who kept his cards in his pocket throughout, won by ex-Town midfielder Lee Martin following a challenge by then-Blues captain Luke Chambers and converted by Tom Eaves. Squad from: Hladky, Holy, Vincent-Young, Donacien, Penney, Woolfenden, Nsiala, Ndaba, Evans (c), Harper, Fraser, Burns, Humphreys, Ward, Chaplin, Dobra, Pigott, Bonne, Norwood, Barry, Jackson.
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