Sky Bet League 1
Morecambe 0-0 Shrewsbury Town
What happened
Morecambe and Shrewsbury shared the spoils in a goalless draw at the Mazuma Stadium today as the 2022-23 season got underway.
Derek Adams’ side had a rocky start, and the visitors could’ve taken the lead four minutes in when Luke Leahy’s effort went just wide of the goal.
Morecambe’s only serious chance of the game came in the 26th minute when Dylan Connolly charged down the right, through on goal on the break but his shot was saved by Marko Marosi.
Tom Bayliss had a shot parried by Connor Ripley five minutes later and the rebound was blocked by Ousmane Fane.
Bayliss had another effort on 36 minutes but his effort was blocked by Ryan Delaney.
In the second half, Tom Flanagan had a shot blocked by Arthur Gnahoua on 57 minutes and Jordan Shipley’s long range shot deflected onto the crossbar ten minutes later.
Morecambe had a number of advances but chances were few and far between, and though they had a corner towards the end, it came to nothing.
Talking points
The defence was pretty solid but it was fair to say we rode our luck once or twice
Farrend Rawson and Ryan Delaney appeared to work well together at the back and were pretty solid, we defended in numbers with the wingers playing quite deep. Connor Ripley only had one or two saves to make, and Shrewsbury did come close when one of their shots was deflected onto the bar, but there was positives to take from our defensive performance.
We lacked men going forward at times
With us playing quite deep, it meant that Cole Stockton didn’t really get great service going forward and therefore this meant he wasn’t really able to create anything. Ash Hunter looked okay, but it wasn’t the ideal day at the office for the Shrimps attack.
Jake Taylor looked promising when he came on
New signing Jake Taylor improved our attack when he was brought on, with some good through balls going forward and hopefully we will see more of him soon. He is dubbed to be a good young prospect with potential.
Player ratings
Connor Ripley 6 – Ripley didn’t have a great deal to do but was good when called upon.
Donald Love 6 – Love showed good energy at times, but didn’t really do much going forward.
Farrend Rawson 7 – Won near enough everything in the air and looked pretty solid.
Ryan Delaney 7 – A pretty solid performance from Delaney, who struggled last season before he was loaned out.
Max Melbourne 5 – I wasn’t very impressed with Melbourne, as he didn’t really offer much either defensively or going forward and he wasn’t very good on the ball.
Liam Gibson 6.5 – Prefer to see Gibson at left-back, but he did his role in midfield well and looked quite comfortable on the ball.
Ousmane Fane 5 – Fane wasn’t great today. Probably the worst performance I’ve seen from him, he didn’t pass the ball very well and didn’t really do much to enhance the midfield.
Dylan Connolly 6 – A few good spells of play for Connolly, he really should’ve scored in the first half and needs to improve on his finishing. Overall though, a pretty average performance.
Ash Hunter 6 – Hunter showed some energy going forward, but his passes and crosses didn’t always meet the right player and he’s capable of better.
Cole Stockton 6 – A quiet game for Stockton, he didn’t really add much to the game but wasn’t given adequate service all in all.
Subs
Jake Taylor 7 – As discussed above, Taylor added to the attack when he came on with some accurate passes moving forward.
Shrewsbury Town: Marosi, Pennington, Dunkley, Flanagan, Da Costa, Moore, Leahy, Nurse, Shipley (O’Brien 83), Bowman, Bayliss (Pyke 67).
Booked: Bowman and Flanagan
Subs not used: Burgoyne, Craig, Barlow, Bloxham and Caton.
Attendance: 4,725
James Main 