Today I'm going back just 12 months to this time last year when "the Shrimpers" of Morecambe met "the Exiles" of Newport County in another League 2 Play-Off Final at Wembley, this one played in front of just 9,083 supporters. From memory I think that the exceptionally low attendance can be explained by restrictions that were still in place following the Covid19 pandemic that made this a "Test Event" for the forthcoming European Championships albeit that I didn't have to try too hard to get hold of a ticket.
At the end of the regular season, fourth placed Morecambe missed out on automatic promotion by a single point. Cheltenham Town were Champions and Cambridge United and Bolton Wanderers occupied the two automatic promotion positions. Newport County came fifth, finishing five points behind Morecambe with the remaining Play-Off contenders being Forest Green Rovers and Tranmere Rovers who finished sixth and seventh respectively. In the Play-Off Semi-finals, Morecambe overcame Tranmere Rovers 3-2 on aggregate thanks to an away victory at Prenton Park whilst Newport shaded Forest Green 5-4 on aggregate.
The Play-Off Final itself was perhaps not as dramatic as the Semi-Finals had been and the issue was eventually settled by a single goal in Extra Time following 90 goalless minutes. Sadly, the goal, when it came was a the result of a disputed penalty and Morecambe's Spanish striker Carlos Mendes Lopes (now at Luton Town) put it straight down the middle as Newport's goalkeeper Tom King (now at Salford City) dived out of the way. As seems to be traditional in the League 2 Play-Off Final, Mendes Gomes peeled off his shirt to reveal another shirt and one of those strange looking "man bras" that are used to carry the sophisticated electronic tracking device that generates the data that performance experts pore over post-match. I'm sure that Morecambe didn't care too much about the legitimacy of their penalty but Newport manager Michael Flynn felt that two bad refereeing errors cost his side the win that their dominance deserved.
Fans of York City may be interested to learn that Morecambe's goalkeeper in the Final was Kyle Letheran, son of Glan, the former Leeds United goalkeeping understudy. Mention should also be made of one of Newport's late substitutes in the Final. Kevin Ellison who had appeared in Rotherham's League 2 Play-Off Final in 2010 (see my blog) was to suffer heartbreak again, this time at the age of 42, becoming the oldest outfield player in English Play-Off history. Ironically, Ellison had been a Morecambe player for the ten seasons prior to switching to Newport County in 2020 and had even been Morecambe's caretaker player manager prior to the appointment of Derek Adams in 2019. In total, the specialist winger made 759 appearances for his various club scoring 138 goals.
Every team deserves to have their fate determined by what happens on the field of play, rather than, say, by assets on the balance sheet, history or the size of their supporter base. Morecambe are no exception to that but I would contend that the Shrimpers are a team that are punching above their weight and are actually a Non-League-sized club who find themselves playing at a higher level in the Football League. This promotion pitched Morecambe into League 1 (the third tier of English football) for the first time in their history and they capped off a memorable season, albeit one of struggle at times by finishing 19th and staying up to fight in League 1 again next season.
CRB Match No. 2427
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