Match Preview: Morecambe (A)

23 August 2021

Morecambe are next up for Preston North End as the teams fight for a place in the third round of the Carabao Cup.

PNE confirmed their place in round two by defeating League Two side Mansfield Town earlier in the month, meanwhile the Shrimps got past Blackburn Rovers at Ewood Park.

Match Information
Venue: Mazuma Stadium
Date: Tuesday 24^th August, 7.45pm kick-off
Competition: Carabao Cup second round
Kit: Home kit – available to order here!

Supporter Information

PNE will be backed by a sold-out away end at the Mazuma Stadium, with the 1,764 allocated tickets all snapped up within 48 hours last week.

Turnstiles will open from 6.30pm and fans are reminded there will be no sales on the day.

For supporters who didn’t manage to get their hands on a ticket, live commentary from Guy Clarke and Andy Fensome is available on iFollow PNE through a £2.50 audio match pass, or alternatively you can purchase a monthly pass. Get yours here now.

PNE Team News

Four players missed the weekend’s game against Peterborough through Covid-related reasons and they will all be unavailable again on Tuesday night.

Tom Barkhuizen has returned to the training ground after being unwell with the illness and he has begun his seven to nine day phased return to training, as per protocols, so will miss the game against his former side.

Alan Browne, Ched Evans and Liam Lindsay are all still isolating.

The Opposition

Morecambe were victorious in the League Two Play-Off final at the end of last season, sealing a place in the third tier of English football for the first time in club history.

They certainly haven’t looked out of their depth either, taking four points from their opening four, earning a point away to Ipswich Town on the opening day of the season before beating Shrewsbury Town on home turf.

Since then, though, it’s been two defeats in a row, but only by one-goal margins against Rotherham United and Gillingham.

Key Stats

Tuesday night’s game will only be the sixth ever competitive meeting in the history of this fixture, with the first of those coming in 2007 in the same tournament, then known as the Carling Cup.

Morecambe lost their top scorer from last season in the summer, Carlos Mendes Gomes, who departed for Luton Town, but Cole Stockton is making up for the loss of his goals, with the forward having scored five already this term.

The Shrimps once turned to Tom Barkhuizen for goals; PNE’s No.29 scored 17 times in his 69 appearances for his former side.

Our Last Meeting

Preston North End welcomed Morecambe to Deepdale in 2018 in the first round of the EFL Cup and the Lilywhites came out 3-1 victors on the night.

Goals from Brandon Barker and Louis Moult put the home side two ahead, before Liam Mandeville pulled one back for the Shrimps just before the break.

Graham Burke’s goal on 58 minutes sealed the win for PNE, though, and earned his team a place in the second round.

Man In The Middle

Referee James Oldham will take charge of his first Preston North End fixture on Tuesday night.

Over the last couple of seasons, Oldham has taken the whistle for League One and Two games. Last term he issued 83 yellow cards and four reds in his 29 games.

So far this campaign, he’s shown a total of 23 yellow cards in four games, ten of which came on the opening day of the League Two season, in a match between Stevenage and Barrow.

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Match Reports

Match Report: Morecambe 2 PNE 4

24 August 2021

Preston North End progressed to the third round of the Carabao Cup with a 4-2 victory against Morecambe in an entertaining affair.

Emil Riis scored PNE’s first two goals, his first coming just seven minutes into the game as he calmly slotted home from a Daniel Johnson through ball, and his second came in strange circumstances, tapping the ball in after a collision between Morecambe goalkeeper Jokull Andresson and defender Sam Lavelle.

The home side levelled the scoring with goals from Anthony O’Connor and Cole Stockton either side of half-time, before Ryan Ledson put his side back in front with a thunderbolt from 25 yards, with Sepp van den Berg sealing victory in the last ten minutes.

Morecambe created the first chance of the game early on, with captain Lavelle heading straight at Declan Rudd just moments before PNE took the lead at the other end.

Johnson played a fantastic curling ball straight through the defence and in to Riis, who kept calm to hit the ball across the ‘keeper and into the far corner.

Brad Potts could have doubled his side’s lead four minutes later after he evaded a couple of challenges, but his effort was saved by Andresson.

Rudd was then called into action after a quarter of an hour, doing well to rush out to the feet of Arthur Gnahoua and block his close-range strike.

After a brief stoppage in play 28 minutes in, with referee James Oldham needing to be replaced by assistant Paul Graham due to injury, Riis came close once more, this time taking aim from 25 yards, but Andresson was equal to it.

The Dane didn’t have to wait much longer for his second of the evening, though, as he looked to get on the end of a long ball from van den Berg, but Riis collided with the goalkeeper and defender Lavelle. The Morecambe duo stayed down, however, Riis was quickly back to his feet to tap home.

PNE were pegged back just before the break, though, as Anthony O’Connor bundled home on the end of Greg Leigh’s free-kick from the right.

Shortly after half-time, Rudd saved well to his left to frustrate Courtney Duffus, before Potts and Johnson then came close for North End, with the latter having a fierce effort tipped wide.

Rudd was beaten just after the hour mark as Morecambe’s top scorer Stockton fired the ball past him to equalise.

However, the scores weren’t level for long, as Ledson gave his side the lead once more with a rocket from his right foot heading straight into the top corner, cuing huge celebrations both on the pitch and in the stands.

The fans then had more reason to cheer on 80 minutes as van den Berg tapped home Greg Cunningham’s cross for his first goal in professional football, which sealed the victory.

Morecambe line-up: Andresson; Cooney, Lavelle, O’Connor, Leigh; Duffus (Phillips, 80), Mcloughlin (McPake, 80), Diagouraga, McCalmost; Stockton, Gnahoua (McDonald, 76).

Subs not used: Roche, Jones, Mensah, Wootton.

PNE line-up: Rudd; van den Berg, Storey, Hughes; Rafferty (Bauer, 75), Johnson (Bayliss, 83), Potts, Ledson, Cunningham; Sinclair (Sinclair, 59), Riis.

Subs not used: Iversen, Leigh, Earl, Thomas.

Referee: Mr J Oldham (Replaced by assistant Paul Graham, 29)

Attendance: 4,334 (1,774 PNE fans)

Ticket News

Morecambe Tickets Sold Out

18 August 2021

Tickets for our Carabao Cup second round tie against Morecambe have now sold out.

North End travel to the Mazuma Stadium on Tuesday 24th August, with a 7.45pm kick-off, and the side will be backed by 1,764 away supporters.

Morecambe have informed us they will not be issuing any duplicate tickets for both standing and seated areas.

Please note that this means all purchased tickets need to be collected from the Deepdale ticket office and cannot be picked up in Morecambe. We are able to post tickets out to supporters, and you can request to do so at the ticket office, but please note that if for any reason the tickets do not arrive at your address, they will not be able to be re-printed so we advise all supporters to collect from Deepdale where possible.

Ticket prices for this fixture are as follows:

Standing

Adults £15

Seniors (65 and over) £10

Young Adults (18 to 22) £5

Juniors (14 to 17) £3

Child (accompanied U14s) £1

Seated

Adults £20

Seniors (65 and over) £15

Young Adults (18 to 22) £10

Juniors (14 to 17) £5

Child (accompanied U14s) £5

There are also five pairs of wheelchair and carer tickets in each stand, both in front of the terracing and in front of the seating.

Coach travel is available from both Deepdale and Leyland which is priced at £8 per person, with coaches departing at 5.15pm.

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