In the latest Boardroom View printed in the match day programme JAMES WAKEFIELD talks about the steep learning curve he has undergone as a new director.
SINCE becoming directors just a couple of months ago, Charlie Appleyard and I have learned a huge amount more about football and the club that we love.
We’ve learned just how hard Rod, Graham, Mick and all the excellent staff at the club work to make everything tick.
We’ve learned about the realities of budgets, transfers, limited resources and the challenges of running a football league club and, through meeting the directors and fans of opposing teams, we’ve learned exactly how Morecambe FC are viewed by the rest of the League.
‘Plucky underdogs’ and ‘little old Morecambe’ are some of the more polite descriptions we’ve heard, and this weekend we welcome Crewe Alexandra, yet another ‘bigger’ club to the Globe.
Our record against The Railwaymen, W3 D2 L8, bears out the plucky underdog tag, as does the fact that Crewe have scored 13 goals to our 2 so far this season and last in games between the two sides.
However, things are quietly changing at Morecambe FC.
Derek has the team playing good football, creating plenty of chances against any opposition and confidence is growing,
The Globe is becoming a place that no team arrives at expecting an easy game and you, the fans, are making a huge contribution through your support, both home and away.
Last week at Carlisle you were fantastic, a real 12th man making a huge contribution to the result on the pitch.
Also last weekend, those of us who stayed up until the wee hours of Sunday morning witnessed a couple of other, often underestimated, locals showing the world exactly what they can do over in Las Vegas.
Morecambe can now be very proud of two world champions in Isaac Lowe and Tyson Fury. Anyone who doubts what can be achieved through self-belief, hard work, discipline and sheer determination need look no further than those two for inspiration.
On the pitch Derek has written this story before at Ross County, taking a team that plays out of a town with a population of just 5,491 from the third tier to the Scottish Premiership.
He knows exactly what it takes to bulldoze through how a ‘small club’ is perceived, both by itself and others.
No matter the challenges, we need to rewrite how we view ourselves, drop the plucky tag and start to punch above our weight even more than we have always done. It won’t happen overnight, and it won’t be easy, but nothing worth doing is.