The Shrimps are in Emirates FA Cup action this weekend when they travel to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday 9 January to take on Spurs in the Third Round of the competition.
Morecambe come into the game on the back of last Sunday's epic comeback win against Doncaster Rovers. The Shrimps trailed 3-0 at half-time but flipped the game on its head in the second half with Cole Stockton’s brace followed by goals from Jonathan Obika and Toumani Diagouraga.
The North London club find themselves sixth in the Premier League, a point behind West Ham in fifth with two games in hand and two points behind Arsenal in third. In midweek, Spurs were beaten 2-0 by rivals Chelsea in the first leg of their Carabao Cup Semi-Final.
Antonio Conte was appointed Spurs manager at the beginning of November following the dismissal of Nuno Espirito Santo. Conte began his career as a player with his hometown club Lecce before going on to make nearly 300 appearances for Juventus between 1991-2004. The midfielder was also capped 20 times for Italy. As a manager, the 52-year-old has won Serie A four times (three with Juventus and one with Inter Milan), he also won the Premier League and FA Cup with Chelsea and the Supercoppa Italiana twice with Juventus.
Key players
England skipper Harry Kane is widely regarded as one of the world’s best strikers. The 28-year-old has made over 250 appearances for Spurs, scoring over 170 goals and is on his way to breaking England’s all-time goalscoring record. In the Summer, Kane was tipped to depart the club but stayed put in North London and has scored nine goals so far this campaign.
Heung-Min Son made his debut in the Bundesliga at the age of 16 for Hamburger SV. He joined Bayer Leverkusen for a club record fee three years later where he made 62 appearances, scoring 21 goals. The 29-year-old became the most expensive Asian player in history when he was signed by Tottenham for £22M in August 2015. This season, Son has nine goals and has four assists to his name.
Brazilian international Lucas Moura arrived in North London in January 2018 from Paris Saint-Germain where he won Ligue 1 four times and a number of other trophies. He came through the youth setup at Sao Paulo where he went on to make nearly 100 appearances, scoring 19 goals. Moura has made over 100 appearances for Spurs and helped them reach their first ever Champions League Final after scoring a hat-trick in the second leg of the Semi-Final. This season, the 29-year-old has scored five goals for Tottenham and has contributed with five assists.
Conte's pre-match thoughts
The Spurs boss said Sunday’s game against the Shrimps will give him a chance to rest some players.“I think for sure this game could be a good opportunity to make rotations and give chances to players who didn’t play so much in the last period.“But as you know very well, the FA Cup is an important competition and we want to try to go to the next step and it will be important for us to win the game."It’s always difficult to think, to decide not to start with Harry [Kane]. But at the same time, in some games if we can take the risk, it’s right to take.”
Shrimps' pre-match thoughts
Manager Stephen Robinson says Sunday’s clash will be fantastic day for the supporters.“It’s something that, especially for the fans, it’s been something that they’ve waited for a long, long time, they missed out on Chelsea last year, they missed out on the vast majority of getting promoted.“It’s going to be fantastic for them to travel down and enjoy the day.“I’ve had nothing but positivity from people since I came here, even when we’ve had a few weeks previously before Saturday where we couldn’t get a win, we weren’t playing particularly well either, and I’ve had nothing but positivity from people around the town, from the supporters, from the directors.“It’s nice that they get their day in the sun so-to-speak and really, really enjoy the occasion.”
Meet the men and women in the middle
Leicestershire-based referee John Brooks will be the man in the middle on Sunday. He will be assisted by Marc Perry and Natalie Aspinall. Gavin Ward will be the Fourth Official and Michael Salisbury will be in charge of VAR, assisted by Timothy Wood.
This season, Brooks has refereed nine games in League Two, the Championship, Carabao Cup and Premier League. He took charge of his first match in the top flight on 1 December.
Brooks took charge of the Shrimps back in April 2018 when they drew 1-1 at home to Carlisle United in Sky Bet League Two.