The Shrimps travel to The New Lawn on Saturday 17 September when they take on Forest Green Rovers in Sky Bet League One.
Morecambe head into the game on the back of a 3-0 defeat against Sheffield Wednesday at the Mazuma Stadium on Tuesday night. Josh Windass broke the deadlock on 70 minutes before George Byers and Michael Smith secured victory for the Owls.
In midweek, Ian Burchnall’s side earned an away draw against Charlton Athletic after beating Accrington Stanley 2-1 on home turf in the previous fixture.
The opposition
The Nailsworth-based club have earned eight points in the eight league games played, and sit 20th in the division with two wins, two draws and four defeats.
Head Coach Burchnall arrived at the club in the summer as a replacement for the outgoing Rob Edwards who left the Cotswolds to join Watford. He’s taken charge of 11 games in all competitions and has a win percentage of 36.4%.
Key players
Forward Connor Wickham joined the club in the summer after his release from MK Dons. The 29-year-old has made more than 100 Premier League appearances whilst at Sunderland and, more recently, Crystal Palace. He has netted twice for Rovers so far this season.
24-year-old Regan Hendry arrived in Gloucestershire in June 2021 and went on to play a key part in their title winning campaign, scoring three times in 31 appearances. The midfielder came through the youth setup at Celtic and joined the Green from Raith Rovers, where he earned himself a place in the 2020/21 PFA Scotland Championship Team of the Year as well as the SPFL Championship Team of the Season of the same season.
Summer signing Armani Little joined the club from Torquay United. The midfielder began his career at Southampton before going on to play for Oxford United and Woking. The 25-year-old spent three seasons in the National League with Torquay. He made 79 appearances and scored 29 goals. He has contributed with two goals so far this season.
Derek Adams’ pre-match thoughts
Speaking before the fixture, Derek Adams says the quality within his squad suggests the Shrimps are heading in the right direction.
“We’re not far away from getting that win or wins that will take us further up the league,” he said.
“It’s just the difficulty for us, we are playing against very good sides and we haven’t been able to get the better of them at this stage.
“There comes a time when that will turn because as you can see and as as you say we’ve got some really technically very good players in this division.”
Meet the officials
Ollie Yates will be the man in the middle on Saturday afternoon. He will be assisted by linesmen Justin Amey and Andrew Hendley along with fourth official Alan Cresswell.
The Staffordshire-based official has taken charge of eight games so far this season in League one, League Two, the Carabao Cup and the Papa Johns Trophy. He’s handed out 40 yellow cards and zero red cards.
Yates last refereed a Morecambe game in February 2022 as the Shrimps were beaten 2-0 away at Sheffield Wednesday.
iFollow
After teaming up with Beyond Radio for the 2022/23 season, supporters will be able to listen to exclusive, full and uninterrupted radio commentary of every single game, home and away, which will be broadcast simultaneously on 103.5FM, 107.5FM and DAB+ digital radio across North Lancashire and South Cumbria as well as on the iFollow Shrimps platform.
Lead commentator Dave Salmon will be joined by Gab Sutton, and audio passes are available from as little as £2.50 per match, £4.49 for a monthly pass or £45 for a season pass.
As well as full match commentary, the ‘Shrimps Verdict’ podcast will be available post-match, featuring online, on demand content, including audio match highlights, post-match interviews and reaction, and much more!