Morecambe
Founded in 1920, Morecambe were a Lancashire Combination club for 48 years before joining the newly formed Northern Premier league in 1968.
Promoted to the Conference in 1994/95 they were promoted to the Football League in 2007, winning the play off final 2-1 against Exeter City at Wembley.
Morecambe were promoted to League One for the first time in their history at the end of the 2020/21 season, beating Newport County 1-0 in the League Two play off final at Wembley.
Last season saw them finish in 19th place in their first season at that level, just two points above the relegation zone, winning 10 and drawing 12 of their 46 league fixtures.
There have been just eight meetings, in the league, against Morecambe with Rovers winning five of those encounters and Morecambe two and one game has been drawn. The clubs haven’t met in any of the major cup competitions.
The first ever meeting, at Morecambe in September 2011 ended 3-2 in Rovers’ favour. Rovers also won the return fixture, 2-1 at The Mem, in February 2012.
The last two meetings came in the 2015/16 campaign, with Rovers winning 4-3 at Morecambe in October 2015 and 2-1 in the return fixture in February 2016.
Matt Lund, Tom Parkes and Jim Paterson all made their first appearance in a Rovers shirt against Morecambe, in the aforementioned 2-1 win in February 2012 and to date they are the only players to have made their Rovers league debuts against The Shrimps.
Players to have appeared for both clubs include Jonah Ayunga, Aaron Collins, Joe Lumley, Rene Howe, Antony Evans, Steve Yates, Craig Stanley and Adam Smith
Over a period of nine years former Rovers goalkeeper Lee Jones was goalkeeping coach at Morecambe and also had a short spell as the club’s caretaker manager. Jones is now goalkeeping coach at Tranmere Rovers.
On their formation Morecambe groundhsared with Morecambe Cricket Club at Woodhill Lane during their first season before a move to what was then known as Roseberry Park.
The club President at the time, bought the ground and it was renamed Christie Park in his honour. They continued to play their football at that venue until 2010.
That year they moved to a new, purpose built stadium, the Globe Arena. Now called the Mazuma Stadium (at least it was last season!) it has a capacity of 6,476 and is located in Christie Way, a nod to the name of the club’s former ground at Christie Park.
Morecambe visit the Memorial Stadium on 3rd September, while the return fixture takes place at the Mazuma Stadium on 29th January 2023.
A round trip to Morecambe’s ground, from The Mem, covers 442 miles, via the M5 and M6.
Morecambe FC
The Mazuma Stadium
Christie Way
Westgate
Morecambe
LA4 4TB
Keith Brookman
(all photos courtesy of Neil Brookman)