Morecambe Boss Makes Interesting Officials Claim

Morecambe manager Derek Adams believes that fourth officials do more harm than good after he received his marching orders in the 3-3 draw with Colchester United earlier this month.

The Shrimps have had a dreadful start to the campaign, losing their first five fixtures. However, all came by just a solitary goal, showing that the team’s problems were coming in the attacking end of the field.

They have found their scoring boots in the last two outings though, scoring five times. Despite that, they have just two points to show for their efforts.

Adams was missing for a large part of those two fixtures. He was removed from the touchline after just 24 minutes against Danny Cowley’s teams after picking up two yellow cards, leading to a one match suspension as his team picked up a valuable point at Fleetwood Town last weekend.

Morecambe welcome Notts County to the Mazuma Mobile Stadium tomorrow in search of their first win of the season, with Adams returning to the dugout to take charge of the team hoping to extend their two-game unbeaten run. Ahead of the game, the former Bradford City boss couldn’t resist one final swipe at the authorities, claiming that the role of a fourth official carries more disadvantages than advantages:

“It’s one of those things where, if they look at it and look at how the game’s advanced over the years, fourth officials have caused a bigger problem when being on the side of the pitch than being an advantage,” he said, via the Lancaster Guardian.

“We can all pick up a numbers board for subs – as we did years ago – but I don’t see it being changed now.

“What was wrong in my instance was the fourth official made his way into my technical area to collect a ball, to return it and put it back into play.

“We can’t do that but the fourth official isn’t supposed to get involved in that either.”

Writer’s View

Although Adams admitted the charge he was given, it’s clear that he has done so reluctantly. There seems to be a growing frustration amongst many teams within League One and Two at the standard of officiating, especially when it comes to this instance.

Where Adams is wrong though is the role the fourth official plays. It’s not just as simple as holding up a board for substitutions and added time. They also play a key role in supervising the technical area, which could include calming down potential aggravating issues which could arise from the benches. It’s one of those roles which seems thankless and it’s easy to make judgements from the outside, but the professional game would be much tougher without them.

Hopefully this is the last we hear of this matter. Morecambe are in dire need of a victory and are one of just two teams yet to pick up three points. Notts County will be a tough challenge, but the Shrimps are already four points adrift of safety after just seven games. That’s where the manager’s focus needs to be.

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