Morecambe boss Ged Brannan fears losing in-form on-loan striker Michael Mellon

Posted Sunday, December 17, 2023 by PA

Morecambe manager Ged Brannan admitted he had mixed feelings after on-loan Burnley striker Michael Mellon netted twice in the 5-0 demolition of Doncaster.

The 20-year-old moved to 13 goals in League Two for the season with his brace in Brannan’s first win in charge of the Shrimps.

While delighted with the overall performance, he fears Mellon’s hot streak in front of goal may count against Morecambe as they seek to keep the youngster until the end of the season.

“It’s tremendous – but it’s not!” he said. “The more goals he scores, the less chance there is of us keeping him in January.

“I want him to go on and do really well, I really do. It’d hurt us if we lost him but that’s football.

“He deserves everything he gets. He’s a top player and getting to 13 already is just fantastic. If you give him the ball around the area, it’s a goal.”

Alongside Mellon’s two strikes, goals from Eli King, captain Jacob Bedeau and David Tutonda saw Morecambe cruise to the win.

On the performance, which ended a five-game winless run for Morecambe, Brannan was delighted.

“I was just made up with the way the lads played and I’m just delighted we kept the clean sheet as well,” he said. “I just said to the lads, let’s pass the ball and the passing was unbelievable.

“Everyone looked comfortable on the ball, they all wanted it. It was just an all-round top performance.”

Grant McCann cancelled the usual Sunday off for his Doncaster side as he embarked on an inquest into the heavy defeat.

McCann had little to say to his players in the immediate aftermath of a loss he labelled ‘unacceptable’ and called them into training to analyse the issues behind the poor performance.

“It’s a difficult one to talk about straight after the game and I’d like to watch it back,” he said.
“The players will watch it back because they’re in on Sunday to do that.

“We need to go into this period and a busy week by getting that out of the way ASAP – by watching it back and looking at the areas where we can get better. That was just not acceptable. It might be the worst performance.

“Usually the boys would have a Sunday off but we need to address it as soon as possible.

“I said in the build-up that we can beat anyone in this division when we’re at it but we can also get absolutely battered by anyone when we’re not.

“I’m really disappointed with what I’ve seen and we need to get better at being more streetwise and savvy when we’re under the cosh.”