Good grief Charlie Brown is a ‘top lad’ – Ged Brannan talks up Shrimps star

Posted Sunday, January 21, 2024 by PA

Morecambe manager Ged Brannan was thrilled to see Charlie Brown join the endless list of players to have haunted their old clubs after his late winner snatched a 2-1 victory at MK Dons.

Former Chelsea youngster Brown scored just three goals in 32 appearances for the Dons and struggled to get into the Shrimps side in the first half of the season after joining them last summer.

After opening his Morecambe account in the draw against Mansfield last week, it was his strike in the second minute of stoppage time that completed an impressive second-half turnaround at Stadium MK.

Brannan said: “You couldn’t write it, could you?

“Absolutely brilliant, what a lad, last week he scored again, he’s come on today and caught them on the break, dropped the shoulder and it was a great strike into the bottom corner.

“I’m made up for him, top lad, it was a great finish.

“You don’t want to know (what was said at half-time).

“We’ve had loads and loads of talks about conceding early goals, early in the second half as well, and to go and concede a goal after one minute was devastating because we know how much we’ve been working on it.

“We had a little heated debate at half-time, got a few things sorted out and, as you can see, it worked.”

The play-off chasing Dons were ahead inside 75 seconds thanks to an excellent curled finish from Max Dean and only excellent saves from Archie Mair to deny Warren O’Hora and Dean prevented them from building a commanding lead.

Morecambe hit back after 51 minutes when debutant goalkeeper Filip Marschall missed Jake Taylor’s corner and Jordan Slew bundled in.

Brown then provided the sting in the tail when he pounced on a slip by Lewis Bate before finishing beyond Marschall to earn just a second win in 12 Sky Bet League Two games for the Shrimps.

Dons boss Mike Williamson said: “I think in the first half every time they tried to press, we found a way and I thought we connected the centre-halves to the 10s a little bit better, and our movement was very good.

“We’ll have to watch it back and I thought for them coming out for the second half, they were disappointed from the first one and they can afford to take a few more risks and get on the front foot.

“That’s the nature of it when you’re 1-0 up, it’s always in the balance and we just needed to improve our ball speed, more than anything, and keep moving them like we did in the first half.

“But the lads have been fantastic. We focus on the things we can control and I thought they were very good at doing that today.”