Striker Cole is sure Shrimps can continue to cause a stir
PERENNIAL relegation favourites Morecambe pulled off a minor miracle to win promotion last season. And the Shrimpers have already raised eyebrows this season after nearly beating Ipswich in the League One season opener and dumping Championship Blackburn out of the EFL Cup three days later.
No man has been more important to their form than Cole Stockton, who has bagged six goals already.
His brace at Portman Road featured a Lionel Messi-like dribble with the striker holding off three defenders before calmly picking his spot.
But ahead of tomorrow’s home game with leaders Sheffield Wednesday, Stockton is keen to stress it is team effort, not individual brilliance, that sees the Lancashire side make mugs of the bookies year in, year out.
‘Last season we tried to get away from the name “Little old Morecambe” and we did that,’ he says. ‘We proved everyone wrong. We had the lowest budget in League Two and we blew everyone out of the water.
‘The group of lads we had last season – we knew where we were, we knew what we wanted.
‘We all pulled together. It was about heart and fight.
‘We would go into games and know you were going to win. Once you have that feeling you are almost like on autopilot. We were in working every Sunday but it all paid off.’
Being the underdogs made promotion all the more satisfying. ‘We were on 80 per cent pay because of Covid, some players live pay cheque to pay cheque at this level,’ adds Stockton.
‘That drove us – getting promotion just topped it all off.’
The Merseysider, who spent years at Tranmere in two spells, said beating his old team to reach the League Two play-off final was bittersweet.
Stockton played at Wembley in 2017 when Forest Green won promotion to the Football League at Rovers’ expense.
That experience helped him second time around as Morecambe ground out a 1-0 extra-time win over Newport.
‘You know what to expect,’ he says. ‘You are playing the game, not the occasion. That’s something our lads did very well.
‘The build-up was the same as if we were playing Stevenage away. The performance wasn’t great but everything goes out the window in those finals.
‘Whatever you have achieved that season is gone. It’s just about whoever turns up.
‘My favourite memory was the final whistle – knowing my family were all there and seeing them because they couldn’t see us during the season.’
Boss Derek Adams’ move from Morecambe to Bradford was announced just three days after the Wembley final but it shocked few at the club.
‘He looked after himself which you’ve got to do in this game,’ adds Stockton. ‘ We knew he was going, whatever happened.’
But under former Motherwell manager Stephen Robinson the team have already shown they can cope in the higher league.
‘We have a new manager now and we are all buying into his ways,’ the striker says. ‘I am enjoying it. He wants to improve me as a player. I am excited about what’s coming.
‘We have double or triple players in each position now so there is a lot of depth and a lot of competition. We have started very well.’ He says other clubs are waking up to the fact Morecambe are no mugs.
‘Our goal this year is to earn our right to stay in this league. Once we have done that we can start to make a name for ourselves.’
Stockton’s six goals may have caught the eye of scouts at bigger clubs but he penned a new deal this summer. ‘I’m a Morecambe player, I signed for two years,’ he says. ‘Whatever happens, happens but I’m happy to be here.’