MORECAMBE CAN LAND LAMPS KO
Champ Fury in Shrimps corner
MORECAMBE believe they have a fighting chance of knocking out Frank Lampard’s Chelsea with Tyson Fury in their corner.
The world heavyweight champion lives in the town and has his own gym in a corner of the Mazuma Stadium.
The Gypsy King’s state-of-theart training facility is adorned with framed photographs of some of his great moments in the sport.
Pride of place goes to one showing in graphic detail the punch landed on Deontay Wilder to make Fury a twotime world champion.
Now Derek Adams’ revitalised side, who have already defied gloomy pre-season predictions that they would once again be involved in a scrap to stay in the EFL, are hoping to punch above their weight at Stamford Bridge.
Their last couple of League Two games were called off following a coronavirus outbreak at the club meaning Adams and his squad had to self-isolate at home for 10 days. They only returned to training on Tuesday night, but, having already fought their way up the table to challenge for a promotion play-off place after five seasons of never finishing above 18th, the gloves are on for a tilt at their illustrious hosts.
“It’s just fantastic for the town. You can say it’s a heavyweight against a lightweight, but who knows?” said Adams, who was named League Two manager of the month on Friday after winning five of six December games.
He took over in November 2019 and added: “We’ve been a team that has progressed through the season. The players are really looking forward to the latest challenge. We know we’ll have to defend well and when we get the opportunity attack and take our chances.
“Having to self-isolate meant a long break for the players. But we had to take the action on our club doctor’s orders to help stop the spread of the virus.”
Chelsea have only won once in seven games, but Adams maintained: “I don’t think Chelsea’s recent poor run will help us at all. They reached the final last season and will be looking to bounce back with a good performance.”
Adams himself bounced back from being sacked by Plymouth Argyle, despite guiding them to promotion from League Two.
Before that, at Ross County, he reached the Scottish Cup final only to be axed on the same day as his father George, who was the club’s director of football.
Shrimps full-back Kelvin Mellor is hoping there is no repeat of the club’s last game against a Premier League side – a thumping 7-0 defeat at home to Newcastle United in September in the Carabao Cup.
“We’ve got to forget that and just go out and enjoy facing Chelsea,” he said. “To be honest, it’s just great to be able to train again and play a game after being stuck in the house for 10 days doing home workouts.
“We haven’t trained as much as we would have liked for this game, but at the same time we’ve had a lot of matches. That’s taken a lot out of the lads, so, hopefully, the break will do us good.”