Sunderland have been warned to expect a tough final day of the season at Morecambe as they look to book their place in the League One play-offs. The Black Cats could yet even secure an unilikely automatic promotion spot, with Rotherham United at the Stadium of Light tonight.
But with Sheffield Wednesday also in action this evening against Fleetwood, it looks like being a tense climax to the campaign with several sides vying for a top-six place. The Black Cats travel to the North West to face Morecambe on Saturday, but it will be far from a meaningless end-of-season affair for the hosts.
The Shrimps need a positive result to ensure they avoid relegation after an impressive run which has lifted them out of the dangerzone. Gillingham and Fleetwood are fighting it out at the bottom, and Morecambe boss Derek Adams knows his side are in for a tough test against Alex Neil's side.
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“Since I arrived at the club, we have managed to get ourselves out of the relegation zone," he told the Lancaster Guardian. “Three teams can’t catch us now and it is a three-team race now to stay up between ourselves, Fleetwood Town and Gillingham.
“We are in a much better position than we started with. There were still a lot of teams that were in the mix at the start of the game on Saturday and now there are a slim number of teams left.
“We have a difficult game at home on Saturday against Sunderland, we know that. We understand what we have to do and we understand what other teams have to do as well because you have to think that Sheffield Wednesday, Rotherham and Bolton will want to finish as high as they can.
“We would have all hoped it would have been sorted by now but we have taken it to the final day. I think that is a testament to the players who have worked so hard to put us in a much better position than we were in.
“If you look back at matches like the Bolton games – where we should have had a penalty at their place and they equalised in both games against us late on – then a few things haven’t gone our way this year but the players have shown a great deal of resilience to take us to the last game. It is still in our hands because we know that, if we can get a win, we are guaranteed to stay in League One next year.”
Sunderland have never lost to Morecamble in the three times the two sides have met so far, winning 5-0 at the Stadium of Light in December to add to EFL Trophy and League Cup victories in the past.
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