Shrimps manager shrugs off pre-season predictions

The Shrimps kick off their 2024/25 League Two season at Walsall tomorrow, looking for a repeat of the victory when the two teams met on day one a year ago.

Morecambe’s campaign begins with the club still in ownership limbo and Adams saying there is no scope to bolster his squad further unless a takeover occurs.

Seventeen players have come in over the summer with the Shrimps having largely been cast aside as relegation fodder.

While some may write off such predictions as outside noise and others use them as motivation, Adams opted to take the philosophical approach.

He said: “It’s difficult to understand the league at this stage and how it will play out.

“There will be a lot of teams thinking they can come to the fore and have a chance of doing well this season.

“People will say who they think will go down – or who will be a surprise – but it’s just about filling column inches and giving their opinions.

“The first hurdle for us is to try and stay in League Two.

“Second to that is we’ve got to see how high we can finish – can we finish mid-table or can we then push on and see if we can finish higher than that?”

From a financial standpoint, three of last season’s biggest hitters – Stockport County, Wrexham and Mansfield Town – are all in the league above this time around.

However, Adams doesn’t necessarily believe that means a more even playing field as they travel to a Walsall team which finished 11th in 2023/24; five points off the top seven.

“There’s still a number of teams spending money in this league,” he maintained.

“Walsall just missed out on the play-offs last season and they are a very big club for this division.

“They haven’t had a massive turnaround this summer, it’s a beautiful ground to go and play football.

“Mat (Sadler, Walsall head coach) hasn’t made many changes so he can put his stamp on the team.”