Still considered to be a young manager, Stephen Robinson is in his first year with Morecambe as first-team manager.
He was hired by Morecambe in June 2021 following the departure of Derek Adams just days after the Shrimps earned promotion to the third tier and arrived at the Mazuma Stadium after managerial spells with Motherwell (2017-20) and Oldham Athletic (2016-17).
At Motherwell, he helped steer the club to the Scottish League Cup final after defeating perennial power Rangers – eventually losing to Celtic by a 2-0 score line. Born in Lisburn, Robinson had a long-lasting playing career, including internationally for Northern Ireland between 1997 and 2007 earning seven caps in the process.
Manager Stephen Robinson Quotes…
On the difficulties of League One:
“It doesn’t matter what level it is – League One, League Two, National League or the Premier League, if you don’t defend properly from set plays, then you get beat. We have to defend better. Is it something we can change? Yes, because it’s just a mindset that you have to be a defender first and foremost. If you make those mistakes at this level, then you get punished.”
On the rotation he’s using for the team:
“We’ve got one fit center forward, and we’ve got four injured, and one very close to coming back in the next couple of weeks which takes the pressure off a little bit. We have to make changes. There’s boys who haven’t had any kind of game time. Some of them look very rusty. We have to get game time into people. Our priority is to stay up in this division and stay at this level. We don’t have a squad capable of competing on every front.”
On keeping his team mentally prepared when traveling to Doncaster Rovers:
“They’re struggling as far as their league position, but I’ve watched their game against Wigan, and they were unfortunate not to have a goal disallowed.
“They’ve changed their system quite a lot. I’ve watched their game against Portsmouth where I thought they were very good. Sometimes you don’t get things to go your own way, and I think, maybe, the league table’s not telling their true position at the moment. So, we certainly won’t go and underestimate them.”
*****
Can't join us for the next game? Keep up with the action with iFollow Rovers
