Oliver will hold nothing back against his old club

Cobblers striker Vadaine Oliver does not plan to go easy when former club Morecambe are in town this weekend.
Vadaine Oliver was in the blue of Morecambe when the Shrimps played at Sixfields last seasonVadaine Oliver was in the blue of Morecambe when the Shrimps played at Sixfields last season
Vadaine Oliver was in the blue of Morecambe when the Shrimps played at Sixfields last season

The 28-year-old played 71 games in two years at Morecambe before leaving for Northampton last summer.

The Shrimps, who replaced long-serving manager Jim Bentley with Derek Adams in October, are struggling again this season, above only Stevenage in Sky Bet League Two.

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And despite making some fond memories of his time in the north west, Oliver will hold nothing back if selected for Saturday's clash.

He said: “There’s been a few changes at the club since I left but I have a lot of friends still there and it’ll be a good one for me.

“I was really close with Jim and Kenny (McKenna) but they’ve gone now and my ties to the club are almost severed so it’ll be all guns blazing on Saturday and I’m sure it’ll be the same for the team as well.”

Morecambe are perennial strugglers but they claimed a crucial victory over Port Vale in midweek and, as the last-gasp win over Stevenage demonstrated, it’s unlikely to be as straightforward as the league table might suggest.

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“It can give you a false of security and because they’re so low, you’re expected to steamroll over them,” admitted Oliver.

“But Stevenage showed these can become the most difficult games. They won’t want to come here and lose so they’ll sit back and try and defend for 90 minutes.

“It’ll be up to us to break them down and that’s always difficult at this level so it’ll be a tough game and I’m not expecting us to do a Burton.

“It’d be nice if we could but if we perform the way we have been and the fans are onside, I think, eventually, due to where they are in the table, old habits might creep in and they might crumble.

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“But as the gaffer says, when you’ve got the foot on someone’s throat, you don’t take it off. You just go out and keep pushing.

“Momentum can really make or break a season. We’ve just got the ball rolling now and obviously we’ve been on a good run and right now is a perfect opportunity to ramp it up and kick-on.”