Four Seasons Morecambe
Cherie Trojak
In my first job at Ross County, organisation was needed. Scottish coaches are renowned for being very organised and pragmatic, but we also want to see entertaining football. We want to see players who can dribble and take on their opponent. We want to see crosses into the box and goalscoring number nines. A number 10 who gets on the ball, is creative and gets the crowd excited.
In my first spell with Ross County, we won the Second Division [third-tier] title, then reached the Scottish Cup final as a Championship club, which was amazing. We beat Hibs in a replay in the quarter final, then faced Celtic in the semi final at Hampden.
They had some talent in that team, including Robbie Keane, Georgios Samaras, Scott Brown and Aidan McGeady. We beat them 2-0, which was probably one of the greatest successes that Ross County have had.
It set us on a path. Ross County had been a Highland League club until the mid-1990s, but now they are an established Scottish Premiership side. It was about giving them belief that they could make it to what was then called the Scottish Premier League (SPL).
They certainly believed when we went 40 games unbeaten across the 2011/12 Championship campaign and our first season in the SPL, which was not easy. We finished fifth in the top flight in that first campaign.
In the modern game, you need two centre-halves who are very quick and good on the ball. If you can get that and pressure opponents, man for man, all over the pitch, it gives you a great opportunity in the game.
The players may change, but my teams have always been of a similar nature. I get excited when I see my team understand how I want the game to be played, offensively and defensively. To be in the game, you need defensive solidity, to be able to move across the pitch and shut it off. Then, offensively, to open the pitch as big as possible.
I like creative players. Sometimes I have played with two number 10s in the hole, and one striker, which allows our full-backs to get forward. A central-midfield player can then get on the ball and make passes.
After my success at Ross County, in 2015 I got the opportunity to go to Plymouth Argyle. The club was in dire straits at that time, having been in administration a few seasons before. They had dropped from the Championship to League Two in successive seasons, and had spent four seasons in the fourth tier. It turned out to be the best move I could have asked for.
We got automatically promoted into League One, missing out on the title on goal difference. That season we played mostly 4-2-3-1/4-3-3, although at times we did change to a three at the back. It was a really outstanding team for what was only the 10th-highest budget in League Two.
That is something I get a buzz out of. If they end up getting a better move at the end of the season, it means they have done well for me and the football club, as well as themselves. Getting performances out of players to get results and generate revenue through transfer fees is what you have to do.
That is the nature of the business, because to get promoted you need more than flair going forward. You must have defensive nous and the ability to close space, then be able to counter or create openings.
The following season, we had no players in contract and had to find a new team. It was during Covid, and I had to build a squad from scratch. We had no heads of recruitment, no analysts. It was just me finding the right players, so I was watching Wyscout, speaking to managers and agents about players who were available, building a team I thought could get promotion.
After that final, I accepted an offer to take over at Bradford City, who had finished 19 points behind Morecambe in League Two. It is a massive football club, and they wanted a manager who knew how to get out of the division.
The following season we took it to the last game, but ended a couple of points short of staying up. When I look back on that campaign, we battered Portsmouth at home only to draw with them, and we should have beaten them away as well. Those two games alone made a difference, such are the fine margins in football.
In November 2023, we were just outside the playoff places, when I decided to go back to Ross County for a third time. I soon felt, however, that I had made an error going back. I spoke to the CEO and made a decision to leave after 12 games, to give them an opportunity to move forward as well.
My ambition now is to get back into English football, with a team that has maybe gone a wee bit stale, or lost their way and need revitalising. A club with a fanbase who are hungry for them to succeed.
It would be terrific to go into a team where I had money to spend and a budget that enabled me to go out and get the players that I wanted. I understand, though, that my record shows I can improve players and change things in other ways to get promotion.
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Like quite a few crime dramas that have hit our screens over the last few years (Shetland, Ridley, Happy Valley), The Bay has been filmed with much of the UK's beautiful natural scenery as a focal point.
The fourth season of the crime drama, like its previous outings, returns to Morecambe Bay and has been entirely filmed on the UK coast. Returning once again as series lead DS Jenn Townsend is Marsha Thomason, whose character is set to be more settled and confident in this upcoming run.
ITV drama The Bay is set and filmed in the coastal town of Morecambe. This Lancashire town is located north of Blackpool, and was once a bustling seaside resort which has seen a decades-long decline in tourism.
\"It's been all-consuming over the last few years and the show is never very far from my thoughts. When we finish shooting a series, we're already thinking very intently about the next and planning storylines.\"
He previously told RadioTimes.com ahead of the first season in 2019 that Morecambe was \"a place that I always liked\", saying: \"It's a really interesting mix of things, because on the one hand it's very striking, it's beautiful, it's got extraordinary views out across the bay towards the Lake District.
\"You can still see traces of it. There are still these magnificent buildings like the Winter Gardens and the Midland Hotel, so it's still got this sense of slightly faded grandeur,\" Carville said, explaining why he decided to set The Bay in Morecambe.
Morecambe is also not the sort of place you usually see in a TV drama. \"One of the reasons I wanted to write this story and to set it there was just simply because nothing had been set there before,\" Carville said. \"And I think there's something really important about seeing your own life represented on screen or on stage.\"
\"It is a crime drama so there is a dark aspect to this story and we can't get away from that,\" the writer said. \"But that's not all it's about, and we also kind of show the beauty of the place and the richness and warmth of that community. Richness in the sense of a lived history. And I think that's all there, in the mix.
Speaking about the upcoming fourth season, series star Marsha Thomason stated that \"Morecambe is a character in our show\". She said: \"It's so iconic and so distinctive. It is a place unto itself. The character of this place really adds to the grit and the drama of the show.\"
She explained: \"Morecambe is incredible as a setting for The Bay because you can have four seasons in one day. We have literally filmed with rainstorms and then we're all having to put sun lotion on at lunchtime, and then the winds and then the landscape.
She continued: \"Setting the show in Morecambe adds endless opportunities in terms of story. Where there's water, where you have massive tides going in and out a few times a day, anything can happen in a town like this.
Similarly, Daniel Ryan (who plays DI Tony Manning) said that setting the series in Morecambe only adds to the drama. He said: \"Morecambe is a beautiful, beautiful place. I've always said there's a sense of melancholy here because it was once this huge, thriving, British holiday destination.
\"It is indeed a working police station,\" Carville told us, adding: \"To be fair, and without wanting to ruin the magic of television, the exteriors and the interiors are filmed at different places.\"
This season, the grief-stricken Metcalf family are taken to a B&B to stay, seeing as their home is ruined by the arson attack. While it's under very sad circumstances, there's no denying that the setting itself is beautiful and we often see Dean and his children take time away from the indoors to explore the area around their temporary home.
\"We turned up to this location, right on the water, looked out with the Lake District over the water, the sky was incredible. We had the most phenomenal sunset that evening, which bounced off the sand, off the water and it felt really special.\"
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