Shrimps suffer narrow first day defeat
THE Shrimps' Reserves put in a solid show but went down to a strong Stoke City side in the Central League Cup this evening.
After a bright start for Stewart Drummond's side Stoke took the lead in 21st minutes when Karim Rossi produced a neat finish after good link up play on the edge of the Morecambe area left him in space to drill a low shot past Andreas Arestidou.
The visitors added a second seven minutes from the break from the experienced Michael Tonge. Taking the ball 25 yards from goal the midfielder let fly with a superb right foot drive that flew past Arestidou into the top left hand corner of his goal.
Morecambe had chances of their own in the first half but couldn't find a finish.
Jack Redshaw saw a 10th minute header blocked by the Stoke defence and Jordan Burrow failed to get the touch needed to beat Carlo Nash at the near post when he was alone in the box.
Morecambe started the second half brightly with Redshaw a constant threat. The young striker forced Nash into a good near post save with a 58th minute strike and centre half Chris Doyle headed over from the resulting corner.
Redshaw's persistence paid off when he teed up Jordan Burrow for a goal eight minutes from time. Redshaw worked hi way to the byline and pulled the ball back for Burrow to score from eight yards out.
Morecambe: Arestidou; Selby, Bell, Doyle, Short; McGee, Sloan, Carlton, Mwasile; Redshaw, Burrow. Subs; Cookson, Knipe, Riley, Britton, Houghton.
Stoke: Nash; Rigg, Keene, Higginbottom, Campbell; Tonge, Palacios, Thomas, Arismendi, Musungu, Rossi. Subs: Bachmann, Parry, Hall, Dawson, Clarkson, Glasgow, Richardson.