Young Shrimps taste defeat
A YOUNG Shrimps' side suffered an opening day defeat against a strong Wigan team this afternoon.
An early header from Ryan Meadows and Guillermo Andres' 76th minutes strike were enough to give the Latics the three points.
Wigan fielded a strong starting XI which featured Honduran summer signing Juan Carlos Garcia and first team squad members Lee Nicholls and Nouha Dicko.
Morecambe started the game on the defensive with Wigan star man Danny Redmond creating plenty of attacking moves from the middle.
The creative midfielder brought his pre-season form into the game and it was his floating corner that found Meadows for the opening goal.
Bingham had a great chance to make it 2-0 just seven minutes after the opening goal when Adam Buxton raced down the right hand side on the overlap to find the forward with his cross, but Bingham couldn't connect fully on the stretch.
It was almost a second goal of the game for Meadows just before the half an hour mark with Redmond the provider for the chance once again down the left.
Meadows dropped back to the edge of the area with his movement catching out the Morecambe defence to gather Redmond's pass, but the midfielder's shot was blocked by Will Bell and gathered by goalkeeper Andreas Arestidou.
Bingham then tested Arestidou with a fierce effort towards the top corner but the keeper made a finger tip save.
A matter of minutes later Bingham had another golden opportunity to double the lead when Redmond played him in behind the defence, only for him to attempt to round Arestidou one-on-one, with the former Preston North End keeper coming out on top.
On the stroke of half time Dicko then stung the fingers of Arestidou as he cut inside from the right wing with a solid effort.
Chance after chance fell for Latics again in the second half and it was French winger Dicko who came closest before the eventual second when he played a one-two with Joey Johnson down the right before firing narrowly wide from a tight angle inside the area.
Danny Redmond continued to control the game during the second half and he started the move that created the second goal as Dicko latched onto the midfielder's pass over the defence.
Dicko raced into the area but was soon closed down by the goalkeeper who saved at close range, only for Dicko to win the ball back and tee up Andres in the centre of the penalty area.
The Spanish forward who replaced injured Ryan Jennings in the first half, took one touch and spotted a gap between two defenders on the line to fire a right footed shot into the net.
Latics almost made it 3-0 with just minutes of the game remaining when full back Buxton hammered a left footed half-volley towards goal, only for a deflection to divert the ball away.
Wigan: Nicholls, Buxton, Garcia, Mustoe, Kiernan, Meadows (Ainscough 79), Dicko, Redmond, Bingham (Boothman 63), Johnson, Jennings (Andres 33)
Unused subs: Marosi, Wilson, Thompson
Morecambe: Arestidou, McGowan, Hudson, Bell, Doyle, Colbourne (Newton 68), Watson, McGee, Woods, Naylor, Dunleavy
Unused subs: Kitchen, Bailey, Reynolds, Towers