Last gasp goal denies Morecambe Ladies
Morecambe Ladies suffered a narrow defeat in the third round of the Women’s FA Cup.at the Globe Arena on Sunday afternoon.
The Morecambe side went 2-1 up but could not hold on to the advantage and were undone by an Ashleigh Hayes goal right at the death.
Hayes struck first for Stoke when she gave the Potters a second minute lead.
The visitors then went on to look the more threatening with Jennifer Keane going close.
The Potters’ Ladies continued to look the more likely with Barnes and Hayes to the fore as Shrimps hot shot Megan Doherty, who came in for some rough treatment, fed off scraps.
Kate Asher was the next to go close for the visitors but her turn and shot went narrowly wide on 28 minutes.
Morecambe went straight up the other end and had their best opening with Keane bringing a sharp save from Alice Langstone at her near post.
The resultant set of corners brought the leveller however, the third of Becky Whittingham’s centres being nodded home by Megan Doherty on the half hour.
Hayes then again went close for Stoke, dragging a shot wide from inside the area as the game went from end to end.
Having battled hard in the opening period the Shrimps went ahead five minutes after the interval.
Langstone raced from her goal to battle with Doherty and the ball fell for Keane who guided a fine effort from 25 yards beyond the despairing dive of Meg Bowyer and in.
Stoke went straight on the front foot after the goal with some frantic Morecambe defending needed to keep the favourites on the day at bay.
Despite some defensive heroics Morecambe were hit by a second Stoke goal 15 minutes from time.
Doherty brought down Laura Garside with a clumsy challenge in the area and Courtney Jones made no mistake from the spot firing high in to the roof of the net.
The goal set up a thrilling finale with both sides going for a winner with Whittingham having a shot blocked for Morecambe before Reader saved well from Garside at her near post.
But it was Stoke who got the decisive goal, Hayes hammering home from 15 yards as Morecambe failed to clear a corner.