Match Report: Shrimps kick off their pre season campaign with a 5-0 victory over Kendal Town
Kendal: Whiteside, Smalley, Henry, Thomas, Williams, Forbes, Swarbrick, Trialist, Connerton, Wilks, King. Subs: Watson, Kitchen, Towers, Halliwell, Watson, Pomieye.
Morecambe (first half): Roche, Beeley, Doyle, Dugdale, McGowan, Goodall, Murphy, Wildig, Devitt, Mullin, Pritchard.
Morecambe (second half): Thompson, McGowan, Edwards, Parrish, Molyneux, Bailey, Kenyon, Fleming, Ellison, Barkhuizan, Kelleher.
THE Shrimps kicked off their pre season campaign with a 5-0 victory over Michael Stringfellow’s Kendal Town.
Goals from Aaron Wildig, Lee Molyneux, Alex Kenyon and Kevin Ellison gave the Shrimps a winning start.
Morecambe enjoyed plenty of early possession but the first chance fell to Kendal on 14 minutes. Jordan Connerton latched on to Shaun Beeley’s poor back pass, rounded Barry Roche but saw his effort cleared off the line by Chris Doyle.
The Shrimps hit back with Jamie Devitt sending in several crosses in quick succession with Peter Murphy seeing a header deflected wide and Paul Mullin unable to get the ball from out of his feet from close range.
The pressure paid off with the opening goal on 22 minutes, Beeley played the ball into Murphy who flicked the ball on for Aaron Wildig to steer a left foot shot into the bottom right hand corner or Ric Whiteside’s goal.
Kendal almost hit back immediately with Connerton breaking into the Morecambe box and forcing a superb point blank save from Roche.
The game continued to swing from rend to end with Mullin volleying over at full stretch and Aaron McGowan hitting the crossbar with a stunning 25 yard left foot drive.
Kendal’s best chance came on the stroke of half time when Dave Swarbrick played in Danny Wilks with a superb flick but with only Roche to beat he curled his shot wide of the left hand post.
The Shrimps made 10 changes for the second half with only McGowan staying on the pitch and they almost let the lead slip moments after the restart when Sam Bailey curled an effort inches wide.
The Shrimps soon found their rhythm and won a penalty on 50 minutes when Jack Kelleher was brought down by Robbie Williams after a superb turn in the box and Lee Molyneux made no mistake from the spot.
The Shrimps then added a third on 69 minutes. Molyneux delivered a cross from the left and Alex Kenyon nipped in to send a looping header over former Shrimps’ youngster Will Kitchen.
Kelleher was involved again as the Shrimps made it 4-0 on 79 minutes. The youngster found Kevin Ellison with a smart reverse pass and the veteran made no mistake with a low shot past Kitchen.
Tom Barkhuizen was twice denied a goal by excellent saves from Kitchen before Aaron Halliwell volleyed inches over Tony Thompson’s bar as the home side pressed for a late consolation.
But it was the Shrimps who had the final word with an injury time penalty. Williams took out Ellison on the edge of the box and Barkhuizen made no mistake from the spot.