Match Report: Stevenage 4-3 Morecambe
THE Shrimps shipped another four goals as they went down to Teddy Sheringham's Stevenage in a four goal thriller.
Two late goals from Paul Mullin and Kevin Ellison gave the Shrimps hope in a game where keeper Barry Roche saved two penalties but it was too late to force an unlikely draw.
Stevenage took the lead after just seven minutes. Michael Tonge's right wing corner flew across the box and the ball fell to the defender on the left hand side of the area and he produced a stunning right foot volley to beat Barry Roche to his left hand side.
The visitors were level five minutes later with another superb goal. Kevin Ellison saw his first shot from the edge of the box blocked but the ball fell neatly for him and he flashed home the rebound from 20 yards out with a sweetly struck right foot shot.
The rest of the half belonged to Stevenage who carved through Morecambe time and time again.
Ben Kennedy saw a penalty saved by Roche on 17 minutes but two minutes later Chris Welpdale extended Boro's lead with a superb left foot curler from the edge of the box that found the bottom right hand corner of the Morecambe goal.
Stevenage continued to press and had a second penalty on the stroke of half time when Alan Goodall brought down Tom Pett but again Roche came to Morecambe's rescue when he saved Whelpdale's spot kick.
The Stevenage winger made amends in the second half with two quickfire goals.
His first came on 49 minutes when he cut in from the right again and curled another fine effort into the bottom right hand corner of the Shrimps' goal.
The winger then claimed his hat-trick with a gift on the hour when Laurence Wilson made a real mess of an attempted clearance allowing Whelpdale to score from close range.
Morecambe hit back with Tom Barkhuizen and Aaron Wildig going close before the Shrimps were given a penalty of their own when Ellison was bundled over by former Shrimps' skipper Mark Hughes and Paul Mullin blasted home the spot kick.
Morecambe debutant Anton Forrester had a half chance to reduce the arrears but failed to get full purchase on his header before Morecambe scored a third in the third minute of injury time when Kevin Ellison lashed home Ryan Edwards's lay off from 12 yards out.
STEVENAGE: Day, Henry, Franks (rep Hughes 75), Wells, Ogilvie, Pett, Tonge, Cox, Whelpdale (rep Lee 79), Matt, Kennedy. Subs not used: Crowe, McCombe, Gnanduillet, Conlon, Gorman.
MORECAMBE: Roche, Beeley, Parrish, Edwards, Wilson, Goodall (rep Murphy 46), Wildig, Barkhuizen, Molyneux (rep Mullin 46), Ellison, Miller (rep Forrester 72). Subs not used: Thompson, Doyle, Dugdale. Devitt.
Ref: L Collins.