AN injury time goal from Carlos Mendes-Gomes earned a young Shrimps side victory in this Lancashire Senior Cup tie at the Globe Arena.
The Shrimps’ midfielder was in the right place at the right time to strike home Joe Lynch’s cross from six yards out to give Stewart Drummond’s side a passage into the next round.
An entertaining game saw all three goals come in the second half.
Morecambe opened the scoring four minutes after the break through a penalty. Joe Lynch went down in the box and the referee pointed to the spot. Lynch stepped up and beat his namesake, former Salford keeper Jay Lynch despite the keeper’s best efforts.
The goal looked to be enough to give the Shrimps the victory but with six minutes to go the visitors levelled from a well worked free kick. With the home defence expect ing a cross Ryan McLaughlin teed up Fabio Tavares and he produced a neat finish from the edge of the box but with the game looking set to go to penalties Mendes-Gomes produced the telling final goal.
The first half saw plenty of endeavour and both sides came close to opening the scoring.
Morecambe started the better with summer signings Michael Howard and Lynch both testing Lynch with shots from distance.
Rochdale began to find their feet midway through the half and Tavares forced Harry O’Brien into a neat save at his near post before Morgan Moreland turned a Tavares cross over from eight yards after a neat Rochdale move.
The game then swung from end to end with O’Brien producing a smart save low to his right from Moreland’s low shot before the latter was denied the game’s first goal by a superb goal line clearance from Tyler Brownsword.
The half ended with action in the Rochdale half as Lynch produced a flying save to tip away a well struck long distance shot from Jack Greenwood.
Morecambe: O’Brien, Farrington, Edwards, Brownsword, Bakare, Jagne, Obasoto, Lynch, Greenwood, Mendes-Gomes, Howard. Subs not used: Edgar, Codjovi, Moore, Lowe, Beverley.
Rochdale: Lynch, McLaughljn, Lee, Delaney, Gillam Clarkson, Chorlton, Hopper (rep Phillips 83), Tavares, Bradley, Moreland (rep Cullen 72). Subs not used: Kinsella, Piper, Wright.
Ref: A Sykes.