Northern Irish international Alfie McCalmont says the Shrimps have the belief and quality to win the Papa John’s Trophy.
Morecambe kick off this year’s EFL Trophy against Everton U21s at the Mazuma Stadium on Tuesday 14 September, and McCalmont sees no reason why the Shrimps can’t be successful in the competition.
Speaking following his return from the international break, which saw the Leeds United loanee make his first senior international start for Northern Ireland, the 21-year-old says the club will give its all.
“Like the gaffer said, we want to win the trophy,” he said.
“We believe that we can, we’ve got a strong enough team, we’re not just going to think ‘it’s just a cup game and we’re just too focussed on the league’, it’s not.
“We’re definitely going to give it our all, obviously put a strong team out and hopefully go as far as we can.
“21s football is different to senior football, so I think there’ll be more passing, playing out from the back, but we’ve just got to keep with the same ideas that we want to take on to Saturday.
“We’re not going to change how we play, obviously playing a different style of team, but we’re just going to keep doing what we’re good at and hopefully it’ll come off good.”
After playing the full 90 minutes against Estonia following a seven-minute appearance from the bench against Lithuania, McCalmont believes he can take confidence from the experience and apply it to his domestic football with Morecambe.
McCalmont added: “I played more than I was expecting to, because obviously I thought I was going with the under 21s, and then getting the call up to the seniors was a big achievement for me.
“Getting my first start just topped it off, 90 minutes and I had a good game, I really enjoyed it.
“I want to take it [confidence] to my club football as well, I want to be able to replicate my performances there [internationally] and take it into games on a Saturday and a Tuesday.”