Morecambe 1-3 Cheltenham Town
Sky Bet League One
The Mazuma Stadium
Saturday 12 March 2022
Kick-Off: 3:00pm
Attendance: 3,733 (199 away)
The Shrimps ended up on the wrong side of a 3-1 scoreline, with a Liam Sercombe deflected effort giving the Robins the lead, followed by a strike from Callum Wright to double their advantage, before Greg Leigh found the back of the net for the home side, but with 10 minutes to go, Alfie May wrapped up the points for the visitors.
The first chance of the half came after two minutes when midfielder Wright took aim from outside the penalty area, but his shot did not test Trevor Carson in the Shrimps’ goal.
It was Wright again, similar to his first effort, that tried his luck again, on this occasion Carson was right behind it to make a comfortable save.
Some heroic defending by Liam Gibson and Jacob Bedeau prevented striker Andy Williams from getting a shot away just after the half-hour mark.
Williams tried something different after that, chancing his arm from outside the box, but his attempt was well over the Shrimps’ crossbar.
With a minute of the half remaining, the visitors took the lead, a ball through the middle found Sercombe, who carried posession before taking a shot from 25-yards, it took a wicked deflection off Bedeau and looped over the head of Carson and into the back of the net.
Half-time: Morecambe 0-1 Cheltenham Town
The start of the second-half saw the Shrimps fall further behind, a long throw by Sean Long was flicked on by Will Boyle, it dropped to Elliot Bond who forced an initial good save from Carson in the Shrimps goal, but there was Wright to fire home from close range.
A couple of minutes later, Derek Adams’ side were unfortunate not to pull a goal back, a catalogue of last-ditch challenges and blocks prevented the Shrimps from finding the back of the net, the most notable one was Stockton’s effort cleared off the line by Will Boyle.
The home side did pull one back on the 52nd minute, a drilled ball along the box by Stockton found Leigh at the back-post, his first effort was blocked well by Matty Blair, thankfully he couldn’t keep his second effort out, with the left-back forcing it over the line.
Just before the hour mark, Carson made a brilliant one-handed save to deny Williams from just inside the penalty area.
Ten minutes later, it was Owen Evans’ turn in the Robins’ goal to make a crucial save for his side, Stockton took aim from just outside the box on his right-foot, but a strong hand from Evans denied him his 20th goal of the Sky Bet League One season.
On the 80th minute, the visitors added their third.
Another long throw from Long was half-cleared, the ball fell to Wright who scuffed his effort, but it rolled perfectly to May who was lurking at the back-post, he managed to squeeze the ball under Carson and hand the visitors the three points.
Full-time: Morecambe 1-3 Cheltenham Town
Morecambe: Carson, O’Connor (C), Bedeau, Diagouraga, Stockton, McCalmont (Obika 53’), Connolly, Phillips, McLoughlin, Gibson (Ayunga 76’), Leigh.
Subs not used: Smith, Mensah, Cooney, Gnahoua, Fane.
Goals: Leigh 52'.
Bookings: None.
Red cards: None.
Cheltenham Town: Evans, Long, Raglan, Sercombe, May, A Williams (Lloyd 85’), Boyle (C), Wright, Blair, Bonds (Colkett 61’), B Williams (Freestone 67’).
Subs not used: Flinders, Pollock, Chapman, Ramsey.
Goals: Sercombe 44’, Wright 46’, May 80’.
Bookings: Bonds 9’.
Red cards: None.