Morecambe Under 18s 1-0 Accrington Stanley Under 18s

Jack Burgess’s own goal early in the first half decided the contest, while Morecambe had to show all their resilience in the second half, before the visitors had a goal ruled out for offside deep into stoppage time as the Under 18’s held on for the win.

Morecambe opened the scoring after ten minutes when a deep free kick into the box was scrambled into the net for an own goal by Accrington’s Jack Burgess.

The visitors almost equalised two minutes later when a powerful drive by Joel Mills was parried away by Niall Maher in the Morecambe goal while Neil Wainwright’s team almost doubled their advantage five minutes later when Paul Dawson’s long range effort went over the cross bar.

Harry Blackburn,Mills and Niall Watson tested Maher again and Mills saw an effort cleared off the line by some last ditch defending.

Accrington tried to hit back in the second half and Maher had to pull off a spectacular diving save to deny Luke Morgan, and Gilroy was unfortunate not to equalise moments later after he turned a Morecambe defender in the box before firing wide of the left hand post.

With the game deep into stoppage time Accrington had a goal ruled out for offside but Morecambe held on and their undefeated start to 2017 continued.