Morecambe boss pays tribute to his players after Harrogate Town victory

Derek Adams believed his Morecambe players put on a battling performance in winning 1-0 at Harrogate Town on Saturday.
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The Shrimps moved up to sixth in League Two, only two points adrift of the automatic promotion places, after a first-minute goal was enough to earn three points.

With Yann Songo’o and Sam Lavelle both suspended, Morecambe had to play the last quarter-hour with 10 men when Nat Knight-Percival was sent off for a second booking but they were able to claim victory.

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Speaking to the club website afterwards, Adams said: “I thought it was a terrific performance from the team under difficult circumstances.

Morecambe keeper Kyle Letheren helped them to a first clean sheet in 12 matchesMorecambe keeper Kyle Letheren helped them to a first clean sheet in 12 matches
Morecambe keeper Kyle Letheren helped them to a first clean sheet in 12 matches

“The difficult circumstances were that there was heavy wind here and the pitch conditions were difficult to play on.

“I thought that it was a tough performance from us. You asked for a bit of aggression, a bit of bravery, before the game and I think the players showed that.

“Not only that, through the 90 minutes they showed a lot of good play. They passed the ball well and got into good forward areas.”

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Morecambe’s early goal, which has been variously credited as coming from either Carlos Mendes Gomes, John O’Sullivan or a Will Smith own goal, arrived inside the opening minute.

It could have been added to during the opening 45 minutes with Harrogate keeper James Belshaw making a number of saves.

At the other end, Harrogate’s best chances came courtesy of a series of long throws from Dan Jones but Morecambe held out for their first clean sheet in a dozen games.

Adams said: “We started the game well, we got on the front foot and, eventually, we got an early goal.

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“It allowed us to have the confidence to go forward and we had a number of really good opportunities in the first half.

“We probably should have gone in 4-0 at half-time because of the chances we did create.

“In the midfield we were strong, the front three – as always – were a menace and the back four and goalkeeper (Kyle Letheren) were very strong.

“They had to be because they had to deal with long throws all afternoon. That wasn’t easy because they were coming in as if they were a corner kick.”

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