Morecambe boss Derek Adams was full of praise for his side as they moved to within one point of the automatic promotion spots with this thrilling 4-3 victory over Oldham at the Mazuma Stadium.

Morecambe took the lead in the fifth minute through the highly-rated Carlos Mendes-Gomes when he turned Kelvin Mellor’s through ball past Laurie Walker from a tight angle.

The visitors pulled one back after 39 minutes with Conor McAleny getting the wrong side of Sam Lavelle and lobbing the ball over Kyle Letheren.

The goal sparked an immediate reply from the Shrimps with Aaron Wildig restoring the lead when he poked in Mendes-Gomes’ cross from six yards out.

The Shrimps added a third in first-half injury time when Cole Stockton turned his marker on the edge of the box and drilled a low shot past Walker and it was 4-1 with 54 minutes one with a second from Mendes-Gomes after he ran on to a superb through ball from Toumani Diagouraga.

Oldham pulled one back 12 minutes from time when Cameron Borthwick-Jackson turned home Nicky Adams’ corner and Kyle Jameson added to the excitement by pulling another goal back two minutes from time.

But it was too little too late for the visitors as Morecambe held on for the three points.

Adams said: “I thought it was a fantastic performance from us today and the scoreline should have been wider from our point of view with the amount of chances we created.

“We started on the front foot and from the off pressed them high up the pitch and made it man for man all over the pitch.

“It was like a basketball game at times as it went from end to end with both sides winning possession. It was attack v attack and that is the way we wanted it to pan out and we moved 4-1 ahead with some really good goals.

“It was nice to follow up the 4-1 win in midweek with another four goals and it was a top performance. The two goals just before half-time were well timed and gave us a real advantage going into the second period.

“We knew they had scored a lot of goals lately but we also knew they had conceded a lot too and it made for a great game but at the end of the day it was a great three points for us that enables us to get ahead of some of the other teams around us with just four games to go.”

Oldham manager Keith Curle was angry with his side’s display despite their late rally.

He said: “It was a frustrating day for us. On the positive side we scored three goals, were competitive and showed a good attitude and kept going until the end but internally it was nowhere near good enough.

“We haven’t met the standards I require. Some of the play was OK but some of the mistakes just weren’t acceptable and we didn’t make the right decisions at the right time which is something we need to sort out.

“We have produced a couple of good performances recently but sometimes players start believing the hype and start believing they are better than they are and I think we saw a bit of that today.

“We could hide behind the fact we scored three goals but we have to do better than that and set our standards higher because although we scored three goals we got beat.”