08 May 2021

Derek Adams proud despite Morecambe’s near miss

08 May 2021

Morecambe boss Derek Adams said he was proud of his players despite the disappointment of missing out on automatic promotion to League One by one point.

Adams saw his side produce another solid performance to beat Bradford 2-0 at the Mazuma Stadium but wins for Bolton and Cambridge saw their dreams of a top-three finish come to an end.

The Shrimps’ manager said: “We have to be proud of what we have achieved. To finish fourth in the league with 23 wins and 78 points is a great achievement.

“It’s been a fantastic season and it isn’t over yet. The players have put in some terrific performances and put on some good shows and we have the play-offs to look forward to.

“We have come up against teams in this division that have spent a lot more money than us but it is not just about that. It’s about spirit, organisation and the ability to score goals and not concede and we showed those qualities today.

“We were without six players again today but everyone who came in did their jobs again and it was another good win for us.”

Morecambe had to win the game to give themselves any chance of going up and they did that with goals in either half.

Liam McAlinden hit a post in the 16th minute but went a step further with the opener on 29 minutes as he took advantage of Toumani Diagouraga’s superb pass to slot the ball past Sam Hornby from the right-hand side of the area.

Bradford responded with Andy Cook sending two headers off target before the Shrimps doubled their lead on 56 minutes with a fine finish from Cole Stockton. Yann Songo’o played in Carlos Mendes-Gomes, who teed up Stockton with a neat touch and the striker made no mistake from 12 yards out.

Bradford made a string of substitutions and pushed to the end but produced only one moment of threat for the home defence, with Billy Clarke forcing Kyle Letheren into a fine save from a 94th-minute header.

Joint Bradford boss Mark Trueman said: “That wasn’t good enough today. We are a team in mid-table and you probably saw that in our performance. They seemed to have a bit more energy and when we did get into good areas we didn’t show the momentum we needed to threaten.

“We got punished when we made mistakes and that is what Morecambe are all about. They sit back and make it hard for you and we just didn’t have enough in the final third to open them up and break them down.

“We had a lot of attacking players on the pitch today but we couldn’t break through and we know we need to improve in that area next season.”

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