Cheltenham boss Michael Duff was delighted with his side’s rare away victory as they secured a 3-1 League One win at relegation-threatened Morecambe.

Goals from Liam Sercombe and Callum Wright either side of the break gave the Robins the advantage only for a 52nd-minute Greg Leigh goal to give Morecambe hopes of a comeback.

The Shrimps pushed forward and were denied what appeared to be a penalty when Dylan Connolly was upended by Charlie Raglan, but it was Cheltenham who scored the all-important fourth goal of the game when Alfie May was left unmarked to score his 21st of the season from close range 10 minutes from time.

Duff said: “It’s the first time we have won away from home in four months and it was brilliant to get the win.

“It was never going to be a pretty game with the state of the league and the state of the pitch and the amount that was on it.

“They are fighting for their lives and will have identified this as a game to get some points to get themselves out of trouble.

“We scored a good goal at a good time and added a second quickly and then they did what we expected them to do and put us under pressure because they are fighting and scrapping for their lives.”

Morecambe manager Derek Adams, who watched the game from the stands as he served a one-match touchline ban, said: “It was a disappointing result and we conceded disappointing goals.

“We have conceded 70 goals this season so it is not hard to identify where our problems are.

“That has been the issue all season and – although we gave it a go – we can’t be as poor as we were today at the back.

“We have been pretty tight defensively in the last few games but that wasn’t the case today.

“We did show some good stuff going forward and with a bit more luck, could have scored more than we did.

“We know where the issues lie and we know we all have to work hard to put things right and that is what we will do.”