Leek Town 0 Morecambe 1: Daly’s on target as Shrimps book place in the third round
A late goal from Matty Daly saw Morecambe overcome a battling Leek Town to make their way into the third round of the FA Trophy.
Daly scored his eighth goal of the season with eight minutes to go to give the Shrimps victory in a tough tie against NPL Premier Division opponents.
Morecambe were made to work hard for the win with Leek looking a threat from the start.
Myles Boney was forced into an early save when home winger Alex Hurst ran in on goal down the left and forced an excellent save from the keeper.
After a sluggish start, Morecambe began to force the pace midway through the half with Cameron Coxe testing Kamel Misciur with a close-range header and Teddy Collis blazing the rebound wide.
Leek thought they had opened the scoring in the 40th minute when Leighton Baines diverted a Hurst cross into his own goal, only for the assistant referee to flag for an offside in the Morecambe box to see the goal controversially ruled out.
The second half saw the Shrimps dominate possession but Leek remained dangerous on the counter, with Boney again coming to the rescue to race from his goal and take the ball away from striker Connor Heath, who would have had a free run on goal after a dangerous through ball.
The Shrimps forged a good opportunity of their own in the 58th minute when Daly saw a close-range effort cleared off the line before Collis again wasted the follow up chance as he blazed the loose ball wide.
The Shrimps’ possession finally paid off with the winning goal on 82 minutes as Daly slid home Isaac Buckley-Ricketts’ left-wing cross.
Leek came battling back and had chances to take the tie to penalties as Liam Buckley headed a cross straight at Boney, and Alex Panter found the side netting with a shot from close range when he should have done better.
But the Shrimps held on to progress into the next round.
LEEK: Misciur, Curl (Buckley 64), Hollis, Holding, Hughes, Reeves (Porter 83), Weir, Campbell, Griffiths, Hurst, Heath (Panter 72). Subs not used: Towns, Meadowcroft.
MORECAMBE: Boney, Davis, Hogan (Coxe 5), Baines, Williams, Cain, O’Kane (Curley 72), Newby (Dobson 90), Daly, Collis (Buckley-Ricketts 62), Neill (Lewis 62).
Referee: E Murray.