Salford City 2 Morecambe 0: Second EFL Trophy loss for the Shrimps

A-Jay Leitch-Smith made his return for Morecambe

Derek Adams named a side that contained 10 changes to the one that won at Southend United at the weekend.

Yann Songo’o was handed his full debut and A-Jay Leitch-Smith made a welcome return to action.

It was Salford who dominated the first half and the only surprise was that it took them 44 minutes to open the scoring.

There was some fortune to the goal as well, as an attempted Morecambe clearance was blocked and the ball fell neatly into the path of James Wilson who made no mistake from close range.

Salford were on the front foot from the start when Morecambe gave away the ball from their own kick-off.

Nathaniel Knight-Percival was booked with just 10 seconds on the clock as he denied Wilson a run on goal.

Mark Halstead thwarted Ibou Touray with a great save from the resulting free-kick and the Morecambe keeper was by far the busier of the two shot-stoppers.

He saved brilliantly from Wilson on 37 minutes as the former Manchester United striker’s low shot looked set for the bottom right-hand corner.

The chances continued for the home side with Martin Smith volleying just wide and Liam Loughlin curling a shot off target.

Morecambe looked much better after the break and forced an early chance when Leitch-Smith received the ball on the right-hand side of the area but dragged his final effort wide of the target.

The Shrimps kept Salford to only one real chance of note when Wilson was denied by another good Halstead save.

They went close to a leveller on 81 minutes when Kelvin Mellor’s header looked destined for the top corner, only to be cleared off the line by a defender.

As the Shrimps pushed forward for a leveller, they were undone in injury time.

Bruno Andrade got the better of Stephen Hendrie down the left and pulled the ball back for Ash Hunter to slot the ball past Halstead from 10 yards out, sealing the win for Graham Alexander’s side.

Salford City: Evans, Touray, Eastham, Turnbull, Golden, Loughlin (Hunter 83), Denny, Smith, Andrade, Thomas-Asante (Dieseruvwe 80), Wilson (Fielding 83). Subs not used: Hladky, Berkoe, Campbell, Hawkins.

Morecambe: Halstead, Mellor, Knight-Percival, Lavelle, Hendrie, Pringle, Songo’o, Diagouraga, Slew, Leitch-Smith (Phillips 80), McAlinden (Price 73), Subs not used: Turner, Kenyon, Gibson, Cooney, Stockton.

Referee: James Bell.