Yeovil Town 3 Morecambe 2: Defeat at Glovers dents Shrimps’ survival hopes
Morecambe’s hopes of National League survival took a huge blow as they suffered a disappointing defeat at struggling Yeovil Town.
The Shrimps produced a poor performance against a side who had lost six of their last eight games.
They missed the chance to move out of the bottom four as goals from Brett McGavin, James Daly and Ryan Jones either side of Gwion Edwards and Jack Nolan strikes gave the Glovers a much needed three points.
Boss Jim Bentley made one change to the side that drew with Braintree last week with Mo Sangare recalled in the midfield in place of Miguel Azeez, who dropped to the bench.
The Shrimps suffered the worst possible start when they went a goal down after 11 minutes as McGavin tried his luck from 30 yards with a right-foot effort that hit the post but rebounded off Jamal Blackman's back to end up over the line.
In a nervy encounter, Morecambe struggled to get back into the game until they produced a rare moment of quality on 34 minutes when Edwards put the finishing touch to a well-worked corner routine with a low drive beating Jed Ward from 12 yards out.
With the scores level at the break both teams looked nervous at the start of the second half but it was Yeovil who got the all important third goal when Daly took advantage of some hesitant Morecambe defending to drill a loose ball past Blackman from just inside the area on 58 minutes.
The goal have the home side a lift and they extended their lead four minutes later with an excellent strike from Ryan Jones. The left back received the ball on the right and cut inside before beating Blackman from the edge of the box with a perfectly placed effort.
The Shrimps were given a lifeline when they were awarded a penalty 12 minutes from time when Paul Lewis was bundled over in the box and Nolan hammered home his second penalty in successive games to give them hope.
The home side managed the final stages of the game well though, as Morecambe failed to find the guile needed to break them down, and the Glovers held on for a win that took them 10 points clear of the Shrimps in the table.
Yeovil: Ward, Mukena, Ferguson, Wannell, Sims, Cousin-Dawson, McGavin, Works(Whittle 67), Jones (Greenslade 84) Perrett (McCoy-Splatt 54), Daly. Subs not used: Gould, Matthews-Lewis, Hughes, Biss.
Morecambe: Blackman, Payne, Hogan, Dean, Jameson (Williams 68), Edwards (Tollitt 87), Sangare (Ogwuru 87), Songo'o (Azeez 68), Lewis (Nuttall 87), Nolan, Popov. Subs not used: Boney, Akindilene.
Referee: A Farmer.
Attendance: 2,715