Morecambe 1 Forest Green 1: Shrimps’ hitman Stockton to rescue

Stockton produced a vital goal two minutes from time as the Shrimps extended their unbeaten home run to nine games to pick up another valuable point after Jahmrai Clarke had given the visitors an 82nd-minute lead.

Shrimps boss Derek Adams made two changes from the side that lost at Derby with Ash Hunter and Jacob Bedeau recalled and Arthur Gnahoua and Adam Mayor dropping to the bench.

And it was Hunter who had the first chance of the game after just 90 seconds. A cross field ball found Donald Love who teed up the winger neatly but the final shot was easily saved by Ross Doohan.

That proved to be Morecambe's only chance of note in a frustrating first-half where Forest Green, under new boss Duncan Ferguson, kept a solid shape that made it hard to create space or chances.

While doing this the visitors looked sharp on the counter-attack and the Shrimps were relieved to see Tyler Onyango shoot weakly wide on 17 minutes after a storming run took him into the Morecambe box.

It was Forest Green who went closest to opening the scoring in the first-half when Corey O'Keefe produced a fine free-kick from the edge of the area that forced a superb save from Connor Ripley.

The second period carried on in much the same vein as Morecambe continued to struggle to break down a resolute Forest Green.

The Shrimps thought they had broken the deadlock on the hour when Liam Shaw's long-range shot was fumbled by Doohan into the path of Stockton, who slid the ball home, only to see his effort ruled out for offside.

The game looked set to remain goalless but with eight minutes to go, Brandon Cooper headed a ball across goal and with Bedeau and Dynel Simeau marking the same player, Clarke was free to head into the bottom left-hand corner of Ripley's goal.

To their credit, Morecambe hit back quickly and levelled on 89 minutes. A long clearance found Michael Mellon who produced the perfect lay-off for Stockton to hammer the ball into the roof of the Forest Green goal.

From there the Shrimps almost snatched the three points. Jensen Weir saw an effort saved by Doohan before Mellon went close with a shot from the right-hand side of the box that fizzed inches wide of the post.

MORECAMBE: Ripley, Love (Cooney 20 (Mayor 46), Gibson, Rawson, Crowley, Stockton, Hunter (Austerfield 74), Weir, Bedeau, Shaw (Mellon 74), Simeu. Subs not used: Smith, Delaney, Gnahoua.

FOREST GREEN ROVERS: Doohan, O’Keefe (McAllister 58), Bernard, McGeouch, Casey, Garrick (Omoyote 68), Robson, Bakayoko (Clarke 68), Cooper, Peart-Harris, Onyango (Stevenson 21). Subs not used: Thomas, Cargill, McCann.

Attendance: 4,563.