Grimsby Town 3 Morecambe 1: Shrimps dealt body blow to survival hopes

After back-to-back home wins the Shrimps suffered their ninth away defeat in succession with a poor second-half display proving costly.

With Tranmere comprehensively beating Chesterfield earlier in the day, Morecambe ended the afternoon six points from safety, with Accrington Stanley the side closest to them after their heavy defeat at Bromley, with five huge games to come.

Derek Adams originally made one change to the starting line-up from the victory over Cheltenham, with Ged Garner selected ahead of Andy Dallas, but he pulled up with a knee injury in the warm-up and the Barnsley loanee was reinstated.

Morecambe started brightly and had the ball in the back of the net after nine minutes when Dallas’ left-wing cross was bundled into the net by Lee Angol but he was adjudged to be offside.

Grimsby hit back and Danny Rose struck the underside of the crossbar from close range after getting on the end of a dangerous right-wing cross.

It was the home side who broke the deadlock in the 25th minute when Morecambe failed to defend a set-piece. Denver Hume swung in a left-wing corner and Kieran Green’s diving near-post flick-on beat Harry Burgoyne.

But the Shrimps were level just five minutes later with one of their goals of the season as Dallas cut inside from the left and produced a right-foot strike from 25 yards out that flew past Jordan Wright's left hand.

The rest of the half remained tight with a half-chance for Green as he headed a cross straight at Burgoyne but the Shrimps started the second period poorly and were made to pay.

After a series of poor clearances the home side regained the lead when Lucca Barrington tried his luck from 25 yards out and struck a fierce shot past Burgoyne and into the top right-hand corner.

On this occasion the Shrimps had no response and showed little sign of getting back into the game with poor final passes all too common.

It was Grimsby who looked the more threatening with Rose seeing an effort chalked off for offside and Burgoyne forced into an excellent save low to his left to deny Darragh Burns.

Morecambe threatened briefly with a superb Adam Lewis effort cleared by Cameron McJannett, denying the waiting Marcus Dackers a golden chance, but with time running out the home side added a third.

Harvey Rodgers found some space down the right and delivered a low cross which Green diverted past Burgoyne from close range.

The Morecambe keeper denied Grimsy a fourth goal with a fine save from a Rodgers header.

Yann Songo'o headed over a Ben Tollitt corner in injury time before the whistle ended another poor away day for the Shrimps, who have not won a match on their travels since Boxing Day last year.

Grimsby Town: Wright, Rodgers, Tharme, McJannet, Green (Davies 84), Barrington (Warren, 90), Hume, Burns (Svanthorsson 74), Turi (McEachran 45), Khouri, Rose. Subs not used: Eastwood, Thompson, Vernam

Morecambe: Burgoyne, A Lewis, Stott (Songo'o 78), Williams, Tutonda (Taylor, 71), White (Tollitt, 63'), P Lewis, Jones. Hope (Dackers, 63'), Angol, Dallas (Cooke 79). Subs not used: Schofield, Slew

Referee: J Miles

Attendance: 5,807