Morecambe manager hails his players after securing Wembley play-off final berth

The Shrimps secured a 3-2 aggregate win against Tranmere Rovers, drawing 1-1 at the Mazuma Stadium on Sunday after winning Thursday’s first leg.

Aaron Wildig’s goal gave Adams’ players an early lead before Tranmere pulled one back through James Vaughan early in the second half, despite appearing to be offside.

Morecambe keeper Kyle Letheren also made a couple of crucial saves in helping them across the finishing line.

Adams said: “It was a difficult afternoon from the point of view that it’s a high pressure game.

“We started the game very well, we started on the front foot and got the first goal.

“We looked like we were going to go on and score another but Tranmere had other ideas.

“They played a different style to the first game and became direct. We had to deal with that but it’s a tremendous win for us.”

The Shrimps had gone into the play-offs, having to recover from the disappointment of missing out on automatic promotion.

A club-record points haul of 78 wasn’t enough to see Adams’ players break into the top three, finishing one point adrift.

However, they rallied and saw their efforts rewarded with another day out at the national stadium.

Adams said of his team: “From my point of view, we have a group of players who are resilient and they have the knowledge and understanding of how to win a football match.

“The players have won 50 per cent of their games in League Two, just missing out on automatic promotion, so there’s a delighted dressing room.”

The match also saw the return of fans to the Mazuma Stadium with more than 1,500 supporters seeing Morecambe for the first time this season.

Shrimps midfielder Toumani Diagouraga admitted afterwards they had played a crucial part in the club’s success.

He said: “It was nice to have the fans back. Now they can all go to Wembley and enjoy that. They helped us get over the line.

“In the last 10 minutes Tranmere played a lot of long balls and we had to resist that. Having the fans there helped us do that.”

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