Morecambe midfielder hopes Doncaster Rovers win can prove a turning point

The Shrimps had trailed 3-0 after 29 minutes at the Mazuma Stadium on Sunday before second-half goals from Cole Stockton (2) and Jon Obika made it 3-3.

Then, in the 86th minute, a corner was cleared to Diagouraga on the edge of the area, where the 34-year-old smashed a shot past Doncaster keeper Louis Jones for his first goal of the season.

It capped a staggering second-half fightback from the Shrimps, whose 4-3 win took them out of the League One relegation places.

“Yes I did,” Diagouraga said afterwards when asked if he knew his shot was going in.

“I actually caught it quite sweet but it was just unbelievable to get the three points, it was a massive game.

“Hopefully it’s a turning point and we can use that to really look up the league and climb the table.

“I think it shows the character that we’ve got in this team. It would have been easy at half-time to lay down and get beaten but we wanted to give it a go.

“We knew if we got one then it was game on. We knew we had to keep going and we knew we were going to create chances, and we had to take them.”

Having lost to fellow strugglers Crewe Alexandra in their final game of 2021, it looked like another relegation rival would be inflicting defeat upon the Shrimps at the start of 2022.

However, Stockton scored early in the second half to give Morecambe hope and plant a seed of doubt in the visitors’ minds.

Diagouraga acknowledged that early goal was key in helping them to a first league win since beating Fleetwood Town in November.

He said: “We came out for the second half and we knew we had to get the next goal and we had to keep pushing - and we got our rewards.

“They scored early on, so it was kind of a blow for us, and after that they scored again.

“At half-time we spoke to each other and said ‘That’s not acceptable.’ We had to get out there, give it everything, and we did.

“Crewe was a massive game and we lost. We couldn’t lose back-to-back at home against Crewe and Doncaster, that wasn’t an option.”

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