Morecambe would have liked to retain Harrogate Town defender

The defender was one of the 14 out-of-contract players released by the Shrimps over the summer amid uncertainty over the club’s playing budget for the 2023/24 season.

Having joined Morecambe in September 2020, the 26-year-old played 111 games in a little more than two-and-a-half years.

Last season’s players’ player of the year at the Mazuma Mobile Stadium has made five appearances for Harrogate so far this season but is yet to play a full game.

“Liam was fantastic for me over the two seasons he played for me,” Adams said.

“He’s a very good character but we’ll wait and see if he’s starting because he’s been taken off in a number of games when they have changed formation.

“He would have been one of the players we wanted to keep but, with the numbers that were spoken about, it wasn’t going to be possible for us to do that.”

It has been a contrasting start to the new League Two season for the Shrimps and their hosts.

Morecambe’s victory against Bradford City last weekend made it seven points from 12, leaving them seventh in the early table.

After a win at Doncaster Rovers on day one, Harrogate have lost their last three league matches.

If Morecambe are to pick up a third win of the season, it means reversing their awful away results from the past two campaigns.

Having taken 34 points on the road during the promotion season in 2020/21, League One proved a step up in every sense.

The Shrimps had the second-worst away return in both of their third tier seasons, winning three times in 2021/22 and twice last time around.

They only collected a combined 25 points on their travels across both seasons: a return Adams admits must be better.

He said: “We have to improve our away record.

“It became very difficult in League One so, now we’re back in League Two, we need to get our numbers back up there.

“We need to get back to the number of wins we had the last time we were in League Two.”