Morecambe's loanees have hit the ground running

The Shrimps brought in 11 players during the summer transfer window, culminating with the season-long loan arrival of Celtic midfielder Liam Shaw on deadline day.

The 21-year-old made his debut at Bristol Rovers last weekend, featuring alongside a number of other young loanees.

Huddersfield Town front man Kieran Phillips (22) scored his first goal for the Shrimps, created by Southampton’s Caleb Watts (20), after Brighton and Hove Albion’s Jensen Weir (20) had opened the scoring.

Adams said of his new striker: “Kieran has settled in really quickly.

“He got the 90 minutes under his belt the other night (against Everton in the Papa John’s Trophy), which was really good for him.

“He was maybe unfortunate not to get a hat-trick against Everton but, on Saturday, he got into really good goalscoring positions and was very unfortunate not to get more than the one he did score.

“Liam Shaw, who came in on deadline day, was excellent in midfield last weekend and we’re really happy Jensen Weir got his third goal of the season as well.

“Caleb is one where we’re looking at where his best position is. He’s played off the left-hand side and found himself off the front, so there are areas where he’s a threat.”

Though the window is now closed until January, clubs can still bring in free agents should they need to.

That isn’t an option at the Mazuma Stadium after a busy summer which saw 11 players brought in and a further 14 – including loanees – leaving since the end of last season.

Instead, Adams will have to work with the tools at his disposal as the Shrimps look to improve upon their 19th position last time around.

He said: “That’s us done, we’ve got no more budget left.

“We had a bit extra to spend because of a sell-on clause, so we used that for the Liam Shaw deal.

“We can only work to the budget we’ve got. We know there’s some big spending in the division and that’s always going to be the case.

“We’ve looked to add players who can fit into our football club and our style of play.”