Shrewsbury Town 3 Morecambe 1: Defeat leaves Shrimps in drop zone

​First-half goals from Luke Leahy and Rob Street gave the home side an advantage, before Dan Crowley's injury-time strike brought the Shrimps back into the game, only for Chey Dunkley to secure the points with a late header that left the Shrimps still languishing in the relegation zone.

Shrimps boss Derek Adams made two changes to the starting line-up from Tuesday’s draw at Cambridge United with Ryan Delaney and Adam Mayor returning for Max Melbourne and Ash Hunter, while new signing Oumar NIasse was given a place on the subs’ bench.

The game started off with both sides pushing forward but it was Shrewsbury who had the first chance of note when Matt Pennington ran unchallenged into the Morecambe area but could only flash an effort well over the bar.

The Shrimps pressed but failed to make the most of several good openings and it was Shrewsbury who looked to have the more edge up front.

Dunkley fired weakly at Connor Ripley before the Morecambe keeper made a superb save low to his left to deny Jordan Shipley with a shot heading for the bottom corner.

The home side took the lead on 33 minutes from the penalty spot. Tom Bayliss' right-wing corner was blocked by the arm of Crowley with the assistant referee flagging for the decision. Leahy stepped up and sent Ripley the wrong way to put the Shrimps on the back foot again.

Things got worse for Morecambe two minutes before the break as they failed to deal with another Bayliss corner. This time his out-swinging kick was flicked on by Pennington, and Street was unmarked at the back post to force the ball over the line.

To their credit, Morecambe hit back almost immediately to reduce the deficit in added time. Liam Shaw ran into the box before teeing up Crowley, who placed an effort perfectly into the bottom left-hand corner of the Shrewsbury goal.

Morecambe started the second half brightly and thought they had levelled the scores on 64 minutes. Crowley’s dangerous free-kick from the left-hand side was headed home by Rawson at the back post but the flag went up for a controversial offside decision.

The busy Crowley then curled a free-kick wide of the left-hand post but as the half wore on Shrewsbury began to threaten again.

Ripley pulled off a fantastic save to save a close range Dunkley header with his legs and Pennington hit the post with a far post header.

But the Shrimps failed to heed the warnings and conceded a third from yet another corner when Dunkley was too strong for Dynel Simeu as he headed Leahy's set-piece home.

Morecambe, with Niasse on for the last 16 minutes, twice went close in nine minutes of injury time to reducing the deficit. Jordan Weir directed an effort just wide of the right hand post and Cole Stockton saw a shot deflected behind for a corner.