Tom Barkhuizen: Good week at home will put us right up there

Morecambe celebrate their fifth goal at AFC Wimbledon, scored by Paul Mullin.

Back-to-back wins on the road mean The Shrimps sit 10th ahead of Crawley and Leyton Orient visiting the Globe Arena over the next few days.

In a tight division Jim Bentley’s side are just four points behind Oxford in the final automatic promotion place after the stunning 5-2 win at AFC Wimbledon last Saturday.

Barkhuizen, who scored his seventh goal of the season in the big victory, said: “It would be nice to turn around our home form.

“We’ve got two tough ones coming up this week but if we can win those two or maybe pick up four points then I think we’ll be right up there again.

“We need to get more home fans in as well and the only way we’ll do that is by winning games.

“Our defending hasn’t been good enough at home from the front to the back but we’re going into a busy week with a lot of confidence.”

The former Blackpool man is in fine form at the moment but was quick to praise the contributions coming from elsewhere as the likes of Shaun Miller and Jamie Devitt continue to impress.

The 22-year-old said: “It’s a team game.

“Shaun Miller’s got six in four and he’s on fire, Mullers (Paul Mullin) got one on Saturday, I’ve got another one.

“It’s a good feeling. We know we’re going to score goals in every game and it’s giving us great confidence.”

The win at AFC Wimbledon on Saturday was capped off by some more breathtaking counter-attacking play inspired by Barkhuizen.

The wide man sprinted clear and lobbed James Shea for the fourth before rounding the goalkeeper and squaring for Paul Mullin to make it five.

Barkhuizen said: “We knew we were going to have to soak up a lot of pressure but we know how good we are on the counter attack.

“With the big man up front (Adebayo Akinfenwa) we knew it was going to be tough but I thought the defence played really well.

“We got lucky with the penalty and then Shaun produced an absolute moment of genius with the second goal and then Goodie (Alan Goodall) chipped in with another header.

“We were disappointed with the second goal because we thought it was offside, the lad was stood on the line.

“But with our pace up front we got the last two to seal the win.

“The second half was just perfect for us. They bombed forward and we exploited the spaces at the back.”