Morecambe and Salford draw incident-packed contest

Posted Sunday, September 08, 2019 by PA

Salford missed two penalties in an incident-packed 2-2 draw with Morecambe at the Globe Arena.

Danny Lloyd scored twice and missed one of the two spot-kicks before two goals in two early second-half minutes put Morecambe ahead.

Lloyd fired Salford into a 15th minute lead, volleying into the bottom right hand corner after Steven Old’s clearance fell to him on the edge of the area.

Lloyd had a chance to double the visitors’ advantage in the 31st minute but his spot-kick crashed against the bar, after Carl Piergianni’s header was handled in the box.

Adam Rooney forced a save from Barry Roche and Richie Towell drilled a shot inches wide as the visitors dominated, with Morecambe’s only first-half effort of note being a well-struck shot from George Tanner which was superbly tipped over by Kyle Letheren.

However, the home side started the second half strongly and Shaun Miller levelled in the 48th minute after he ran on to Aaron Wildig’s perfect through-ball and slotted the ball under Letheren for his first goal of the season.

It was 2-1 to the hosts two minutes later, Miller turning provider as he slid the ball through for Lewis Alessandra who saw his first effort blocked by Letheren before reacting sharply to slide home the loose ball at full stretch.

After a period of Morecambe dominance Salford were gifted an equaliser on 67 minutes when Lloyd’s free-kick from deep was misjudged by goalkeeper Barry Roche – the ball slipping through his hands and into the top corner.

The visitors had the chance to seal the points with a second penalty two minutes from time when Adam Buxton was harshly adjudged to have brought down Lloyd – but Towell’s spot-kick was superbly saved by Roche.