Northwich Victoria 3 Morecambe 1 (agg 3-4) If ever a team was up for the cup it's Morecambe. This was their second victory in a cup semi-final in less than a week. Last week saw them book a place in the ATS trophy and now the Shrimps can look forward to a place in the Spalding Cup final. But it was tight. Morecambe looked comfortable taking a 3-0 lead to this second leg tie, but ended up holding on for the victory.

Great credit must go to Northwich for making a game of this. The Vics could have scored before their 16th minute goal - John Stannard off a rebound.

Shrimps suffered another blow when crowd favourite Dave Miller, just back from injury, was stretchered off with a knee injury.

But the away side equalised just before half time when John Norman hit a low shot past Dean Greygoose for what turned out to be a vital goal.

But Vics refused to give up even then. Neil Hillman scored a spot kick in the 50th minute after Vics' player Stannard was adjudged to have been brought down in the box. Stannard scored a first rate volley with 15 minutes remaining to set up an anxious close to the game.

But the night ended in relief for the Morecambe men who hung on for a final against either Woking or Hayes.

Team: McIlhargey, Burns, Hodgson, Miller (Knowles), Mayers, Drummond, Mitchell, Milner, Shirley, Monk, Grimshaw.

Shrimps made two signings last weekend. Wayne Curtis, a 17-year-old striker from Holker Old Boys, and John Kennedy, a left sided player from Barrow.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.