AN ALMOST full strength Morecambe side pulled off their first victory in five matches on Monday night to give themselves a boost before Saturday's trophy second leg.

Relegation threatened Forest Green Rovers were easily outplayed by a Shrimps outfit who gave starts to Ian Arnold, Andy Gouck and Danny Carlton in place of the injured Chris Lightfoot, Adriano Rigoglioso and Wayne Curtis, both of whom dropped to the bench, but the bulk of the side was the same one which faced Stevenage on Saturday.

Garry Thompson enjoyed the best early opportunity for the Shrimps with a powerful shot which was only half cleared by Steve Perrin.

Midfield man Gouck, who wasn't even on the bench on Saturday, finally broke the deadlock just before half time.

He received a short corner from Ian Arnold and swerved a powerful left-foot effort past Perrin for the opener.

Forest Green came close to equalising when Carl Heggs failed to take advantage of an error by Craig Mawson, who failed to keep hold of a Mark Cooper free kick.

The ever lively teenager Carlton was Morecambe's main attacking threat but Thompson finally doubled Morecambe's advantage, turning home a rebound after Rigoglioso's attempted lob bounced off the crossbar.

In Morecambe's other league game of last week, old boy Mark Quayle returned to haunt the shrimps with a brace as his new club, Telford, thrashed a Morecambe side without some of its big names 4-0 last Wednesday night.

The result leaves Morecambe sixth in the conference, level on points with Barnet, with just five games remaining, starting with the game against Margate a week today (Thursday).