Dover Athletic 2 Morecambe 2

IMPROVING Morecambe fought hard to take a point from the tough trip to Dover on Saturday.

The Shrimps, fresh from a hard earned win over Kingstonian and an unlucky defeat on their last big trip to Yeovil, where, the more creative side from the start, with recent signing Julian Dowe prominent.

Northern Ireland youth international Ryan Zico Black gave Jim Harvey's side the lead at the weekend. The youngster slotted home Phil Eastwood's cross to give the Morecambe fans who braved heavy flooding to make the trip something to cheer.

Dover rarely looked like equalising until Simon Beard nodded home ten minutes before the break.

After half time, Morecambe found themselves under more pressure and Dover eventually took the lead with a controversial goal on 62 minutes.

Morecambe keeper Mark Smith appeared to have been held back as Joff Vansittart swept the ball home from a corner, but the goal was allowed to stand.

However, justice was done late on when another of Morecambe's rising stars, midfielder Gary Thompson, beat the Dover offside trap all ends up to score with less than ten minutes left on the clock.

It's often said that good teams score in the last ten minutes, bad teams concede then. If that's the case, then it looks like the Shrimps are back on track.

Morecambe's FA Cup campaign begins with a visit to Bedlington Terriers on October 28. Before then comes a clash with Rushden & Diamonds. It's the game the fans have been looking forward to all season as the moneybags Conference leaders roll into town, with that striker... what's his name again?