Hereford United 1 Morecambe 0

THIS defeat means Morecambe are down to sixth place and 13 points behind leaders Halifax.

But they should have had a draw. Referee Ray Oliver admitted a Morecambe goal from Andy Milner in the dying minutes should have stood. But the linesman's flag was raised and Mr Oliver said he relied on his assistant.

Milner netted the ball in the dying minutes of the match only to find the offside flag had been raised against Kenny Mayers who had headed the ball to the striker.

Yet Jim Harvey was philosophical about the incident.

He said: "What can you say about it. That's life."

And in truth Jim Harvey's men can have few complaints about this defeat.

The Bulls scored on 40 minutes when Jamie Pitman netted what proved to be the winner. The unmarked youngster met a Hargreaves cross which had been deflected to hit home an easy goal.

The Shrimps' best spell was towards the end of the game. Apart from his disallowed goal Morecambe man-of-the-match Milner saw the Hereford keeper Quy pluck the ball from his feet as he was about to hit home. And Neil Mitchel was just beaten to the ball by Quy after Brian Healy and Andy Grimshaw combined well to him through on goal.

Team: McIlhargey, Rushton (Burns), McKearney, Milner, Mayers, Grimshaw, Healy, Monk, Milner, Norman, Shirley (Mitchel). Sub (not used): Hodgson.

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