MORECAMBE secured their first away points of the season with a win over bottom of the league Tamworth.

After three successive away defeats Jim Harvey's side gained a victory but made hard work of a game in which they could have walked.

They commanded the field and created plenty of chances and should have come home with a convincing win but instead wasted chances meant they had to settle for a 3-2 win.

Morecambe played into the area from the start and should have been ahead in the first minute but a powerful Danny Carlton shot went wide.

It was Paul Powell's blast that flew past Craig Mawson that broke the deadlock for Tamworth on 13 minutes.

But the Shrimps never gave up and continued on the attack and last season's top scorer Wayne Curtis almost levelled the scores on 27 minutes but minutes later flew a cross in the path of skipper Stewart Drummond who headed it home.

The Shrimps forced several saves out of Phil Whitehead but it was not until the second half that Morecambe made their mark with two goals in eight minutes.

The first came after the referee pointed to the spot on 56 minutes after the young striker Carlton was challenged by keeper Whitehead.

Stewart Drummond stepped up and tucked the ball into the net to put the Shrimps ahead but the skipper was forced to retake it after some of his own outfit entered the box before the kick had been struck.

His second attempt was pushed out by Whitehead but the ball rebounded off the post and Drummond had space to slip the ball in an empty net for his second of the afternoon.

A well-controlled volley by Carlton from a Jim Bentley header gave Morecambe the cushion they were looking for, but Tamworth kept up the pressure and Mark Cooper nipped one home to narrow the gap.

Substitute Garry Thompson came close to scoring his first goal of the season on 73 minutes when he ran rings around the Tamworth defence and thrust a powerful shot wide of the near post.

MORECAMBE are to face Wrexham away in the LDV Vans trophy on October 14 which boss Jim Harvey says is disappointing because hosting a "decent" league at Christie Park would have been great. "We will benefit from the experience and it will be a good test for us, but in the scale of things its low on the list of priorities," he adds.