Morecambe 2 Darwen 2 (Morecambe win 4-2 on penalties) "ANY cup is worth winning," said Morecambe manager Jim Harvey of this second successive Lancashire cup triumph.
Judging by the smiles on the players' faces they completely agreed with him - to say nothing of the jubilant fans after this penalty shoot out victory.
Yet Harvey had the grace to praise the efforts of his team's opponents who play in the lowly North West Trains League, Division II - four divisions lower than Morecambe, before applauding the creativity of his own side.
He said: "Our players were delighted. Unfortunately we couldn't really celebrate because all our lads are at work the next morning but they were really pleased. Full marks to Darwen. Their manager said it was their biggest match for 20 years and they played their hearts out. That said the win was no more than we deserved. We just couldn't seem to score."
The execution of Darwen that everyone expected - including the watching scouts - looked on the cards in the opening 15 minutes. Mark Shirley was in dangerous form and very nearly scored with a stinging shot saved by Darwen keeper Lee Purvis in the first few minutes. Shirley collected the rebound and crossed for John Norman who should really have headed home from six yards.
But Darwen weathered the storm and their players and fans went mad when they actually took the lead on 39 minutes with a Neil Almond header. Maybe they were celebrating a little too much because Shrimps equalised in just thirty seconds. Darwen defender Purvis made a mess of a clearance leaving Barrie Keeling with the simplest of chances.
Morecambe fans must surely have thought any trouble from Darwen was over - but they would have been wrong. Just two minutes later they took the lead with a close range Michael Douglas kick.
That galvanised Morecambe who had chance after chance in the second half but just couldn't score until 18 minutes to go. Man-of-the-match Shirley's chip was acrobatically cleared off the line only for Paul Burns to hammer it home. That only prompted more wasted chances from Morecambe, especially from Kenny Mayers and Keeling, until they eventually ran out of steam.
The dreaded penalty shoot-out was needed to settle the tie and Morecambe hearts sank when Dave McKearney missed the first kick. But pride was restored when Burns, Andy Fensome, Mayers and Dave Gardner made no mistake and the cup was coming home to Morecambe.
Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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