Cheltenham 2 Morecambe 1

MORECAMBE lost their unbeaten away league record by failing to take advantage of a Cheltenham side reduced to 10 men for the majority of the match.

Cheltenham started off well early when a poor pass from Keisuko Takano was picked up by Clive Walker who made no mistakes by drilling the ball past Banks.

But then Cheltenham's Darren Wright was sent off for his second bookable offence in the 20th minute and the pattern of the game turned around completely.

The Shrimps tried to penetrate Cheltenham's defence and came incredibly close in the 39th minute when Brian Healy hit a powerful shot which was saved superbly by Steve Book.

But there was no stopping Healy three minutes later when he fired in John Norman's lay off which put Morecambe level.

In the second half Morecambe dominated the match but lacked the finishing touch touch to secure all three points. The one time that they penetrated Cheltenham's defence was when Milner's flick was turned into the goal by Norman but it was ruled out for offside.

And then Morecambe lost sight off all three points in the 75th minute when Cheltenham scored an excellent goal. Dale Watkins slipped his marker and then superbly volleyed the ball over Banks from 20 yards who was well off his line.

Morecambe tried to turn on the pressure in the final 15 minutes but they failed to worry Cheltenham's defence and Cheltenham's reduced side went on to secure important victory.

Along with Halifax and Hednesford both losing, this result tightens the gap between the top few teams as we come up to the busy Christmas period.

Team: Banks, Rushton, Takano, McKearney, Mayes, Grimshaw (Drummond 70), Monk (Parkinson 63), Healy, Milner, Norman, Shirley (Burns 77).

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.