Match Photos
Morecambe vs Gresley Rovers
Morecambe too strong for Gresley
Three goals in 15 minutes by on loan striker Alex Hay spoilt Gresley's day at the seaside.
Morecambe had signed the Tranmere hot shot as temporary cover for the injured Robbie Talbot and he single handedly put an end to the Gresley F A Trophy run with a fine first half hat trick.
The home side came out of the blocks fast and put the visitors under pressure from the start. They could have taken the lead as early as four minutes after a slip from Bourne let David Perkins have the freedom of the of the left wing and place a cross into the box only for Wayne Curtis to blast his shot wide.
On 5 minutes another let off for Gresley when Sean Cleary was easily beaten by Gary Thompson who fed the ball through to Perkins who was beginning to cause problems on the left. This time his cross was to Adriano Rigoglioso whose shot was blocked by James Lindley.
On 9 minutes the visitors had their first half chance. The ball fell to John McGinlay whose shot from 25 yards went well over the bar.
Hay was beginning to get his eye in when on 16 minutes he blasted a shot just over after being set up by Gary Thompson.
On 20 minutes a Bourne free kick was narrowly missed by the head of Barry Woolley and landed in the arms of the home keeper.
This was probably the only spell Gresley had of putting Morecambe's goal under any sort of pressure. Chris Parkins went close after he back-headed a free kick from Andy Cheetham just over the bar and a McGinlay free kick being cleared by the near post.
Then on 29 minutes Hay scored the first of two goals in the space of two minutes.
Cleary did not clear the ball after Stuart Evans had failed to cut out a long ball floated over the top of the Gresley defence. Hay only needed one chance and he hit the ball on the turn and fired low into the corner of Lindley's goal.
Gresley hardly had time to draw breath when he struck again. Morecambe was awarded a corner straight from the restart and Rigoglioso curled in a ball to the near post that was flicked on by David McKearney to the far post where the grateful Hay was waiting to smash the ball home.
McGinlay, who had started the game just behind the front two, now dropped back into defence and pushed Cleary up into midfield to help strengthen Gresley's defence.
It almost paid off on 42 minutes but a complete miss kick by Bourne ruined the chance to pull a goal back.
With only a minute of the first half left Morecambe finished off the game as a contest with another Hay goal.
Curtis had made headway into the Gresley area and put the ball back to Thompson. Despite being tackled Thompson got the ball out to Hay who expertly curled a shot past Lindley and into the top corner of the net.
The home side continued to apply the pressure in the second half and it looked has if it would be only a matter of time before they increased their lead. Both Hay and Curtis had chances to compound Gresley's misery. Hay having a shot blocked by Lindley and Curtis a shot blocked by Cheetham.
To their credit Gresley did have a few of chances of their own. A Woolley header was saved easily by Mawson, Bourne had a header cleared by Paul McGuire and Parkins did well to round McGuire but put his shot into the side netting.
On 65 minutes any chance of Gresley saving face went out of the window. Lindley collided with McGuire as he went for a corner and required treatment to an eye injury. Bravely he tried to carry on but after trying for about six minutes he had to come off the pitch and subsequently to hospital.
McGinlay had not named a goalkeeper as a substitute and so chose to go in goal himself.
The "stand-in" keeper did well to push the ball away a free kick when under pressure but was beaten on 77 minutes.
Lee Colkin's pinpoint cross found the impressive Hay and the striker's shot was unfortunately deflected past McGinaly by Cheetham.
On 81 minutes Rigogliosos had a shot charged down by Cleary only for the ball to fall to Curtis who tapped it into the net.
The gulf between a full-time squad and a part-time squad was embarrassingly evident and proved what a massive result it was when Gresley beat Southport in the last round.
The manager's view of the game
"I'm bitterly disappointed with the manner in which we got beat toady - you should go down fighting. Too many of my players threw the towel in early on and made it quite easy for Morecambe in the end.
"I'm bitterly disappointed because I don't think we did ourselves justice. We had all these smashing supporters who spent a lot of money to come up here and I don't think we gave them value for money and that disappoints me. They deserved better than that. I feel the players have let them down in a sense because we didn't give it a go at all.
The second half was played at their pace and they were stroking the ball about. It was disappointing because when the game is like that you try and get close to people and make it tight. You try and put your foot on the ball when you can but we didn't do that.
"For whatever reason a few of our players were found wanting today and with this club trying to go forward you've got to ask the question of some of the players we've got are they willing to put in the work and hard graft that goes with that?
"When you come to places like this you know you're up against it especially with a weakened team. But surely that should mean that there is an opportunity for boys to come in and stake a claim but it didn't happen.
"That's not to take anything away from Morecambe because they are a very good side. They play football the right way; they pass and move and the lad from Tranmere was exceptional today. He had four shots on goal and he finished them brilliantly.
"I don't think that was the difference between the sides, there was more than that but his finishing was exceptional.
"I felt we had a couple of chances in the first half from set pieces that could have fell more kindly for us but they didn't and that's because people didn't make the runs. It needed that bit of extra effort to get in front of people.
"But we didn't make any clear cut chances which was disappointing. What worked for us against Southport certainly didn't work for us against Morecambe today.
"The injury to James Lindley makes it difficult for the match against Redditch on Tuesday. Mark Sheils is on his way back but he is still quite a long way off. We are hoping that towards the end of the month he would get a game in the reserves. Ian Roberts, who traveled with us today, is an able deputy so he will probably be in goal for us.
"Jake Fairbrother is still a couple of weeks away from returning if everything goes well. Hopefully he'll be fit for our next home game. I'd like to see him back as soon as possible because we miss him in midfield with his drive and enthusiasm.
"Sean Cleary's loan is up after Tuesday's match. I don't know if he will sign again because he has couple of trial matches coming up.
"I am talking to a striker, a goal scorer, at the moment which looks hopeful and I'm also talking to a midfielder as well.
"Ian Bluck will be back after suspension for Tuesday which will give us another option."
Morecambe (3) 5
Gresley Rovers (0) 0
Scorers: Hay 29, 31, 44, 77 Curtis 81.
Morecambe: Mawson, Fensome, Colkin, McGuire, McKearney (Stringfellow
80), Drummond, Rigoglioso, Thompson, Curtis, Hay, Perkins (Black 83): Subs not
used: Murphy, Norman, Wilcock (gk).
Gresley Rovers: Lindley (Westwood 70), Wardle, Cheetham, Peters, Cleary,
Evans, Bourne (White 77), McGinlay, Woolley, Parkins (Jenkinson 84), Gray. Subs
not used: Moran, Withers.
Rovers
Star Man: John McGinlay - 'Super John' tried to rally the troops.
Referee: R Pollock (Liverpool).
Attendance: 984
