A brace from Ollie Finney on his first league start of the season along with goals from Tom Lowery, Charlie Kirk and Ryan Wintle saw the Alex destroy Morecambe at the Alexandra Stadium yesterday, the visitors having captain Sam Lavelle sent off in the first half.
Manager David Artell made 1 change from last Saturday’s defeat at Northampton Town as Finney came into the midfield for Paul Green, who dropped down to the bench.
The opening goal came midway through the first half with Wintle’s cross being headed in from close range at the back post, the first league goal of his career, with Lowery adding the second 10 minutes later after a corner was cleared to him outside the area, his left-footed effort deflected past Mark Halstead.
It would get worse for the Shrimps with Lavelle sent off for a late challenge on Harry Pickering before Kirk, who had already had a shot saved well by Halstead, found the net 7 minutes before the break with a curling effort from 25 yards. Lowery would also hit the post before the break.
After a double change at half-time for Morecambe to freshen up the midfield, the big question was how many the Alex would get in the second period and the fourth was added on the hour-mark with Wintle crashing one off the underside of the bar from distance as the Alex would make 3 changes with Tuesday night in mind as Lowery, Chris Porter and Owen Dale were replaced by James Jones, Chuma Anene and Callum Ainley.
Further efforts from Finney and Jones were saved by Halstead before Kirk would also hit the woodwork with a curling effort with 10 to play. The final goal came in stoppage-time with Jones having a shot blocked and Finney the first to react with a volley from the edge of the area.
We have two trips in the next week, the re-arranged game at Forest Green Rovers on Tuesday night before our televised FA Cup game at Eastleigh next Saturday evening.
What can we learn from this game?
The perfect response after a 3-game blip where we were a little out of sorts in front of goal ahead of a big week, both in terms of playing a rival up the top of the league and the cup game that could see us advance to play another Premier League team in the next round following our EFL Cup game against Villa earlier in the season.
It’s good to see Finney get some game-time and I’m delighted that he has taken his form from playing for the Under-23s into the first-team picture and hopefully it’s the start of him getting a run in the side.