RMI went in to the game on the back of Saturday's hugely disappointing 3-0 home defeat to Halifax Town, where the Railwaymen were completely outclassed and the confidence of the home supporters dashed with such a heavy defeat, so it was with some trepidation that the loyal few travelled to Christie Park to face a side that has established themselves as one of the top sides in the Conference over the past few years. Despite this, the hosts didn't exactly go in to the game firing on all cyclinders, with the Shrimps failing to achieve victory so far this season and losing both of their opening home games.
However, that attitude hadn't seemed to have spread to the players and their performance was probably their best of the season so far, although in all honesty that isn't a particularly tough task to achieve.
It was the home side that had the first opportunity of the game with the impressive Wayne Curtis firing wide of the goal from distance on two occasions, before former RMI favourite Michael Twiss forced an excellent save from RMI goalkeeper Ian Martin to tip the ball around the post. Although dominating possession, Morecambe failed to create many clear cut chances and it was actually RMI who went closest to taking the lead early on, when Alex Meechan was denied a certain goal through an excellent one handed save from Shrimps goalkeeper Adam Sollitt. It was indeed the Reds who took the lead though, albeit with a rather large amount of good fortune, when Gary Hunter's shot seemed to be heading over the crossbar, only for it to dip suddenly and loop over Ian Martin's head in to the back of the net.
Despite finishing the first half a goal down, RMI had kept well in contention throughout the opening forty five minutes so boss Phil Starbuck had plenty of positives to count on at half time, although the problem of who exactly could hit the net again plagued him, a cause which wasn't helped through the early substitution of former Scarborough striker Karl Rose, who was replaced by Alex Meechan after falling awkwardly in the process of being fouled in the air by Morecambe full back Chris Blackburn.
Goalscorer Hunter then turned provider early in the second half when he capitalised upon yet another defensive mix up in the RMI back four to set up Wayne Curtis to poke the ball home, and seemingly put the game beyond RMI's reach.
There were two ways RMI could go at this point. They could start playing some decent football and play themselves back in to the game, or they could do as they have in previous encounters when conceding a goal this season and let their heads drop and consequently allow the floodgates to open. Thankfully, it was the former that occured and the Railwaymen were back in the game within a minute, when some excellent build up play resulted in Meechan neatly slotting the ball home to halve the deficit.
Less than ten minutes later and RMI were unlucky not to be on level terms, with man of the match Gareth Stoker stooping low in the six yard box, only for his shot to bounce back off the crossbar and away from danger, much to the disappointment of the loyal band of Leigh supporters behind that goal.
Despite some late pressure on the Morecambe goal from substitute Warren Peyton, in particular from set pieces, and forcing a succession of throw in's and corner's, RMI failed to find the killer touch and it was with much relief from the home support that the final whistle was greeted, which can only be a compliment to RMI, who played with much more determination and passion than had been evident in recent weeks and were certainly very unlucky to fail to come away with a point which would've been richly deserved.
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