Whitchurch Alport 2
Morecambe Development Squad 3

Alport went down by the odd goal in five during a highly- entertaining Monday night friendly against Morecambe’s development squad.

The Shrimps’ youngsters provided excellent opposition for the Yockings Park side ahead of this weekend’s crunch clash at Sandbach, and in the end it was their ruthless play in front of goal that won the day.

Indeed, Morecambe fashioned only three chances and scored with them all.

 Alport’s Tyrell McFarlane was a whisker away from opening the scoring when he saw his flick drift agonisingly wide of the back post with two minutes on the watch.

But the breakthrough goal soon arrived when a short corner routine caught the home side napping and Ollie Crankshaw curled an exquisite shot beyond Danny Read and into the top corner.

The Reds soon levelled when a Dean Twigg free-kick might just have taken the slightest brush off Ryan Thomas’ head before fizzing into the net, and Whitchurch were unlucky when Si Everall rattled the bar with a left-foot shot from 20 yards.

But Morecambe midfielder Jackson McKeever scored a fine goal from outside the box to give the youngsters the lead before half-time.

 Alport made seven changes at the break and within five minutes Harry Parkinson had headed home from an Ed Moss free kick.

He went close to adding a second shortly after but saw his shot cleared – and in the next attack the winning goal came. Tom Stevens directed his near-post header into the top of the net from a highly-contentious corner and Luke Walley missed a sitter with two minutes left which would have secured a deserved draw for Alport.

Joint boss Luke Goddard was pleased with the workout.

He said: “We pretty much got from the game what we wanted – apart from the result.

“Morecambe really impressed me in what was a good game of football.

“All eyes now are focused on Saturday but in terms of preparation, we’ve shown our depth with 19 lads getting plenty of game time so there are a few positives we can take from the game.”