Rooney stars on senior debut as Morecambe win Barrow EFL Trophy clash

Cameron Rooney scored on his senior debut as Morecambe beat Barrow 3-1 in the EFL Trophy.

The 18 year old Academy graduate also laid on an assist for the Shrimps’ opening goal, a first for the club for Charlie Brown, with a Cammy Smith strike, also his first for the club, ensuring the points after Barrow had scored direct from a corner.

Morecambe manager Derek Adams rotated his squad, making ten changes, and after a quiet first half from both sides, the contest sprung into life seven minutes before half time, when Rooney threaded the ball through to Brown, who drew keeper Lillis and calmly slotted it home for the opening goal of the evening.

The lead was nearly doubled five minutes later as Smith forced Lillis into a smart save with his feet at close range. Then, Rooney flicked the ball over an opposition’s head and advanced forward before playing in Jacob Davenport who fired straight at Lillis.

The visitors had a big chance to level proceedings early in the second half after winning a free kick in a promising position, though Telford’s effort flew well over Adam Smith’s bar.

Just before the hour mark, our lead was doubled through Rooney. A ball was whipped into a dangerous area, and the 18-year-old reacted quickest to poke the ball home from close range.

The visitors pulled one back with just over 20 minutes of normal time to play after Ben Whitfield’s inswinging corner looked to curl straight in.

The Bluebirds then came close to levelling proceedings through David Worrall’s back post header, though he could only find the side netting.

Barrow’s miss was punished seconds later at the other end by Cammy Smith. The ball came in from Ethan Walker and with a scrambling defender tried to clear it, he could only put it on a plate for Smith who rifled the ball into the roof of the net to make the game safe.

The result means the Shrimps have three points from their two EFL Trophy group games, with an away fixture against Blackpool next month to complete the stage. The top two in the group go through to the knockout rounds.