Frustrated Lakeland praises Diamonds, but apologises to travelling Morecambe support
Morecambe boss Adam Lakeland congratulated AFC Rushden & Diamonds on their historic FA Cup win over his side at Hayden Road on Saturday.
But he then apologised to the Shrimp's 350-strong travelling support, while hinting he could be contemplating his future at the Halo Aerospace Stadium.
National League North side Morecambe are a full-time outfit and were strong favourites to beat Step 4 Diamonds and book a place in the first round proper of football's oldest knockout cup competition.
But instead it was Elliot Sandy's brilliant Rushden who prevailed 2-1 thanks to first-half goals from James Clifton and Matty Warburton, who slotted a superb 25-yard free-kick.
Joe Garner pulled one back for the Step 2 Shrimps early in the second half, but they could then find no further way past home keeper Charlie Woods as they were dumped out of the tournament.
The final whistle understandably sparked joyous celebrations at Hayden Road, and although frustrated by his own team's performance, Lakeland was quick to praise Sandy's team.
"First and foremost, I want to congratulate Rushden & Diamonds," Lakeland told @morecambefcofficial.
"They're rightly enjoying it, and I hope that they get a great draw in the next round.
"But I want to apologise to our supporters who have travelled and sold out the allocation that we got."
On the game itself, Lakeland added: "I am incredibly frustrated.
"I am saying the same things, and getting the same outcome, so maybe I am the problem.
"I am the manager and everything comes back to the manager, so I take responsibility for the result and us going out of the FA Cup.
"We have conceded two really awful goals, one from a long throw and one where we have given away an unnecessary free-kick.
"We told the lads before the game that Matty Warburton has great quality, and he stuck it in the goal and we have conceded two goals in the space of three or four minutes.
"Outside of that little spell in the first half where we completely lost our way and conceded two really poor goals, we could and probably should have scored six or seven goals.
"But we have only scored one and gone out.
"The game was exactly as we said it would be, the environment was exactly as we said it would be, their threats came from exactly the areas we said they would come from.
"But here we are after another away game having conceded poor goals and lost."