Morecambe assistant manager Danny Grainger hailed a “massive result” for his struggling side after they came from 3-1 down with 10 men to claim their first point of the season in an incident-packed draw with Colchester.
Morecambe, who had lost their opening five games, took the lead in the 17th minute with Ben Tollitt scoring their first goal of the campaign.
However, they then saw boss Derek Adams sent to the stands for two yellow cards after altercations with the fourth official and defender Luke Hendrie was also dismissed with two bookings just before the break.
Danny Cowley’s Colchester took advantage with goals from Owura Edwards, Samson Tovide and Lyle Taylor putting them 3-1 up with 64 minutes played and seemingly set for victory.
But a shocking late open-goal miss from Harry Anderson gave the home side the lift they needed and a penalty from Callum Jones seven minutes from time and Marcus Dackers’ first goal for the club five minutes later earned a dramatic share of the spoils.
Grainger said after the 3-3 draw: “I’m delighted for the lads, they were superb.
“It is a special group who work so hard every day and they deserved that point today. We had a slice of luck which we fully deserved and against all the odds with so much going against us we have come out of the game with a massive result.
“We have been the better team in a lot of games we have played this season and not had our rewards. Today though we got what we deserved and on another day we could have come away with three points because we were comfortably the better team in the first half.”
Colchester boss Cowley said he was left “ashamed, disappointed and angry” following his side’s performance.
He said: “I’m pretty angry and frustrated. We were unprofessional, all of us and that hurts me a lot.
“I feel for our fans who were still clapping us at the end and that made me feel ashamed, disappointed and angry.
“We had complete control of the game at 3-1 up. We were cutting through them at will and had lots of chances against 10 men. They had nothing in the game but then they got the penalty and got back in it.
“All in all it was a pretty erratic performance. We didn’t start well and were poor for the first 20 minutes but since I have been here we have found some bizarre ways to drop points and we have done it in so many ways.
“Last year we were young and you could perhaps understand that but not today.”
