JIMMY Ryan was the first to admit his Morecambe winner wasn’t quite up to his usual standard.

 The Stanley hot-shot had unleashed some fierce strikes at Morecambe keeper Barry Roche but had been thwarted at every attempt by some wonder saves in a one-sided Lancashire derby on Tuesday night.

 But the midfielder finally found a way past the Shrimps stopper in the 57th minute with a 20-yard strike -but he admitted it was a lucky effort as the ball skimmed goalwards and bounced awkwardly to thwart Roche.

 “It was my worst shot of the night that went in!” said the 20-year-old.

 “I couldn’t see whether it had gone in properly because their defender Jim Bentley was blocking my view.

“But I thought it had and turned to celebrate.

“I ran away and then realised no one was celebrating with me and it had all gone quiet and suddenly I panicked and thought perhaps it had gone wide.

 “Then Milesy was with me and it was a huge relief!

“I did think it wasn’t going to happen for us as their keeper seemed to get to everything and it was one of those games where we were dominating and not taking our chances - and you could see them sneaking one.  That has happened to us all too often this season.

“But, at half-time, the lads just told me to keep shooting and something would come off - and luckily it did.”

 Manager John Coleman had demanded a response from his side after a lack-lustre show against ten-men Barnet on Saturday.

 And it was all-out attack and outstanding performances from every Stanley player to give the Reds a welcome win - their first victory in 2009 - and local bragging rights.

“We got a rollocking after Barnet but it is hard to play against 10-men,” said Ryan. “They sat behind the ball for 70 minutes and that makes it really difficult.

“They were happy with a draw and it was hard to come out and hear the music blaring out of their dressing room.

“Coley told us to go out and put it right against Morecambe - and thankfully we did.”

 And the Shrimps winner took ex-Liverpool trainee Ryan’s goal tally to six for the season - only one behind top scorer Paul Mullin.

“I would love to beat Paul for the season but it’s not really my aim as I know he will pop up with plenty more at the end - I just want to score as many goals as I can.

“At the start of the season I said I wanted around eight to ten and I am on track for that.

“While six is good, to be honest, I should have had more. I have had some really good chances to score but it hasn’t gone in in other games.”

But Ryan does go for the spectacular - the wonder goals from outside the box - and he says he will leave Mullin to the tap-ins.

“To be fair, I am never going to be one of those players who scores from headers in the box - I am much too small for that!

“But John (Coleman) and Jimmy (Bell) have encouraged me to shoot from distance. I have got a decent shot on me and they encourage me to have a go when I can. Sometimes they come off, sometimes they end up in the stands but I haven’t done too badly so far.”

And Coleman agrees, singing the praises of the ex-Shrewsbury man who the Reds are hoping to negotiate a new contract with as his current deal is up at the end of the season.

He said: “Jimmy has one of the best shots in League Two and when he gets on the ball we encourage him to pull the trigger.  He never gets down-hearted and keeps chipping away.

“It did feel like one of those nights on Tuesday as we had about 15 shots in the first half and their keeper has made some great saves.

“I knew we had to be patient and keep forcing the game and the big thing was not to concede a sloppy goal.

“Once we went 1-0 up the only disappointment is that we didn’t kick on and made it a bit easier on our nerves.

 “But we played how I wanted us to - enterprising and inventive in the final third - and it paid off and we ran out worthy winners.”

 Worthy winners indeed but it could have been all so different in the first 30 seconds. Kieran Charnock played a high back pass back to keeper Kenny Arthur which almost caught the stopper out and he had to head it in front of him, while backtrcking and pounce to stop Michael Twiss racing onto the ball.

 But that was Morecambe’s only effort of the half as the rest of it was Shrimps keeper Roche against the Stanley forwards.

He kept out a Mullin effort and then produced a world class save to tip over Ryan’s 25 yard thunderbolt. Ryan had a free kick pushed away while, in Stanley’s well-worked corner routine - with Phil Edwards dummying John Miles’ flag kick - Ryan's goalbound effort was cleared off the line by Craig Stanley.

 Ex-Liverpool youngster Ryan had another free kick which was narrowly over and Roche then denied Andy Procter in a breathless first half which Stanley had dominated - but didn’t have a goal to show for it.

 It had to come - although there was always the fear Morecambe would nick one -  but then Ryan got the ball on the left, cut inside and unleashed one of his lesser drives which this time caught Roche out and tucked into the bottom corner of the net.

 The Shrimps did then up the pace with Fraser McLachlan testing Athur for the first time since that opening minute on the hour and boss Sammy McIlroy pushed three up front.

The visitors did force two corners deep into injury time which was heart in the mouths time for the nail-biting Stanley fans but the Reds held on for a welcome three points.

“The frustrating thing is, if we had played like that on Saturday we would have had another two points on our tally,” added Coleman.