Leam Richardson says he is loving life as ‘gaffer’ – but he might change his mind if there are too many shows like this!

The Stanley boss extended his unbeaten run as manager to three games but had keeper Ian Dunbavin to thank for a last-gasp penalty stop and a string of saves to deny Morecambe a long-awaited league victory over the Reds.

It was 2005 – 11 games ago – when the Shrimps last beat Stanley in the league but they will never get closer than they did at the Globe on Tuesday.

They hit the post twice, tested Dunbavin numerous times, missed a couple of sitters and then, when it was all lined up for them to grab the longed-for victory over their derby rivals with the injury-time spot-kick, the Stanley keeper was having none of it.

"It’s a fantastic point," admitted Richardson who was going to try and console his counterpart Jim Bentley with a beer, although the Shrimps boss would have been happier with three points.

"When they got the penalty I was in two minds – I wouldn’t have been surprised if Bavs saved it due to the form he has been in this season, but I couldn’t have had many qualms if Morecambe scored.

"Luckily for us, Bavs popped up with a fantastic save.

"We couldn’t have had many complaints if Morecambe had won though. They played some good stuff while we weren’t at our best.

"Our lads are disappointed as we didn’t move the ball as well as we can, our shape wasn’t as good as it can be and Morecambe offered a decent threat for the full 90 minutes."

Bentley’s side were on it from the off in a lively atmosphere at the Globe with both sets of fans claiming to be ‘The Pride of Lancashire.’

Former Manchester City striker Jack Redshaw, who once played a pre-season trial game with the Reds under John Coleman, was a threat and he forced Dunbavin to dive low to keep out one early effort.

The keeper then had to push out a Redshaw screamer as tone of the game was set.

Dunbavin also denied striker Lewis Alessandra’s blast from the left while winger Kevin Ellison was a threat but luckily couldn’t connect with the few efforts he had.

Stanley just couldn’t set striker Padraig Amond free and, when they did on the stroke of half-time, the offside flag was quickly raised to stop the Reds getting anything like a foothold in the game. It continued in a similar vein in the second half as Morecambe made sure Stanley were on the backfoot and unable to get their passing game going and, in the 15 minutes after the interval, they had three superb chances to break the deadlock.

Both Alessandra and Redshaw hit the crossbar with efforts in a five-minute spell with both rebounds proving kind to the Reds as they were able to scramble the ball away.

Then, when it looked like the visiting net was finally going to bulge, wayward shooting kept Stanley in it.

Redshaw’s trickery saw him run through the backline, his initial shot was saved by Dunbavin and the ball rolled along the goalline. But, with Alessandra running in, he somehow – from three yards out – managed to find the opposite side of the post.

It was a massive let-off for the Reds and Richardson brought on Charlie Barnett and Blackburn Rovers loanee Osayamen Osawe to try and boost their camp.

And, to be fair, they both had the best chances for the Reds – Barnett testing Barry Roche with a free kick and Osawe with a header, but that really would have been a smash-and-grab raid if Stanley had scored late on.

Then, in injury time, Dean Winnard was judged to have pushed Ellison in the area and then came the dreaded penalty award. It looked like Stanley’s luck had finally run out. Sub Richard Brodie, who was scoring goals for fun at York a couple of seasons ago, blasted goalwards, but Dunbavin dived the right way to be the hero of the night as the Reds got a fortunate point.

"You can’t play well every game and sometimes you have to grind out results, and that’s what we did at the Globe," said Richardson. "If we had won the game late on, Morecambe would have had every right to feel hard done by.

"Similarly, though, I expected Bav to save the spot kick and all his team-mates are patting him on the back while he is asking for their clean-sheet bonus!"

It was a nervy welcome to management for Richardson who will be hoping he isn’t put through the mill like this too often.