NELSON were snowed under by an avalanche of goals at a wintry Victoria Park, but only after giving their Nationwide Conference opponents a real scare in the first half of this Lancashire FA Marsden Trophy third round tie.

The Blues took the lead after 11 minutes when Paul Fildes picked up a poor clearance from Shrimps keeper Craig Mawson and found the net with a low 25 yard shot.

And Nelson might easily have increased their lead as Morecambe looked uncomfortable under pressure with Jim Bentley rescuing his keeper with a header off the line from Craig Bradshaw's astute lob after 23 minutes.

However, all the Blues' good work was undone in a seven minute period just before half time when their defence crumbled and conceded three goals.

Dean Howell squeezed a shot through defenders' legs, Martin Brown turned a cross into his own net and Danny Carlton had an easy tap-in to put Morecambe 3-1 in front at the interval.

The second half was in doubt with heavy snow falling, but Nelson pulled a goal back on 50 minutes when Bradshaw's cross caused chaos in the Shrimps defence and Paul Barrett cashed in with a good finish from 12 yards.

Unfortunately Nelson were unable to keep up the momentum and after Billy Carrington had denied the visitors with two good saves, Ryan Sugden restored Morecambe's cushion when he nipped in to score an opportunist goal after Stewart Drummond headed down a corner on 65 minutes.

With the visitors in the ascendence Dean Howell got their fifth goal with a low angled shot after 75 minutes and then Lee Dodgson completed the scoring on 83 minutes with a simple tap-in after Terry McFlynn's shot was deflected across the goalmouth.

The game was a credit to the competition, containing not one yellow card even though played in extreme weather conditions, and gave full value to the crowd of 230.

NELSON...2

MORECAMBE...6