MISERABLE Morecambe found themselves on the wrong end of one of the biggest upsets of the Nationwide Conference season on Tuesday night and could have no complaints.

This was a night when, if it could go wrong for caretaker manager Sammy McIlroy's troops, it did.

In a dire first 45 minutes they started badly and then fell apart altogether and Neal Redfern's lively Scarborough outfit took full advantage with a couple of smart goals to ease their relegation worries.

Though the Shrimps rallied in the second half to create a hatful of decent chances it was the visitors who defended stoutly and broke out swiftly to run out comfortable winners.

And just to make matters worse for Morecambe, attacking spearhead and crowd favourite Garry Thompson was carried off on a stretcher after collapsing off the ball with 15 minutes remaining.

The night started promisingly enough with Danny Carlton hitting a crisp volley at Scarborough keeper Leigh Walker within the first 50 seconds and Keiran Walmsley, restored to midfield, shooting just off target soon after.

But before five minutes was up Scarborough had forced the game's first two corners and both Tony Hackworth and visiting skipper Neal Bishop, by far the best player of display throughout the 90 minutes, had shown they were not content to be bit-part players.

Bishop, a former Middlesbrough youth team player signed from Whitby Town, swaggered across midfield to run the game from start to finish.

He won virtually every duel as Morecambe's Ged Brannan and Walmsley endured real nightmares, was always in the right place to pick up loose balls, and raided forward to set up attacks time after time.

So it was no surprise that when Brannan lost control of the ball close to the halfway line on 18 minutes that Bishop was the man to pounce and play a slick pass to David McNiven on the right side of Morecambe's defence.

He took two touches to set himself up and slammed the opening goal across Steven Drench into the bottom corner of the net.

The Shrimps response was positive as Danny Carlton set up Michael Twiss for a shot which Kevin Nicholson blocked away for a corner and Jim Bentley saw his header from the flag kick cleared off the line by Steve Baker.

But with the crowd already sensing this may not be Morecambe's night, the lively Hackworth picked up the ball on the right on 26 minutes and beat two defenders to fire in a low cross which found Chris Hughes unmarked eight yards out. His crisp volley on the half turn made it 2-0.

The closest the home side came to a goal was a 43rd minute chance for Twiss after Seadogs keeper Walker dropped a cross from Thompson.

The ball fell to Carlton who looped it into the goalmouth but inevitably Bishop was first there and headed it out for a corner before Twiss could pounce.

McIlroy withdrew the suffering Walmsley at half time and sent on John Hardiker, pushing David Perkins into midfield in a bid to alter the flow of the game.

The Shrimps certainly had more of the ball and penned Scarborough back in their own half but there was no real cutting edge and it seemed that the harder they tried the worse it got.

It almost turned to disaster when Bishop robbed Brannan on halfway and made ground before setting up McNiven for a shot which beat Drench but cannoned away off the bar in the 53rd minute.

In a 15-minute spell around the hour Wayne Curtis, Chris Blackburn and Twiss all had opportunities which had Walker scrambling he blocked two shots from Twiss with his legs and one from Blackburn with a spectacular dive to his right.

But when Thompson was carried off on 75 minutes you sensed the game was up.

Morecambe were still trying desperately to rescue something none harder than Perkins and the snarling Darran Kempson but the result seemed inevitable.

Brannan was relieved of his suffering when Jimmy Kelly replaced him on 82 minutes.

But with three minutes left the misery was completed as normally immaculate home keeper Steven Drench joined the nightmare club.

He got a firm hand on Lee Fowler's direct free kick from almost 30 yards out but the ball somehow squeezed past him and dropped tamely into the Morecambe net to make it 3-0.

MORECAMBE: Drench 5, Blackburn 5, Kempson 6, Bentley 6, Perkins 6, Thompson 6 (Lloyd 75), Brannan 4 (Kelly 82), Walmsley 4 (Hardiker 45), Curtis 6, Twiss 6, Carlton 6. Subs not used: Gray, Davies.