Blackburn Rovers 5 Morecambe 1 Lancashire Senior Cup Rovers started their defence of the Lancashire FA Senior Cup in the Christie Park rain with a comfortable victory.

The first round tie, switched to Morecambe from Ewood Park, was turned decisively in Blackburn's way with four goals in the opening 26 minutes.

And they wrapped up the win after the break as Morecambe's efforts went without reward.

The Shrimps fell behind when Jamie Davies's suicide ball across his own defence was cut out by Keith Tracey, who raced on and blasted home.

Rovers keeper Andreas Arestidou escaped seconds later when he handled outside his penalty area and amazingly avoided even a caution - but he was picking the ball out of his net when Jon Newby finished superbly from 20-yards.

However, the Shrimps couldn't hold their lead and on 16 minutes Tracey finished superbly with a curling effort after Morecambe failed to clear their lines at a corner.

And Raffaele De Vita made it 3-1 with a sharp finish before Maceo Rigters made it 4-1 amid controversy after the goal was initially ruled out for offside before referee Paul Tierney changed his mind.

There was plenty of effort from the Shrimps but, Newby aside, a lack of cutting edge.

De Vita hit Blackburn's fifth just before the hour mark and Steven Drench saved well from Sergio Peters as the second period was a low-key affair. Blackburn Rovers: Arestidou, Bateson, Berner, Hodge, Winnard, Taylor, Tracey (Judge 81), O'Keefe, De Vita (Haworth 67), Rigters (Clarke 32), Peter. Subs: Griffiths, Bussman.

MORECAMBE: Drench, Langford, Davies, Grand, Howard, Lloyd, Dunn, Jarvis, Burns, Curtis, Newby. Subs: Wisdom, Davies, McLuckie, Ball, Taylor.

Referee: Paul Tierney.

Attendance: 594