Morecambe 0 Scarborough 1 A BANK holiday bonanza brought a bumper crowd to Christie Park at the weekend.

Almost two and a half thousand fans turned up only to witness their team's narrow defeat by Scarborough.

Hopes were high following The Shrimps' excellent start to the season and their high league placing (they are still fourth after this defeat).

And manager Jim Harvey is still optimistic ahead of Saturday's home match against Telford.

"All things considered this is still a terrific start," he said. "We've another big tie against Telford who are going all guns blazing on Saturday but we've been very encouraging. I was also encouraged by the big crowd we had on Monday."

Phil Eastwood narrowly shot wide after 25 minutes and six minutes later Dave McKearney sending Justin Jackson scampering down the wing but his low cross narrowly skimmed the post by Darren Lyons.

A golden opportunity went unnoticed when Eastwood failed to pass to an unmarked Jackson, instead shooting wide in injury time.

After all those chances for Morecambe it was somehow predictable that Murphy's law would prevail and Scarborough would traipse up the other end and score.

Eventually they did so on 66 minutes - Betts belted in a Brian McGinty cross. A minute later it looked like Jackson might equalise but he was well tackled. Shortly afterwards Jackson had another chance when Mark Wright's excellent ball came his way, but the 'boro defence were in no mood to lose their fight. Lyons came closest to an equaliser with a right foot shot from 25 yards.

Team: Banks, Fensome, Wright, McKearney, Farrell, Burns, Lyons, Drummond (Keeling 70), Jackson, Eastwood (Black 70), Takano (Gardner 61).

Att: 2,301.

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