Morecambe 2 Southport 1 THE Shrimps are in the final of the Lancashire ATS Trophy final for the third season running after defeating old rivals Southport at Christie Park on Tuesday night. Morecambe continued their hoodoo over Conference form side Southport thanks to goals from Paul Burns and John Coleman. They will now face either Chorley or Bamber Bridge - the current trophy holders - in an April final at Preston North End's Deepdale. Jim Harvey's men got a great start on the way to their sixth game without defeat when Steve Foley was brought down as he broke through the Sandgrounders defence in the 14th minute.

Despite Southport's claims that the offence took place outside the box, the referee pointed to the spot and Paul Burns coolly put the ball away to give Morecambe the lead.

That brought the game to life and Southport began to make in-roads into the Morecambe defence only to find man-of-the-match Glenn Johnstone in fine form between the sticks.

The decisive goal came after 73 minutes and can be put down to the perseverance and alertness of Morecambe target man Jim McCluskie.

The big man dispossessed David Gamble close to the right-hand corner flag and managed to find the time to pick out the head of striking partner Coleman at the far post.

Gamble paid a heavy price for his mistake and was replaced with former Blackpool striker Bryan Griffiths who pulled one back for the visitors with a low shot and almost levelled at the death but a linesman's offside flag saved the day. TEAM: Johnstone, Burns, Armstrong, Dullaghan, Lavelle, Grimshaw, Foley, Comstive, Coleman, McCluskie, Cain. SUBS: Knowles, Norman, Monk, Hodgson.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.