The first half ended without a goal but it was hard to understand how that could happen as a bagful of chances, nearly all to Accrington, went begging.

Morecambe had a great chance to score in the very first minute when Kieran Charnock played an absurd high back-pass to Kenny Arthur that the keeper had to head away with Michael Twiss bearing down on him.

Twiss tried to pick up the clearance but was adjudged to have fouled the keeper as he pounced on the ball.

But Accrington went straight up the other end and it took two fantastic saves from Barry Roche to stop them scoring.

First the Shrimps keeper got down well to block a rasping volley from Paul Mullin who got on the end of a deep cross from Chris King.

Then Roche leapt athletically to tip over a cracking shot from the edge of the box by James Ryan.

As the home side poured forward in the opening stages Mullin should have done better with a stooping header he put wide from six yards following a cross by Ryan.

Accrington were attacking in waves and at pace and Morecambe could barely get out of their own half for the first half hour.

Morecambe pushed forward as half time approached but couldn't find the final ball to provide a real threat on the home goal.

At the other end Roche was called on again to tip over a 25-yarder from Andrew Procter.

Morecambe started to make inroads into the Accrington half after the break with Craig Stanley finding room on the left but still couldn't get the killer ball into the box.

And they were punished after 57 minutes when Ryan picked up the ball up 40 yards out and moved forward as the Shrimps defenders backed off giving him the room to unleash a stunning 25-yard drive that gave Roache no chance as it flew into the bottom corner for a well-deserved lead.

A nice move involving 63rd minute substitute Matty Blinkhorn saw the ball delivered to Fraser McLachlan who struck it cleanly from the edge of the box but Arthur got down well to save.

But Accrington still held the upper hand and when Charnock got a header on target from a corner it took an alert header from Adam Yates on the line to clear the danger.

With just nine minutes of normal time left Sammy McIlroy made his final throw of the dice with Diarmuid O'Carroll and Gary Hunter replacing Howe and McLachlan.

In the dying stages Morecambe won a free kick 30 yards out but Blinkhorn could only direct Stanley's set-piece kick a yard over the bar.

Bt that was about as close as Morecambe got all night as Accrington got the three points their complete dominance of this game merited.

Sammy McIlroy named an unchanged team for the visit to the Fraser Eagle Stadium hoping the team that beat Chesterfield on Saturday could bring Morecambe more luck than they've traditionally had at Accrington.

Accy's new loan signing from Liverpool, Craig Lindfield was named on their bench.

Accrington Stanley: Arthur, King, Murdock, Procter, Miles, Mullin, Edwards, Ryan, Turner (Richardson 71), Charnock, Higginbotham. Subs Dunbavin, Grant, Richardson, Bell, Lindfield.

Morecambe: Roche, Yates, Artell, Bentley, Stanley, Twiss, Howe (O'Carroll 81), Wainwright (Blinkhorn 63), McLachlan (Hunter 81), Drummond, Adams. Subs Davies, Hunter, O'Carroll, Taylor, Blinkhorn.

Booked: McLachlan, Wainwright.

Att: 1,407