SCARBOROUGH management duo Nicky Henry and Neil Redfearn's hopes of celebrating their new contracts were ended by Morecambe.

The Shrimpers won an ordinary Nationwide Conference encounter 2-1 at Christie Park, leaving Henry and Redfearn, who last week signed one-year deals to remain at Boro to ponder the size of their brief to produce a successful team for next season.

Henry played David Reeves as a lone striker and the veteran front man had a paucity of service, which resulted in him chasing lost causes. He did that willingly, but it was not until the 76th minute that Boro had the ball at their feet in the home penalty area in open play.

Morecambe grabbed what turned out to be the winner just after the interval and then took off three of their attacking players to replace them with defenders to hold on to the precious points.

Boro had taken the lead against the run of play before half-time with a Redfearn penalty -- his 14th goal of the season -- after Kevin Nicholson was pushed by Lee Elam when he went for a cross.

David Pounder missed the chance to make it 2-0 when he failed to beat goalkeeper Ryan Robinson a couple of minutes later from the edge of the area.

For ten minutes after the break, Wayne Curtis had a purple patch on the left flank for Morecambe and his crosses produced several chances, two of which were converted by Danny Carlton and Michael Twiss.

A disappointed Henry said: "Too many players went missing when the going got tough -- and it's happened too often this season."

The win moved Morecambe to within two points of the play-offs behind Hereford, 1-0 winners at Stevenage.

Updated: 10:43 Monday, April 04, 2005