SATELLITE dish owners with a York City affinity would have been forgiven for switching over to the shopping channel long before teenage duo David Stockdale and Lev Yalcin provided the only consolations from last night's 2-1 defeat at Morecambe.

It is to be hoped, however, that any Football League managers who continued to watch Sky Sports 1 are not considering a couple of bargain buys of their own today.

Yalcin's spectacular first senior goal and Stockdale's penalty save will have certainly brought the youngsters' talents to the attentions of a wider audience.

Unfortunately their impressive individual contributions came too late for a City team that failed to create a noteworthy attempt on goal in over 70 minutes of football before Yalcin's 30-yard injury-time strike.

Morecambe were worthy winners and, had it not been for Stockdale's brilliant spot-kick stop, the game would have been wrapped up earlier than the 87th-minute when substitute Garry Thompson netted the Shrimps' second goal.

The Minstermen were not helped by first-half injuries that saw Graeme Law and David McGurk limp out of the action and meant Gary Pearson and Paul Groves - normally midfielders - were required to team up in the centre of a reshuffled defence with player-manager Chris Brass coming on at right back.

It resulted in a rather square-looking back line that was exploited by Morecambe for the penalty, conceded by Brass, and Thompson's goal.

Pearson's carelessness had earlier seen the visitors fall behind after just 11 minutes. His casual pass from the edge of his own box was easily intercepted by Wayne Curtis who quickly fed Michael Twiss for a free run on goal and he fired past an exposed Stockdale.

Lee Nogan went close from the edge of the box either side of Twiss' deadlock breaker but Darren Dunning's set- pieces appeared to be City's most likely avenue back into the game before the break.

Groves met the City skipper's perfectly floated free kick from the left with a powerful 15th-minute header that produced a fine instinctive save from Adam Sollitt.

Moments later, the Morecambe keeper tipped over a fierce 30-yard drive from Dunning, whose corner was then met by Groves again but this time the 38-year-old veteran's header cleared the crossbar.

That chance was missed on 18 minutes and the visitors created little more until Yalcin's stoppage time blast.

At the other end, Dave Merris cleared Chris Blackburn's header off the line and substitute Danny Carlton glanced another aerial opportunity narrowly wide shortly afterwards.

Merris gave away possession in his own half and Kieran Walmsley's crossfield pass found Twiss running towards the byline.

Brass, who had earlier been the victim of a nasty challenge deemed dangerous enough to warrant a yellow card by Twiss, lunged at the former Manchester United striker but appeared to make contact with the ball.

Referee Mr Lewis, however, seemed to be swayed by the volume of appeals from the home fans behind Stockdale's goal and pointed to the spot after several seconds of deliberation.

Perhaps there was some degree of justice, therefore, when Stockdale dived low to his left to keep out Walmsley's 12-yard effort.

Stockdale was back in action five minutes later when he charged out to the edge of his area to punch the ball away from Carlton and the Morecambe striker's eventual shot was cleared by Brass.

Garry Hunter's 25-yard curling attempt forced another diving save from Stockdale before Thompson made the game safe.

He fired a low shot past the City keeper after racing on to Carlton's defence-splitting pass.

Yalcin, however, claimed the goal of the game and spectacularly ended a long wait to break his Minstermen duck in the second minute of added time.

The Turkish Under-20 international collected the ball close to the halfway line and drove purposefully forward before unleashing a 30-yard drive into Sollitt's left-hand bottom corner.

It was a strike Wayne Rooney would have been proud of and the kind of goal Yalcin has built a reputation on as a youth and reserve team attacker with the Minstermen.

Everybody at Bootham Crescent will now be hoping he is ready to fulfill his undoubted promise at a senior level.

Morecambe 2 (Twiss 11, Thompson 87), York City 1 (Yalcin 90)

Stockdale 7, Law 6 (Brass 31m 6), Pearson 5, McGurk 6 Coad (HT 5), Merris 6, Robinson 5, Dunning 6, Groves 6, Stewart 7, Bishop 5, Nogan 5 (Yalcin 75m)

Key: 10 - Faultless; 9 - Outstanding; 8 - Excellent; 7 - Good; 6 - Average; 5 - Below par; 4 - Poor; 3 - Dud; 2 - Hopeless; 1 - Retire

Subs not used: Porter, Smith.

Star man: Stockdale - Great penalty save and another assured performance.

Morecambe: Sollitt, Heard, Blackburn, Bentley, Swan (Stringfellow, 89), Perkins, McFlynn (Garry Thompson 64), Hunter, Walmsley, Curtis (Carlton, 70), Twiss. Subs not used: Rogan, Robinson.

Yellow cards: Twiss 57, Brass 70, Dunning 81.

Red card: None

Referee: Rob Lewis (Shrewsbury). Rating: appeared to be a "homer" , giving Morecambe the benefit of the doubt on most decisions.

Attendance: 1,734

Weather watch: Breezy but dry

Game breaker: Thompson's second goal put the match beyond City and made Yalcin's spectacular strike a mere consolation.

Match rating: Had incidents and controversy but Morecambe deserved their win.

Updated: 10:58 Wednesday, October 06, 2004