Morecambe suffered another home defeat when they went down to in-form Torquay.

The visitors made it three away wins on the bounce with the Shrimps once again left licking their wounds on another windswept afternoon.

The Shrimps almost went down on 15 minutes when Torquay right winger Ian Morris delivered a swirling cross that flew past Barry Roche and hit the top of the crossbar with the follow up effort from Kevin Nicholson blocked by Chris McCready.

Unfortunately the Shrimps failed to deal with the resulting corner and found themselves a goal down. Central defender Mark Ellis had an initial effort blocked but the ball bounced perfectly into his path for a second attempt and he made no mistake as he lashed the loose ball past Roche from eight yards out.

After the setback the Shrimps hit back with Garry Hunter testing Bobby Olejnik with a 30 yarder that the keeper grabbed at the second atempt.

The Torquay number one then had to save superbly from Lewis Alessandra's curler on the half hour which was heading for the bottom left hand corner of his goal.

The Shrimps had the better of the possession in the second half but struggled to test Olejnik and the visitors doubled their advantage on 79 minutes when Danny Stevens scored from close range.

Morecambe hit back with Phil Jevons diverting a Will Haining drive home from close range and Nick Fenton went close to snatching a last gasp equaliser from an overhead kick but the visitors held on for another away win.

Morecambe boss Jim Bentley made one change to the side that drew 2-2 with Bradford last week with Kevin Ellison a welcome returnee with Danny Carlton dropping to the bench.

Morecambe: Roche: Parrish, Haining, McCready, Fenton, Wilson; Drummond, McDonald, Hunter'; Alessandra, Ellison. Subs: Routledge, McGee, Carlton, Jevons, Price.

Torquay: Olejnik; Oastler, Ellis, Robertson, Nicholson; Lathrope, Morris, O'Kane, Mansell, Stevens; Atieno. Subs: Rice (GK), Rowe-Turner, Saah, Howe, McPhee.

Ref: C Boyeson.