STREETWISE Accrington Stanley battled, blocked and kicked their way to a precious three points at Christie Park as the new Nationwide Con-ference season opened on Tuesday night.

Morecambe started full of confidence and tried to play their football from the Jim Harvey text book - but the visitors were having none of it.

Stanley were happy to defend in depth and soak up everything that Morecambe had to offer by fair means or foul. And then they hit back on the counter attack.

As a game plan it wasn't pretty but it was mighty effective and few in the big opening day crowd of 2,393 could begrudge Stanley the result.

They had the best defenders on the night in Rob Williams and Stuart Bimson in particular. And at the other end, workhorse Paul Mullin kept Morecambe on their toes all night.

In truth, referee Mr Pollock helped by not resorting to his notebook earlier the first caution for a Stanley player did not arrive until the 69th minute but that only added to More-cambe's sense of injustice.

The game opened with Michael Twiss threatening to score in the first minute when set free down the left by Garry Thompson.

But Peter Cavanagh blocked his shot from eight yards out the first of many such interventions.

Stanley got the breakthrough on eight minutes as Ian Craney won the ball in a tussle with Terry McFlynn on half way and ran forward unchallenged to the edge of the box, from where he hit a screamer into the bottom left corner of Adam Sollitt's net.

It was exactly what Stanley's game plan needed and from then on they sat behind the ball and challenged Morecambe to score.

Thompson, Wayne Curtis and Twiss carried little threat as they knocked at the door. And if it did appear to open a crack, Stanley were happy to give away a free kick to close it.

It was against the run of play when Lee McEvilly broke down the left for Accrington on 36 minutes to win a corner which he took himself, picking out big defender Williams at the far post to put a header past Sollitt.

A Curtis shot from 20 yards was Morecambe's only reply before Mullin had a great chance to make it 3-0 but placed his header over the bar.

In first half stoppage time Sean O'Connor thought he had won a penalty when he robbed Cavanagh in the penalty area and was brought down, but Mr Pollock ruled that the ball had already run out of play.

Danny Carlton replaced O'Connor at half time and immediately pepped up the Shrimps attack. But the second half settled into a familiar pattern with Morecambe piling forward desperately in search of a goal.

It was Stanley who came closest as Shrimps forget to leave any defenders at home - Lutel James put the ball in the net but was ruled offside.

Morecambe got a lucky break at last on 77 minutes as Keiron Walmsley flighted in the latest in an endless stream of free kicks close to the Stanley area. It beat everyone at the near post and Jim Bentley was on hand to bundle the ball over the line from less than a yard out.

But that was it for the home side as Accrington continued to frustrate - with two more players cautioned for time-wasting as the minutes dragged by to the final whistle.

MORECAMBE: Sollitt, Walm-sley, Bentley, Swan, Howard, Curtis, Blackburn, McFlynn (Stringfellow 69), Twiss (Hunter 65), O'Connor (Carlton (45), Thmpson. Subs not used: Rogan, Gregoire.