Morecambe’s difficulties away from home continued in emphatic fashion on Saturday.

Morecambe suffered their heaviest defeat of the season on an afternoon to forget as their recent run of good form came to a crashing end with a 6-2 loss at Hednesford Town, writes DEREK QUINN.

Woeful defending, matched by some clinical Hednesford finishing, saw the Shrimps give manager Adam Lakeland plenty to think about ahead of Tuesday’s National League North clash with Hereford at the Halo Aerospace Stadium.

Lakeland made two changes to the side that beat Scarborough Athletic with Taelor O’Kane coming in for the suspended Ben Williams and Isaac Buckley-Ricketts given the nod over Marcus Neill.

Morecambe dominated the early stages and put in a couple of dangerous crosses but things quickly went wrong as, not for the first time in recent weeks, they conceded two goals in quick succession.

The first came in the 13th minute when Aaron Jarvis’ square ball was met perfectly by Dylan Mottley-Henry, who drilled a low shot into the bottom corner of Myles Boney’s goal.

Two minutes later, the hosts doubled their lead with a superb individual effort from Mottley-Henry.

He picked up the ball from just inside his own half and drove through several weak challenges before producing a lethal finish past Boney.

The Shrimps looked to hit back quickly as Buckley-Ricketts saw a close-range header superbly saved by Will Murdock.

However, 15 minutes later, their defence was breached for a third time as Jamie Cooke shrugged off a poor Cameron Coxe challenge before rifling home the loose ball.

Morecambe did pull one back just before half-time through Ruben Curley, who beat Murdock from an acute angle to give Lakelland's side some hope.

Those hopes were soon dashed as Cooke made it 4-1 four minutes into the second period with another curling finish.

Morecambe hit back again in the 56th minute, when Paul Lewis sidefooted home his fifth goal of the season but the Pitmen continued to threaten.

Cooke completed his hat-trick in the 67th minute with a close-range finish before his corner was headed home by Jamie Morgan 12 minutes later.

The Shrimps then proceeded to create a host of chances, Teddy Collis failing to beat Murdock after being played in on goal, Liam Hogan heading against the crossbar and seeing an effort cleared off the line, while Matty Daly was unable to score from six yards out in the final moments.

Hednesford Town: Murdock, Morgan, Williams, Cooke, Jarvis (Abimbola 57), Mottley-Henry (Maher 77), Kinsella, Cirino, Curran-Nicholls (Sharples-Ahmed 86), Ward, Merry (Taylor 64). Subs not used: Hornby, Langston, Hayden.

Morecambe: Boney, Coxe (Davis 77), Hogan, Baines, Daly, Newby (Neill 53), Buckley-Ricketts (Collis 69), Lewis (Blois 77), O’Kane, Cain (Dobson 89), Curley. Subs not used: Tonge, Garner.

Referee: Daniel Baines.

Attendance: 2,447.