Exeter City secured a Conference double over Morecambe with this comfortable victory.
Despite missing leading strikers Steve Flack and Sean Devine, Exeter produced the firepower when it was needed on a day that was not conducive to good football.
With a swirling wind making it difficult for both sides to play the football they would like, it was a case of both teams rolling their sleeves up to fight for the points.
It was Morecambe who produced the more dangerous moments in the early stages.
Stewart Drummond saw a left-foot shot fly wide of the left-hand post and Danny Carlton let fly with a right-foot screamer which just beat the left-hand post.
Chris Blackburn fired well over from 25 yards on 19 minutes and Drummond again produced an effort on goal with a 20-yard free-kick that sailed over the crossbar.
Exeter produced very little until the closing stages of the first half.
On 41 minutes Gareth Sheldon's shot on the turn was well parried away by Ian Dunbavin and a minute later Les Afful had a great chance to open the scoring after Glenn Cronin's delicate throughball, but the young striker shot weakly at the Morecambe keeper.
The game was turned on its head in first-half injury-time. Sean Canham, looking decidedly offside, sped into the Morecambe box, but was bundled over by a clumsy challenge from Jim Bentley.
The Morecambe defender saw a red card and to make matters worse James Coppinger blasted home the spot-kick.
Seconds later Morecambe thought they had equalised but were denied by an offside flag. Ryan Sugden was the unfortunate Morecambe player to be penalised after a great finish.
Exeter began the second half in the same style as they finished the first and soon added a second.
Afful found himself in space in the box and saw a shot well saved by Dunbavin, but Canham was on hand to head the loose ball home from two yards out.
Eight minutes later, the visitors were gifted a third. Morecambe defender Jamie Murphy made a real hash of a long clearance and the busy Afful took full advantage to drill home the loose ball and send Exeter's loyal travelling contingent home happy.
The ten men of Morecambe fought back bravely in the final stages, but James Bittner in the Exeter goal was largely a spectator as Morecambe failed to add a consolation goal on another disappointing afternoon.