Burton suffered their fourth successive Conference defeat at the hands of Morecambe as Jim Harvey's men stepped up their challenge for a promotion play-off place.
A tightly fought contest at Eton Park was decided in the 68th minute by a goalkeeping error from Matt Duke.
The Burton shot-stopper allowed a tame shot from Nick Rogan to slip through his grasp and fellow striker Danny Carlton followed up to slide the ball home from six yards.
Burton were looking to improve on a bleak record of just one point from their holiday games against Tamworth and in the first half they looked the more dangerous side.
Robbie Talbot, who joined the Brewers from Morecambe for £11,000 in the close season, almost rocked his former club inside the opening minute but his shot took deflected wide off Shaun Garnett.
Burton went even closer in the 16th minute but after climbing to meet a Lee Colkin corner, midfielder Barry Williams saw his effort cleared off the line by Kieron Walmsley.
Andy Corbett had a powerful shot well held by Craig Mawson and it was not until the latter stages of the half that the visitors threatened to make use of the cultured work of Stewart Drummond and the hard running of Michael Stringfellow.
It was Stringfellow who had their only real chance of the half when he glanced a header wide from Dean Howell's cross.
But the visitors stepped up a gear and Burton struggled to match them in the second half.
Rogan clipped the angle of crossbar and post with a delicate chip in the 48th minute and mounting pressure resulted in Carlton's goal, albeit seasonally gift-wrapped by Duke.
Burton's best chance to salvage a point came in the 83rd minute when Aaron Webster headed across the area for skipper Darren Stride to have a 12-yard shot blocked by the legs of Mawson.
But Morecambe might easily have added to their lead in a quick counter attack that ended with Duke partially redeeming his earlier error by tipping Carlton's shot away for a corner.