Made unhappy scorer research magicians (9)

I believe the answer is:

sorcerers

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'magicians' is the definition.
('sorcerer' can be a synonym of 'magician')

'made unhappy scorer research' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
an anagram of 'scorer' is 'sorcer' which is located in the answer.
The remaining letters 'ers' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).

Can you help me to learn more?

I've seen this clue in the Sydney Morning Herald.

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