Bentley hails Morecambe after convincing win

Posted Tuesday, April 23, 2019 by PA

Morecambe manager Jim Bentley praised his side after a superb 4-0 victory over Cheltenham.

The Shrimps brushed aside the Robins with four second half goals from Vadaine Oliver, veteran Kevin Ellison, Sam Lavelle and Aaron Collins.

Collins had an earlier penalty saved by the feet of Robins goalkeeper Scott Flinders after Oliver was tripped by Matt Bower.

“We put a bit of a show on, scored four and kept a clean sheet which ticks all the boxes and it would be great if it was like this every week,” Bentley said.

“The club put on a reduced priced offer and it was a real carnival atmosphere and the lads really responded.

“The football was excellent. We scored four and to be honest could have had more.

“We played some great stuff in the first half but missed the chance to go one up when we missed a penalty but we kept our cool and once we got ahead we never looked in trouble.

“We knew we were safe coming into the game and that made a real difference.

“The lads played with freedom and to end up with four different scorers was fantastic too.

“There were some excellent individual performances and it was great to see everyone celebrate together at the end.”

Cheltenham manager Michael Duff admitted his side got the result they deserved.

“For one reason or another we just didn’t turn up and that’s the first time I’ve said that in a long time,’’ he said.

“I’m not going to have a go at the lads because they have been excellent over the past few months and they all know as a group that today was nowhere near good enough.

“If you don’t do the basics right you will get punished and that is what happened today and we could have lost by more.

“We’ve had a few injuries and the pitch was difficult but I’m not going to make excuses. It didn’t look like us today but at the same time I thought Morecambe were excellent to be fair and they deserved the win.”

Morecambe missed a golden chance to take the lead from the penalty spot in the 21st minute. Oliver was tripped by Bower and Collins saw his effort saved.

The second half was one way traffic once Oliver game the Shrimps a 49th minute lead when he got in behind the Cheltenham defender to slot the ball under before slotting the ball under Flinders.

Four minutes later the home side doubled their advantage when Piero Mingoia’s corner was headed home by Ellison from six yards out.

Cheltenham responded briefly with Luke Varney heading inches wide before the Shrimps made it 3-0 from another corner as defender Lavelle ghosted in at the far post to head Liam Mandeville’s corner home from close range.

Bentley’s side made it four three minutes from time when Collins made amends for this penalty miss with a cool lob over the helpless Flinders from 12 yards to give the Shrimps a convincing win.