Morecambe boss Bentley hails ‘fully deserved’ victory

Posted Sunday, October 20, 2019 by PA

Morecambe manager Jim Bentley was proud of his players after they won 1-0 at Colchester to move off the bottom of League Two.

Cole Stockton’s second-half goal gave the Shrimps victory, their first win in 13 league and cup matches.

Stockton grabbed a 66th-minute winner when his close-range header from Lewis Alessandra’s corner deflected in.

Morecambe might have scored before and after their winner, with U’s goalkeeper Dean Gerken denying Stockton and Alessandra in the first half and then saving from Stockton again along with Tom Brewitt, prior to the visitors’ winner.

Alessandra also sliced wide just after Stockton’s goal, as Morecambe claimed their first league win since August 20.

Bentley said: “I’m proud of them and I’m really pleased for the fans who have travelled down.

“I think it was a fully deserved victory.

“It was hard work and we put bodies on the line when we had to.

“It wasn’t a smash and grab; they worked our keeper a couple of times and Bazza (Barry Roche) made a couple of saves and their keeper (Dean Gerken) made a couple of decent saves.

“It was a competitive game – I had a good chat with them before the game and they all knew what was expected.

“When you are bottom of the league, you’re labelled with a lot of things like you’re not fit, you’re not trying hard enough, there’s no team spirit or you’ve lost the dressing room.

“We can’t affect what people are thinking but they’re a good group and they’ve worked extremely hard over the last couple of weeks.”

Colchester’s Frank Nouble was denied in the first half by Morecambe keeper Barry Roche, who also foiled substitute Courtney Senior late on but it was a below-par display by the hosts.

Colchester head coach John McGreal said: “It was a really poor performance.

“It’s the worst we’ve been in possession of the ball since I took over.

“I just thought we played into their hands by giving the ball away with mis-placed passes and kicking it out of play.

“It killed the game and a set-piece won it for them, so it was disappointing.

“The boys take the plaudits when things are going well but when it doesn’t go well, we’ve got to take the criticism.

“You have to give Morecambe credit – they came with a game plan and executed it brilliantly well.

“They haven’t been performing as badly as the league table suggests – we tried to get that information across to the players.

“There was a quietness about us – we shouldn’t be lacking confidence because of the form we’ve been in but some of the decisions we made weren’t good and it was a poor performance.”