Bentley questions staying at Shrimps

Jim Bentley has seen his Morecambe players lose seven straight league games

Speaking after his side’s seventh successive league defeat at Cheltenham Town on Saturday an emotional Bentley admitted the ongoing trials and tribulations around the club were beginning to have an effect on him.

Confusion continues surrounding the club’s ownership, with Brazilian former football agent Diego Lemos and Durham tax consultant Graham Burnard still locked in a court battle.

Qatari businessman  Abdulrahman Al-Hashemi and his family are supporting the club in the interim but a delay in an international bank transfer meant players and staff were paid late for the third time this season in March.

On the field, the Shrimps’ slump has left them 20th in League Two and 10 points clear of the bottom two.

“With everything that has gone on this season the goal this year has to be our survival as a Football League club,” Bentley said.

“We are not there yet and even with 46 points we have work to do.

“We need more points on the board and we need a result from somewhere sooner rather than later because we have to make sure we are a Football League club next season, which will be a great achievement.

“But no matter what happens I will have to look at things myself at the end of the season.

“I can’t have another year like I have had this season with the way things have gone. It needs sorting and we have to move forward because it hasn’t been right.

“I’m finding it hard to tie players down for next season because of the issues over not being paid and I only have about five or six players who will definitely be here next year at this moment in time.

“There are other things I am not happy about such as the lack of good training facilities and a few other things.

“I pride myself in being thoroughly professional and doing the best possible preparation for games but the job is almost impossible at times.

“You are always juggling every day and it is very hard for everyone. I have a great team of people around me but to be honest, I’m feeling it because it has been a very difficult season because the negativity kills me.”