Shrimps back on road after more home woe

The Shrimps’ 2-0 loss to Stevenage at the Globe Arena on Saturday meant they set a club record of five consecutive home league defeats.

Their form on Westgate is in stark contrast to their away success with 13 points from 18 on the road helping them sit 10th in League Two, only out of the play-offs on goal difference.

The home support have only been able to cheer August’s victories over Blackpool and Portsmouth, as well as the Checkatrade Trophy win against Stoke City a fortnight ago.

The challenge for Bentley is to pick up the players for Saturday’s trip to Colchester United before hosting Exeter City seven days later.

He said: “I fully expect the criticism after a poor run of results at home.

“We’re in the top half and in a decent position so we’ll probably go to Colchester and win and then lose to Exeter.

“We’re too inconsistent; we’ve won six, lost six and have the worst goals against; someone has got an answer to it.

“We’re second in the form table away from home but we’ve had some good (home) performances.

“I’ll take Doncaster (a 5-1 defeat last month) on the chin because they were a good side but Stevenage was by far the most crushing one for me.

“Winning on our travels is keeping us where we are; on home performances we’re in the bottom three.

“We thought we had turned a corner against Blackpool and Portsmouth, we didn’t deserve to be beaten by Crawley Town and we played well against Stoke City.

“It’s so frustrating for me that we can turn in decent performances away from home but a performance like the one against Stevenage wasn’t acceptable.

“I’ll take the criticism that comes my way.

“We have to take it on the chin and come out fighting this Saturday.”

The Stevenage defeat was another flat afternoon at the Globe Arena as the visitors picked up their first away win of the season thanks to goals in each half from Matt Godden and Ben Kennedy.

Bentley said: “I’ve got to look at myself with regards to whether I got the team selection right.

“It’s easy to get engrossed after a fantastic win last Tuesday (2-1 at Notts County) and, as good as we were then, we were poor on Saturday.

“We picked the same team and people will say you should never change a winning side.

“Maybe I should have done as I thought some players looked tired and off it.

“Some had poor days, some who had been playing at seven, eight or nine out of 10 dropped to four or five.

“There were poor decisions all over the park and a lack of urgency.

“We’ve got to look at it and get that winning formula back at home.”