Jim Bentley targets two more January signings for Morecambe

Bentley has so far brought in three players to his squad in the window but with a mounting injury list knows more are needed to see the Shrimps through to the end of the season.

He said: “There is a bit of money there after generating some funds with the sale of Jason Oswell and allowing others to return to their clubs but we have to make sure we get the right players.

“Richie Bennett has come in and did really well on Saturday and I was delighted to see him get off the mark for the club and Ritchie Sutton has settled in really well too and looks a good signing.

“Paul McKay has done well in training and I’m sure we will see more of him over the coming weeks.

“I’d like to get more players in, be that on loan or permanent.

“I really would like another one up top and another wide player so we can do better in the final third of the field which I think is where we need to improve so we can turn draws into wins.

“We can only have five loans and so it is important that we get it right. We need to replace (Joe) Piggott, Oswell and (Garry) Thompson and there is no doubt we need numbers as we are light, particularly when you look at our horrendous injury list with so many key players out of action such as Aaron Wildig, Andy Fleming and A-Jay Leitch-Smith.

“We are certainly doing everything we can in terms of searching for players who can improve our squad. We are exploring all avenues and we have missed out on one or two who we couldn’t afford or went elsewhere but there is no lack of trying.

“We are doing a lot of phoning around our contacts, doing a lot research and looking at a lot of clips to get some business done.”