Morecambe 0 Lincoln City 2: How the managers reacted

Liam Mandeville was a second-half arrival as Morecambe lost against Lincoln City

Jim Bentley’s players had gone into the match hoping to record a third straight league win after their victories at Port Vale and Oldham Athletic.

However, they were second best for much of the game as the visitors claimed a comfortable three points in the end.

This is how Bentley and his Lincoln City counterpart, Danny Cowley, viewed the game.

Jim Bentley: “I’m very disappointed, quite frustrated and there are no excuses.

“We deserved the pats on the back and the credit we got for the two results coming into the game but we deserve the criticism that’s coming our way.

“Lincoln are top of the table and they have won the game but we didn’t help ourselves.

“It was too easy, we rolled over and let them tickle our bellies at times.

“We didn’t lay a glove on them, particularly in the first half, and it’s one of the most lacklustre performances we’ve turned in.

“That’s not a team that reflects what we’re about and it was too easy.

“You look at it as a manager and think ‘what can we do better?’

“We got our preparation right; it’s the third game in a week, you get caught wondering if you make changes to a winning side and you’re playing a team who haven’t had a midweek game.

“We go with the winning side for the right reasons and we know we have a couple of decent ones on the bench ready to come on.

“We didn’t do enough and we’ll deserve the criticism that comes our way because it wasn’t acceptable.”

Danny Cowley: “I thought it was a really solid, professional performance after the disappointment of last week.

“I was proud of the way the lads played, they showed all the qualities we needed.

“They were two good goals from Bruno, who started the game really well and he’s in a good moment.

“There were two good debuts with Matt Gilks keeping a clean sheet as well as his presence and level of experience while Mark O’Hara was excellent, combative and used the ball really effectively.

“I thought we did the basics really well for the first half-an-hour but then we got bored of doing the basics and tried putting the ball around the corner.

“I thought we dominated the game much better in the last quarter of an hour and I was more pleased with how we saw the game out.

“Rheady (Matt Rhead) came on and kept the ball in the corner; after the disappointment of last week, it’s important we saw the game out convincingly and that’s what we did.

“Our game management was much better but we have to remember this is a really good Morecambe team in their best moment of the season; they have the momentum of two away wins coming into this game.

“Danny Rowe was excellent but there were a lot of good performances; nobody is bigger than the team and everyone is willing to put the team before themselves.”