Morecambe manager Jim Bentley is grateful for the fans’ reaction to Bradford City defeat

The Shrimps head to Colchester United tomorrow after winning one of their opening 13 league games this season.

Eight of those matches have ended in defeat, the most recent of which came against Bradford City at the Globe Arena last weekend.

However, the boos which accompanied Morecambe’s home defeat to Walsall last month were conspicuous by their absence come full-time last Saturday.

Bentley said: “We deserve to be where we are but we kept going and the crowd got behind us.

“It’s a true reflection when you’re walking off and the home fans stay behind to clap you off.

“Players and staff stick together and it’s the same for the fans.

“They have to stick with us, keep backing and cheering us and, hopefully, we can turn the corner and get that all-important win that can kick us on.”

Tomorrow’s game is the first of three outings in a week for Morecambe with Forest Green Rovers the visitors on Tuesday before a trip to second-bottom Stevenage ends the month.

While the league table makes for less than ideal reading, Bentley is wary of any early talk of a crisis in the camp. He said: “It’s not as if there are five games to go but we have to turn the corner sooner rather than later.

“If we don’t pick up points then we have to play catch-up and we need a result.

“We’re all fighters and battlers – that’s the club we’ve been over the years and how we’ve stayed in the EFL.

“We have higher expectations but it is what it is – we have to embrace the challenge and keep going.”