Morecambe boss Jim Bentley needs a lift...and quickly

Morecambe host Northampton Town tonight with manager Jim Bentley hoping for a turnaround in fortune.
Shrimps manager Jim BentleyShrimps manager Jim Bentley
Shrimps manager Jim Bentley

The Shrimps go into the match after losing all of their opening three games in League Two – their worst start to a Football League campaign.

Their latest defeat came at Stevenage on Saturday when Michael Timlin’s 
first-half goal was enough to claim three points.

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As well as their first point of the season, the Shrimps are still looking for their first league goal.

They have only found the net once so far this season, losing 3-1 at Preston North End in last week’s League Cup tie at Deepdale.

Bentley said: “Like the game before against Exeter there was nothing in it in terms of quality and chances.

“They have won it with a quality strike that no one could have stopped and that proved to be the difference between the two sides at the end of the day.

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“We certainly created chances of our own – and we had a clear shout for a penalty in the second half, when Josef Yarney’s shirt was being pulled at a corner – but we didn’t take them once again and that was frustrating.”

Morecambe’s failure in front of goal makes for some pretty damning statistics given the club’s last-gasp survival on the final day of last season.

Saturday’s shutout was their seventh consecutive league match without a goal, a run stretching back to their 1-1 draw with Carlisle United on April 14.

For good measure, they have not posted a win in any competition since beating Exeter City on March 17 – with seven draws and seven defeats in the 14 games since.

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That need for a win – or a goal – comes despite a vastly overhauled squad at the Globe Arena for the new season.

Forwards including Jason Oswell, Liam Mandeville and Rhys Oates were all brought in by the Shrimps over the summer.

However, in the early part of the season, the Morecambe players have still shown their same old familiar failings in front of goal.

That, according to the manager, is despite the hard work put in on the training ground to try and turn things around.

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“We need something to fall for us somewhere to help us turn things round,” Bentley said.

“If we had been given the penalty on Saturday like we should have done that might have made a massive 
difference and got us up and running.

“Three games without a goal is not a good statistic and it is something that we need to sort.

“We work hard week in week out in training on our forward play but we are in the middle of a really poor run and we need a goal, no matter how we get one, to turn things round.’’