Bentley battles to halt Morecambe's inconsistency

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

It was an especially disappointing day given the three points claimed at Notts County with a fine 2-1 win in midweek.

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

“I’ve got to look at myself with regards to whether I got the team selection right,” he admitted.

“It’s easy to get engrossed after a fantastic win on Tuesday and, as good as we were then, we were poor today.

“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.”

The Shrimps’ dismal home results are in stark contrast to their away success on the road with 13 points from 18 on the road.

It’s a much different story back at the Globe Arena with the home support only able to cheer August’s victories over Blackpool and Portsmouth, as well as the Checkatrade Trophy win against Stoke City a fortnight ago.

Bentley 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 on the chin because they were a good side but this is 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 next week.”