Jim Bentley wants Morecambe to answer their critics against Crawley Town

The Shrimps host Crawley Town at the Globe Arena tomorrow, looking to bounce back from their 4-0 loss at Swindon Town a week ago.

Bentley’s players made the journey south, looking to back up their recent run of four wins and a draw in seven outings.

However, errors at both ends of the pitch saw them well beaten to stay 19th in League Two.

Bentley said: “Hopefully it’s a wake-up call because we’ve been doing well.

“They deserve all the pats on the back when they are doing well but, when you take a heavy defeat away from home, you’re open to a bit of criticism.

“There have been fingers pointed at certain lads but there were some good performances.

“Some of our play was good but we’ve been beaten 4-0 so we have to reflect on it this week and come out fighting.”

Morecambe keeper Mark Halstead came under scrutiny for allowing Kyle Bennett’s shot to bounce over his dive for Swindon’s fourth.

Having gone into the game in good goalscoring form, the Shrimps fired blanks in front of goal.

Bentley said: “It looked like we had a five on three and it’s shifted to Rhys Oates who’s 25 yards out.

“If he shifts it inside, we’ve got a three on one but we take the shot on and drag it wide – that’s what we’ve got to do better.

“Whether Mark Halstead can do better, we will have to look at it.

“What we had spoken about with their threats was proven right and going the other way was proven right.

“We haven’t done enough in the final third and we were too easy to score against at the other end.”