Murphy to lead Morecambe in Bury friendly

The new signing from Wycombe will get his chance to stake a claim to be Jim Bentley’s new skipper after Shaun Beeley, Andy Parrish and Ryan Edwards led the side in earlier friendlies.

Shrimps boss Bentley, who is expected to confirm his captain in the week before the season starts on August 8, said: “We’ve put the armband around a bit.

“Beeley had it at Kendal, Parrish against Bolton, Edwards against Nantwich and Peter Murphy will be the captain against Bury.

“We’ll have a little look and there’s a few names in the frame.”

Morecambe are hoping for a bumper pre-season crowd for the visit of Bury.

The Shrimps helped David Flitcroft’s side seal promotion to League 1 last season with their victory over Southend on the final day and now hope Shakers fans will turn out in their droves to say thank you.

Bentley said: “I thought the attendance for Bolton was good and hopefully it will be the same for Bury.

“They have the feel-good factor after getting promoted, there’s plenty of new signings at the club and there’s big ambitions.

“It will be another difficult test for us but one that we’ll look forward to.

“Hopefully it will be a good occasion but it is pre-season and we want to get out of it what we need to and that’s what we’ll be planning to do first and foremost.”

Morecambe will be looking for a fourth straight win ahead of the new season after victories over Kendal, Bolton and Nantwich.

They will be without big defender Adam Dugdale who picked up an ankle injury in training earlier in the week and is set to miss two weeks of action.

The game kicks off at 7.30pm.