Planning was key to Morecambe’s win against Forest Green Rovers

Goals from Rhys Oates, Aaron Collins and Alex Kenyon gave Morecambe their third victory in five outings.

It also moved them up to 20th place in League Two, eight points clear of the bottom two going into Tuesday’s game with MK Dons at the Globe Arena.

Needing a win after losing at Yeovil Town seven days earlier, Oates gave Morecambe the perfect start with a sixth minute opener.

Collins doubled that lead just after the half-hour before Kenyon’s first of the season wrapped up victory on 71 minutes.

Nevertheless, Shrimps keeper Mark Halstead made three good stops, while Steve Old and Ritchie Sutton produced goalline clearances as the visitors enjoyed more of the possession – albeit without a real cutting edge.

However, while that possession put some home fans on edge, Bentley revealed his players carried out the roles and responsibilities discussed during the week.

He said: “It was strange because I thought the fans were a little bit panicky in the first half if I’m honest.

“We went 1-0 up and we stuck to the game plan of working on our shape.

“We did a lot of work with the front two about closing down and cutting off angles.

“Forest Green are the type of team who want you to steam out so they can play through you because they are good enough to do it.

“When you do have spells without the ball, our game plan was all about hitting them on the counter attack.

“The amount of times they left us one versus one at the back, if we get that final pass right then we could have had a few more but we can’t be too greedy.

“Forest Green’s fans seemed to be getting frustrated because they weren’t going anywhere; it was strange because you have two sets of fans who were frustrated at what their sides were doing on the pitch.

“It was a good, hard-earned, disciplined performance but, when we got the ball, we did well.

“We scored goals, created chances, kept a clean sheet – and it doesn’t get much better than that.”