Bentley praises Morecambe's spirit after Accrington defeat

Stanley ran out 2-1 winners at the Globe Arena on Saturday with Vadaine Oliver being shown a straight red card just before the hour mark.

Bentley said: “I’m proud of the lads because they kept going.

“They went a goal down and then we went down to 10 men in controversial circumstances.

“It would have been easy to crumble at 1-0 down but I thought we got the shape right and we kept plugging away and we created some good chances and deserved our goal and there were some good signs.

“There were talking points and the sending off was something that will be heavily discussed. Another referee may have thought it was a good tackle, another may have given a yellow and another might have given a red like he did.

“You are in the hands of the Gods but there are that many rules about tackling now that it is hard to know what is a red card and what isn’t.

“It was a firm tackle but he won the ball and it was one of those big decisions that went against us and hurt us because we have been getting better as games go on in recent weeks and we were also attacking our fans which always encourages us.

“At the same time we definitely had two stone wall penalties turned down and that was really disappointing.

“There was a clear foul on Aaron McGowan after a great bit of skill and one at the end when Steve Old was brought down in a goalmouth scramble which somehow saw them end up with a free-kick.

“When you put all that together it could have been a very different story.”