Bentley rues misfortune and missed chances at Hartlepool

The Shrimps had plenty of opportunities but goals from Billy Paynter and Rakish Bingham saw them leave Victoria Park empty handed after a 2-0 reverse.

Bentley said: “We were full of optimism after a good pre-season but that’s life.

“We’ve lost our captain in the first game of the season after seven minutes and that’s a bit of bad luck.

“We could have reacted quicker for the first goal but at the other end we had a disallowed goal for Kevin Ellison, we had Jamie Devitt go through one v one with the ‘keeper and Ryan Edwards has hit the bar.

“We kept calm and after the break I thought we played some good stuff and had some fantastic chances.

“We had enough of them to win the game but we go away a little bit down on ourselves.

“We’ve had a disappointing start but we’ve got to make sure we roll our sleeves up.”

For the very latest Morecambe FC news check out our Shrimps Live blog