Boss Bentley hails battling Shrimps after Dagenham win

Paul Mullin converted the rebound after missing a first-half penalty as Morecambe won for the first time in six League 2 games.

The Shrimps boss was beaming at the final whistle as his side dug in having shipped four goals in each of their last two home games, including the FA Cup exit at the hands of the same opposition a fortnight ago.

Bentley said: “Credit to the lads, they had the bit between their teeth tonight.

“We changed our way a bit. We’re based on being a good footballing side but looking at the weather yesterday and the forecast, we went big and strong tonight.

Look back at the game with our Shrimps Live blog“We had a bit more of an aggressive approach with long throws either side, putting pressure on their back line.

“The back three have been solid and the young ‘keeper has come in and made his debut and to be fair the back line have really looked after him and protected him.

“It’s about winning games. We went into the FA Cup game with good footballers and got beaten but today we didn’t take any chances and got it forwards.

“We’ve got some characters coming back into the side in (Adam) Dugdale and Peter Murphy, who did really well to come in and play for 90 minutes after the time he’s been out.

“Every one of them put a shift in, were solid and we did the ugly side well.

“We know we can play better football but at the minute it’s horses for courses, it’s a fantastic win and we can draw a line under November and move onto December.”

Goalkeeper Barry Roche limped off after 20 minutes with a hamstring problem with Bentley saying it was too early to assess the severity of the problem.

Look back at the game with our Shrimps Live blog