Kevin Ellison: Morecambe need to get nasty

Saturday’s 2-1 defeat at Mansfield, in which The Shrimps missed two penalties, means Jim Bentley’s side are five games without a win.

Ellison had given Morecambe the lead after just 58 seconds but a deflected strike from Matty Blair and a free header from Krystian Pearce ultimately saw The Stags to victory as Paul Mullin and Shaun Miller missed from the spot.

The Shrimps veteran said: “It’s similar to the last couple of games.

“The goals against us as a team are rubbish. If somebody puts it in the top corner you hold your hands up and think ‘yeah fair enough’.

“But one of them’s deflected and one of the other’s a free header in the six-yard box.

“We don’t get them. As forwards we get people coming through the back of us.

“As I team we need to get a bit nastier and try and shut up shop and stop conceding these easy goals.”

Ellison, so often the source of any Shrimps confrontation, believes numbers one to 11 need to come out fighting as a patchy run of form has seen Bentley’s men slip nine points shy of the play-off places.

The front man said: “All over we need to stand up and be counted.

“If you look at the results recently they’ve not been good enough.

“We’ll be doing our utmost to put them right because we’re not happy with the goals we’re conceding.”

Ellison’s seventh of the season was bittersweet as Morecambe again found a way to lose against a Mansfield side who had already overturned a 1-0 deficit at the Globe Arena less than two weeks ago.

He said: “It was going to be tough coming to Mansfield. They’re are up there and are a well organised team.

“We went 1-0 up after a minute but we went on to miss two pens so I think we should have got something out of it.

“It’s good to score but if you said to me before the game win the game and don’t score I’ll take that.

“The goals for me mean nothing, I’m more of a team player.

“I’d rather get points on the board than concentrate on myself.”

Oxford are next up at the Globe Arena on Saturday and with a trip to Bristol Rovers to follow getting back to winning ways will be easier said than done for The Shrimps.

Ellison said: “If you look at this league there’s no easy games.

“But I think people see the Dagenhams and think they’re easy games but they’re maybe the toughest because they’re fighting for their lives.

“We’ve got Oxford coming up next week and then we’ve got another tough away one and hopefully we can things right.”