Morecambe players are warned after Papa John's Trophy loss to Carlisle United

Stephen Robinson told his Morecambe players that futures were on the line after their defeat to Carlisle United on Tuesday night.
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The Shrimps concluded their Papa John’s Trophy campaign with a 2-0 group stage loss at the Mazuma Stadium.

Defeats in their other group games with Everton and Hartlepool United meant that, for a fifth consecutive season, Morecambe were unable to qualify for the knockout stages.

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They weren’t even able to bow out with a consolation win as second-half goals from Jordan Gibson and former Shrimp Kelvin Mellor gave the visitors victory.

Morecambe keeper Kyle Letheren was injured in the pre-match warm-upMorecambe keeper Kyle Letheren was injured in the pre-match warm-up
Morecambe keeper Kyle Letheren was injured in the pre-match warm-up
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Morecambe had seen keeper Kyle Letheren injured in the pre-match warm-up, heralding a senior debut for teenager Andre Da Silva Mendes.

The Shrimps started well but failed to turn their possession into goals throughout, Toumani Diagouraga coming closest with a first-half shot that flew narrowly off target.

Adding to the air of disappointment from the home perspective, one fan decided the last 10 minutes of the game was the ideal time to enter the pitch with Carlisle keeper Mark Howard waiting to take a goal kick.

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Robinson said: “I’m saying the same things week in week out.

“At the minute, we’re passing the ball about in front of people when we’re telling people to run in behind.

“I’m telling the same people to do it and they aren’t doing it, so there’s a big 10 games coming up for people’s careers.

“Decisions have to be made. We know what our frailties are and they were exposed with two set plays.

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“We have to do something about it. We can’t at the moment but we look like a group of boys who are short of confidence if we don’t score first.

“As soon as we went 1-0 down, we looked like we weren’t going to come back from it, and it took going 2-0 down before we played with any intensity.

“I’ve said the same for the last month or six weeks, we have to stand up and be counted - which needs to be done now.”

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