Jim Bentley's delight as Morecambe rediscover scoring form

The Shrimps climbed to 18th in League Two thanks to a 2-0 victory against Coventry City in a game pitting, statistically, the division’s worst attack against the best defence.

Bentley’s players had gone into the game having scored only 15 goals from 20 league matches this season, three more than Coventry had conceded.

Vadaine Oliver and Callum Lang netted in each half as Morecambe proved full value for their win; one which could have still been more emphatic.

Oliver could have had a first-half hat-trick, Adam McGurk struck the post with Andy Fleming’s follow-up cleared off the line, Garry Thompson had a close-range header saved and a decent penalty shout for a shirt pull on Oliver was turned down.

“I thought it was an excellent, high energy game,” Bentley said.

“I’ve been saying all along that I’ve been pretty pleased with our performances but it was a case of taking the chances when they came along.

“We kept a clean sheet which was another positive and, thankfully, we got the win.

“We haven’t had the points return we needed but we have started our league games in December with a big win.

“We’ve won the game, we’ve deserved to win the game, we’ve scored two goals and we could have scored a couple more.

“Thommo should have scored with his header, Vadaine should have scored more, McGurk hit the post, Flemmo should have scored on the follow-up; there were numerous chances.

“Hopefully that sets us up for Barnet on Saturday because, with the games coming up thick and fast, we need that momentum and confidence.”