Jim Bentley says hard work on his side's defensive shape has paid dividends so far in the Shrimps' unbeaten pre-season programme.
SHRIMPS' boss Jim Bentley says hard work on his side's defensive shape has paid dividends so far after a battling 1-1 draw with Premiership newcomers Burnley on Tuesday night.
The 1-1 draw with Burnley continued the Shrimps’ unbeaten pre-season ahead of Saturday’s trip to FC Halifax Town.
Having taken the lead through Rhys Turner’s second-half header, Bentley’s players were pegged back when Aaron McGowan’s error was capitalised upon by Andre Gray.
It is the only goal the Shrimps have conceded in four pre-season matches so far with Bentley admitting defensive tactics played a major part of training so far.
He said: “It was a good night and a good workout in difficult conditions given the heat.
“I thought we were very good in spells but I was very disappointed with regards to the goal we conceded.
“We’ve done an awful lot of work on our defensive shape which has worked quite well.
“We haven’t touched our attacking shape yet but we’ve still looked a threat so far.
“It was an easily avoidable goal but it’s a learning curve for our younger players at the club.
“We’re going to work with them, encourage them and improve them but that mistake was down to tiredness.
“The thing is, when you have tiredness, you start making errors and poor decisions and that happened with Aaron.
“Apart from that error, he produced a really solid performance.”