Jim angered by defeat
SHRIMPS' boss Jim Bentley said his side were "shocking'' after their 2-1 defeat to 10 man Hartlepool on Monday.
Bentley admitted his side lacked leadership as they let a 1-0 slip against a side who were reduced to 10 men for a third of the game.
Leading 1-0 the Shrimps felt their luck was in when Simon Walton was dismissed shortly before the hour mark.
But the visitors somehow contrived to lose the game 2-1 with Bentley left fuming as his side blew a glorious opportunity to secure League 2 safety for another season.
The defeat now leaves them three points clear of the bottom two with two games to play.
Bentley said: “It’s mad how football goes, you’d think playing away from home against 10 men you’d see the game out but it was a turning point in their favour surprisingly.
“I’ve got to be honest, we were shocking.
“It wasn’t a bad away performance, we looked relatively solid and we thought if we got the second goal we might be able to run away with it with the extra day’s rest and the crowd getting on their back a bit.
“And we weathered the storm at the start of the second half but the sending off was the turning point.
“We lacked composure and we dropped deep. We were nursing a couple of injuries so we made the changes to try and get us on the ball and get us up the pitch but they put the long throw in, they put the set plays in and we just crumbled.
“We lacked leadership and someone like Stewart Drummond to put his foot on it and to just calm everyone down and keep the ball because that’s all we needed to do.
“We got what we deserved in the end.”