Jim Bentley on Hartlepool, Shrewsbury and Carlisle
Manager Jim Bentley looks back on what has been a tough week for The Shrimps’, one which he hopes to bounce back from with Saturday’s trip to Carlisle.
The gaffer was left disappointed with the team’s performance after Saturday’s defeat to bottom club Hartlepool United, citing The Shrimps’ failure to take their chances as the main reason for not winning the game: “We’re obviously very frustrated and disappointed that we’ve lost the Hartlepool game. I didn’t think they threatened as much on the day and we’ve created enough chances to win more than one game.
“One lapse in concentration and failure to take our chances at the other end cost us. The fans got right behind us in the second half and most of the action was down that end of the pitch and I’m absolutely gutted we couldn’t give them something to cheer about.”
Jim now turns his attentions to this weekend’s trip to Brunton Park to face a Carlisle United side that have struggled to adapt to life in League Two this season and a game that the manager hopes will provide a chance to put things right: “We’re looking forward to the weekend where we’ve got a chance to put things back on track. We’d love to be able to get a win at home in front of our own fans but for now our attention is on our trip to Carlisle where we know we can take three points if we apply ourselves.”
“Credit to the lads, they dug in and worked hard but unfortunately conceded two late goals.”
“Unfortunately that wasn’t the case, Shrewsbury were good with and without the ball and caused us problems. We scored a good goal to get our noses in front but sadly we couldn’t hold our lead which could have built our confidence. We had a good opportunity at the start of the second half to get back on level terms but once Andreas Arestidou was sent off the job was always going to be difficult.
“Going into the game we knew it was going to be difficult as they’re one of the top sides in the division, but as results have proven this season any team is capable of beating anyone else on their day.
Jim was hopeful that the lads would be able to bounce back in Tuesday night’s game against promotion hopefuls Shrewsbury but it wasn’t to be: “We were back in on Monday, positive and looking forward to the Shrewsbury game. Even though we’d lost the game at the weekend the spirit remained high throughout the day and we had a good training session. The lads were in early on Tuesday for a pre-match meal and to do the video analysis work on ourselves and Shrewsbury.