Boss Bentley thrilled with "fantastic" Morecambe win

Danny Grainger put Carlisle ahead but Morecambe hit back with a brace from Shaun Miller either side of a Tom Barkhuizen goal, and that was enough to secure the win despite Derek Asamoah's late consolation for the hosts.

Although there was only one goal in it in the end, the scoreline hardly reflected a game in which Morecambe's pacy attackers had Carlisle chasing shadows at times in the second half.

Bentley said: "Going forward we were superb and we should have scored more than the three goals we got. The only negative was the Carlisle goals which left us with a nervous last four or five minutes.

"We are struggling injury wise and are down to the bare bones at the minute, but the lads took on board everything we asked of them. We knew how Carlisle were going to play. They are a good footballing side and brought in some top players in the summer and we were aware they would create chances.

"But we have players who can score goals and can be threat to any team. We dug in and were strong and worked hard and we felt we could get them on the counter-attack. We carried out our game plan and it was a fantastic performance."

Bentley had particular words of praise for two-goal Miller, saying: "He was on the scrapheap and unable to get a club. We have worked with him and he is a fantastic professional whose movement is first class. I'm pleased for Sean. He has a spring in his step now and will hopefully go on from strength to strength."

Miller echoed his manager's comments about the team's display, saying: "It was as great performance from the whole side. We hit Carlisle on the counter several times and looked really dangerous and could well have scored more. It got a bit nervous towards the end, but it was a great three points."

Carlisle took a first half lead through skipper Grainger before Miller raced through to fire his first before the break.

Top scorer Barkhuizen was on target for Shrimps in the second half with his sixth goal of the season and Miller added his second from close range before Asamoah's added time strike which came too late to save Carlisle.

Carlisle manager Keith Curle was honest in his assessment of a disappointing display, saying: "We were beaten by the better team on the day. The scoreline flattered us if anything, but we had chances to score more goals.

"They caught us on the break too many times. We had worked during the week on countering the counter-attack because we knew we would be at our most vulnerable attacking.

"Sometimes the players need to be exposed for the penny to drop and they were exposed by a very good team on the day."

Curle also congratulated the work done by Bentley, his boot boy when they were both players at Manchester City. He said: "The manager has put his ethos over and his players have been together a long period of time.

"Our only threats came from the pace of Asamoah getting in behind, but we became too predictable. When Michael Raynes went forward he won every header, but we didn't learn our lessons quickly enough after highlighting through the week the need to keep an eye on the back door when they were attacking."