Jim Bentley hails Morecambe's character after crucial win

After seeing Paul Mullin give the Shrimps their first win in six games, he said: "We showed real character and it was a great performance.

"We changed things around and we changed our formation and it paid off. We have been conceding far too many goals in recent weeks but we looked really solid here and that was what I wanted.

"I have been talking a lot about character recently but you could sense that we had that here. We do normally try and play football and pop it around but when the pitches get heavy and the bad weather comes you have to be able to change things sometimes and we did that.

"Our heads could have dropped when we lost our goalkeeper but we stood up to that challenge. It was a night for characters and not for football and we played it just right and I thought we were worthy winners."

Dagenham boss Wayne Burnett was disappointed with his side's performance.

He said: "There wasn't a lot in the game really apart from the penalty.

"We didn't create too much but they didn't have many chances either and it was one of those games really.

"I don't think we were helped by the officials because they didn't really let the game flow. It was all a bit stop, start and that didn't help us.

"We tried to press forward in the second half but we didn't really play well to be honest and we will have to pick ourselves up and go again."

Mullin was the Shrimps' hero with the only goal of the game in the 31st minute that lifted his side to 13th in Sky Bet League Two.

Mullin was the quickest to react after his penalty was saved by Daggers goalkeeper Liam O'Brien as he stroked the rebound home at full stretch.