John Sheridan: Carlisle fans have every right to grumble

Posted Sunday, October 14, 2018 by PA

John Sheridan was left fuming after the final whistle after seeing his Carlisle side fail again at home as they went down 2-0 to Morecambe.

It was a fourth straight home defeat, with the Cumbrians not scoring a single goal in that time and again they turned out a performance Sheridan labelled “just not good enough.”

Goals from Ajay Leitch-Smith and Vadaine Oliver secured the three points for Morecambe, but Sheridan admitted he was at a loss to explain their poor run.

He said: “We keep shooting ourselves in the foot. It’s just not good enough.

“We’ve gone four games at home and not scored. If we’d scored a goal we might have seen it out but we never got going.”

“I believe I have got good players, but at home for some reason they don’t appear to have belief. They were too spread out today and they are making rash decisions when we are vulnerable.

“I’m puzzled, and it’s something we’ll have to work very hard on. If we are going to do anything we need to win our home games. No disrespect to Morecambe but we should be winning a game like this.

“None of the players can given an answer as to why they put in that performance today and the fans have every right to grumble. We need to get a grip on ourselves. We need better. We can’t just let it go bang. We are making things hard for ourselves at home because we look half decent away.

“We need to stop being like a light switch—we’re good, we’re bad, we’re good, we’re bad. We can’t afford to keep turning it on and off.”

Shrimps boss Jim Bentley was relieved with the win after conceding that his side rode their luck at times.

The hosts missed a number of good opportunities and hit the post through Ashley Nadesan, but the Morecambe boss was nevertheless pleased to see his side picked up another three points on the road.

He said: “It’s not been an easy ground for us in the past so I’m pleased with the attitude of the players because we’ve had quite a few injuries coming into the game.”

“There were some outstanding performances. We were a bit lucky to come in at half-time with a clean sheet, but in the second half our game management was very good.

“We frustrated them and we looked like getting more on the break a few times.”

He added: “We don’t usually get much here. It’s a tough place to play and can be a bit intimidating.

“We rode our luck at times and they hit the post in the first half. Some of those go in and some stay out and a lot of times it’s gone in. Momentum is vital in football and they could have come back if it had gone 2-1 at that stage.