Morecambe boss Bentley: Cobblers are the best team in League Two

Goals from James Collins, John-Joe O’Toole and Rod McDonald fired Northampton to the top of the League Two table as they comfortably saw off Morecambe to record a 10th league win in 11.

It was yet another highly impressive performance from Chris Wilder’s men who now find themselves two points clear at top with a game in hand over second-placed Plymouth.

But while Bentley isn’t surprised to see the Cobblers doing so well, he was frustrated by some of his own side’s mistakes during Saturday’s loss.

“In my opinion Northampton are the best team in the league and on that evidence they will go up,” said the Morecambe boss.

“But it’s a bit frustrating, we finished eight points off the play-offs last season and I felt today was a great opportunity to put down a marker.

“You come away with a game plan and we started quite well but today we were the nearly team. We switched off for a split second for the first goal and once you give a team like Northampton the lead it becomes even harder and the momentum is with them.

“Having said that, we had a couple of opportunities and we kept working but we were just a little bit off it in most areas.

“We regrouped at half-time and knew where we had to improve. We had a couple of chances to make it 2-1 but then we shot ourselves in the foot, everyone is assigned a player from a corner but it was too easy for Rod McDonald to score.

“That has been our problem this season, in set-piece situations it’s one verses one and you have to make sure your man doesn’t score, it was all too easy for them.

“After we scored we had chances on the break, they were good opportunities to make it 3-2. But we couldn’t keep our foot on the gas and a few players tired.

“Some people may think I’m too positive but I really felt we could go to a side who are now top of the league and get a result. We didn’t deserve anything from the game but we’ve played a big part in Northampton winning it by switching off at important times.

“There are positives to take from the game but it’s frustrating because I felt we could have scored four or five goals. Northampton have got a top keeper but they leave gaps to exploit which we didn’t.”