Morecambe ready to roll their sleeves up for Mansfield Town visit tonight

The Stags home game is the first of three at the Globe Arena in seven days.

Bentley replaced both top scorer Shaun Miller and assist king Jamie Devitt in the defeat at Northampton on Saturday as he bids to ensure the key duo and the rest of his squad are fit and firing.

He said: “We’ve got a lot of games coming up and it’s a tough period for a small squad.

“We’ve been rocked by a couple of injuries, we are right down to the bare bones.

“There’s no one else in the building who can sit on the bench for us, the next step would be me!

“But I think we’ve got to manage the squad.

“People might think it’s negative taking your top scorer and top assist maker off but there’s not much between all our players.

“Paul Mullin came on and scored a goal and that’s what we want.

“It is testing times and we can’t shuffle it around a lot but there might be one or two fresh ones who come in on Tuesday.”

Games against Mansfield in the past have been a real battle with Bentley hoping his side are ready to roll their sleeves up.

He said: “In the past they’ve had one of the worst disciplinary records.

“They’ve battled and been physical. I remember big Matt Rhead when he was there who is still doing it now at non-League level.

“The manager’s changed now and there’s a lot more footballers in there, but they’ve still got battling qualities.

“I know the management team, they are made of that kind of stuff.

“We know it will be a tough game and we have to be ready to fight fire with fire and get in amongst them.”

Bentley is hoping tonight will have a similar feel to his side’s last home game, a come-from-behind 2-1 victory over Yeovil.

He said: “The crowd really got behind us, I really enjoyed it and hopefully it’s the same again.

“We can play well, win the game and hopefully give the fans something to cheer about.”