Two-goal Ellison is apple of Jim’s eye

MORECAMBE boss Jim Bentley was full of praise for veteran forward Kevin Ellison as his two goals helped the Shrimps to only their second win of the season.

Ellison grabbed the headlines with goals on 34 and 81 minutes to give the hosts their first victory since the opening day of the campaign.

“Kev has been one of the best players in this league for the last 10 years and you just can't write him off,” said Bentley.

“He's 38 now and every time he has a bad game, people say he is finished, but he just keeps going and is a constant threat to the opposition.

“He's scored four goals in four games now and although he had a bit of luck with his second, he was still in the right place at the right time and deserved his fortune.

“It's great see Kev grab the headlines but there were other good performances as well, and we looked a threat going forward all afternoon.

“I have said for a while that I think things are coming together, and we saw that today with some great performances all over the park.

“We have brought in a lot of players to the squad late this year and it is taking time to get things right, and while we are getting much closer to where we want to be, I still think we are only playing at 75 or 80 per cent.”

The Exiles had equalised almost immediately after Ellison’s opener when Matty Dolan’s corner found Mickey Demetriou, and he teed up Scot Bennett at the near post.

But after Adam McGurk’s header was brilliantly saved by Joe Day, Ellison grabbed the winner nine minutes from time, and Newport boss Mike Flynn did not pull any punches when asked to describe his side's performance.

He said: “We were terrible. Absolutely terrible. We were beaten up all over the park.

“We looked like we hadn't worked on things in training and we need to put it right. “If the lads are going to pull out of challenges like they did today, then they won't be playing.

“In all honesty, I could have substituted eight of them at halftime. They were that bad.

“I’m the first one to give them the credit, but today was nowhere near good enough. I haven’t had too many days like this since I have been manager, but I don’t want many more. I'm hoping it was a one-off.

“If we put in too many of those performances, we will be back at the wrong end of the table again.”