Morecambe leave Bentley purring

Jim Bentley hailed his battling Morecambe as they shocked promotion-chasing Luton, inflicting their first home defeat since September 6.

The Shrimps had thrown away a 2-0 lead and been reduced to 10 men on 80 minutes, only to steal victory courtesy of Luke Wilkinson's late own goal, as he turned in Kevin Ellison's harmless cross. Bentley said: "I think overall the lads were absolutely fantastic. We needed that little bit of luck, certain things went against us, but we got that at the end. "Then we really dug in, showed our battling qualities away from home and got the three points which is fantastic on a very difficult place to come. "Up to 40 minutes I thought we were fantastic. We got the goal, played some really good stuff and could have easily got two or three more. "Once they got that goal, the crowd really started to wake up and got behind them. Fortunately we had that little bit of luck at the end with the own goal, but Kev's in there claiming it as he will do. "What a great result for us against one of the biggest sides at this level and a very tough place to come." Hatters first-team coach Hakan Hayrettin said: "It was topsy-turvy. Second half we were fantastic, we pressed and we pushed, but it didn't happen. "They deserved to be in front, but we focused all our energies on making sure we got back in the game. "Once we got that it gave that 10 per cent more to the players and we did second half and that's what we're capable of and even more. "But the goalkeeper's made a great save when it could have been 3-2 to us, had that gone in it's a different game. They've gone up the other end and scored and it just wasn't to be our day." Morecambe were deservedly ahead on 18 minutes when Jack Redshaw danced past his man in the area, and found the bottom corner. The Shrimps had a second after 29 minutes when Laurence Wilson fired in a marvellous half volley from outside the box, although Redshaw looked offside in the build up. Luton were back in the game on 43 minutes when Michael Harriman's cross was powered home by Cameron McGeehan. In the second period, Redshaw could have wrapped up the points, when sent clean through, but Elliot Justham was out to save. Lee then hit the post with a header, Wilkinson firing the rebound over, although Hatters levelled on 76 minutes when McNulty looped a header against the bar and Lawless drove the rebound in. Lawless saw his close-range header denied by a combination of Arestidou and woodwork, as Morecambe were down to 10 men when Ryan Edwards received a second yellow for his challenge on McGeehan. However, the Shrimps won it through Wilkinson's error as Luton dropped further ground on the top three spots.