Southport boss 'embarrassed' by heavy defeat to Chesterfield in FA Trophy

The Spireites made nine changes, with three academy players handed starts, with three more coming off the bench, but they still eased to victory against National League North opposition in the FA Trophy third round.

Bentley admitted: "I do feel a little bit embarrassed by getting beat by six. We go out of the competition with a little bit of a whimper. But credit to Chesterfield, Paul Cook is a fabulous manager, I wish the club well, I think they will go up this year, and rightly so. They are geared up to kick-on as a football club moving forward.”

Bentley said he wondered if it might be Southport’s day when he saw the number of changes Chesterfield made and how youthful the side looked, but after a tight first 45 he was left frustrated with the manner of the goals they conceded after the break.

Richie Bennett put Southport ahead before goals from Michael Jacobs and Harley Curtis turned the game on its head.

He said: "They didn’t really cause us too many problems to start with although they had the ball. We got in a couple of times and we got the goal, that was a fantastic counter-attack. But we couldn’t keep them out, they just turned the screw a little bit, they started switching play a little bit, cross into the box, goal, 1-1. The critical one is right on half-time. To come in at 1-1 at half-time would have given us confidence so that is a disappointing one.”

A brilliant individual goal from James Berry, plus two from debutant Liam Jessop and a beautiful strike from Ali Mohiuddin capped a great day for the Blues.

Bentley continued: "The third goal is a killer goal, but it is an absolute shambles from ourselves. The lad (Berry) goes right through our backline. You have got to defend better than that.

"They have then brought three more young lads on, and credit to the youth team here because they are very good players.

"It looked like it was a blatant foul in the middle of the pitch and then all of a sudden it was 4-1. The goals we conceded in the second-half were poor. We have got to do better at both ends of the pitch than what we did today.”