Morecambe head coach Jim Bentley has told The Visitor that he is looking forward to matching up with Tom Barkhuizen in their Caraba Cup match against Preston North End.
The Shrimps have had a disastrous start to the season so far. They made headlines for all the wrong reasons on opening day when they lost 6-0 to Crewe Alexandra and they followed that up with another loss this weekend, though this was a far less embarrassing 2-0 defeat at the hands of Exeter City.
No one expects Morecambe to get their first win of the season tomorrow night when they face Preston in the Carabao Cup but Bentley is looking forward to the match anyway. One thing he is excited about is playing against his former player Barkhuizen. They were forced to cancel his contract in 2016 as they were unable to pay the wages of the players and he was soon snapped up by Preston. But now Bentley is looking forward to facing him as he is much better than when he was playing at the Globe Arena.
He said: “It’s great to see Tom doing well but I’ve seen him on the motorway a couple of times and he’s gone a bit flasher than the BMW he used to have!”
“First and foremost, it’s been fantastic to see him develop, do well and score goals. “I’m disappointed in the manner we lost him but I look at him as a person who was thinking of giving the game up after leaving Blackpool.”
“He was like someone in a dogs’ home who no-one believed in but we stroked him, cut his claws and hair and got him going.”
“He’s now shown what a pedigree player he is and it’d be great to see him in the Premier League, hopefully with Preston.”
