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English football's longest-serving management team are looking forward to pitting their wits against their beloved Blues.

Morecambe boss Jim Bentley and his assistant Kenny McKenna have been in their current roles since 2011 but the pair are both lifelong Evertonians.

The Shrimps had been scheduled to host Everton's Under-23s this Saturday but seeing as the pitch at their Globe Arena is not ready, the fixture has been switched to a behind-closed-doors encounter at Finch Farm.

Bentley told the ECHO: “We like to play Everton, we like to see Everton, it's in the blood for Kenny and myself.

“Nothing will top my testimonial. Ideally we'd have loved to have played the first team but the next best thing is playing the Under-23s who are doing really well under David Unsworth.

“We're looking forward to the game. Unfortunately it can't be at our place as the pitch is probably a week or two behind and if you batter it you're going to lose it but it's nice to come up against Everton at any time.”

Bentley's testimonial in 2012, a decade after he joined the Lancashire club and a year after he had taken the reins in the dugout, saw David Moyes take his first team to Morecambe.

With the Blues leading 4-0 in the dying seconds of the match, the then 36-year-old Bentley who was about to hang up his boots, was charitably teed up for what should have been a tap-in.

The problem was that Everton’s rookie keeper Mateusz Taudal, supposedly expected to stand as still as the Eric Morecambe statue by the resort’s seafront and gift Bentley his goal, had other ideas.

The 17-year-old Pole, eager to maintain his clean sheet, almost spoiled the party for the Morecambe faithful by saving Bentley’s initial effort but thankfully for the Allerton man, whose sons Jack and Max were mascots, the ball was quickly knocked back to his feet and he finished with a tap-in from point-blank range as referee Jeremy Simpson called time on proceedings.

Bentley said: “I remember going on and Tony Hibbert asking if I wanted to score.

“The alarming thing was that the defenders and the goalkeeper must have thought it was a genuine mistake when Tony back-heeled it to put me clear through on goal.

“The keeper saved my first effort but it got crossed back in and it felt like my whole career flashed before my eyes.

“It was the last ever game I would play and I was thinking 'I've got to put this in the back of the net because I'm not going to get another chance.

“Luckily I got there and scored to bring the curtain down on my career against the team I've supported all my life in front of the Morecambe fans who had supported me for many years."

(Image: Gareth Jones)

It wasn't the first time that either he or Birkenhead-born McKenna had come up against Everton though.

Back in 1984/85, the most-successful season in the Blues' history, Howard Kendall's team hosted a non-league Telford United side – containing McKenna at centre-forward – in an FA Cup fifth round tie in front of 47,402 fans at Goodison Park.

McKenna said: “I could have probably had a hat-trick that day but I didn't want to score against Everton! Seriously though, I was on the pitch but I don't think I got a kick.

“It was fantastic. For 70 minutes it was 0-0 and silence but we ended up losing 3-0 but it was a pleasure to be on the pitch with them.

“They were my heroes and I went on to get to know quite a lot of them and I'm still in contact with some of them – it was the proudest moment of my football life.”

Bentley – whose late father Jack was a prolific marksman for Telford, bagging 431 goals in 835 games – after making a single senior appearance for Everton against Bolton Wanderers at Goodison in 1961, watched the game among supporters of the Shropshire club.

He said: “One of my earliest memories was going with my dad who was a legend at Telford United.

“Telford were really well-backed that day and I remember my dad being mobbed by them.

“We were with a couple of the Telford old boys who came over to Liverpool and I was actually in the away end which was a bit mad as a Blue.

“It did mean that I've seen Kenny in action when I was just nine years old.”

Still only 43, Bentley has incredibly now held the title of being English football's longest-serving manager for over a year.

He said: “There's no secret to it. I'm fortunate that I've had a fanbase that has supported me.

“This is my 18th season at the club. I had nine as a player and now nine as a manager and the fans have always got on with me from day one.

(Image: Pete Norton/Getty Images)

“I feel respected and liked up there. You enjoy working for certain people and it's been like that with the board of directors.

“The chairman Peter McGuigan was great to give me the job, the directors have been superb ever since and that's been ongoing.

“It feels bizarre to be the longest-serving manager among the 92 clubs.

“When I was growing up you saw Alex Ferguson at Manchester United for over 25 years and Arsene Wenger at Arsenal for over 20 years.

“Suddenly last summer after Wenger left Arsenal and then Paul Tisdale left Exeter City (after 12 years in charge) to go to MK Dons I was at number one.

“At the age of 42 I found myself as the longest-serving manager in football. It doesn't seem right.

“I've very proud of it. It doesn't play on my mind but it's something to be pleased with and the same goes for Kenny because we're the longest-serving partnership in football and long may it continue.”

McKenna, 59, reveals that Bentley's managerial style has evolved considerably during their working partnership.

He said: “Before Jim took the job he was doing a lot of coaching. He was a captain and always had those leadership qualities.

“Obviously as a manager it's different. When he first came in he probably leaned on me and asked me stuff a little bit more but as the years have gone on he's developed.

“I'm pleased that he still asks my opinion but he could work with anybody now and has become someone who could go far as a manager.

“We've got a really good working relationship. We have our moments but we've never had a serious argument.

“Jim's more placid than myself and thinks things through a bit more. It's good cop-bad cop at times.”

(Image: Harry Trump/Getty Images)

One of the remarkable aspects of the longevity of Bentley and McKenna's partnership is the stark reality that they are working in one of the Football League's most-challenging environments when it comes to available resources.

Bentley said: “I think it's been well-documented how we've had our problems over the years with ownership issues; transfer embargoes and late payments to players.

“We are what we are. Since we came into the Football League we're one of the smallest clubs.

“Over the last three or four years certainly we've had the lowest budget in the division and the lowest average attendances so everything is stacked against us but there's nothing I can do about that.

“All you can do is try and do your best to generate a winning side and get more bums on seats.”

He added: “We've always been built around a hard-working team. There's no 'us and them', it's a happy working environment, we give our absolute all and play with a big heart, it's not like we're booting our way to safety every year and we're quite good on the disciplinary side and one year we actually won the Fair Play prize.

“Our staff are the same. We have a hard-working team of staff who have been with us for the whole time and we've kept them together.

“Every player who has represented us as known what's expected of them. We won't take to any 'big time' players.

“Each year we're the favourites to go down but some years we've really excelled and been top of the table for a month or two here and there.

“There was only that period two years ago when we had to get a point and we stayed up on goal difference that we were close to going down but the rest of the time we've been quite comfortable.”

(Image: Pete Norton/Getty Images)

Bentley was still a month shy of his 35th birthday when he was appointed Morecambe manager so the decision to bring in an older, more experienced, number two was a very deliberate one.

He said: “I'd been at Morecambe for a number of years already when I was appointed manager and it would have been easy for me to bring in a team-mate or a younger person but I felt that I needed that experience alongside me who had done things at different levels.

“Kenny had actually spoken to me a few years earlier about the possibility of me joining him at TNS as player-coach but I was playing in League Two and I didn't want to leave the English system.

“The knowledge that he had from a decade in management already at the time, at TNS, managing in Europe, and then a spell at Altrincham, meant that he was highly-respected.

“He ticked a lot of boxes for me and when the opportunity came around, he was the first name that came into my mind, I asked him and that was that.

“Location-wise we live around the corner from each other so it's great for being together and travelling a lot, we spend a lot of time in the car together up and down the country going to games.”

Under his stewardship Morecambe have had League Two finishes of 15th; 16th; 18th; 11th; 21st; 18th; 22nd and 18th but Bentley believes having survived a final day of the season escape act to avoid dropping out of the Football League in 2018, he is stronger for the experience.

He said: “Last season we moved to a location at Lancaster University where we started training and that was a real shot in the arm for us.

“We got some good players in during the January and finished really strongly. Over the last 14 games we were fourth in the division in the form table and beat the likes of Forest Green and MK Dons.

(Image: Dan Mullan/Getty Images)

“In 2017/18 when we only just stayed up there had been the knock-on affect of it being the season after the negativity and it was hard to get our recruitment right.

“The training facility wasn't right either so there was quite a lot of doom and gloom around the place.

“We had to work really hard. It was very strenuous with a lot of sleepless nights and ultimately it came down to one game of football to stay up.

“I think Kenny will agree, it was the worst week I've ever had in football. It was a long week, I wasn't sleeping much and was over-thinking things but thankfully we got the job done, stayed in the division and kicked on last season, improving in all areas. Hopefully we won't see that again.”

Bentley added: “It's an experience that makes you stronger though and makes you view things differently.

“Although it was a failure of a season, we learnt a lot, and ended up being a success as it enabled us to put things into place to make us better.

“It's no different this year. We're 100/1 to win the league with Macclesfield our nearest rivals in that respect at 80/1 but we keep upsetting people and we enjoy that.

“I do take inspiration from others. Nobody would have expected Leicester City to win the Premier League but it just goes to show you what can happen in football and we just want to try and get as high up the table as possible.

“With a little bit of luck with keeping key players fit, getting the rub of the green with officials and suspensions, who's to say you can't kick on and really achieve something?”