BARRY Roche has admitted his frustration at being sidelined but is happy to see teammate Mark Halstead perform so well for the Shrimps.
The 36-year-old hasn't featured for the Shrimps since the 1-1 draw at Rodney Parade in October and after missing over four months due to injury, Roche returned to the squad in mid-February after wrist surgery.
Halstead has since kept his place in the starting xi and after a run of superb performances, the Irish keeper is happy to see his colleague perform so well.
He said: "It's been very frustrating for me because I'm used to playing and I enjoy playing. I want to play so I have found it difficult but Mark's come in and done incredibly well.
"His performances have been brilliant, which is great to see. Mark and I get on really well, we push each other in training, he certainly pushes me to be better and I'm genuinely pleased to see him do so well.
"When I was playing at the start of the season Mark was fantastic and got behind me so the very least I can do is be the same way with him."
Since Roche returned to full fitness on February 16th the Shrimps have taken thirteen points from seven games, climbing nine points above the relegation zone and the Morecambe skipper has been impressed with the performances of late.
He added: "Nobody wants to go down the route we went down last season, we're obviously not out of the woods yet, there's work to be done but we're an awful lot closer (to safety) than we were eight or nine days ago.
"The manner of the performances have been really pleasing, I thought we were excellent against Forest Green, we were disciplined, our shape was good and we defended well against a team which we knew would have the majority of possession.
"I thought we blew MK Dons away, the conditions were horrendous but that was the case for both sides, we managed the conditions well, got stuck into them and they couldn't live with us.
"Saturday's game at Notts for me was always going to be the most difficult because of what's at stake. It was a scrappy game but it was a real gritty performance from us and defensively we were superb."