Stephen Robinson says he is happy with how his side responded to Tuesday night's performance against Sunderland AFC, despite defeat at the hands of Portsmouth.
Marcus Harness opened the scoring on 11 minutes after a goalmouth scramble in the Morecambe penalty area before Connor Ogilvie wrapped up the points for the hosts 13 minutes from time.
The Shrimps came close to scoring on several occasions throughout the afternoon, leaving manager Robinson satisfied with the level of performance from his team.
“It’s a difficult one to take,” he said.
“I thought it was a very good performance at times, it’s hard to sit here and say that when you’ve lost 2-0, we’ve come here and dominated large areas of the game, played in areas we wanted to play in.
“I thought we played well first half, even better second half, after a 5-0 defeat, it’s a case of trying to regain confidence which they did, so it’s hard for me to criticise the players.
“It certainly gives me more hope than Tuesday night.
“If we play like that, and that energy, and that commitment, we will win more games than we’ll lose in the next three.”
Striker Jonathan Obika made his first team debut against the Hampshire side after completing his long-awaited return from injury, and Robinson admits the partnership between him and Cole Stockton will be a thorn in the side for opposition teams.
He added: “We had Jon Obika fit, which gives us a platform, we knew we had to take him off at 60 minutes and get him off medically.
“That’s another 60 for Jon and I believe him and Cole will cause massive problems.
“Six months after I signed him as my main signing, he’s made his debut so, it’s been a long road for him.
“He’s come back, he looks like he hasn’t been away, he’ll get better and better as the games go.”