Paul Cook praised the hardy Pompey fans who got behind the Blues at Morecambe and had their night ruined by keeper Barry Roche's injury-time equaliser.

Cook's team led for much of the game at the Globe Arena but were undone when Roche went up for a corner in the fourth minute of injury time and headed home.

It was not the first time this season Pompey had surrendered two points in this manner and the manager admitted it was hard to take, and he took time to thank the 479 Blues fans who made the trip and stuck by the team.

He told the Pompey website: 'We scored a good goal and always looked in control of the match — it never felt like Morecambe would get an equaliser. But unfortunately they did and that’s the way it goes sometimes. We have to give Jim Bentley and his team credit for coming back.

'It’s disappointing but we have to get on with it. Come the end of the season they’ll add all the points up and you get what you deserve. There wasn’t a great amount of quality in the match, but it was a difficult night for playing football with the pitch and the conditions out there.

'We’ve been undone by a set-piece yet again and that’s becoming a bit of an Achilles heel for us. Great credit must go to our travelling supporters because it wasn’t a pretty game to watch and they backed us throughout.

'We’ll regroup now because it makes it even more important to win the games that are coming up for us.'

Pompey must now turn good football into cold, hard wins - starting at home to Leyton Orient on Saturday and versus promotion rivals Bristol Rovers at Fratton a week later.

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