While the 35-17 outcome looks damaging enough, Halifax pushed their Lancashire rivals hard before succumbing to two tries in the last 10 minutes to give the scoreline a lopsided look.

Now Morgan is hoping that the confidence the players showed in an improved display will bring about a change in fortunes starting with this weekend's visit of Loughborogh Students.

"The scoreline did not reflect the game in any shape or form," said Morgan. "They scored a couple of late tries when we were trying to play catch up.

"We were pushing hard to claim that bonus point and unfortunately got caught out a little bit.

"But it was much, much better. We asked for a performance and that is what we got."

Morgan singled out a number of players for praise and also felt that he was justified in refusing to make many changes during the game.

"We didn't make many changes from the bench because, quite honestly, there was need to bring people on," he added.

"Everybody was performing well, fitness levels were good and the players were really digging in

"Richard Brown had an outstanding game at No 8 and the set-pieces were spot on.

"We have struggled in the scrummage in recent weeks but, against a very strong Fylde team, we got on top in that area as well.

"Oli Marns just continues to impress, Danny McGee got more into the game and Dom Castle gave us good options at scrum half.

"I have to be pleased because everybody worked really hard.

"It was a 70 minute performance and that is a vast improvement on previous weeks when we have only been putting it in for 40 minutes.

"When we fell behind the heads didn't drop and we kept plugging away.

"We have got games gainst three of the big guns out of the way now and maybe the way has been paved for us to start looking at a few victories.

"We have proved to ourselves that we can push the good teams hard. Now we need to put in an 80 minute performance against Loughborough on Saturday.

"We are not there yet by a long way but we have taken a decent step forward and we have to now make sure we take it on again."