After taking over at Vale Park this week, the former Farsley Celtic boss said: "It's nice to pick up your first win as manager and I thought we deserved it overall.
"We gave ourselves a good cushion with two first-half goals and, although Morecambe came back at us in the second half, we stood firm and Joe Anyon made some good saves when called upon.''
However, Shrimps boss Sammy McIlroy was left fuming with his side's defending, saying: "We've drummed it into our side about the importance of staying solid at set-pieces and then concede with just four minutes gone.
"That meant we had a mountain to climb before we really started and if we don't sort things out soon I will have to do something about it.''
Port Vale were given a dream start when skipper George Pilkington headed his side into a fourth-minute lead.
Danny Whitaker floated a free-kick to the edge of the area and Pilkington was left free to head past the helpless Steven Drench from eight yards out.
The Valiants then took advantage of some more poor defending to add a second on 22 minutes.
A long ball down the middle should have caused few problems but the Shrimps hesitated and, although Drench raced from his goal, he could not get a strong enough touch and Calum Willock volleyed home convincingly from eight yards out.
After a shocking start McIlroy's side began to claw their way into the game. On 28 minutes Simon Grand headed a Garry Thompson free-kick over the bar and three minutes later Anyon produced a stunning save to tip Wayne Curtis' header on to the post.
Anyon reacted well again on 35 minutes to save Carl Baker's free-kick low to his right.
The Shrimps began the second half sharply with Craig Stanley's excellent volley sending Anyon scrambling to his right to make another fine save.
Morecambe were then unfortunate to hit the woodwork after a superb piece of skill by Baker whose turn and shot from the edge of the area beat Anyon but hit the top of the crossbar much to the midfielder's frustration.
Luke Rodgers always looked sharp for Vale and was denied a run on goal by a fine Grand tackle and Willock came close to a second only to be stopped by Drench.