Tom Hamer was pleased with City's battling spirit against Birmingham City, and expects to see a reaction following their first league defeat since August.
The Imps performed well against a talented Blues side, taking an early lead, but were not able to hold on against the league leaders.
Hamer said: “You can’t complain about the effort put in week in, week out - you can see all the lads put it in and we gave it a good go.
“We were never going to have a lot of the ball against Birmingham City, they didn’t create too many chances but the ones they did were put away."
Hamer wants City to bounce back on Tuesday when they travel to the Broadfield Stadium to face Crawley Town.
He added: “We’re a team that just keeps on going until the final whistle. We’ll win some and lose some but it’s how we react in the next game that shows the character and spirit.
“We’ve got a long season ahead so we’ve just go to keep doing what we’re doing.”