Head coach Steve Cooper praised Nottingham Forest’s resilience, having ground out a 0-0 draw at Brighton and Hove Albion.
The Reds came under pressure for long spells at the Amex Stadium as they saw very little of the ball. They needed goalkeeper Dean Henderson and the crossbar to come to their rescue, but they dug in to register only a second clean-sheet of the season in the Premier League.
The point lifts them off the foot of the table, one above Leicester City. And Cooper was pleased with the response from his players, following Saturday’s disappointing performance in the 1-0 defeat at Wolverhampton Wanderers.
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“It was always going to be a tough game,” he said. “Brighton are a really good team, we were in their stadium and they have continued to play in a really good way with the change in manager. You can see why they’ve got the points they have already.
“It was always going to be tough. Plus, the fact we’ve been on a poor run, and we could have been even more deflated after the game at Wolves, when a few things didn’t go our way in the second half.
“That could have been a real kick in the teeth for the boys - and it was. So for them to show the resilience, the spirit and the desire they did tonight, it’s ended up being a good point.
“If we had a few more points on the board and we were higher up the league, it would have been a great point, because it was a tough game. But we’re striving for that win.
“The process of the game was to challenge the boys on their usage of the ball - after the first half against Wolves, when I didn’t like us one bit. We had come away from what I want us to be as an in-possession team.
“We showed a better commitment to that in the first half, for sure. We didn’t quite get the territory up the pitch we would have liked, but you could see there was an improvement and a desire to do that.
“Second half, we had to see it out. We have to look at the positives, and there were a few.”
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