Swansea City picked up a draw on Saturday in a game earlier on in the season they would probably have lost.
Russell Martin's men didn't start the match at Ashton Gate particularly well but they ended it strongly.
There was only one team who looked like they were going to win the clash but when the dust settles, a point was a fair result.
READ MORE: Russell Martin outlines Swansea City's post Cardiff City learning curve
Martin said post match he wasn't massively enamoured with how his players celebrated following the derby win over Cardiff City; you can understand his frustrations, while also viewing it from the players' situation - beating your fierce rivals will always be something to savour. The two standpoints aren't mutually exclusive, and as Martin said, they will learn a lesson from it.
“I am really pleased with the character shown by the players,” said head coach Martin.
“But we were really disappointed with the first 20 minutes, and it is a brilliant opportunity for us to learn from that.
“We have a lot of young guys and I think the emotion of Sunday (victory over Cardiff), took its toll and maybe a few of the young ones over-celebrated a bit.
“It is an important message and learning experience for us."
What the 36-year-old will have also learned is that Swansea have a real strength in depth now.
On the bench in Bristol were Andy Fisher, Ryan Manning, Olivier Ntcham, Jamie Paterson, Liam Cullen, Armstrong Oko-Flex and Kyle Naughton - surely one of Swansea's strongest replacements' rosters in some time.
If one adds Joel Piroe and Joe Allen into the mix - two sure-fire starters when fit and on form - then Martin's options are swelled yet further.
Luke Cundle and especially Ollie Cooper have been real finds this season, with the manager and fans being left pleasantly surprised by the impact they have had on the squad.
Martin utilised the bench brilliantly against the Robins, with Oko-Flex and Ntcham in particular having stormers when they entered the fray. The Cameroon international was brilliant when he came on.
"I'm really pleased for Olivier. Whenever you have a player out of the team, you want them to react in a positive way," said Martin.
"To react by performing on the pitch and impacting the game, he's done that every time he's come on. He'll be very desperate to get into the team and stay in the team at some point. The guys in front of him, Luke [Cundle] and Ollie [Cooper] have been brilliant. It's great to have players really knocking at the door.
"I thought all of the subs impacted the game in some way. Ryan Manning helped us, Kyle Naughton to help us on the ball in that last phase. Armstrong [Oko-Flex] had a really good impact, really positive and really direct and then Pato [Jamie Paterson] to get back on the pitch is brilliant for us."
Having players of that calibre come on is a real shot in the arm for the team and bodes well for the season going forward. There won't be much talk of promotion doing the rounds at Fairwood - publicly at least - but like it or not, Swansea are firmly in the play-off mix with a third of the campaign gone.
The Championship this season is unbelievably tight, with only 10 points separating first from 11th. Swansea are sixth and look likely to be there or thereabouts come the mid-season break. Martin and Swansea chief Jake Silverstein admitted recently that the club's position in the standings would likely impact what work they would do in January to boost the squad.
"In terms of January, I hope we will be right in it when the January window comes around, I hope we will be clearly in the hunt for the play-offs," Silverstein said at a fans' forum earlier this month.
“That’s what I hope, and if that is the case then we will defer to Julian [Winter] and Josh [Marsh] and our football team that we trust to talk about who the transfer targets are, what the right business for the club is going to be in a holistic way.
“How do we sensibly make a push this year without compromising the club’s future health and rolling the dice too hard in one given season? We have seen that happen at so many clubs and they end up in real financial trouble. We are committed to ensuring that does not happen.
“We have to measure the inclination to really go for it with the deep responsibility to make sure that if we do not get there the club is still financially healthy.”
So should they 'really go for it'?
Full-back/wingback is an area most supporters would agree needs strengthening and were Martin and his recruitment team able to repeat last January's success where they brought in Hannes Wolf and Cyrus Christie on loan deals then they could be in business.
Wolf and Christie really added something last term and both were key over the second half of the campaign; looking to the loan market when the window opens could be the difference between the play-offs and mid-table mediocrity.
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