Head coach Steve Cooper has insisted that Nottingham Forest can take positives from securing a 1-1 draw with Aston Villa on Monday night.
Forest went into the contest having suffered five successive defeats in the Premier League, the most recent coming exactly a week ago as they went down 4-0 to rivals Leicester City.
In the immediate aftermath of that setback, it was widely claimed that Cooper could be relieved of his duties at the City Ground ahead of conversations behind the scenes.
However, Cooper has instead penned a contract extension, a development which has been marked with a much-needed point in the fixture with Villa.
Emmanuel Dennis gave Forest an early lead in front of their own supporters, only for Ashley Young to get Villa back on level terms with a long-range effort soon afterwards.
While both Cooper and opposite number Steven Gerrard needed maximum points to ease their respective team's struggles, they each had to make do with a share of the spoils.
© Reuters
Despite the disappointment of Forest's winless streak in the top flight being extended to seven games, Cooper feels that his players can build on moving off the bottom of the standings, edging ahead of Leicester.
Speaking to Sky Sports, Cooper said: "It's a step in the right direction. It's not the ambition to be drawing at home and not having much of the ball but in the circumstances I think we have to accept tonight was a forward step and we should only look on the positives and that will be our focus to keep building.
"The reality is we have been conceding way too many goals and chances and I have not really like us out of possession with our positioning and duels and picking up second balls and going with runners. For all the tactical stuff I loved the fight in the team and I think we did that better tonight.
"Is it my favourite way of playing? No. But it was right for tonight and in the end we managed to get up the pitch and take the lead.
"We let them back in the game but for all the possession they had they haven't created loads of chances. I thought we could have done better on the counter attack."
Forest will hope to secure a win which could move them outside of the relegation zone when they face Wolverhampton Wanderers at Molineux on Saturday afternoon.
Darren Plant
