Chris Hughton believes Nottingham Forest are making progress despite the blow of Wednesday's defeat to Swansea City.
The Reds suffered just a second defeat in 12 Championship games as Connor Roberts scored an 87th minute winner at the Liberty Stadium.
That left Forest 18th in the table, five points above the bottom three. Hughton feels his team are on the right track, given how they performed against promotion chasing Swansea and Bournemouth in their last two matches.
"The performances say as a team, yes, we are closer. These are still two games where we've come away with a draw from one and defeat in the other," he said.
"That's probably the difference between us and Swansea. They would probably admit it wasn't one of their better performances.
"We were the better side but they've come away with three points and that's the reason why they are where they are."
Hughton says his team must find a cutting edge in front of goal to climb the table more rapidly.
They had plenty of opportunities at the Liberty Stadium, not least a spurned three-on-one break, and the manager says that is where they must improve, as well ensuring they are switched on for 90 minutes given the manner of Roberts' goal, where he powered in ahead of Yuri Ribeiro to score.
"We need to be more clinical when we get in those areas. It's about being clinical and working as hard as we can to convert these chances," he said.
"It will alleviate that pressure because we were the better side. We should have gone into that last period of the game protecting what we have.
"You can't allow that loss of concentration because the game is 90 plus minutes. We have to make sure we show those concentration levels."
