Chris Hughton says he liked what he saw from Samba Sow and Yuri Ribeiro after giving them their chance in Nottingham Forest's win against Coventry City.
Sow's only previous appearance under Hughton was in the 1-0 win at Blackburn Rovers, when he come on in the 89th minute.
Ribeiro had only played once in the Championship this season, in September's 2-0 defeat to Cardiff, with Hughton citing a recent ankle injury amid suggestions he had been frozen out before the manager's arrival.
Midfielder Sow only lasted 68 minutes and walked a disciplinary tightrope after a first half booking, but Hughton was pleased with him and left-back Ribeiro.
"They were good. Sow has had a couple of issues. I've not seen so much of him," he told Nottinghamshire Live.
"He's done well in the training. In my mind, he was always going to be involved.
"Ribeiro, the difficulty was that I came to the club and Nicholas Ioannou had played the game before.
"Tyler Blackett had been signed to play there and was training at that time. I knew Ribeiro well from last season.
"I chose Gaetan Bong in the game before because I knew what kind of game it would be. What I've got is a group of players who have trained really well even if they've not all played.
"I'm really pleased for him."
Sow has struggled with knee problems at Forest and Hughton confirmed he took the player off, but he says he will be available to face Wycombe Wanderers on Saturday.
"He'll be fine. I took him off because he'd not played for a while," he said.
"He had a booking so we needed to secure that area."
