Head coach Sabri Lamouchi has challenged his Nottingham Forest side to prove themselves all over again, with two tough games this week.
The Frenchman does not want the Reds to get ahead of themselves after their rout over Birmingham City last weekend.
And he is eager to see them back up that first league victory of the season with another positive result at Charlton Athletic on Wednesday night.
Asked how much confidence his team could take from that 3-0 thumping of the Blues, Lamouchi said: “Honestly, not a lot.
“It was a great week with two victories – in the league and the cup (having also toppled Fleetwod Town in the Carabao Cup last Tuesday). But it is just one victory in the league.
“When you don’t concede anything against your opponent and you score three goals, keeping a clean-sheet, it is positive.
“We have progressed a lot without the ball. We need to improve more with the ball. But we are in a good way.
“August is an important month with a lot of games and not a lot of training sessions,” he added.
“It is just recovery, game, recovery, game.
“It is good because we can focus just on the games. But when many of our new players came late to the team, it means we don’t have as much time to work in sessions as we want.
“We have to prioritise and find the right way; take the right choice for the starting XI.”
Newly-promoted Charlton have made a flying start in the Championship, unbeaten in their opening three games with two wins and a draw.
“It will be a tough game. They have played just once at home in the league, against Stoke, and they won,” said Lamouchi, whose side then go to Fulham on Saturday.
“They have a good dynamic. The way they play is good and they are in positive form.
“They finished very well last season, and that can help, of course. They have started very good this year.”
The Reds head coach has made very few changes to his starting XI in the early league fixtures, retaining the same team at Leeds United as against West Bromwich Albion, before making just two alterations at the City Ground last weekend.
But with the games coming thick and fast this month, he may be tempted to tweak his side again at The Valley.
“We have different ways for different opponents,” he said. “Some managers, when they win they want to keep the same team.
“But we have a lot of games in the next two weeks.
“We will see day after day.
“We have our last session today, some players might be a little bit more tired. We will check after the session.
“We will travel to Charlton and then after Charlton we will see what’s happened for the next game.”
