Sabri Lamouchi hopes Nottingham Forest “are back” after they returned to winning ways by seeing off Hull City 2-0 at the KCOM Stadium.
But he admits the only way he will know for certain is if the Reds follow up their victory by picking up results against Wigan Athletic and Blackburn Rovers.
ended a five-match winless run for Lamouchi’s men against the Tigers, lifting them back up to seventh in the Championship table.
They will now look to follow that up and get their promotion push firmly back on track when the Latics and Rovers visit the City Ground on Sunday and New Year’s Day, respectively.
“For me the victory is not about more confidence, we just need to play like we know we can as a team,” Lamouchi said.
“We have to be very humble, very aggressive, very compact and show our quality.
“It is just one victory.
“After QPR (a 4-0 away win), we lost at home against Cardiff and we lost a lot of points in the last five games.
“Sunday, with our fans, which will almost be a sell-out, we need to confirm we are back.
“Today was a first win for five games, which was too long.
“I’m very happy for the club, for the fans and for the players.
“The way we played, we deserved the three points - we scored two goals and kept a clean-sheet. I’m very happy for that.
“The performance was not so big, but it was solid; very solid.”
Forest were much improved from recent performances, having suffered back-to-back defeats at home to Sheffield Wednesday and at Huddersfield Town.
Grabban opened the scoring from the penalty spot with little more than 10 minutes gone and made sure of the three points with his second of the afternoon eight minutes from time.
“It was important to show that we are there and that we never give up,” Lamouchi said.
“Sometimes we have deserved better results, but that is football.
“We need to respect more, to be more humble, to work hard, to be passionate and be consistent, especially in this league.
“To be consistent is very, very important.
“The mentality was the difference today; the mentality we played with.
“When we play like that it is very difficult for the opponent.
“(Jarrod) Bowen and (Kamil) Grosicki are two of the best wingers in the league, but they didn’t create a lot. They had to play long balls, so Tobias Figueiredo, Joe Worrall, Chema, Matty Cash and Samba Sow, they didn’t have a lot to do.
“It was another away result and we deserved it. It is a very good result. Fantastic.
“Thank you to the players for giving me this victory on my first Boxing Day (with a game); it was a very good gift.”
