Head coach Steve Cooper believes Nottingham Forest are showing signs of progress, as they try to find the right balance between defence and attack.
The Reds have tightened up at the back in recent games. And keeping a clean-sheet to earn a point at Brighton and Hove Albion was another important step.
The next challenge is to find a way of offering more at the opposite end of the pitch without losing that solidity, having registered just three shots on goal at the Amex Stadium - none of which were on target.
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Cooper was pleased with the commitment from his players at the Amex Stadium, though. He made three changes to his starting line-up, bringing in Serge Aurier, Orel Mangala and Jesse Lingard.
For Mangala, it was his first start since recovering from a hamstring injury. Meanwhile, Aurier is continuing to build up his match fitness and had missed Saturday's defeat at Wolverhampton Wanderers with a muscle problem.
“There's progress. Small progress. We know there's a lot to improve on - but there's certainly a real commitment from the players every single day," Cooper said after the 0-0 draw.
"There was a real out-of-possession commitment to the plan from the front three. We played with two 10s, really, in Jesse and Morgan (Gibbs-White), and asked them to drop on their two eights or sixes. We did that really well.
"Brighton are really good at playing through the middle and putting four in there, so we wanted to put five in, to try to out-number them. We committed to that, in terms of the plan, and that filtered through, all the way to Dean (Henderson).
"He made a great save in the second half. And he made some others which you'd really expect him to save - he would have been disappointed if any of them had gone in. The centre-backs were good, too.
"We had to make a couple of substitutions. Serge is still not 100 percent fit, in terms of doing 90 minutes - not through injury, because obviously he missed the last game through injury. Neither was Orel. So we had two players coming in who have come back from different injuries and were never 90-minute ready.
"Giulian (Biancone) has been waiting patiently for minutes. He came on and contributed well.
"Neco (Williams) started on the left, goes to the right and comes back to the left. So there was loads of things that went on that were really pleasing, in terms of getting something out of the game.
"I said to the players afterwards, I know we want to be more of a threat, we want to create more chances and spend more time on the ball in the opponent's half. I understand that.
"We've had times in games where we have been that, but it has then been to the detriment of being too open at the back and we've conceded too many goals. We've got to get the balance right."
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