Steve Cooper delighted in Nottingham Forest’s resilience as they came from behind to secure a third successive win.
A Lewis Grabban penalty and a strike from Brennan Johnson saw the Reds see off Hull City 2-1 at the City Ground, extending their unbeaten run to nine Championship games.
They are up to seventh in the table, just a point off the play-off places, but the head coach is determined not to get too carried away.
“I thought we were excellent first half, with our build-up play and our positioning,” said Cooper.
“We caused real problems for Hull to get to grips with the game.
“The challenge is to turn that into chances and goals.
“Hull scored a good goal. It was soft from our point of view.
“But to come in at half-time, knowing that you’ve dominated but are 1-0 down, can sometimes be a difficult one to handle, especially as we got an injury and had to change shape.
“But the response from the players in the second half was fantastic.
“Alex (Mighten) did brilliantly to win the penalty. That’s what we asked him to do - face people up and get in the box. Unfortunately, as a consequence, he had to come off injured.
“And then Lewis did brilliantly down the side, Brennan shows amazing composure and finish. It looked really good live.
“You have to show the desire, the personality and the passion to see out the win.
“You have to stand up and be counted, and we did.”
Forest had dominated the opening 45 minutes against the Tigers, but couldn’t make it tell in the scoreline.
They were forced into a formation change when Jodi Osei-Tutu was substituted, having suffered a knock early on, and then looked out of sorts as Keane Lewis-Potter took advantage.
Substitute Mighten then won a spot kick in the second half, though was injured in the process and was eventually brought off. But Grabban converted, before setting up Johnson for the winner.
“It’s good form, but it’s only good if you keep it going,” said Cooper.
“We got a really tough game coming up now against Middlesbrough, who are playing well. I watched them in the live game before ours, and they deserved to win that one.
“Hopefully our injuries are okay. We’re hoping they are just contact ones that the lads can quicky get over.
“But if they are not, no problem, next man up and we go to work.”
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