Nottingham Forest boss Steve Cooper was satisfied after their 1-1 draw with Aston Villa on Monday night.
Emmanuel Dennis had Forest a goal ahead before Ashley Young's equaliser.
Cooper said, "It's a step in the right direction. It's not the ambition to be drawing at home and not having much of the ball but in the circumstances I think we have to accept tonight was a forward step and we should only look on the positives and that will be our focus to keep building.
"The reality is we have been conceding way too many goals and chances and I have not really like us out of possession with our positioning and duels and picking up second balls and going with runners. For all the tactical stuff I loved the fight in the team and I think we did that better tonight.
"Is it my favourite way of playing? No. But it was right for tonight and in the end we managed to get up the pitch and take the lead.
"We let them back in the game but for all the possession they had they haven't created loads of chances. I thought we could have done better on the counter attack."
He also said: "It's difficult to compare to last season because it's a different team. We've had to stop comparing.
"What happened last season was unbelievable but we're in this league and it is a different sport to the Championship. If we'd kept going as we started we'd have kept getting the same results.
"If we don't change a little bit it would be naive. We are trying to find the right balance and tonight is a forward step. You lose five games on the bounce and that is when you might see people hiding but I am seeing the opposite of that."