Steve Cooper 'really happy with a point at Brighton' but more improvements needed at Nottingham Forest

The visitors moved off the bottom of the table after a hard-working performance at the Amex, which saw them survive wave after wave of pressure from Albion.

Forest were unable to muster a shot on target over the course of the 90 minutes but manager Steve Cooper was encouraged by what he saw.

“It was always going to be a tough game tonight,” he said. “Brighton are a really good team.

"We're at their stadium. They've obviously changed their manager but they still continue to play in a really good way, with good players.

"You can see why they've got the points they have already.”

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Cooper said his side are on a ‘poor run’ – without a win since the second game of the season against West Ham in August – and could have been ‘even more deflated’ after the narrow defeat at Wolves.

He added: “It was a real kick in the teeth for the boys. For them to show the spirit, determination and desire that they did tonight, it ended up being a good point.

"If we had more points on the board and were higher up the league, it would be a great point.

"It's a tough game. We are striving for that win. We showed better commitment in the first half.

"We didn't quite get the ball up the pitch as we would have liked but could see there was an improvement and desire to do that. Second half, we had to see it out and we have to look at the positives.

“We are really happy with a point at Brighton but we've got loads of improvements to make.”

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