Remi Garde is confident Aston Villa can start climbing the Premier League table if they match their second-half showing in Saturday's 1-1 draw at Newcastle United over 90 minutes.
Rock-bottom Villa were off the pace for the first hour of the contest at a soaking St James' Park and fell behind when Fabricio Coloccini was afforded too much room at a corner to bundle home.
Villa were much improved after the break, though, and Jordan Ayew levelled just after the hour with a stunning effort that silenced the home crowd.
Garde concedes that a point for Villa, who were relegated from the top flight the last two times they were bottom at Christmas, may not be enough, but took plenty of positives after the break.
"I think the mentality of the players this afternoon in second half was brilliant," the Frenchman, who is yet to win since replacing Tim Sherwood last month, told Sky Sports.
"I need to use that as a base to work on. My disappointment was we played only 45 minutes .
"If we can play 90 minutes like the second half we will have chances. We need that to get out of this situation."
Garde also felt the introduction of Rudy Gestede gave Villa added impetus.
"The attitude was really different from the first half. In the first half we didn't win challenges we were out of the game in terms of intensity and lost all the duels," he added.
"If you can't win the ball you can't win game. We tried to win that second half and of course the coming of Gestede was very important for the team."
