Nottingham Forest interim head coach Steven Reid insisted his side were fully confident they would get something out of their trip to Huddersfield at the end of a “sad week” that saw manager Chris Hughton sacked.
Hughton was dismissed on Thursday with Forest stuck at the bottom of the Championship table with only one point from their opening seven games.
Reid was handed the reins for this weekend and saw his side claim their first league win of the season as Lewis Grabban’s first-half opener and Lee Nicholls’ second-half own goal earned a 2-0 win at Huddersfield.
Reid said: “We enjoyed the moment but we can’t get away from the sad week it has been with losing Chris – a superb manager, the man who brought me to the club and a man I have so much respect for.
“Finding ourselves in a position in the league of where we are it was important that we got something out of the game, we were fully confident.
“I’ve got to say, the lads fought to the end and made sure they realised what a club it is and the expectations of the fans and I think they delivered that today.
“The second half of the first half it was difficult. Sometimes you can get picked off but we soaked up the pressure and that second goal knocked them out of their stride a little bit. We put our bodies on the line when we needed to.
“I think the best way I felt was to match them up. In the first half, we won the ball back in some decent areas of the pitch.”
Carlos Corberan’s hosts had been looking to secure a fifth win of the campaign and one which would have left them level on 16 points with second-placed Fulham.
Reid added: “They’ve started the season well, Carlos has been able to produce. They’re a good side, but it was our best opportunity to get players into decent areas. (Joe) Lolley, Grabbs and Brennan (Johnson) found themselves in dangerous areas. We played to our strengths.
“It was the slowest second half in the world, I can tell you that! It was one of those, you score and you want the game to be over.”
As for Town boss Corberan, he was left with a few issues that he feels his side needs to work on after seeing the Terriers suffer a second defeat in three league fixtures.
“For me, they started the game better than we started. They started competing and winning challenges that we can’t lose to compete in the game. It is true we didn’t start well enough,” he said.
“We didn’t attack well enough and when you don’t attack well, you are going to suffer counter-attacks and that’s what happened.
“In the first counter-attack they have, they scored. We need to attack with more confidence and intelligence.
“We didn’t play in space in a compact game. Every game is different. For me, we didn’t find the right positions in the pitch.
“We need to work on that, especially against the teams that come and sit back.”
Corberan introduced Ollie Turton at half-time and brought on Duane Holmes and Ademipo Odubeko before the hour, but Town were unable to find a way back into the game.
“I think we have enough to come off the bench and change the game. For me, the team improved with the changes. Especially in Holmes, he understands and was driving and creating. He was involved in every opportunity in the second half, and there weren’t many,” the Spaniard added.
“We concede one goal in a situation where we need to do better. I didn’t see an option for them to score.
“I am not focusing on a panic or no panic, we need to focus on the next game. We need to manage these types of games better.
“We want to be competitive in every game, today we weren’t.”
