ALEX McLeish today paid tribute to the character of his Nottingham Forest side – but warned his players he will expect nothing less for the rest of the season.
The Reds claimed a hard fought 2-1 win over Peterborough to bounce back from their humbling FA Cup defeat at the hands of Oldham last week.
And McLeish was particularly pleased with the strength of mind shown by his players, as they responded to seeing Scott Wootton cancel out Greg Halford's opening goal by carving out a late winning goal from Elliott Ward.
"They showed great character to bounce back from the horrible result last week (Oldham) and also great character to bounce back after Peterborough had equalised," said McLeish.
"That is a credit to them, because they kept going. But I want that character in every team I manage.
"I am pleased. I am relieved – it is tough in the dugout, because you can get frustrated with the play at times, but also excited by a lot of the other things the lads have produced.
"You have to keep believing, you have to stay positive. Radi Majewski had a couple of great opportunities. The pull back was terrific from Coxy, but Radi put it over the bar and he is hurting about that one.
"But he had a great game otherwise and you have to tell the guys to put those things out their system. Don't dwell on it, because there is a game to be won still. In the end we managed to do that."
McLeish gave a full league debut to 22-year-old keeper Karl Darlow, after telling Lee Camp he has no future at the club.
And the manager was more than happy with Darlow's performance, saying: "Karl was marvellous. The kid was really cool. I just told him to do what he had been doing to get into the team. I told him he did not need to be fancy or add anything to his game.
"The reason he was playing because of what we had already seen in him. He handled it really well, great credit to him for that.
"He made a good save at an important time for us. He had a very good debut for us. He is 22 now and that was the reason for the Lee (Camp) decision. We felt that Karl could play. But we will still be looking for an experienced keeper.
"I don't know how long that is going to take. It is not easy to say it will be in 24 hours, that it will be within a week… it is an on-going process."
McLeish was also impressed with the impact of loan signing Gonzalo Jara, who made his debut at right back after signing on loan from West Brom.
"Jara looked very competent on his debut, because he has not played for a while," he said. "He has good fitness, he is quick and his use of the ball is good, having grown up in South America. Being a Chilean international, he is comfortable in possession.
"He had a decent debut, to be fair to him."