Dougie Freedman believes recent additions to his Nottingham Forest squad have given him more options to adapt to the challenge of a promotion push.
Loanee Nelson Oliveria and defender Matt Mills are among several new arrivals who have played important roles in recent weeks as the Reds look to find more consistent form.
“The key is I think we’ve now got the personnel in the squad for me to turn around to the bench and say ‘this and this in a particular game can help us,” said Freedman.
“It’s not necessarily options in depth, it’s been different kind of players in different kinds of roles.
“I think we now can mix it with the Brightons or Birminghams away and scrap a one-nil victory or we can go to QPR and play them so all of a sudden I as a coach can see the progress we are making on the field and I can see one or players that are adapting to different things.”
The Reds next travel to face Huddersfield Town in the Championship on Thursday night.
Midfielder Ben Osborne will miss the game, but centre half Matt Mills is close to being fit enough to play having come off with a hamstring problem in Saturday’s 2-1 home defeat to Middlesbrough.
Huddersfield sit one place below Forest in the table in thirteenth and go into the game off the back of a 4-1 home win over Bolton.
“We’ve watched them closely, I know one or two of their players – I’ve worked with them, so there’s no doubt it will be a very difficult match for us again,” said Freedman.
Picture: Forest travel to the John Smiths stadium to face Huddersfield on Thursday night
“We’ve looked at their strengths, and we feel we can cope with one or two of their strengths, and we’ve looked at their weaknesses, and we feel that we’ve got the squad now to at least give that a test.
“Hopefully on the night the application is right and the spirit will be there and the quality can shine through.”
