Nigel Clough knows Burton Albion's goalless draw with Norwich City is "a start" as the Brewers look to rebuild their home form in 2018.
Albion's first clean sheet at the Pirelli Stadium since March ensured they picked up a first point on home soil in more than three months - a time in which they had lost eight successive matches in East Staffordshire.
A much-changed Canaries side rarely threatened to break down the miserly Brewers, with Stephen Bywater's one save coming late on to deny substitute Alex Pritchard.
And while Burton might have felt they let two points slip after a dominant opening half-hour, the importance of ending their record home losing run is not lost on Clough.
"It's a start at home - it's our first clean sheet for about nine months here, which is important, and it's a good confidence booster," he said.
"When you've lost so many games that we've not deserved to, it's important you stop the rot.
"We should've done it last week, we should've done it any time in the last few weeks, but we didn't - so we've done it today.
"Considering it's our third game in a short space of time, the effort today from the players was quite staggering."
Tom Naylor saw a close-range header tipped over by Angus Gunn, Sean Scannell mis-controlled in a promising position and Ben Turner's goal-bound effort was blocked on the line as Albion threatened to take control against Norwich early on.
Too often this season, those misses have been harshly punished late on - but Burton remained solid this time around.
Still, Clough was quick to emphasise - once again - the need for his team to be more ruthless in their bid to move clear of the bottom three.
"That (Norwich's first shot on goal) was on about 80 minutes or something like that, so that's how well we did," added the Albion manager.
"But the game should've been over in the first 20 minutes.
"We had two great chances in the first five minutes, and then it probably sums up our luck when we hit one and it's cleared off the line by our own player.
"If he (Naylor) just heads it down, it goes in. It was a nice height for the goalkeeper, but he's in there again.
"It was the best chance of the game, and once again, if that goes in and Sean Scannell had one just after that, you never know from there.
"But at least we didn't concede, that's the main thing.
"I think everybody is thinking in the last 10 minutes that we're going to lose the game again, as we have done a few times here.
"So it was important to stop that."
