Flat, lacklustre and short on ideas. They are words not used too often to describe Nottingham Forest in the last five months.
That all of those applied but the Reds still managed to come away with a draw against Preston North End says much about the progress they have made.
Tuesday night was not the kind of display Forest fans have been used to watching under Steve Cooper.
It was a battle and a grind, and a game which they could quite easily have lost. Indeed, much earlier in the season they might well have done.
Cooper and his side will be eager to simply take the point and move on. Put that one to bed.
There will be an element of frustration that as a team they didn't perform to the kind of level they are capable of. But the race for the top six is a slog, and one which they remain very much in the mix for.
Solid stopper
Ethan Horvath has had to wait a long time for the opportunity to lay the ghosts of Middlesbrough to rest. At Deepdale he showed he is a much better goalkeeper than that.
The American has been confined to the bench since that miserable evening at the City Ground which proved to be Chris Hughton's last match in charge. Thrown into the starting XI by a manager on the brink on that occasion, he had endured a difficult night - one which he would have been eager to forget.
Horvath arrived Trentside last summer eager to play. Unseating Brice Samba has proved a difficult task, and he has had to be patient. But with Forest's first-choice custodian suspended for three games, he took his chance.
He can be pleased with the clean-sheet at Preston, and he had to make some strong saves to get it.
The Reds did not help themselves as they dropped deep for long spells, inviting their hosts onto them. For all of North End's possession, they didn't work too many openings. But with the ones they did, Horvath stood firm.
There was no sign of the nerves which had blighted his last outing between the posts.
Penalty call
Pointing to an incident 10 minutes into the match as a turning point may seem like a stretch, but it did seem to swing the momentum.
The visitors had started really well. They had looked sharp and been eager to get on the front foot
When Keinan Davis went down under the challenge of Sepp Van Den Berg in the area, though, referee Geoff Eltringham waved his angry appeals away.
It didn't look clearcut - the Reds have been denied a fair few of those types of calls over the course of the campaign. But Cooper was adamant a spot-kick should have been given, and he dubbed it a "pivotal moment" in his post-match interviews.
There had been plenty of chatter about it in the dressing room at half-time.
Whether the visitors let it weigh on their minds or not, though, they lost their way after that. Their early impetus and intensity suddenly vanished, and they found it tough to get even a little bit of it back.
Threat stifled
The Lilywhites had clearly done their homework on how to keep their opponents quiet. Djed Spence and Brennan Johnson, in particular, found it difficult to get any kind of foothold in the game.
Normally so dangerous, Preston were alive to the havoc those two can wreak and barely gave them a sniff of the ball. It didn't help that the Reds, as a team, were too often careless in possession when they did get it.
There was very little of the neat link-up play or fast-moving attacks which have served Forest so well. Davis set up a decent chance for James Garner in the first half, but that was the only time Daniel Iversen was called into action.
Spence did manage to stretch his legs in the closing minutes, tearing down the right and delivering a cross which was crying out to be knocked in. It would have been akin to daylight robbery if someone had got on the end of it. As it was, it was almost a case of too little, too late.
Substitutions call
Cooper has been very good at spotting when something needs to change in games and making tactical tweaks to accommodate. He's worked wonders more than once in that sense.
However, he largely resisted the temptation to turn to his bench on this occasion. Sam Surridge for Davis, in the 81st minute, was the only alteration.
Whether bringing on Philip Zinckernagel, Alex Mighten or even Joe Lolley would have swung the match in the Reds' favour is up for debate.
There was also the option of switching to a back four, but given the visitors registered a shut-out, Cooper may feel vindicated in not changing anything there.
“Sometimes it’s a decision not to make a change,” he said. “That’s a decision sometimes as well.
“Normally I like to get subs on and make changes, but my heart was telling me to just stick with it.”
Forest will have headed home frustrated that they never really got going in the midweek clash. But a point on the road from a tough game in which they had a few hairy moments and didn't look themselves should not necessarily be seen as a bad one.
A lot of teams remain in the promotion scrap, and the Reds are still one of them. Heading into the last 14 games of the season, there is still everything to play for. Forest will hope they have got this kind of performance out of the way early.
