Chris Hughton admitted his relief at seeing Nottingham Forest secure Championship safety and immediately targeted better from his side next season.

Hughton saw Forest’s second-tier status confirmed with two games to play following a 1-1 draw with Stoke as Lewis Grabban scored for the second game in a row.

Grabban’s close-range finish in the 50th minute cancelled out Rabbi Matondo’s 27th-minute opener for the visitors.

Forest looked the more likely to win and, after the final whistle, Hughton voiced his disappointed with the result and Forest’s position in the table.

“I have mixed feelings, really. I am talking on the back of a decent performance and I am disappointed that we have not won, but pleased that, in a very competitive division and a very competitive season, that we had a good enough spell in the last few months to put us in this position,” said Hughton.

“I am disappointed, overall, that we are not higher up the table. For what we have got here and for some of our performances over the last few months, I would have liked to have seen us further up.

“That is the biggest disappointment. It does need to be better next season even if there have been aspects I have been pleased with.

“I thought there were a lot of good things in the performance.

“We played against a team who are very good at what they do but we had good possession and the only difficulty we had is that, unless you get opportunities and goals, you are always concerned that you are going to make a mistake.

“In the first half their goal was probably the one opportunity they had. I thought we should have been ahead before that.

“But what pleased me most was our attitude in the second half. We gave it a real good go, I thought we deserved to win, but if you cannot put the ball in the back of the net, that obviously becomes harder.”

Stoke boss Michael O’Neill also felt his side might have snatched all three points but praised a young squad for their efforts at the City Ground.

“We scored a good goal and we could have done better with some of the other opportunities we had,” said O’Neill.

“We pushed very hard, we won a lot of corners but we just did not get a clear-cut chance; a proper opportunity to fall for us.

“I felt we could have won the game but it was a good performance from a squad that included a lot of young players.

“We were playing against a very experienced Championship team. Forest have a lot of very good players and it is good that we are disappointed only to have taken a point.

“You always want your final ball to be better. There were occasions today when that was the case. We will keep working on that. There is room to improve on that.

“But our counter-attacking was very good today. I was delighted with that aspect of our game.

“We did miss Nick Powell today because we know how important he is to the team. He just has a presence about him and a good athletic ability as well.”