"I said at half-time we need character, fight and grit to win, to keep a clean sheet, and that's what we have," said McClaren.
"We had a certain fragility about us early on in the season. We'd have lost that game early on.
"They stuck in there and the guys took belief from it.
"I'm always consistent in saying we can get better and be better, and we're making progress, but the turnaround is slow.
"The first eight games were so difficult and you could see the hangover that the team was experiencing.
"Slowly, like a big ship, we're trying to turn that around and results will help that."