The phrase "a real foothold" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used to describe a secure position or advantage in a particular situation, often in a metaphorical sense.
Example: "After months of hard work, the company finally gained a real foothold in the competitive market."
Alternatives: "a solid foundation" or "a strong position".
The bandit lawlessness was already a problem before the insurgency got a real foothold in the spring of 2004.
Alas: the new world never got a real foothold before mission control in the ancestral Montgomery manner took over.
But it's in Harlem — almost a century after McKay first spotlighted the music — that Gnawa culture seems to be gaining a real foothold.
Yet it was Helm, raised in Elaine, Arkansas, who gave these Canadian vagabonds a real foothold in the Southern American culture to which they were drawn.
As the Met artists prepare the New York version, revisiting an existing work, the question will be whether these changes help the opera, well liked at its premiere, to gain a real foothold in the repertory.
In the early '30s Bogart shuttled between Broadway and Hollywood, playing supporting roles in a few films (and making the acquaintance of the director Raoul Walsh, who employed him as a voice coach for the endangered silent star Charles Farrell on the 1931 "Man Who Came Back"), but never getting a real foothold in the business.
By his late 20s Charoen used the contacts he'd made to gain a first real foothold of wealth.
Of a Battle for Church's Future Spain may be the Vatican's last real foothold in an increasingly secular Europe, but battle lines were drawn when a judge ruled in November that crucifixes must be removed from a school's walls in a small Spanish town.
It's so nice to see finally a real strong foothold in touring abroad internationally, and being able to carry my band.
By 1991, Mr. Rosen had established enough of a foothold to start a real estate business, RFR Holding, with Mr. Fuchs.
Its report for the Private Equity Foundation said: "In a difficult labour market, young people often find it harder to gain a foothold in work - and there is a real danger that youth unemployment could soon reach one million.
