After taking the lead midway through the first half with Glen Rea, the Reds were reduced to 10 men when Nicholas Ioannou was dismissed by referee Tim Robinson for a late tackle on Martin Cranie.

But Forest fought back and Rea was unfortunate to score at the wrong end too, as the gaffer reflected on proceedings after the match.

“Two points missed," the Welshman began. "Start with the positives, first half I thought we were excellent, really moved the ball well, took the lead, they went down to 10 men.

“You always know it is going to be tricky. It shouldn’t be but they sat in, we were passive, we moved the ball with no intensity.

“We didn’t look like we really wanted to penetrate them in any way and we paid the penalty for that because it was a lacklustre, real passive second half performance.

"I’ll take a lot of blame for that because I could have changed stuff earlier but if I’m honest, the only time we looked like we might concede or if they were going to score was a header in the box.

“We showed them on the video at half-time, them running off the back of our players and if the ball had been better, he would have had a chance.

“Self-fulfilling prophecy or whatever it is. We are disappointed with a point because our first half performance was a platform for three.”