Chris Wood marked his return to the side with the winning goal as he kept his cool to score from the penalty spot early in the second half after Forest goalkeeper Lee Camp had a rush of blood and upended birthday boy Jon Stead in the penalty area.

His goal edged the Robins up to 40 points, within three of their opponents leaving McInnes a very happy man at the full-time whistle.

"We said before the game that it would be a big game for us and we had to make sure that we done all we could to get all three points," he told Sky Sports 2.

"I thought we withstood Forest's pressure and I felt with the penalty incident, when we got the ball into the box, we should have done a lot more of that in the first half which we were reluctant to do so.

"The players did extremely well and worked extremely hard, but nobody worked harder than anybody else, it was a proper team performance."

Asked how much credit he gave his players for putting their bodies on the line, he added: "To be fair, they've been working extremely hard and you can never aim that at the team and I think in the last half a dozen games. We've been putting a shift in and I don't think we could have given anymore.

"It was nice to get the penalty. I think it was the first one since I came here and Chris Wood tucked it away which galvanized everybody to show that resolve. It was a good three points."