Ritchie said: "This is a very big result for us. Forest have been superb at home and it should give the players a real boost in confidence to come to a place like this and win well.
"You can't waste a result like this and hopefully it will provide us with the extra spur we have been looking for since the turn of the year.
"It ranks as one of the best performances since I have been at the club and after the sparring that went on in the first 10 or 15 minutes, I thought we controlled the game.
"Marc Richards will get the plaudits for his two goals but it was a really good team performance. Everyone played their part."