It was a case of everything but the goal for the home side to leave manager Steve Cotterill pleased with everything but the lack of cutting edge shown by his side.
"There is not a lot wrong with us and we played some fantastic football," he said after a fourth successive defeat kept Forest in the drop zone.
"But it's not a big secret that we struggle to score goals.
"If we had a regular 20-goal-a-season man we would not have lost the games we have come to the stage when one or two of our strikers have got to come to the fore."
The Eagles meanwhile enjoyed a hard-fought away success which left Dougie Freedman delighted on his return to the City Ground.
"It was a fantastic result and the performance merited it," said the Scot.
"Forest are a good team with good attacking players but we stood up to them and got our rewards."