Despite missing an early penalty and an injury to goalkeeper Michel Kuipers, Mark McGhee was understandably upbeat after Albion took another giant stride towards safety.

Long-serving defender Kerry Mayo got a little carried way in the build-up by mentioning the p-off word. Survival has been, and remains, the aim for the Seagulls this season. Stretching their unbeaten run in the Championship to six matches has done the cause a power of good.

By maintaining a 12-point cushion over Forest, Albion have more or less guaranteed finishing third-bottom at the very least.

The chances of them occupying that final relegation place come May have receded further, Gillingham's defeat at Leicester yielding an eight-point gap.

Add to that home reverses for Plymouth, Coventry and nosediving Stoke and, all in all, it was a pretty satisfactory day, despite Leon Knight's second successive failure from the spot and Michel Kuipers' injury.

McGhee said: "We can talk about missing a penalty and that we could have won, but it doesn't matter. It was very important not to be beaten, that was all I was really worried about.

"It's a good result for us, it's not a good result for them (Forest). Now if we win only three more games they have got to win half of their remaining games to get above us and they have only won five all season.

"It wasn't as fluent passing-wise or as penetrating as we have been in recent weeks, but that wasn't what it was about."

Albion would, almost certainly, be celebrating a hat-trick of victories had Knight's 11th-minute penalty not been splendidly saved by Paul Gerrard on his 32nd birthday.

The former Everton keeper atoned for flattening Knight by diving full-length to fingertip away his spot-kick.

Knight was similarly foiled at Millwall last month. He may need to re-think his strategy as goalkeepers are no longer being fooled by the trademark pause in his run-up into guessing too soon.

The Withdean whingers were at it again on Saturday. Knight allegedly discarded in a fit of pique the black armband worn by the Albion players as a mark of respect to team-mate Adam Virgo's father Bob.

The airwaves and chatrooms were also rife with condemnation afterwards from the band of nitpicking do-gooders. I did not see the incident, but it certainly would have happened in the heat of the moment with no offence intended.

Some supporters claimed the armbands were removed by Kuipers and captain Charlie Oatway as well. Maybe they are uncomfortable, perhaps, particularly in Knight's case, they give defenders something to hold onto.

The way the whole squad has rallied round Virgo at a time of such sorrow tells you all you need to know about their true feelings. Knight's actions were not as insulting or insensitive as those error-free individuals who deplored him would have you believe, so much as the rashness of youth.

Unfortunately, there are no grey areas with the infuriating minority. They are never happy unless they have something to moan about. The timing of their ranting is also crass, considering Albion's main striker is still engaged in contract negotiations.

Forest, who arrived with seven straight away defeats in the Championship and one clean sheet back in September, would surely not have recovered from such a swift blow to their fragile confidence if Knight had converted.

Instead they rallied after a hesitant start and Andy Reid, the rotund Republic of Ireland international returning from a calf injury, had a curling free-kick tipped onto the crossbar by Kuipers during an eventful first half.

The £4m-rated Reid, sought by Spurs, other Premiership clubs plus one in Spain, offered glimpses of his undoubted quality in a revised role as a semi-striker rather than midfielder. He would be even more effective if he was fighting fit.

Albion's Forest fan Adam El-Abd, deputising for the bereaved Virgo, had an up-and-down afternoon on his first start since early November.

A misplaced header inside the opening minute led to a shooting chance for Reid, he was booked and nearly scored the winner with a late shot on the turn which Gerrard saved.

McGhee said: "I thought he did all right. He showed at times a little bit of nerves and we have got to hammer that out of him, but he settled down and made some important interceptions.

"I was especially pleased that after he got booked he made a tackle that had to be timed right, otherwise he could have been sent-off, so he showed some bottle there."

So did Kuipers when he fisted away the ubiquitous Reid's dangerous cross in the closing stages as Kris Commons challenged.

It looked serious straight away and, although Kuipers initially wanted to continue after lengthy treatment, physio Malcolm Stuart had already signalled to the bench that debut-making Chris May was needed for the last few minutes.

  • ALBION (3-5-2) Kuipers; El-Abd, Hinshelwood, Butters; Reid, Oatway, Carpenter, Harding, Mayo; Hart, Knight. Subs: May for Kuipers (injured 86), Jones for Hart (withdrawn 88), Nicolas, Molango, Hammond
  • Bookings: Oatway (24) encroaching, El-Abd (58) foul.
  • NOTTINGHAM FOREST (3-5-2) Gerrard; Morgan, Taylor, Doig; Louis-Jean, Derry, Evans, Commons, Rogers; Reid, King. Subs: Johnson for King (withdrawn 90), Doyle, Thompson, Impey, Folly
  • Bookings: Gerrard (10) foul, Reid (90) dissent.
  • Attendance: 6,704.
  • Fans' View: LYNDA KENNEDY (Hove) I don't think we're good enough to say any draw is two points dropped and this was certainly one point gained. It wasn't the best Albion performance I've ever seen but most of the other results went for us and Forest look doomed now. Adam El-Abd deserves a lot of credit on his return to the team.

ROB FRENCH (Brighton) It wasn't as smooth or impressive as the last two games but I'm satisfied with 0-0. Although El-Abd did well, we missed Virgo and I am worried about the injury to Kuipers. I've been confident from early in the season that we'll stay up and I think we'll finish a couple of places higher than we are now.

BRIAN BAKER (Hassocks) Other than the play-off final, it was the first Albion game I'd seen since the old Goldstone days. Any spare tickets aren't always marketed aggressively enough and I must admit I've been to Selhurst Park with my Palace-supporting brother a few times. Albion could get 15,000-20,000 in the new stadium.

DANIEL GREGORY (Forest fan) A reasonable point for us under normal circumstances but these are not normal circumstances and we really needed all three. After the penalty scare, we had enough chances to win the game. Brighton should be all right this season.