The Reds continued to get important match minutes under their belt as they suffered a narrow 3-2 defeat to Greek Super League side Atromitos in a behind-closed-friendly on Tuesday afternoon.
Forest took the lead inside four minutes when Gustavo Scarpa’s corner was headed goalwards and nestled into the bottom corner via a deflection off an Atromitos man.
The Greek side drew themselves back on level terms in the 12th minute though when Andreas Kuen fired across goal and into the far corner.
Scarpa looked to put Forest back ahead a couple of minutes later when he found space 25 yards from goal and fired a vicious left-footed strike just wide of target.
The Reds did then regain the lead on 20 minutes when Scarpa’s cross was headed goalwards by Ryan Yates who was denied superbly by Andreas Gianniotis, but found the back of the net with a deflected effort on the rebound.
Emmanuel Dennis was next to test Gianniotis as he wriggled free 20 yards from goal and saw a dangerous left-footed effort tipped over the crossbar.
An excellent cross-field pass by Steve Cook picked out Serge Aurier on the right flank, before the full-back advanced forward, found Jesse Lingard to his left before feeding Taiwo Awoniyi whose shot was well held by Gianniotis.
With half-time approaching, Renan Lodi got to the byline and delivered a low cross for Awoniyi who saw his goalbound effort deflected wide for a corner.
The last chance of the opening 45 minutes came as another dangerous Scarpa delivery from a corner was headed wide by an unmarked Serge Aurier, before the referee blew for half-time.
HALF-TIME: Atromitos 1-2 Forest
The Reds’ first chance of the second half fell the way of Morgan Gibbs-White who turned a cross goalwards only to be denied by Gianniotis.
Loïc Bade tried his luck from distance and fired just over from 20 yards as The Reds looked to extend their lead.
But against the run of play, Atromitos got themselves back on level terms as Georgios Tzovaras found the bottom corner.
The Greek side then took the lead for the first time as Konstantinos Kotsopoulos intercepted a pass, broke into the area and found the bottom corner with a composed finish.
With no key chances for either side towards the latter stages of the contest, the final whistle blew to mark the end of the 90 minutes.
FULL-TIME: Atromitos 3-2 Forest