ODION IGHALO spent 71 minutes on the bench but only took 17 minutes to send Watford into the hat for the fifth round.
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| Odion Igahlo was Watford's hero again as they progressed to the fifth-round of the FA Cup |
Hornets' boss Quique Sanchez Flores wanted to give the Nigerian striker a rest but was forced to send him on to avoid a replay.
And the 14-goal scoring machine made no mistake with the chance he made for himself, pouncing on Kelvin Wilson's 88th minute mistake.
The one thing promotion-chasing Forest will have learnt after looking set to get another money-spinning shot at upsetting the Premier League side, is that you can't give Ighalo a sniff.
He has scored ten goals in his last 15 games and here he helped Watford end a run of five FA Cup away games without a win.
He punished Forest's first real defensive mistake and left Jamie Ward even more depressed after he fluffed an easier opportunity with the last kick of the first half.
Ward had a clear run on goal when he seized on a slip by Allan Nyom and only had keeper Costel Pantilimon to beat but he stabbed his effort wide.
It was a real let off for Pantilimon and the Premier League outfit.
The Romanian goalie couldn't have had an easier debut. A virtual spectator for most of the game, he could still have been picking the ball out of his net before he'd had a save to make.
At the other end Nordin Amrabat was denied a goal when Dorus De Vries, who had kept out long-range shots from Adlene Guedioura and Ikechi Anya's angled strike, turned his shot around the post.
Forest made little impact to leave Dougie Freedman with nothing to celebrate on first anniversary of taking over at the City Ground and his 50th game in charge.
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| Watford players celebrate with Ighalo after his late goal |
Forest chief Dougie Freedman said: "It was a cruel blow and I don't think we deserved it. We gave them too much respect in the first half although we had the best chance with Jamie Ward.
"We had enough chances to have won it but we never took them. We gave them half a chance and he's taken half a chance. If their manager is honest he will tell you they were fortunate to go away with a win.
"It's a game of two boxes - if you don't take chances when they come along it's always going to be very borderline. They bring on a fantastic player to change it and it worked for them. They'll go home relieved to have won."
Watford's Quique Sanchez Flores, who confirmed he hopes to see the deal to sign Fiorentina's Spanish midfielder Mario Suarez in the next 48 hours, said: "We are happy today because we have given the Watford fans the opportunity to dream.
"It was difficult to find the space but we tried and finally Ighalo did it. It always looks easier for us to score when he is there. To score in the last minute is good, it's part of football.
"We have controlled all the game and I don't have the feeling we were lucky. In the last 20 minutes we thought we could get that one step more. We kept all the positive player on the bench until the last 20 minutes and we did it."
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