ROBERT Earnshaw believes the work rate of the whole Forest team was the reason they won their relegation battle with Charlton.

The 2-0 victory at the Valley left the Addicks rooted to the bottom of the Championship, with the Reds eight points ahead of them.

Earnshaw scored the second after Nathan Tyson's opener to seal victory in Billy Davies' first game in charge.

He said: "It was brilliant, exactly what we needed and we have been on a great run.

"The work rate the whole team put in was the biggest difference. There was nothing else in our minds apart from winning and we have done that. We were joking on the bus on the way down that it would be nice to be two up at half time and that is how it was.

"Tyson got the chance and I got one and you have to try to take them.

"We came here and had a job to do; we needed the points, we need to start moving up the table and we are.

"It was a big game for us and them and sometimes you cannot always be pretty. You have to wait for those little chances, stick them in and get three points. That is what this game is about.

"We have slowly got that bit of luck and the goals are flowing for us, which is huge.

"We had two clear chances and two goals. That makes a huge difference.

"The last three games everything we have hit has gone in so that has been the biggest difference.

"Right now we are getting the chances and as a striker that is all you want and hopefully we can keep this run going."

Forest took the lead against the run of play on 34 minutes, and soon after Earnshaw doubled the lead, pouncing on a poor header by Charlton's Matt Holland to lob goalkeeper Rob Elliot.

"I was waiting for it and when I get a chance I know what I want to do – and if that does not happen, I have a second plan. My first option was to do what I did and lift it over him.

"In football you have to think that quickly and the cleverer you are, the more you know what you are going to do and my goal was what I had in mind.

"It gave us a little breather and that bit of confidence you need. We needed that because then they were not going to get back into it. That killed the game.

"Now we have to be stubborn about what we are doing, just be switched on in everything we do and we will be okay."

Earnshaw was reported to have fallen out with Davies when they were at Derby together.

But the striker, who has scored three in as many games, added: "We have had a chat and, I won't go too much into it, we are pushing in the same direction."