LUKE Chambers heaped praise on the Forest faithful for the deafening support that inspired their superb second-half performance.

The Reds went behind to an early James McFadden strike but James Perch equalised six minutes after the break.

Forest then dominated but, despite chances, could not find a winner.

Colin Calderwood's side got a standing ovation from all four corners of the ground after a pulsating second half in which they dominated a team which was relegated from the Premiership last season.

Chambers said: "It felt like the fans were with us from the start and it was brilliant. It was such a boost for us and they made no end of difference.

"Teams do not like coming here when we have all of them behind us.

"If we are not doing the business they are more than right to have a pop at us but we did ourselves no harm and showed the fans we are more than up for the battle this season."

Chambers was recalled to the side as Calderwood was forced to make six changes.

And after an inconsistent start to life in the Championship, the defender had arguably his best game of the campaign.

He said: "I felt I was back to the form of last season and the form I know I am capable of. I have had a hip injury but I have kept that to myself but I think we have got to the bottom of that now. I was not going to sit back and accept the way I was playing. I know I have not been good enough this season and that showed from me being in and out of the team a little bit."

He believes the performance on Saturday shows Forest are more than capable of pulling themselves out of trouble.

"We battered Birmingham and nobody in the ground can argue against it," he said.

"After 60 minutes they wanted to go home but after the chances we created we should have scored.

"The confidence is back up and the boys wanted the ball. You look at this game and City have come down, are one of the favourites to go up and we have to back ourselves like we did here.

"We said their strikers win them games and to bring Kevin Phillips and Cameron Jerome off the bench is a great novelty to have but we quelled their threat and it was all about us.

"It was a great game to play in and I thought the lads did really, really well. It was a great performance.

"We are disappointed we did not go on to win. We are happy to take a point off Birmingham and are looking more solid as the weeks go by.

"We got into them and they did not look like they fancied it and we came out on top in every battle.

"It is a learning curve for us all and somebody said to me before the game the average age of the team is about 22. So we can only sit back and look at that and the experience is coming and we are improving."