Martin O'Neill believes Nottingham Forest are only going to improve after securing his first three points as manager with a comfortable 3-1 victory over Wigan at the City Ground.

Josh Windass had cancelled out Joe Lolley's opener for Forest to ensure the scores were level at half-time, but Matty Cash and Adlene Guedioura both found the corner of the net with precise finishes to put the home side in charge.

Costel Pantilimon then saved a late Joe Garner penalty to preserve Forest's two-goal lead, with O'Neill thrilled to get his first win since returning to the club earlier this month.

"It feels terrifically better," he said, having begun his tenure with defeat to Bristol City last weekend.

"It was great to win the game. I thought we did excellently. There were some great goals and some excellent performances.

"Obviously I got to know the players a little bit better over the past week for a start. That is very important. I am trying to work some things on the training ground as well.

"There were some things we executed very well and some things that we still need to strongly improve on. You are not going to get everything spot on within a week but the response the players gave here today was really terrific.

"The game was messy early on, it was stop-start. Then Lolley scores a great goal for us and gets everyone up on their feet. We got good momentum from that but then conceded a bad goal from our point of view.

"But then Cash scored just after half-time and gave the crowd a big lift, and the crowd were brilliant today. They kept us going right at the end when we were a little bit tired.

"We deserved to win the game. There were some terrific performances but also things we can definitely improve on. We will work on that."

Wigan have collected only five points away from home and last won on the road in August at Stoke.

However, boss Paul Cook refused to lay the blame with his players.

"It is a little pattern that has developed within us. I am sure our supporters don't need to hear me saying the same things all the time," he said.

"We had great support today and we made the lads aware of that. We are doing our best for the fans.

"It is important in this relegation fight that we are in, with the games ticking down, that we deliver the points that are required to make the fans happy.

"The players are so close to achieving something but the margins are so small. If you do not put your chances away, it will return to haunt you.

"For 90 minutes there were moments for us. We could have equalised, then we had the penalty. I can guarantee our fans we will go away and do everything we can, between now and the end of the season, to make sure we are in this division next season.

"I am not going to criticise players. We just lack the consistency to produce our good days often enough.

"That is something that we must all take on board and work on. You do not get given points at this level, in games like this, but you do get punished for the mistakes you make."