Ollie Watkins had a big opportunity inside two minutes as Morgan Rogers blocked Neco Williams’ attempted clearance, although John Victor instinctively stuck out a boot to make a brilliant save.
The Villans continued to completely dominate proceedings and pin back the visitors, yet Victor wasn’t initially worked again with Emiliano Buendía’s shot being stopped before it reached him.
Forest eventually started to make occasional forays forward of their own, but a badly-worked short corner only resulted in a threatening Villa break, even if it came to nothing.
After Rogers’ shot was blocked by Murillo, Sean Dyche’s side tested Emiliano Martinez on the half-hour mark after good work from Nicolas Dominguez, with Omari Hutchinson’s curling effort being palmed away.
Even so, Villa’s patience was finally rewarded in the first half’s final moments, as Watkins smashed his shot in from outside the box despite Victor getting the finest of touches to it.
Having had to be so patient in the first half, the Villans scored again within four minutes of the restart as McGinn reached Matty Cash’s low cross ahead of Nikola Milenkovic to apply a clinical first-time finish.
Dilane Bakwa headed harmlessly wide from a golden opportunity, but he then played a ball through for Morgan Gibbs-White around the hour mark, and the Forest captain raced onto it before dinking his shot past Martínez to halve the deficit.
Ola Aina and Rogers were denied at either end, but Victor recklessly came flying out of his goal, and McGinn darted away from him before slotting the ball into the vacant net to restore Villa’s two-goal lead.
To make matters worse, the goalkeeper then came off injured in the aftermath.
Martinez palmed away Gibbs-White’s effort at the other end, ensuring there was no concern for Villa as they recovered from their heavy defeat to Arsenal to go into second place and three points behind the PL leaders for now.
The last six H2Hs between these sides have now been won by the home side on the day, with this Forest’s fourth consecutive PL defeat, leaving them four points above the relegation zone ahead of West Ham United’s match against Wolves.
Flashscore Man of the Match: John McGinn (Aston Villa)
