Watford, who suffered defeat at Reading last week courtesy of a late goal, surrendered their claim to all three points at Vicarage Road courtesy of a late header by Nottingham Forest.
"I think we've conceded about six goals in the last few minutes this season and they have all cost us points," said Watford boss Ray Lewington.
"It's not that we go defensive but we just stopped playing at the same tempo after we had taken the lead. Mind you, I thought one goal would be enough to win it and when we scored with 18 minutes to go I thought the points were ours." Injury hit Forest dug deep in the words of their manager Paul Hart. "We lost players during the week and two players during the game. We fielded one of the youngest ever back fours in the history of Division One," he said. "But we were giants in terms of determination." Both teams cancelled each other out in what was a lively, hard fought but almost incident free first half.
Danny Webber went close with a shot on the turn for Watford and Gareth Taylor headed over when presented with a fair chance to a cross by Gregor Robertson.
Forest started the second half the stronger of the two and Lenny Pidgeley had to move smartly to take a header from Gareth Williams.
Then Andy Reid just cleared the target with a dipping free kick. But Watford took up the running and it took a fine header by Eugen Bopp to deny Scott Fitzgerald as he came in on a Paul Devlin cross.
Devlin had tormented Forest in the first half but they sought to police him with an extra defender on that flank after the break.
But Devlin, picking up a ball from Paolo Vernazza eluded two defenders with a fine piece of trickery and crossed for Fitzgerald to score with his head from 5 yards.
But Watford surrendered their claim to victory when a cross by Bopp was met by Reid who jumped high to head in three minutes from time.