Forest made a faster start and dominated the opening half an hour at Selhurst Park, leading through an early Dan Ndoye goal.
The visitors created openings, but a couple of stunning saves from Walter Benítez kept the Eagles in the contest. A quickfire double before the break turned the game around, with Daichi Kamada and Jefferson Lerma on target.
Yéremy Pino then completed the scoring with a close-range finish in the second-half.
"I think we had a good result before the international break and there was a long gap between the two games," Wharton reflected.
"We just wanted to get our first win at home this season. The fans were behind us, obviously it was a big game for them, with the recent things between the clubs.
"They were at it [early on] and it was a bad start for us conceding so early, but I thought the fight that we showed was good.
"It wasn't the prettiest of games, but we got the job done and three points is the most important thing."
