Graham, 30, who was brought in on loan from Tottenham, where she made 88 appearances including the 2024 Women’s FA Cup final, was given the captain’s armband against Forest.
“A change to the line-up gave me the opportunity to lead us out which was a nice feeling but we’ve got some good leaders in the team,” she said.
“I feel I’m quite a vocal player anyway so not much changes in terms of that, it’s just wearing an armband in my opinion but it’s nice to be able to help some of the younger players.”
With only one team going down, having two games in hand on Portsmouth is bonus, and Ipswich – who normally play home games at Colchester – are only one point behind Durham and Sheffield United in the two places immediately above them.
“We’ve done a good job so far. There’s still a job to do – we’ve scraped some points back and are looking confident for the rest of the season,” said Graham.
She is excited about the rapid growth in the women’s game in recent years, having only turned professional at the age of 23 when she joined Spurs from Charlton.
“It can still go further which is exciting. I wish I was a little bit younger so I could be part of it,” Graham added.
“There’s so much there for young players now in terms of infrastructure and drive and ambition from clubs and if you get down and work hard, the sky’s the limit.
“It’s heading in the right direction, but you can’t do everything at once. I think that’s sometimes where teams fail. [You need] a gradual pace of introducing new things to a women’s team, some teams are getting their own stadiums built, some are getting their own training centres built, which gives them a platform to showcase themselves and be their own entities.”