The night of 19 October 2005 is one that sticks in the mind for all the wrong reasons; surely the worst performance by a Forest side in the last 50 years, as we went to Woking in the LDV Trophy, looked completely uninterested, sluggish and inept, and duly (and deservedly) lost to the Conference side. One of the few bright spots in that dismal evening, however, was the debut of a 6' 2", rangy German Under-18 International on the left side of midfield; Felix Bastians.

He looked skillful and can certainly both pass and cross, but at the time he still had a lot of development to do before we'd really know whether he could go all the way (see Eugen Bopp for details of a fellow-countryman with oodles of talent but who fell by the way-side). Colin Calderwood has a sensible policy of sending young talent out on loan to develop in real competitive matches rather than the protected environment of youth or reserve football - hence 5 separate loans during 2006-2008. By the second season of those, however, it was becoming pretty apparent that, though not without talent, he wasn't going to make it at Forest - all the more so when they were promoted in May 2008.

He was duly released, and managed to pick up his career in Switzerland by moving to left back, wth (it must be said) some success; after a single season in Switzerland he moved to SC Freiburg, the club just promoted to the Bundesliga as champions of the German second division. He has even been picked as a left wing-back for the Germany Under-21 side, so perhaps Forest might yet come to regret letting him go.