Experienced right back signed from promoted Wigan as Gary Megson's rebuilding gathered pace in the summer of 2005. Immediate reaction was that he was exactly the kind of player we needed - and he improved matters even more by bringing his mate Ian Breckin with him! Initially he seemed fine - a solid, if unspectacular, right back. However, as Forest's fortunes waned under Gary Megson, so did Eaden's, and by the time the manager left with 15 or so games to go, Nicky's confidence appeared completely shot and he played virtually no part in the late revival under Frank Barlow & Charlie McParland.

The suspicion is that, in the time-honoured vague phrase beloved of football fans, "his legs had gone". Certainly he seemed at best to have slipped behind John Curtis in Colin Calderwood's pecking order, and he gradually drifted towards retirement, via an extended loan to Lincoln.