Not many of us had heard anything recent about this guy when we signed him - which all goes to prove why we aren't managers (and that we should keep our eyes on the lower divisions more). When Joe Kinnear picked him up, he couldn't even get a game for Bradford City, who were at the time plunging towards inevitable relegation from Division 1. He'd had a brief period of notoriety when scoring goals from outrageously long range for Brentford a couple of years before, but then disappeared.

Evans was simply a revelation. He was signed to do a simple job; win the ball in midfield - Kinnear had seen enough to know that for all Forest's pretty passing, we were rubbish at getting the ball back when we lost it. Evo changed all that in an instant - the man is a beast!

Probably not the craftiest of players when he has the ball, but a serious driving force in the centre of the park and critical to Forest's survival at the end of the 2003-04 season (when we didn't lose a game in which he played).

However, he certainly couldn't repeat the dose the following season (not that relegation should be laid at Evans' feet alone - in fact he made a better contribution than some), and he seemed to fall somewhat from favour under Gary Megson, who seemed to prefer the silky skills of Daryll Powell for some reason known only to Meggo. None the less, Evans had fought to regain his place by the end of the season, but he played no part in Megson's League One campaign, being sent out on loan and then released in the summer of 2006 to join Swindon Town.