Position: Central Defender Born: Leicester Signed from: Queen's Park Rangers, December 1977
Debut: 17 December 1977 vs Manchester United Sold to: Released, May 1982
Needham had already had a highly successful time in Nottingham before he went down to QPR; he was part of Jimmy Sirrell's all-conquering Division 4 & 3 Notts County team of the mid 1970s, alongside ex-Forest full back John Brindley and Les Bradd, who is now on the Forest commercial staff. Tall, quick and excellent in the air, it was something of a surprise that no Division 1 club had snapped him up before QPR finally took him to London.
Anyway, half way through the Championship season an injury to Larry Lloyd made Brian Clough look for cover for the backbone of his defence, and he moved swiftly for Needham, who was known to be unhappy in the capital. He must have wondered what had hit him; Dave's Forest debut was arguably the greatest of all performances of that particular side, a 4-0 drubbing of Manchester United at Old Trafford.
Though he was never really first choice, Needham was sufficiently talented more than competently to cover for both Lloyd and Burns for the next 5 years, before anno Domini finally caught up with him.
Dave didn't play in either European Cup final, but he had played his part in the two campaigns, even scoring in the 5-1 destruction of AEK Athens in November 78. He was a valuable part of the squad throughout the glory years - though, alas, nowadays he is chiefly remembered for colliding with Peter Shilton in the 1980 League Cup final, allowing Andy Gray (yes, the Sky Andy Gray) to score the only goal of the game.
Back to ... The Players : 1977 - 1978 : 1978 - 1979 : 1979 - 1980 : 1980 - 1981 : 1981 - 1982
Position: Midfield Born: Preston, 6 July 1981 Signed from: West Ham United, November 2004
Debut: 6 November 2004 vs Wolverhampton Wanderers Sold to: -
Signed by Joe Kinnear as his reign came to a very sticky end, Nowland is a puzzle. In the few games he played, he looked a class act - hard working, good runner off the ball, an eye for goal and a good passer of the ball. He had hideous injury problems for most of the season, however, so we hadn't seen much of him before we went down.
All the same, it was a surprise to see his name on the list of players transfer listed by Gary Megson as he culled the dead wood after relegation. One can only assume that there is either a personality clash or a perceived attitude problem - after all, Megson has never actually seen him play, so it can't be that...
Back to ... The Players : 2004 - 2005
Position: Forward Born: Renton Signed from: Leeds United, February 1975
Debut: 28 February 1975 vs Oxford United Sold to: Released, May 1981
Along with John McGovern and Archie Gemmill, O'Hare was one of the players Brian Clough immediately turned to when he went to a new club - he was with him at Derby, Leeds and Forest. In O'Hare's case, he knew exactly what he was getting - a vastly experienced pro who was masterly at holding the ball up and seldom wasted it.
In truth by the time he came to Forest he was well past his best (or at least his speediest) - the fact that the Trent End used to call him "Chesty" ought to tell you that he was perhaps no longer a slim and lithe youth! None the less, he did an excellent job of stabilising Forest's attack on his arrival shortly after Clough in 1975, and weighed in with his fair share of goals the following year.
By the time the Championship and so on arrived, O'Hare was very much a back-up player who often filled in in midfield, but he took part in both European Cup campaigns and never let us down. His finest hour was in the League Cup replay of 1978 (he played a full part in that Cup run because Archie Gemmill was cup tied), when it was Chesty, ploughing through the middle of a muddy Old Trafford pitch at what passed for full pace (and once he got going, there was a fair amount of momentum there!), who was scythed down by Phil Thompson on the edge of the area. Robbo, of course, scored the winning goal from the spot, and we had our first big trophy for almost 20 years.
Back to ... The Players : 1975 - 1976 : 1976 - 1977 : 1977 - 1978 : 1978 - 1979 : 1979 - 1980 : 1980 - 1981
Position: Defender Born: Londonderry Signed from: Derry City, November 1968
Debut: 25 January 1969 vs Norwich City Sold to:
I haven't heard Liam O'Kane talk recently, but I wonder if he has much of his Derry accent left - he signed for Forest in 1968 as a promising young full back... and left 36 years later!
Liam (short for William, so don't be surprised if you see him appear as "W. O'Kane" on old team sheets) was a tall, cultured, rangy defender with an unmistakable stooping gait - it may surprise those of you who have only ever seen the modern O'Kane, whose head is more shiny than grey, to learn that in his younger days he had the full 70s outfit of flowing blond hair! He was a good player - indeed he was Forest's most capped player with 20 Northern Ireland appearances until overtaken by Martin O'Neill - but was dogged by injuries throughout his career.
Initially he succeeded Terry Hennessey at centre back, but in 1971 he moved to right back and stayed there for the rest of his career. His best period was 1973-76, on his return from a broken leg, but injuries were never far away and they finally finished him as a player in the 1975-76 season, when he was still only 28.
He moved onto the coaching staff and was the only man to survived throughout the Clough, Clark, Pearce, Bassett, Atkinson, Platt, Hart and Kinnear years; he finally left in early 2005.
Back to ... The Players : 1968 - 1969 : 1969 - 1970 : 1070 - 1971 : 1971 - 1972 : 1972 - 1973 : 1973 - 1974 : 1974 - 1975 : 1975 - 1976
Position: Midfield Born: Glasgow Signed from: Celtic (LOAN), March 1997
Debut: 24 March 1997 vs Middlesbrough
Celtic defensive midfield player drafted in on loan during the Pearce-Bassett period, when he covered for injuries to Alfie Haaland and David Phillips. By the time he arrived Forest were doomed (even if not mathematically so).
Back to ... The Players : 1996 - 1997
Position: Midfield Born: Londonderry Signed from: Distillery, October 1971
Debut: 13 November 1971 vs West Bromwich Albion Sold to: Norwich City, February 1981
Without question the best right-sided midfield player (there was more to him than just being a winger) we have ever had - he waltzed into the All-Time Greatest Forest side voted in 1997.
But for the first 5 or 6 years of his Forest career, you (and no doubt Martin) would never have spotted him as a future European Champion. Signed by Matt Gillies as a 19-year-old, he was playing OK - sometimes more than OK - in what was frankly a decidedly dodgy side, but Gillies, MacKay and Brown didn't seem sure where to play him and he seemed destined to be merely one of the better players of a crap era.
Then Brian Clough arrived. O'Neill had been a regular in Allan Brown's side, but generally wide on the left. Clough took a few weeks to look at his squad, recognised that O'Neill and John Robertson (the names are inseparable even now) had something and cemented them into his team - though it took a little longer to move Robbo out to the left wing.
As anyone who watches him on TV nowadays will realise, Martin is intelligent and articulate - and he never was slow to speak his mind; not necessarily the safest way to proceed when Clough is around. Certainly he and Clough had their fair share of run-ins (speaking years later about Clough's decision to take him off during the 1979 Charity Shield, telling him "Because you're crap, young man!" despite the fact that O'Neill had a couple of goals to his name, O'Neill wistfully said "He never did quite know how to handle me!"). None the less, there was considerable mutual respect, and it was undoubtedly Clough who turned Martin into a great player, as he would be the first to acknowledge. He seems to have done this, as he did with so many, by telling O'Neill to concentrate on what he was good at (passing, running at defenders, movement off the ball) and forget about what he wasn't good at (defending!).
Certainly there is more than a little of Clough in O'Neill the manager - he has the same ability to make supposedly average players consistently play above themselves. All of Clough's greatest Forest side (apart, I think, from Kenny Burns) have tried management in some form or other (Shilton at Plymouth, Anderson at Barnsley and Boro, Clark at Forest and Man City, Lloyd at Wigan, McGovern at Hull, Bowyer with Francis at Brum and as Hart's assistant at Forest, Francis at Wednesday, QPR, the Bluenoses and Palarse, Woodcock in Germany), but it is O'Neill and Robertson who are the only ones who have actually won anything.
Most Forest fans were desperate to see Martin come home to Forest when Atkinson left, and at one stage it looked tantalisingly close - one of the great "what-if" questions of Forest's history. Alas it was not to be - he took over at Celtic, the club Martin (an Irish catholic) supported as a boy in the summer of 2000. And promptly won the Treble!
Back to ... The Players : 1971 - 1972 : 1972 - 1973 : 1973 - 1974 : 1974 - 1975 : 1975 - 1976 : 1976 - 1977 : 1977 - 1978 : 1978 - 1979 : 1979 - 1980 : 1980 - 1981
Position: Winger Born: - Signed from: DC United (LOAN), October 2000 - March 2001
Debut: 21 October 2000 vs Watford
US international winger who was spotted when Forest were over watching Stern John. Signed on a long term loan after competing for the US in the Sydney Olympics, Olsen came with the reputation of being a pacey skillful winger who can play on either flank. In fact he proved to be more than that; though small and slight he is no shrinking violet, and his workrate is phenomenal, so was just as likely to turn up digging Forest out of a hole in defence as skinning full backs at the other end.
"Beninho" rapidly became a firm favourite with the fans, who appreciated both his attitude and his skill. Unfortunately, two elements conspired against him; firstly the minor detail that Forest had absolutely no money to sign him permanently, much as they would like to have done. Secondly the fact that he suffered a badly broken ankle in his final game for us, at home to Barnsley in early March 2001, and went home to the US for a series of operations to put things right; he only started playing again towards the end of 2002.
A great shame; we loved him and he gave every appearance of loving us, but it was not to be.
Back to ... The Players : 2000 - 2001
Position: Midfield Born: Odense, Denmark Signed from: KA Akureyi (Iceland), December 1989
Debut: 17 December 1989 vs Southampton Sold to: Oldham Athletic, August 1993
Tiny Icelandic midfield player who was skillful enough but way too slight to survive for long in the English game. The only surprise was that Clough persisted with him for as long as he did.
Back to ... The Players : 1989 - 1990 : 1991 - 1992 : 1992 - 1993
Position: Midfield Born: Lillestrom, Norway Signed from: Lillestrom, March 1987
Debut: 25 April 1987 vs Wimbledon Sold to: Djurgaarten, September 1981
Attempt to find the new Robertson (yeah, right!) on the left. He couldn't even displace Brian Rice.
Crap.
Back to ... The Players : 1986 - 1987 : 1987 - 1988
Position: Left Back Born: Bilzen, Belgium, 17 July 1975 Signed from: Anderlecht, January 2003
Debut: 22 February 2003 vs Stoke City Sold to: Released, March 2004
Belgian International left back signed on a free in January 2003 as long overdue cover for Jim Brennan. Injuries had limited his appearances for Anderlecht, but clearly he was good enough for the national team at one stage. But then so was Andrea Silenzi....
Davy had obvious talent - he scored a blistering volley on his debut for the Stiffs, backing up the reputation that, like Brennan, he is better going forward than as an out-and-out defender. The problem with him was his fitness; Anderlecht lost his services for long periods because of injury, and within weeks of joining Forest he was under the surgeon's knife again. We never got him fit for long enough to find out whether he was as good as tantalising glimpses suggested he might be, and his contract was terminated in March 2004 after a year of injuries interspersed with the very occasional 90 minutes of kicking an unfamiliar round thing.
Back to ... The Players : 2002 - 2003 : 2003 - 2004