Nottingham Forest F.C.

Nottingham Forest Football Club are an English football club, based at the City Ground, which is just outside the official boundary of Nottingham on the south side of the River Trent. The club lies directly across the Trent from its city rival Notts County, the two clubs being the closest in England.

Dave Bassett: Fall, Rise and Fall Again (1997-98)

Pearce inspired a brief revival in Forest's fortunes, and he was voted Premiership manager for the month for January 1997 after a turn around in form lifted the club off the bottom of the division. He was tipped to become manager on a permanent basis, but the Forest directors wanted someone more experienced so in March 1997 they turned to Crystal Palace manager Dave Bassett. Despite the addition of Celtic's Dutch striker Pierre van Hooijdonk, Forest were unable to avoid relegation and finished the season in bottom place. They won promotion back to the Premiership at the first attempt, being crowned Division One champions in 1997-98. But the prolific strike-partnership of Kevin Campbell and Pierre van Hooijdonk was soon broken up: Campbell was sold to Turkish side Transzbonspor and van Hooijdonk went AWOL. Van Hooijdonk later returned to the club but it was too late to save Bassett, who was sacked in October 1998 after a terrible start to the Premiership campaign.

Related Topics:
January - 1997 - March - Crystal Palace - Dave Bassett - Pierre van Hooijdonk - Kevin Campbell - October - 1998

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