# 1994–95 Nottingham Forest F.C. season

During the 1994–95 English football season, Nottingham Forest F.C. competed in the FA Premier League. Surprisingly for a newly promoted side, Forest finished in third place, behind Blackburn Rovers and Manchester United: no newly promoted club has achieved as high a finish in the Premier League since, although this achievement was matched by Newcastle United's previous season and six seasons later, Ipswich Town would finish fifth which, to this day, is the highest placing finish a promoted club has achieved since.

## Season summary

After achieving promotion back to the Premiership at the first attempt, Nottingham Forest continued to succeed in life after Brian Clough as new manager Frank Clark guided them to an impressive third-place finish and UEFA Cup qualification, giving Forest their first European campaign of the post-Heysel era. Never out of the top-six throughout the season, Forest seemingly mounted an unexpected serious title challenge in the first quarter of the season, finding themselves in 2nd. Unfortunately, they couldn't quite keep up the title push and hit a bad run of form throughout most of winning just five out of 20 league games but an unbeaten run of nine wins in their final 12 league games during Spring saw them finish third, 12 points adrift of champions Blackburn Rovers, nonetheless a magnificent achievement.
Striker Stan Collymore was on target 22 times in the league and speculation that he would be on his way to another club proved correct at the end of the season when he sold to Liverpool for a national record fee of £8.4 million. The failure of Clark to buy a proven replacement cast significant doubt over whether Forest could mount a serious challenge for honours in the post-Collymore era.

## Kit

The kit was sponsored by Canadian brewery Labatts.

## Final league table

| Pos | Teamvte | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification or relegation |
| 1 | Blackburn Rovers (C) | 42 | 27 | 8 | 7 | 80 | 39 | +41 | 89 | Qualification for the Champions League group stage |
| 2 | Manchester United | 42 | 26 | 10 | 6 | 77 | 28 | +49 | 88 | Qualification for the UEFA Cup first round |
| 3 | Nottingham Forest | 42 | 22 | 11 | 9 | 72 | 43 | +29 | 77 | Qualification for the UEFA Cup first round |
| 4 | Liverpool | 42 | 21 | 11 | 10 | 65 | 37 | +28 | 74 | Qualification for the UEFA Cup first round |
| 5 | Leeds United | 42 | 20 | 13 | 9 | 59 | 38 | +21 | 73 | Qualification for the UEFA Cup first round |
* ↑ Leeds United were rewarded entry to the UEFA Cup through UEFA Fair Play ranking.

### Results summary

| Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Home | Home | Home | Home | Home | Home | Away | Away | Away | Away | Away | Away |
Source: Statto

### Results by round

| Round | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 |
| Ground | A | H | H | A | H | A | A | H | A | H | A | H | A | H | H | A | H | H | A | A | H | A | H | A | H | A | H | A | A | A | H | H | A | H | H | A | H | A | H | A | H | A |
| Result | W | D | W | W | W | D | W | W | D | W | W | L | L | D | L | L | D | W | W | D | W | L | W | L | L | W | D | L | L | D | D | W | W | W | W | W | D | W | W | W | W | D |
| Position | 6 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 |

## Squad

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
| No. | Pos. | Nation | Player |
| 1 | GK | WAL | Mark Crossley |
| 2 | DF | ENG | Des Lyttle |
| 3 | DF | ENG | Stuart Pearce (captain) |
| 4 | DF | ENG | Colin Cooper |
| 5 | DF | ENG | Steve Chettle |
| 6 | DF | ENG | Carl Tiler |
| 7 | MF | WAL | David Phillips |
| 8 | MF | SCO | Scot Gemmill |
| 9 | MF | NOR | Lars Bohinen |
| 10 | FW | ENG | Stan Collymore |
| 11 | MF | ENG | Steve Stone |
| 12 | FW | ENG | Jason Lee |
| 13 | GK | NIR | Tommy Wright |
| No. | Pos. | Nation | Player |
| 14 | MF | ENG | Ian Woan |
| 15 | FW | ENG | Robert Rosario |
| 16 | MF | ENG | Neil Webb |
| 17 | MF | NIR | Kingsley Black |
| 18 | DF | NOR | Alfie Haaland |
| 19 | MF | ENG | Bobby Howe |
| 20 | FW | ENG | Paul McGregor |
| 21 | FW | ENG | Gary Bull |
| 22 | FW | NED | Bryan Roy |
| 23 | GK | ENG | Malcolm Rigby |
| 24 | DF | ENG | Vance Warner |
| 30 | GK | ENG | Billy Mercer (on loan from Sheffield United) |

### Left club during season

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
| No. | Pos. | Nation | Player |
| 19 | DF | ENG | Brian Laws (to Grimsby Town) |
| 20 | MF | ENG | Gary Crosby (to Huddersfield Town) |
| No. | Pos. | Nation | Player |
| 30 | GK | AUS | John Filan (on loan to Cambridge United) |

### Reserve squad

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
| No. | Pos. | Nation | Player |
| — | DF | ENG | Steve Blatherwick |
| — | DF | ENG | Craig Armstrong |
| No. | Pos. | Nation | Player |
| — | MF | IRL | John Burns |

## Transfers
### In

| Date | Pos | Name | From | Fee |
| 1 August 1994 | MF | John Burns | Belvedere | Signed |
| 1 August 1994 | GK | Malcolm Rigby | Notts County | £50,000 |
| 4 August 1994 | FW | Bryan Roy | Foggia | £2,500,000 |

### Out

| Date | Pos | Name | To | Fee |
| 13 July 1994 | GK | Mark Statham | Wigan Athletic | Free transfer |
| 13 July 1994 | MF | Ian Kilford | Wigan Athletic | Free transfer |
| 2 August 1994 | FW | Lee Glover | Port Vale | £200,000 |
| 27 September 1994 | MF | Gary Crosby | Huddersfield Town | Free transfer |
| 1 December 1994 | DF | Brian Laws | Grimsby Town | Free transfer |
| 20 March 1995 | MF | Lee Marshall | Stockport County | Free transfer |
    Transfers in: £2,550,000
    Transfers out: £200,000
    Total spending: £2,350,000

## Statistics
### Appearances and goals

| No. | Pos | Nat | Player | Total | Total | Premier League | Premier League | FA Cup | FA Cup | League Cup | League Cup |
| No. | Pos | Nat | Player | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals |
| Goalkeepers ||||||||||||
| 1 | GK | WAL | Mark Crossley | 46 | 0 | 42 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| 13 | GK | NIR | Tommy Wright | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 23 | GK | ENG | Malcolm Rigby | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 30 | GK | ENG | Billy Mercer | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Defenders ||||||||||||
| 2 | DF | ENG | Des Lyttle | 44 | 0 | 38 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 0 |
| 3 | DF | ENG | Stuart Pearce | 40 | 10 | 36 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 2 |
| 4 | DF | ENG | Colin Cooper | 40 | 1 | 35 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 0 |
| 5 | DF | ENG | Steve Chettle | 47 | 0 | 41 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 0 |
| 6 | DF | ENG | Carl Tiler | 4 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 18 | DF | NOR | Alfie Haaland | 22 | 1 | 18+2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0+1 | 0 |
| 24 | DF | ENG | Vance Warner | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Midfielders ||||||||||||
| 7 | MF | WAL | David Phillips | 44 | 1 | 38 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 0 |
| 8 | MF | SCO | Scot Gemmill | 22 | 1 | 19 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 9 | MF | NOR | Lars Bohinen | 39 | 7 | 30+4 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 0 |
| 11 | MF | ENG | Steve Stone | 47 | 5 | 41 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 0 |
| 14 | MF | ENG | Ian Woan | 41 | 5 | 35+2 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 2+1 | 0 |
| 17 | MF | NIR | Kingsley Black | 12 | 2 | 5+5 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| 16 | MF | ENG | Neil Webb | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0+1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 19 | MF | ENG | Bobby Howe | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Forwards ||||||||||||
| 10 | FW | ENG | Stan Collymore | 43 | 25 | 37 | 22 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 2 |
| 12 | FW | ENG | Jason Lee | 24 | 3 | 5+17 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0+2 | 0 |
| 15 | FW | ENG | Robert Rosario | 1 | 0 | 0+1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 20 | FW | ENG | Paul McGregor | 11 | 1 | 0+11 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 21 | FW | ENG | Gary Bull | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0+1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 22 | FW | NED | Bryan Roy | 43 | 14 | 37 | 13 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 1 |
| Players transferred out during the season ||||||||||||
| 19 | DF | ENG | Brian Laws | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 20 | MF | ENG | Gary Crosby | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| 30 | GK | AUS | John Filan | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Last updated: 31 June 1995 Source: Competitions

### Starting 11

    Considering appearances in all competitions
| No. | Pos. | Name | MS |
| 1 | GK | Mark Crossley | 42 |
| 2 | RB | Des Lyttle | 38 |
| 5 | CB | Steve Chettle | 41 |
| 4 | CB | Colin Cooper | 35 |
| 3 | LB | Stuart Pearce | 36 |
| 11 | RM | Steve Stone | 41 |
| 7 | CM | David Phillips | 38 |
| 9 | CM | Lars Bohinen | 30 |
| 14 | LM | Ian Woan | 35 |
| 10 | CF | Stan Collymore | 37 |
| 22 | CF | Bryan Roy | 37 |