The following season, Hodge played as Forest retained the League Cup with a 1–0 win over Oldham Athletic, but by the next year he was struggling to hold down a regular place in the team's midfield after the emergence of teenage Irish phenomenon Roy Keane to partner Garry Parker, who had become the first-choice central midfielder despite being the only one of the three never to play international football. He was only named as a substitute by Clough for the 1991 FA Cup Final against his old club Tottenham Hotspur; he came on as a second-half substitute but Spurs ran out 2–1 winners after extra time.