1995–96 Nottingham Forest F.C. season

Nottingham Forest

1995–96 season
Chairman	Fred Reacher
Manager	Frank Clark
Stadium	City Ground
Premiership	9th
FA Cup	Quarter finals
League Cup	Second round
UEFA Cup	Quarter finals
Top goalscorer	Lee/Roy/Woan (8)
Highest home attendance	29,263 vs Manchester United (27 Nov 1995, Premier League)
Lowest home attendance	15,050 vs Oxford United (7 Feb 1996, FA Cup)
Average home league attendance	25,916
Home colours Away colours
← 1994–95 1996–97 →

During the 1995–96 English football season, Nottingham Forest competed in the FA Premier League.

Season summary

Nottingham Forest were expected to struggle following the sale of star striker Stan Collymore to Liverpool, but they performed reasonably well throughout the season and there was never any question of them being relegated. They were unbeaten from their first 12 league games, although they drew too many games to be considered serious title challengers, before they ran into a 7-0 defeat at Blackburn Rovers, who had just signed Forest midfielder Lars Bohinen.

The biggest success of the season was Forest's UEFA Cup exploits. In arguably the worst season for English clubs in European competitions in the era of three European trophies, they were the only English side with European action to look forward to after Christmas, and in March their adventure resumed with the first leg of the quarter-final - against Bayern Munich at the Olympiastadion. Forest lost 2-1, and any remaining hopes of a semi-final place were crushed in the second leg when the Bavarians thrashed Frank Clark's men 5-1 at the City Ground.

A ninth place finish in the final table was not quite enough to secure another European campaign, and Clark's big summer signing, Dean Saunders, was captured in hope that he could be the man to score the goals which would bring more success to the club.

Final league table

Main article: 1995–96 FA Premier League

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Manchester United (C)	38	25	7	6	73	35	+38	82	1996–97 UEFA Champions League Group stage
2	Newcastle United	38	24	6	8	66	37	+29	78	1996–97 UEFA Cup First round
3	Liverpool	38	20	11	7	70	34	+36	71	1996–97 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup First round 1
4	Aston Villa	38	18	9	11	52	35	+17	63	1996–97 UEFA Cup First round
5	Arsenal	38	17	12	9	49	32	+17	63
6	Everton	38	17	10	11	64	44	+20	61
7	Blackburn Rovers	38	18	7	13	61	47	+14	61
8	Tottenham Hotspur	38	16	13	9	50	38	+12	61
9	Nottingham Forest	38	15	13	10	50	54	−4	58
10	West Ham United	38	14	9	15	43	52	−9	51
11	Chelsea	38	12	14	12	46	44	+2	50
12	Middlesbrough	38	11	10	17	35	50	−15	43
13	Leeds United	38	12	7	19	40	57	−17	43
14	Wimbledon	38	10	11	17	55	70	−15	41
15	Sheffield Wednesday	38	10	10	18	48	61	−13	40
16	Coventry City	38	8	14	16	42	60	−18	38
17	Southampton	38	9	11	18	34	52	−18	38
18	Manchester City (R)	38	9	11	18	33	58	−25	38	Relegation to 1996–97 Football League First Division
19	Queens Park Rangers (R)	38	9	6	23	38	57	−19	33
20	Bolton Wanderers (R)	38	8	5	25	39	71	−32	29

Updated to games played on 5 May 1996.
Source: Premier League
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored
¹ Liverpool qualified for the Cup Winners' Cup as FA Cup runners-up, as winners Manchester United already qualified for the Champions League.
(C) = Champion; (R) = Relegated; (P) = Promoted; (E) = Eliminated; (O) = Play-off winner; (A) = Advances to a further round.
Only applicable when the season is not finished:
(Q) = Qualified to the phase of tournament indicated; (TQ) = Qualified to tournament, but not yet to the particular phase indicated; (RQ) = Qualified to the relegation tournament indicated; (DQ) = Disqualified from tournament.

Results Summary

Overall								Home						Away
Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
38	15	13	10	50	54	−4	58	11	6	2	29	17	+12	4	7	8	21	37	−16

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
Ground	A	H	H	A	A	H	A	H	A	H	A	H	A	H	A	H	A	A	H	H	A	H	A	H	A	H	A	A	A	H	A	H	A	H	H	A	H	H
Result	W	D	D	D	D	W	D	W	W	W	D	W	L	D	D	D	D	L	W	W	L	W	L	W	L	L	L	W	D	W	L	W	W	L	D	L	D	W
Position	3	6	8	7	7	6	8	8	5	5	5	3	6	7	7	8	8	8	8	6	7	6	7	5	7	9	10	9	10	9	9	8	8	9	9	9	9	9

Source: Statto.com
Ground: A = Away; H = Home. Result: D = Draw; L = Loss; W = Win; P = Postponed.

Results

Nottingham Forest's score comes first

Legend

Win

Draw

Loss

FA Premier League

Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Scorers
19 August 1995	Southampton	A	4-3	15,164	Cooper (2), Roy (2)
23 August 1995	Chelsea	H	0-0	27,007
26 August 1995	West Ham United	H	1-1	26,645	Pearce (pen)
29 August 1995	Arsenal	A	1-1	38,248	Campbell
9 September 1995	Coventry City	A	1-1	17,219	Roy
17 September 1995	Everton	H	3-2	24,786	Watson (own goal), Lee, Woan
23 September 1995	Aston Villa	A	1-1	33,972	Lyttle
30 September 1995	Manchester City	H	3-0	25,620	Lee (2), Stone
14 October 1995	Tottenham Hotspur	A	1-0	32,876	Stone
21 October 1995	Bolton Wanderers	H	3-2	25,426	Roy, Lee, Cooper
28 October 1995	Queens Park Rangers	A	1-1	17,549	Lee
6 November 1995	Wimbledon	H	4-1	20,810	Roy, Pearce, Lee, Gemmill
18 November 1995	Blackburn Rovers	A	0-7	27,660
27 November 1995	Manchester United	H	1-1	29,263	McGregor
2 December 1995	Bolton Wanderers	A	1-1	17,342	Cooper
10 December 1995	Aston Villa	H	1-1	25,790	Stone
18 December 1995	Manchester City	A	1-1	25,660	Campbell
23 December 1995	Newcastle United	A	1-3	36,531	Woan
26 December 1995	Sheffield Wednesday	H	1-0	27,810	Lee
30 December 1995	Middlesbrough	H	1-0	27,027	Pearce (pen)
1 January 1996	Liverpool	A	2-4	39,206	Stone, Woan
13 January 1996	Southampton	H	1-0	23,321	Cooper
20 January 1996	Chelsea	A	0-1	24,482
31 January 1996	Leeds United	H	2-1	24,465	Campbell, Roy (pen)
3 February 1996	West Ham United	A	0-1	21,257
10 February 1996	Arsenal	H	0-1	27,222
24 February 1996	Everton	A	0-3	33,163
2 March 1996	Sheffield Wednesday	A	3-1	21,930	Howe, McGregor, Roy
16 March 1996	Middlesbrough	A	1-1	29,392	Allen
23 March 1996	Liverpool	H	1-0	29,058	Stone
30 March 1996	Wimbledon	A	0-1	9,807
6 April 1996	Tottenham Hotspur	H	2-1	27,053	Stone, Woan
8 April 1996	Leeds United	A	3-1	29,220	Cooper, Woan, Lee
13 April 1996	Blackburn Rovers	H	1-5	25,273	Woan
17 April 1996	Coventry City	H	0-0	24,629
28 April 1996	Manchester United	A	0-5	53,926
2 May 1996	Newcastle United	H	1-1	28,280	Woan
5 May 1996	Queens Park Rangers	H	3-0	22,910	Stone, Roy, Howe

FA Cup

Main article: 1995–96 FA Cup

Round	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Goalscorers
R3	6 January 1996	Stoke City	A	1-1	18,000	Pearce
R3R	17 January 1996	Stoke City	H	2-0	17,372	Campbell, Pearce (pen)
R4	7 February 1996	Oxford United	H	1-1	15,050	Campbell
R4R	13 February 1996	Oxford United	A	3-0	8,022	Campbell, Woan (pen), Silenzi
R5	28 February 1996	Tottenham Hotspur	H	2-2	18,600	Woan (2)
R5R	9 March 1996	Tottenham Hotspur	A	1-1 (won 3-1 on pens)	31,055	Roy
QF	13 March 1996	Aston Villa	H	0-1	21,067

League Cup

Main article: 1995–96 Football League Cup

Round	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Goalscorers
R2 1st Leg	19 September 1995	Bradford City	A	2-3	9,288	Bohinen (2)
R2 2nd Leg	4 October 1995	Bradford City	H	2-2 (lost 4-5 on agg)	15,231	Pearce, Silenzi

UEFA Cup

Main article: 1995–96 UEFA Cup

Round	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Goalscorers
R1 1st Leg	12 September 1995	Malmö FF	A	1-2	12,486	Woan
R1 2nd Leg	26 September 1995	Malmö FF	H	1-0 (won on away goals)	23,817	Roy
R2 1st Leg	17 October 1995	Auxerre	A	1-0	20,000	Stone
R2 2nd Leg	31 October 1995	Auxerre	H	0-0 (won 1-0 on agg)	28,064
R3 1st Leg	21 November 1995	Lyon	H	1-0	22,141	McGregor
R3 2nd Leg	5 December 1995	Lyon	A	0-0 (won 1-0 on agg)	35,000
QF 1st Leg	5 March 1996	Bayern Munich	A	1-2	38,000	Chettle
QF 2nd Leg	19 March 1996	Bayern Munich	H	1-5 (lost 2-7 on agg)	28,844	Stone

Squad

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 1 GK Mark Crossley 2 DF Des Lyttle 3 DF Stuart Pearce (captain) 4 DF Colin Cooper 5 DF Steve Chettle 7 MF David Phillips 8 MF Scot Gemmill 10 FW Kevin Campbell 11 MF Steve Stone 12 FW Jason Lee 13 GK Alan Fettis 14 MF Ian Woan 15 FW Andrea Silenzi

No. Position Player 16 MF Neil Webb 17 MF Kingsley Black 18 DF Alf-Inge Håland 19 MF Bobby Howe 20 FW Paul McGregor 21 DF Chris Bart-Williams 22 FW Bryan Roy 23 GK Tommy Wright 24 FW Richard Irving 25 DF Steve Blatherwick 26 DF Craig Armstrong 28 FW Steve Guinan 30 GK Richard Clark

Left club during season

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 6 DF Carl Tiler (to Aston Villa) 9 MF Lars Bohinen (to Blackburn Rovers)

No. Position Player 24 GK Simon Tracey (on loan to Sheffield United) 27 MF Chris Allen (on loan to Oxford United)

Reserve squad

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 13 GK Malcolm Rigby (de-registered) DF Andy Dawson DF Stuart Thom DF Vance Warner MF John Burns MF John Finnigan

No. Position Player MF Bobby Howe MF Steve Melton MF Paul Smith MF Justin Walker FW Andy Todd

Transfers

In

Date	Pos	Name	From	Fee
1 July 1995	DF	Chris Bart-Williams	Sheffield Wednesday	£2,500,000
1 July 1995	FW	Kevin Campbell	Arsenal	£2,800,000
19 July 1995	FW	Richard Irving	Manchester United	£75,000
16 August 1995	FW	Andrea Silenzi	Torino	£1,800,000
13 January 1996	GK	Alan Fettis	Hull City	£250,000

Out

Date	Pos	Name	To	Fee
1 July 1995	FW	Stan Collymore	Liverpool	£8,500,000
2 August 1995	DF	Gary Bowyer	Rotherham United	Free transfer
14 October 1995	MF	Lars Bohinen	Blackburn Rovers	£750,000
28 October 1995	DF	Carl Tiler	Aston Villa	£750,000
29 December 1995	FW	Gary Bull	Birmingham City	Free transfer
28 February 1996	DF	Danny Hinshelwood	Portsmouth	Free transfer

Transfers in: £7,425,000

Transfers out: £10,000,000

Total spending: £2,575,000

Statistics

Starting 11

Only considering appearances in Premiership and League Cup

No.	Pos	Nat	Name	MS	Notes
1	GK		Mark Crossley	39
2	RB		Des Lyttle	33
5	CB		Steve Chettle	38
4	CB		Colin Cooper	38
3	LB		Stuart Pearce	31
11	RM		Steve Stone	35
21	CM		Chris Bart-Williams	34
8	CM		Scot Gemmill	26
14	LM		Ian Woan	34
12	CF		Jason Lee	22
22	CF		Bryan Roy	26

References