14/05/01 | by Alex Walker for Match

August

The board’s plan to boost attendances with reduced season ticket prices seems to have paid off as the Trent End is sold out and over 21,000 attend the opening game with West Brom, the highest attendance of the day.

Defeat against Birmingham at home in the third game of the league gives the Forest boss a lot to worry about in the early weeks of the season.

September

Forest take some of the pressure off David Platt as they beat Sheffield Wednesday 1-0 at Hillsborough thanks to Jack Lester’s goal, not only winning 3 points but setting aside the memories of their last visit which saw them lose 4-1.

Forest crash out of the Worthington Cup to Third Division Darlington, losing 4-3 on aggregate and 2-1 at the City Ground, Dave Beasant being the culprit making a typical error with a terrible clearing kick giving the Northeners an open-goal.

October

The Reds storm to a 5-0 victory over fellow promotion hopefuls Burnley. Bart-Williams (2), Johnson, Rogers and Scimeca score in a game which is first the first of 4 straight wins.

Forest are fined £15,000 and given an FA warning after an inquiry over August’s game with Crystal Palace which result in an 18-man brawl and goal keeper Dave Beasant being sent off. Memories of last season’s dreadful discipline record start to play on the mind of many fans.

November

Jack Lester makes a name for himself as Forest win 3-1 away at Gillingham live on Sky Sports. Lester scored all three goals as Forest showed all watching how much they have improved this year.

Forest’s good form comes to an abrupt halt as they lose 2-1 to Wimbledon in the dying minutes of the game, having just grabbed a well deserved equaliser. Forest fans were still celebrating Tony Vaughan’s leveller when Anderson headed in from a corner.

December

Forest and DC United settle a deal that extends Ben Olsen’s loan spell at the City Ground 'till the end of the season. Olsen joined after representing the USA in the Olympics and has been a great hit winning two player of the month awards.

A crowd of 28,372 turn up at the City Ground with hopes of seeing Forest jump into the top three with a good result over bottom club Huddersfield. But things don’t go quite to plan and understrength Forest get stage-fright, conceding 3 goals in quick succession to lose the game 3-1.

January

David Platt brings in his most expensive signing in the form of striker David Johnson who costs £3.5m from Ipswich Town. Johnson had already proved himself with 62 goals for Ipswich, and helped them win promotion last season. ‘DJ’ is expected to score the goals to sustain Forest’s play-off hunt.

Another big game is blown by Forest as David Johnson makes his debut live on Sky. Forest lose 3-0 to Crystal Palace at the City Ground. Fortunately David Platt’s side have a 2 week break in fixtures for him to find out what went wrong.

February

Forest start to put some pride back into their season, beating promotion rivals Blackburn Rovers 2-1 at home. Bart-Williams and Edwards grab the goals for the Reds as they turn out a confident performance and keep themselves in contention for promotion.

After 2 good performances against Blackburn and Fulham, Forest take 3 steps back with a defeat at home to Sheffield Wednesday in dire fashion. Another defeat against poorer opposition puts the pressure back onto David Platt’s shoulders.

March

Paul Hart’s Under 19s squad are named as champions of their FA Premier Academy League section with 5 games to go and no defeats to their name. They go through to the end-of-season national play-offs, a great boost to everyone concerned with the future of the club.

Ben Olsen is ruled out for the rest of the season with a broken ankle, having only just made his return to action in the match at home to Barnsley. Meanwhile, DC United put a £2.5m price tag on him, making a permanent move to the City Ground unlikely.

April

Forest win their long court battle with former shareholders Irving Scholar and Julian Markham, who had claimed Nigel Doughty’s £18m investment into the club in the summer of 1999 had been illegal. Mr Justice Hart rules Mr Doughty’s actions to be lawful and orders the claimants to pay costs of these “completely unnecessary and misconceived proceedings”.

Forest season ends on a flat note, having already been ruled out of the play-off race. They lose 1-0 at home to Gillingham and leave the pitch to a chorus of boos. A typically disappointing result and performance with sums up the whole season’s let-down.

May

More good news for Forest's youth as the U19s win the play-offs to become national champions. They beat QPR 4-3 over two legs in the final, Gordon Love scoring the winning goal in extra-time.

The club's dire financial situation comes to the fore as chairman Eric Barnes reveals the need to reduce the club's wage bill and the planned sale of player of the year and captain, Chris Bart-Williams.