Darren Ward - 7
Settled in well following his move from Meadow Lane in the summer and over the season he lived up to his reputation as being a great shot stopper, saving Forest many points. His distribution was good at times and I was impressed by the way he was always alert and quick off his line. However his season will be remembered for a couple of terrible errors, one at home to Man City when he rolled the ball straight to Goater, and away to Bradford when he let in tame effort from Eoin Jess. He was also at times susceptible to crosses due to his lack of height but on the whole he had a good season. By his body language at the end of the Preston game, and from the rumors, it appears he may leave in the summer.

Jim Brennan - 7.5
Made the left-back spot his own with his best season yet for Forest. He was very sound defensively and his forays forward caused opposition defence’s all sorts of trouble.

Riccy Scimeca - 8.5
Had an excellent season, settling in very well at centre back. He improved greatly aerially, his tackling was fantastic, his skills sublime, and his passing was good also. He was also captain for the majority of the season and seemed to take to the role better than I expected. He is however prone to the odd lack of concentration.

Jon Olav Hjelde - 8
This was probably his best season in a Forest shirt, if not just because he managed to stay relatively injury free. He was physically strong, good in the air and tackled well. He at times lacks pace, and does sometimes give away silly free kicks though.

David Prutton - 7.5
He really appeared to mature as a player this season especially after the loss of Chris Bart-Williams, when he had to fill the huge gap left by the Bartman. He did this well and I believe he will continue to improve and be a pivotal part of the team for many years to come as long as we can keep hold of him. He drives the team forward well at times, his tackling and battling qualities have improved, his passing is good but his shooting is still poor and needs to start and weigh in with his share of goals.

Jack Lester - 6.5
Has tried really hard in every game that he’s played in. However most of his running has been in vain and he hasn’t produced enough quality, and in particular he hasn’t scored enough goals.

Barry Roche
Hasn’t had a single opportunity in the first team to show his ability, but hasn’t complained. However based on the limited amount of times I’ve seen him he looks a very good prospect and if, as some have suspected, Darren Ward leaves in the summer he may step in and make the place his own.

Tony Vaughan - 6.75
Despite having very limited opportunities in the first team I think that Tony did very well. He was asked to play left back when Jim Brennan was away on international duty with Canada and filled in brilliantly. He was very solid and did nothing wrong; yet has since gone out of favour again and has found himself on loan at Scunthorpe. This is probably due to the influx of good young defenders into the squad and because of this he will probably be leaving the club soon.

Nicky Summerbee - 6.75
Started off very well at Forest and provided a lot of quality crosses from the right hand touchline. However, he did begin to fade somewhat and he often drifted in and out of games. It remains to be seen whether or not Paul Hart decides to acquire his services for next season when he recovers from his injury.

Mathieu Louis-Jean - 7
Proved himself to be a consistent and valuable member of the first team with a string of good performances. His pace and tackling were top notch. His only weaknesses are his height and that when further up the pitch his crossing is poor.

Marlon Harewood - 7
We all know that Marlon has his weaknesses, i.e. his lack of composure, poor finishing, lack of aerial ability, poor first touch at times and the fact that he drifts in and out of games. However, when we look at the facts, this season he scored 11 goals from just 20 full starts and 9 as a sub. This represents his best total and shows that he is improving and his pace and power are enough to trouble most defences in the division.

Andy Reid - 6
This has been a disappointing season for Reid, who would have been looking to establish himself into the side. He had a good spell mid-season when he played as a left-winger in a 4-3-3/4-5-1 formation. However, he got injured and on return looked very poor. He did seem to improve at the end, but next season he really needs to improve and show that he is good enough in this division.

Gareth Williams - 8
I think everyone will agree that he has been absolutely fantastic this season. His passing is top rate and he has really impressed this season, which included him captaining the side on a couple of occasions. Sometimes his tackling and physicality let him down and so too does his finishing. However these aspects can be improved upon as he continues to grow into an even better player, and hopefully we can keep hold of him.

 Eugen Bopp - 6.5
He has had some difficulties in adapting to first team football, notably the physical side, but I was impressed by the way he seemed to have learned from this and was much improved in his last couple of games. He will get better and can become a first team regular next season.

Others

There have of course been other players who contributed to Forest’s season, most notably Jermaine Jenas. He did begin to tire but started off the season magnificently and didn’t look out of place in the Newcastle starting line up after his move. Stern John went on a good run over Christmas and scored 14 goals for Forest before moving to Birmingham and firing them into the play offs. Chris Bart-Williams was as consistent as ever in the early weeks of the season before his move to Charlton. Alan Rogers and Andy Johnson both moved before they could really have an impact on the first team. Youngsters John Thompson, Kevin Dawson, Michael Dawson, Brian Cash and Craig Westcarr all burst onto the first team scene and look good prospects. Chris Doig got injured early in the season and fringe players Gary Jones, Christian Edwards and Andy Gray had little first team opportunities. David Johnson was out of sorts for Forest, yet prolific on his loans spells at Sheffield Wednesday and Burnley. Adam Proudlock failed to impress in his loan spell, he also looked out of sorts and over weight.

Overall

This season has to go down as a success to a certain extent as, despite losing five of our first team players, we managed to remain competitive and consolidate. The players dug in, gave it their all and played well in the circumstances. Over the summer it appears we may have to lose more players before any more come in, this was shown a couple of days ago with the release of Gray, Edds, Kevin Dawson, Lynch and Hudson, and from what we are led to believe, more will follow. I hope that this doesn’t involve the loss of Scimeca who has been my player of the year, and we must try and keep Prutton and Williams. If that happens then we can hopefully improve on our position of this season and can maybe be competitive in the upper part of the table.