Nottingham Forest 96/97: With 96 season underway Corinthian finally manged to get their Forest players through the production line. As mentioned prior in the 95/96 notes, Frank Clark's name was misspelt, couple this with the fact that he left in November of 1996 means that any chance of release was firmly out the window. He was replaced by Dave Bassatt and assistant manager Alan Hill was replaced by Stuart Pearce. Forest, did have a 12 pack issued though, as well as two 4 packs and single blisters for all players. The team more or less stayed the same apart from the most notable addition of Pierre Van Hooijdonk who they bought from from Celtic and finally fill the gap left by Collymore. Other departures include Lars Bohinen (Blackburn) and Carl Tiler (Aston Villa), these players will be replaced by Nikola Jerkan and Nigel Clough.

 

Achievements 94/95:

Premier League: 16th

FA Cup: R4 (3-1 loss to Norwich)

League Cup: R3 (2-0 loss to Blackburn Rovers)

 

Achievements 95/96:

Premier League: 16th

FA Cup: R4 (4-3 aggregate loss to Manchester City)

League Cup: R4 (2-1 loss to Wolverhampton Wanderers)

Kit: The new strip debuted on 17th August 1996 and was worn against Coventry. Kevin Campbell scored a hatrick after returning from injury problems resulting in a 0-3 away win. It was worn until 2nd May 1998 at point which Forest were playing in the Championship. The last game of the season came against West Bromich Albion with Steve Stone putting the visitors ahead but Lee Hughes levelled for the hosts after converting from the spot. The result mattered not as Forest were already guaranteed a return to the Premier League.

Forest continued to use both Umbro and Labatt's as their respective kit supplier and sponsor. The kit itself bares a mild resemblance but there were quite a few key details missing. Corinthian included most of the black detailing but often the paint is a combination of mixing the red and black, rather than using jet black. A thin white line should separate all the black rectangles on the sleeve and a black trim should have been on the outer collar. The socks should have only had one black line beneath the top fold whereas Corinthian placed two thin lines. Although Labatt's continued to sponsor them, the two thin white lines above and below this were actually part of the previous kit design and should have been removed. The badge also changed from a shield crest to a circle and this wasn't altered either. Although the kit was a deeper red, Corinthian opted for a red with a slight pinkish tone and isn't all that close to the original colour.
Rating: 6/10