You came through the Nottingham Forest academy but were loaned out early on in your career. How useful were those spells?
They were a lifesaver really, because I wasn’t getting on too well with Mr Clough at Forest. Lincoln were top of the Fourth Division and sold out every home match – about 15,000 fans at Sincil Bank. Suddenly I had someone believing that I could actually play the game. After doing well at Lincoln, there were more lower-league clubs taking an interest in me. That built my confidence and I later went to Doncaster. I thought, ‘I’m never going to play for Forest again’. But after returning, I went to see Clough and asked
