Biography
Striker Jamie Forrester joined Peter Taylor’s Tigers in January 2003 as the new manager began to assemble a squad of players that matched the ambition for promotion shown by chairman Adam Pearson and his backers. Forrester was immediately introduced to the first team and after a few range-finding games he opened his account with three goals in three consecutive games against his former club Scunthorpe United, then Cambridge United and Carlisle United. However five goalless matches resulted in Taylor preferring new signing Ben Burgess up front with Jonathan Walters moving into Forrester’s support striker role. Forrester started the 2003/04 season on the City bench and was used primarily as impact substitute for most of the season. He performed this role well, again contributing three goals in three games in October 2003 against Northampton Town (another of his former clubs), Carlisle United (again) and Darlington. Forrester was in the first eleven on Boxing Day 2003 and scored in a 2-0 victory at York City. That was his final goal for the Tigers and by March 2004 he had drifted out of the first team picture as City, powered by the goals of Ben Burgess, Danny Allsopp and Stuart Elliott, won a historic promotion with a win at Yeovil Town. Forrester left the club in the 2004 close season.
Bradford born Jamie Mark Forrester took a path less travelled by English players, having coming through the junior ranks at Leeds United he was nurtured at the FA National School of Excellence from the age of 14 to 16. At 16 he decided to head to France and signed for Ligue 1 side Auxerre but after a year in Burgundy he returned to England in October 1992 and re-signed for Premier League side Leeds United in return for a £120,000 fee. Forrester made his senior debut for the Elland Road side in March 1993, coming on for Rod Wallace in a 1-1 draw at Nottingham Forest. A few weeks later he was part of the team that lifted the 1993 FA Youth Cup, scoring a spectacular overhead kick as Leeds beat Manchester United in a two-legged final. Over the next three years Forrester made 11 senior appearances for Leeds, scoring twice in a January 1994 FA Cup Third Round tie against Crewe Alexandra – his first senior goals. He also enjoyed loan spells with two League Division 1 sides – at Southend United in September 1994, where he made 5 appearances working under Shrimpers’ manager Peter Taylor, who later signed him for Hull City; and at Grimsby Town in March 1995, where he scored once in 9 appearances.
In October 1995 he returned to Blundell Park and made a permanent move to League Division 1 side Grimsby Town, in a year and a half at Blundell Park Forrester established himself as a regular first team squad member and scored nine goals in 46 senior appearances, making a third of those appearances from the bench. In March 1997 he moved up to M180 to join Lincolnshire rivals and League Division 3 side Scunthorpe United, the first signing of his former Grimsby manager Brian Laws. It was at Glanford Park that Forrester he made his mark as a first team starter, playing alongside future Hull City team-mates Andy Dawson and John Eyre. Jamie netted six goals in 10 appearances at the end of the 1996/97 season, including a brace in April 1997 against Terry Dolan’s Hull City side, and went on to be The Iron’s leading goalscorer for two seasons, scoring 42 times in 121 appearances and grabbing 23 goals in the 1998/99 season as Scunthorpe won promotion to League Division 2 via the play-offs, defeating Leyton Orient in the Wembley final.
This form led to Dutch side FC Utrecht signing Forrester in June 1999 but despite starting his career in the Netherlands with an August 1999 hattrick in the Amstel Cup against Spakenburg he made only one league appearance against Willem II in December 1999. He spent January and February 2000 on loan at League Division 1 side Walsall, making 5 appearances, then spent the last two months of the 1999/00 season at League Division 3 side Northampton Town where he netted six times in 10 appearances – this mirrored his loan spell at Scunthorpe three seasons earlier and even featured an April goal against Hull City. Forrester’s goals assisted Northampton’s quest to gain promotion to League Division 2 that May and he made the permanent move to the Sixfields club in July 2000. In two and a half seasons with the Cobblers Jamie recreated his Scunthorpe form, hitting 44 goals in 126 starts and twice finishing top scorer in the League. It was these scoring exploits the led to Hull City signing Forrester in January 2003.
Forrester left the Tigers in July 2004 and joined League Two side Bristol Rovers – his eleven goals in 52 appearances for The Gas, many of which came off the bench, re-established his reputation. In March 2006 he was loaned to League Two rivals Lincoln City and Forrester did the business for a third end-of-season loan spell in nine years, scoring five goals in 11 appearances. This led to a permanent move to Lincoln City in July 2006, further enhancing Forrester’s collection of Lincolnshire sides, and he hit 32 goals for the Imps in 90 appearances across two seasons. Jamie switched to Notts County, another League Two side, in June 2008 for what became his final season in the professional game, scoring eight times in 32 appearances.
Forrester joined Lincoln United in 2009 and also played for Lincoln Moorlands Railway, ending his playing days in 2010. He then took up a coaching role in the Lincoln area and briefly presented a TV show about lower league football. He then forged a second career in marketing, dispensing energy saving advice to businesses, leading the launch of a social media app and working for a synthetic grass manufacturer. In 2021 Forrester founded the Love Sport Foundation, which dispensed free sports coaching and training to youngsters in deprived areas of South Yorkshire and North Nottinghamshire.
Jamie won eight England Under-16 caps in 1990 while still at the FA School of Excellence, playing alongside future City star Nick Barmby. Forrester also won two England under-18 caps in the 1993 UEFA Under-18 Championship Finals played in, and won by, England.
Details
Nationality: England
Date/Place of Birth: 1 November 1974, Bradford
Hull City First Game: 25 January 2003, York City H (League Division 3), 28 years, 85 days old
Hull City Final Game: 8 May 2004, Bristol Rovers H (League Division 3), 29 years, 189 days old
Clubs
Auxerre (1991-1992), Leeds United (1992-1995), Southend United (1994, loan), Grimsby Town (1995, loan), Grimsby Town (1995-1997), Scunthorpe United (1997-1999), FC Utrecht (1999-2000), Walsall (2000, loan), Northampton Town (2000, loan), Northampton Town (2000-2003), Hull City (2003-2004), Bristol Rovers (2004-2006), Lincoln City (2006, loan), Lincoln City (2006-2008), Notts County (2008-2009), Lincoln United (2009-2010), Lincoln Moorlands Railway (2010)
Hull City Record
Career: 34 apps, 8 goals
Jamie Forrester| Season | LGE App | LGE Gls | FAC App | FAC Gls | FLC App | FLC Gls | EUR App | EUR Gls | OTH App | OTH Gls |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002/03 | 11 (0) | 3 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| 2003/04 | 6 (15) | 4 | 0 (1) | 0 | – | – | – | – | 1 (0) | 1 |