Biography
Experienced striker Forster signed for Hull City at the end of August 2006 for a £250,000 fee, joining up with City manager Phil Parkinson who was a teammate at Reading. Although Parkinson’s tenure as City manager didn’t last until the New Year, Forster served the Tigers effectively throughout the 2006/07 season and contributed goals to a struggling side. He scored his first City goal in November 2006, a consolation effort in a 1-5 drubbing at the hands of Colchester United that did much to help hasten the manager towards the exit. He added a handful of goals in the second half of the season as City eased away from the relegation places, however the draw for moving north had disappeared when Parkinson was replaced by Phil Brown at the Tigers’ helm and Forster returned to his South East England roots in the summer of 2007.
Nicholas Michael “Nicky” Forster was born in the Surrey town of Caterham and came into football via non-league football, joining the newly reformed Under-18s team of Combined Counties League side Horley Town in August 1991. By November 1991 he had graduated to the first team at Horley and scored on his League debut against Bedfont. Two months later in January 1992 he had scored six goals for the first team and was offered a trial at Division Four side Gillingham – for the remainder of the 1991/92 season Nicky combined regular goalscoring for the Gills’ Reserves team with short loan spells at Margate (March 1992) and Hythe Town. Forster signed his first professional contract for Gillingham in April 1992.
His rapid progress continued and by September 1992 he was starting first team matches for the Gills, scoring his first senior goal later that month against Cardiff City. He ended his first senior season with eight goals and continued to develop during the 1993/94 season – as Gillingham struggled in the lower half of the table Forster netted eighteen League goals and played a key role as the Gills maintained their League Division 3 status. By the 1994 close season Forster had scored 26 goals for Gillingham in 78 appearances.
Nicky joined League Division 2 side Brentford in June 1994, the £320,000 paid for his services did not mitigate the disappointment that Gills fans felt about his departure. His progress continued, in the 1994/95 season he started every League game and struck 26 goals in all competitions including his first senior hattrick against Chester City in December 1994. Brentford reached the end of season play-offs in May 1995 and Forster scored an equaliser in a tight first leg, but opponents Huddersfield Town progressed to the final after a penalty shootout. Over the next season and a half his goal output dropped slightly but was still sufficient to attract interest from higher divisions – when he left the Bees in January 1997 he had scored 47 goals in 136 appearances.
In January 1997 Forster transferred to League Division 1 side Birmingham City for a £700,000 fee. Over the next two and a half seasons he was used mostly as an impact substitute rather than a regular first team starter and scored twelve goals in 76 appearances, over half of which saw him coming off the bench. In June 1999 he reset his career and joined League Division 2 side Reading, a £650,000 fee being paid. He helped the Royals avoid relegation in his first season before missing most of the 2000/01 season due to injury, coming back to fitness in the closing weeks of the season and playing in all three play-off matches as Reading lost the Millennium Stadium final to Walsall. His 19 goals in the 2001/02 season, which included a January 2002 hattrick against Blackpool, helped Reading win automatic promotion to League Division 1. He netted further trebles against Ipswich Town in October 2002 and Preston North End in April 2003 as Reading went close to second successive promotion – Forster scored and was then injured in the play-off semi-final first leg against Wolverhampton Wanderers, who went on to bet Sheffield United in the final and reach the Premier League. Forster served Reading for two more seasons and by the end of the 2004/05 season he had scored 68 goals for the club in 215 appearances.
Forster signed for Championship side Ipswich Town in August 2005 on expiry of his contract at Reading. He spent two seasons at Portman Road but suffered several injury setbacks and made only 25 senior appearances – scoring eight goals – ahead of his August 2006 transfer to Hull City.
Forster left the Tigers to join League One side Brighton and Hove Albion in July 2007 and for three seasons he scored regular goals for the Seagulls as they hovered in mid-table – his last appearance for Brighton in March 2010 took his tally for the club to an impressive 51 goals in 119 appearances. He ended the 2009/10 season with a two month loan spell at League One promotion contenders Charlton Athletic, scoring two goals in 10 appearances and playing in both legs of the play-off semi-final against Swindon Town, which the Addicks lost on penalties. In July 2010 Forster returned to Brentford, now in League One, for his final season of senior football, netting once in 26 appearances – between February and June 2011 he was appointed caretaker manager of the Bees for 21 matches following the departure of Andy Scott. He left the senior game in the 2011 close season, having taken his senior career tally to 221 goals in 722 appearances – not bad for a young lad from Horley Town’s under-18s.
Forster played briefly for Sussex County League side Lingfield at the start of the 2011/12 season before being appointed player-manager at Conference South side Dover Athletic in September 2011, a job he left in January 2013 after a poor run of form. After a spell out of the game Forster returned to management in January 2015 with half a season at the helm of Staines Town. After football Nicky owned and operated a personal training business in Godstone, a village a few miles south of his Caterham birthplace.
In June 1995 Forster was selected for the England Under-21 squad and played four matches that month against Brazil, Malaysia, Angola and France – he scored his only Under-21s goal against Angola.
Details
Nationality: England
Date/Place of Birth: 8 September 1973, Caterham
Hull City First Game: 9 September 2006, Birmingham City A (Championship), 33 years, 1 days old
Hull City Final Game: 6 May 2007, Plymouth Argyle H (Championship), 33 years, 240 days old
Clubs
Horley Town (1991-1992), Gillingham (1992-1994), Margate (1992, loan), Hythe Town (1992, loan), Brentford (1994-1997), Birmingham City (1997-1999), Reading (1999-2005), Ipswich Town (2005-2006), Hull City (2006-2007), Brighton & Hove Albion (2007-2010), Charlton Athletic (2010, loan), Brentford (2010-2011), Lingfield (2011), Dover Athletic (2011-2013)
Hull City Record
Career: 37 apps, 6 goals
Nicky Forster| Season | LGE App | LGE Gls | FAC App | FAC Gls | FLC App | FLC Gls | EUR App | EUR Gls | OTH App | OTH Gls |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006/07 | 26 (9) | 5 | 1 (1) | 1 | – | – | – | – | – | – |