Jason LEE

Jason Lee achieved notoriety throughout English football in the mid 1990s, but sadly for the big striker it was more to do with his hairstyle than his footballing skills. Fantasy Football's Frank Skinner and David Baddiel picked up on Jason's 'pineapple' style and the Forest striker soon became the butt of terrace humour up and down the country. It is perhaps a little harsh that Lee will be remembered for little more than the style of his hair for, during his time with Nottingham Forest, he never gave anything less than his all for the cause.

A £200,000 buy from Southend United in March 1994, Lee played his part in Forest's promotion back to the big time, playing 13 league games and scoring against Middlesbrough and Charlton. Jason was never going to be a first choice in Forest's starting line-up in the Premiership and, with Bryan Roy and Stan Collymore on fire for the Reds, he was to start just 5 games. He was a regular as a substitute however, making a further 17 appearances and scoring against Newcastle, Tottenham and Leicester as the Reds enjoyed a magnificent return to the top flight. With Frank Clark's big money signings Kevin Campbell and Andrea Silenzi failing miserably to fill the huge void left by Collymore's summer departure to Liverpool, Lee grabbed the opportunity of a starting place on a more regular basis.

His honest endeavour was rewarded with 8 goals from 28 league games, 7 of which were as a sub, and the big striker even featured in 6 of Forest's 8 games on their way to the quarter-finals of the UEFA Cup. A far cry indeed from his early days at Lincoln and Southend! That season proved to be the highlight of Lee's time at Forest and, after appearing sparingly the following season, he moved on to Watford in the summer of 1997 for £200,000, exactly the figure Forest had paid for him some 3 years previously. (David Scranage)