Almost a year on, Ryan Yates admits to still being haunted by the last time Nottingham Forest faced Stoke City on the banks of the Trent.
Few of a Reds persuasion will need any reminder of what happened when the two sides faced each other last July.
A horrible evening at the City Ground ended with Forest’s play-off hopes in tatters as they collapsed at the final hurdle. They had needed just a point to finish in the top six but were thumped 4-1 by the Potters on a painful night.
Saturday will see a repeat of that fixture, and Yates says the memories of the final game of last season still linger.
“Every player will be different. For me, I don’t think it will leave me for a long time, to be honest,” he told NottinghamshireLive.
“My head was sort of semi, already focusing on ‘play well and make sure I’m in the team for the play-off games’. That’s where my head was at, going into that Stoke game.
“I remember the season finishing and I couldn’t even enjoy the first couple of weeks of being off, which is so strange for me – usually I just switch off. I just couldn’t.
“Still now, there’s something just there in the back of my head where it gives me the fire in my belly – obviously this season hasn’t gone how we’d like – but for next season, to really push on.
“Once we have got in the play-offs or achieved more than that, that’s the only time I could really put that to bed.”
In contrast to last term, Chris Hughton’s Reds have spent this campaign battling at the bottom end of the Championship table.
A point secured courtesy of Lewis Grabban’s last-gasp penalty at Birmingham City on Wednesday night, means they are all-but safe.
They are 18th in the table, 11 points clear of the bottom three, heading into their final three matches.
