Southampton legend Benali recalls brief spell at Nottingham Forest

I spent three months on loan at Forest in 2001. With the exception of Eastleigh, they are the only club I have played for apart from Southampton.

Moving away from Saints was a huge moment, and it took me away from my family. It was a difficult decision to make.

At that stage in my career, I felt as though I needed to be playing regular football and didn’t get the impression I was part of Glenn Hoddle's plans.

Everyone knows that Saints were the club I’ve always wanted to play for and that I never wanted to leave.

But at that moment in time, it was good for me to go away and play some football. It was good for my development - I grew as a person by being the new boy at a club.

The most difficult part was that I pretty much made the commute to Nottingham and back every day.

If I had the opportunity to come back home, I would do it. I found myself driving back and forth regularly to make sure things worked from a football and family perspective.

I had a great time at Forest and crossed paths with a number of faces who will be familiar to Saints supporters young and old.

I rejoined my former Saints teammate Dave Beasant when I arrived - it was nice to have a familiar face in the dressing room.

I also got to know Steve Wigley who would later come down to Saints as a coach and then a manager.

Current Saints assistant Colin Calderwood was also at Forest at the time. While I never got to play alongside him, due to his injury issues at the time, I always respected him as an opponent.

Colin Calderwood (right) is Russell Martin's assistant (Image: PA)

Undoubtedly, my best memory in a Nottingham Forest shirt was when we beat Portsmouth at Fratton Park.

Chris Bart-Williams scored a double on the day and my celebrations at full-time were above the level expected from a Forest player for obvious reasons.

I feel a lot of encouragement heading into today's game following our performance at Newcastle United last week.

Although we should have earned at least a point, the performance was good and the players have taken a lot of positives for the season.

The manner of defeat will be frustrating - it came from an error that might not have been punished in the Championship.

But that being said, we went toe to toe with one of the best clubs in the country and clearly earned their respect as a team.

(Image: PA)

The game against Newcastle is gone now. I hope the players use their frustration at not earning anything from that match and channel it into today's game against Forest.

I'm gutted that I won't be at St Mary's this afternoon due to work commitments but I expect the atmosphere to be fantastic.

There's no better time to get your first three points of the season than against another club that you view as being on the same level as yourselves compared to other clubs in the league.

We need to kick start our season and this is a great opportunity to do so with the Northam end being refigured and the fan zone areas being opened.

I'm hoping to see the likes of Cameron Archer and Lesley Ugochukwu get their first minutes at St Mary's this weekend - although the game may arrive too early for Mateus Fernandes.