Exclusive: Former Nottingham Forest striker Britt Assombalonga looks back at his time at the City Ground and how quickly things changed
Brian Dick Reach Football Correspondent
14:00, 31 Mar 2026Updated 14:12, 31 Mar 2026
Britt Assombalonga of Barnet celebrates scoring (Image: Alan Walter/Shutterstock)
Britt Assombalonga has spent a decade-and-a-half in professional football – yet his highest and lowest moments came within the space of five months in the Garibaldi Red.
Half a season can be a long time at most football clubs yet the Nottingham Forest rollercoaster can take you to dizzying heights and despairing depths in the blink of an eye.
Indeed it took Assombalonga, who is still plying his trade with League Two Barnet, just 25 games to go from scoring the favourite goal of his career to wanting ‘the world to eat me up’.
That was back in the 2014/15 campaign when the striker, then just 21-years-old, became the club’s most expensive ever signing when they paid Peterborough United £5million to find out just how good Posh’s latest goal machine could be.
Signed by Stuart Pearce, Assombalonga joined on the same day as Michail Antonio and auguries were good. Assombalonga scored four times in his first four Championship games before bagging what he still considers to be his most memorable goal.
September 14, 2014 and Nottingham Forest were top of the league when Derby County came to the City Ground. Seventy two minutes in Antonio threaded a pass into Assombalonga’s feet and with his back to goal the former Watford trainee spun his defender and curled a left-footed shot into the corner of the net. Reds 1 Rams 0 and the atmosphere was intoxicating.
“I always say when I scored that goal I felt like the ground was shaking, it was that loud it was unbelievable,” Assombalonga tells NottinghamshireLive.
“I’d never played in a game of that calibre before in terms of a derby and to score was crazy.”
Thirty thousand sun-kissed fans exploded, on course for promotion and winning at home to Derby with a club legend at the helm it really didn’t get any better.
No, it actually didn’t get any better. “Everyone called him Psycho and that but I didn’t see that at all,” Assombalonga says.
“He was so down to earth, he was chilling – or maybe he was just like that with me. He was a great guy and the moment I came he’s like ‘Just do what you do’. I really enjoyed my time with him.
“But it got cut short with him getting the sack – but that’s the life of football, isn’t it?”
Football and Forest weren’t done with Assombalonga yet. The youngster was on 14 for the season, including one in a 2-1 win at Pride Park, and was on track for an outstanding personal campaign.
Unfortunately the team had tailed off, three wins in 21 games had left them 12th and under owner Fawaz Al Hasawi that wasn’t good enough. Out went Pearce and in came Dougie Freedman but worse was to come.
Ten days later Assombalonga would suffer the first big injury of his career. Having opened the scoring in what turned out to be a 3-0 win over Wigan, midway through the second half disaster struck.
“No one was near me. I just took a shot and my foot got stuck in the ground and I obviously I tried to push off or whatever and everything just ripped.
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“I didn’t clock until someone told me, and then that’s when the tears just come rushing down my eyes and I’m just in pain.
“It was 15 months out, it was tough because when I was going for the surgery I could see it in the surgeon’s eyes and he was basically telling me he doesn’t know.
“I just wanted the world to eat me up and it was like ‘Well, what am I going to do because this is all I know?
“I’d been doing well, everything had been going good for me and all of a sudden there’s this big stop where I get injured and I’m getting told that ‘Yeah you could not play again’. Obviously that motivated me to do everything I can to get back.”
There had been 150 days between his joy against Derby and the devastation of a dislocated knee cap against the Latics.
By the time he played again in April 2016 Freedman was gone and Paul Williams was in caretaker charge, before Philippe Montanier took over in the summer ahead of Assombalonga’s third season.
“It was a tough one because when I came back, I came back the last few games and I scored on the final day against MK Dons.
“The next season I scored a couple and then I kept getting these niggles in my hamstring. I’ve never had muscle injuries in my life, it was the after effect of being out for a long time.
“Everything was just rushing back and it was like kind of like teaching my body again to deal with all this stress from training and playing games.
“I was in and out and I only started 20 games and obviously scoring 14 goals that season is an unbelievable record, but I came just at the right time.”
Indeed he did. Forest were a mess and Montanier lasted just seven months before he was replaced by Mark Warburton who arrived with a relegation scrap to win.
Britt Assombalonga works on his fitness on the training ground in June 2017
It was one that went down to the final day of the 2016/17 season and having bagged a brace in a 3-2 win over Reading in the penultimate home game of the campaign, Assombalonga scored two more in a 3-0 victory over Ipswich Town.
It would be his last game for the Reds and the last under the ownership of Fawaz who sold up to Evangelos Marinakis. Assombalonga was shipped off to Middlesbrough.
“I think it was already in the process before, they probably wanted to take the money and let me out.
“It was a tough decision because I loved it there,” he says. “I loved every minute of it but obviously a lot of the behind the closed doors conversations it just seemed like the right thing to do with everything that was happening behind the scenes.
“I didn’t know what was happening in terms of owners changing, one second it’s ‘You’ve got to go’. So at the end of the day I chose to change and go for a new challenge.”
That challenge took him to Boro as Forest bagged a £15m fee: “I’m proud that I threw myself into a new challenge, that’s what I had been doing.
“For me having the challenge was always something that I liked just to prove to myself that ‘I can do it anywhere I go’.
“I look back I wouldn’t change anything, all the clubs I’ve been I loved and obviously Forest is probably one of the favourite ones that played for.”
Assombalonga now spends his time split between playing for Barnet, albeit not that regularly, and is involved with an academy he runs in Peterborough with his brother Chris.
He has no plans to retire just yet though. The knee has remained in tact and he is aiming to help the Bees into the top seven. “Right now the focus is in trying to get into the playoffs and trying to help every way I can.
“Come the end of the season see where the options are, see where it takes me for my next journey, whether it’s here or somewhere else.
“I just have to take every step as it comes and I just want to enjoy the moments now and then see what happens after, not think too deeply, I’m older now so there’s no point thinking too much about it.”