Job done for City Forest are coming back again next season.

That should guarantee at least one bumper pay day at Valley Parade. Fingers crossed now that Hudders-field blow up in the play-offs to keep the local derby!

Take nothing away from promoted Southend and Colchester but a visit from the Essex boys hardly sends the cash tills ringing.

Forest brought 5,700 fans with them that's ten times more than most opponents. So any gloating in the Bantams board room at seeing their opponents staying down could surely be forgiven.

The 15,000 gate was far and away the best of the campaign and Colin Todd's rough calculations afterwards reckoned the club had banked £100,000.

"So that's my playing budget sorted," he smiled wickedly.

While the players can look forward to putting their feet up, Todd knows that his hard work starts here.

Today he was delivering his verdict on those in the dressing room who are out of contract. Expect an exodus as he clears the desk for another rebuild.

Todd has his shopping list drawn up for positions at least, if not names but knows the bank account is hardly unlimited, even with Peter Etherington's anticipated input.

He said: "I've got a lot to do with no money but there's no good bleating about it. If the chairman says that's your budget, then you just get on with it.

"I need a lot of players, about six or seven, who can help us next season to get in the play-offs. That will be our aim.

"You can go down different avenues and hopefully I can get one or two from the Premiership like I did with Andrew Taylor."

Todd's check list is wide-ranging a left back (even if Lewis Emanuel stays), a left winger, centre half, two central midfielders and a striker or two.

That's pretty much every position then. Apart from goalkeeper ...

But that could also change especially if Donovan Ricketts repeats his form from Saturday when Jamaica play England at Old Trafford next month.

That would be the ultimate shop window for the big man, who has fast become City's prize asset.

Having now lost Damion Stewart to QPR, the Bantams would hate to see the back of the other Reggae Boy. At least with another year to go on his contract, Ricketts would command decent money should any offer come in.

But fingers crossed that this was not his farewell too, though what a performance he gave.

Forest, needing the win to keep their play-off hopes alive, threw everything at Ricketts bar the kitchen sink. But no doubt he would have plucked that from the sky as well with one of those bucket-like hands.

Grant Holt, in particular, must have wondered if it was possible to beat the man.

Holt had bad memories from playing City earlier this season, when he got a 5-0 spanking in the Carling Cup with previous club Rochdale. But Ricketts was injured at the time and did not play.

The scoreline may have been much kinder on Saturday but the frustration was just as acute for the Forest striker.

Three times he thought he had scored and three times he was defied by the Superman between the sticks.

Ricketts beat away his first attempt at the near post, somehow dug out another on the stroke of half-time that was destined for the bottom corner and then palmed away a fierce shot-on-the-turn ten minutes from time.

Throw in two more stunning saves from left winger Kris Commons and it was a goalkeeping show of excellence right up there with Paul Henderson's at Port Vale last season.

The only ingredient missing was a third clean sheet on the bounce.

Ricketts should have had that but weak-willed referee Tony Bates, who was poor throughout, failed to notice the wall of blue shirts completely barring the keeper's way to a late corner which Julian Bennett bundled home.

It would have been a travesty had Forest been beaten, given they had so many chances and the bulk of the play, but there was no way that goal should have been allowed to stand and Ricketts had every right to complain bitterly.

But it wouldn't be The Don' without the odd hair-raising moment, so instances of great handling from Forest set-pieces were punctuated with throws that went straight out of play or clearances that didn't even make the halfway line.

At one stage he charged 30 yards from his goal to sidefoot the loose ball past Nathan Tyson before thumping it upfield. Nobody was quite sure if he intended it as a clearance or a shot at the Forest goal!

But Todd knows he has a real gem and is prepared to overlook the "little blemishes" by Ricketts. "For all that, he's one of the top keepers in this league for shot-stopping and coming for crosses," said his manager.

With the constant talk of changes on and off the field, City still have the solid backbone through the team with Ricketts, David Wetherall, Mark Bower, Marc Bridge-Wilkinson and, of course, Dean Windass.

He had gone quiet since his birthday hat-trick against Scunthorpe. Five games without a goal followed, including a shadow of a performance at Barnsley the previous week.

But this was the sort of occasion on which Windass thrives and he was back to his sharpest best as illustrated by the 20th-minute opening goal.

Bridge-Wilkinson had a flat game by his standards and found himself sidelined by the aggressive Gary Holt in central midfield. But the City playmaker had a major role in breaking the deadlock, with a skimming 25-yarder to Paul Gerrard's right.

The keeper parried it by the post but Windass led a claret and amber posse hunting for the kill and smacked home the rebound. It was an awkward finish but he made it seem so simple with the air of a master craftsman.

A nice way to reach the 20-goal target he had set himself before a ball had been kicked.

Hope springs eternal every pre- season and there were genuine hopes at that time of City making a real play for the top six. We all know that never materialised but at least there was something resting on the final game if only for the visitors.

In the event, this scoreline hardly mattered. Away wins elsewhere for play-off-bound Barnsley and Swansea made sure the table stayed as you were, with Forest shoved into seventh spot.

But that sense of too little, too late only surfaced in Forest's demeanour in the final moments when it was City, playing second fiddle for most of the second half, who came so close to snatching a fifth home win on the bounce.

Windass, not to mention the whole ground, thought he had a second of his own when he blasted against the underside of the bar but the ball bounced down off the line and away.

Substitute Joe Brown was millimetres away from nodding home a corner, Windass had another effort blocked by Morgan and even Mark Bower joined the fun with a chip that landed on top of the net.

It was cracking stuff to sign off a frustrating campaign. Maybe next time Forest are in town, both sides will be chasing promotion points.