Forest star Earnshaw made his name at Cardiff

IT was his reputation as a consistent goalscorer at all levels of the game that led to Nottingham Forest shelling out £2.65m for the services of Robert Earnshaw from Derby in the summer.

But it was at today's opponents Cardiff where the 27-year-old built his reputation as a lethal act in front of goal.

His 105 goals in 163 starts at his first club, helping them from the old Division Three into what is now the Championship, led to international honours and a crack at the Premiership.

But today he hopes to return from a month-long injury lay-off to line up against Cardiff in the hope of producing the same kind of form in a Reds shirt.

His Cardiff debut came as a mere 16-year-old in December, 1997, in a Football League Trophy tie against Millwall before scoring his first goal at the start of the following season in a 1-1 draw with Hartlepool.

He had a short spell on loan in Scotland with Morton in the 1999/2000 campaign before finally making his breakthrough with the Bluebirds in 2000/2001.

And what a breakthrough it proved to be as he started to achieve the record of scoring a hat-trick in all four divisions, the FA Cup, League Cup and at international level.

In that season, he bagged 25 goals including an FA Cup hat-trick against Bristol Rovers and one in the league against Torquay as Cardiff won promotion from Division Three.

The following season he would score 16 goals in Division Two as Cardiff lost out to Stoke in the play-off semi finals.

But he blasted a stunning 36 goals in 2002/03 for club and country and this time Cardiff won promotion to Division One – now the Championship.

That included a League Cup hat-trick against Boston and putting three past both QPR and Tranmere in the league.

And on reaching the second tier of English football, his goalscoring heroics continued as he hammered in 31 goals for Cardiff and Wales on the bigger stage.

That included four against Gillingham in the league, three against Leyton Orient in the League Cup and a hat-trick for Wales against Scotland.

He would start the following season at Ninian Park but his goal at Kidderminster in the first month of the season in the cup would prove his last as a £3m move took him to the Premiership with West Brom.

From there he moved to Norwich for £3.5m and then Derby for the same price before his move to the City Ground.

After five goals in nine starts for Forest until his hamstring problems halted his progress, he hopes to get the ball rolling once more against his former club this afternoon.