Although becoming a first team regular at Forest, Black soon fell out with his manager only months into his career at the City Ground and found himself transfer listed.
Black returned to regular football the following year and was part of the side who earned promotion straight back to the top flight.
With the emergence of Ian Woan and Steve Stone, Black found himself out of favour and was eventually loaned out twice, making appearances for Sheffield United and Millwall.
When manager Alan Buckley was sacked in September 2000, he was replaced by Lennie Lawrence who in turn brought in midfielders Menno Willems, Knut Anders Fostervold, Neil Murray and most notably Leicester City youngster Stuart Campbell.
Alan Buckley left the club by mutual consent, and in came another former Grimsby Town player Keith Alexander as the new manager.
[7] He returned to Grimsby to play in John McDermott's testimonial against Hull City in 2005 in which he was joined by the majority of his former teammates from the 1997/1998 season.
In 2008, he played in an exhibition match with the players from the Luton League cup win in honour of the late David Preece.
Black also has a holiday home in Majorca, where he co-owns a small charcuterie selling cured local meats and sausages.