NOTTS FOREST - One of the few clubs at our level who could rightfully be described a "sleeping giant", they have an illustrious history with some of the biggest names in football being associated with them. Founded in 1865 by a group of Shinty players, they now play at the City Ground, capacity 30,445, just a matter of 300 yards away across the river Trent from Notts County's home at Meadow Lane. They play in red tops and socks with white shorts and nicknames include, Forest, The Reds and archaically, Tricky Trees. The club finished in 17th place in last year's table and presently sit in 14th position with 7 points from 6 games under manager Aitor Karanka.
Honours include: First Division Champions in 1977/78, Runners up 1966/67 and 1978/79.
European Champions in 1978/79 and 1979/80 under Brian Clough and Peter Taylor.
FA Cup Winners: 1897/98 and 1958/59. Finalists in 1990/91
League Cup Winners: 1977/78, 1978/79, 1988/89, 1989/90. Finalists 1979/80 and 1991/92
Charity Shield Winners: 1978
EUFA Super Cup 1979. Finalists 1980
Famous managers include Clough and Taylor, Dave Mackay, Stuart Pearce, Ron Atkinson, David Platt, Joe Kinnear and Steve McLaren. There are far too many famous players to name but include the first £1 million pound transfer fee they paid Birmingham City for Trevor Francis. Others include, Roy Dwight (Elton John's uncle), Colin Addison (briefly Swan's manager), Ian Storey-Moore, Terry Hennessey (ex Wales captain and father of Wales' keeper Wayne), John Robertson, Martin O'Neill (current ROI manager), Tony Woodcock, Viv Anderson (first black player capped by England), Roy Keane, Gary Birtles, John McGovern, John O'Hare, Larry Lloyd, Kenny Burns, Archie Gemmill, Peter Shilton, Nigel Clough, Steve Webb, Stan Collymore, Des Lyttle (ex Swan), David Johnson and many others. Younger posters will find some of those names strange but, believe me, you had to be GOOD to play in the Forest team in their heyday, with most of them quality international players.
Of course the halcyon days were under Clough and Taylor. I had the pleasure of meeting and talking at length to both when my friend Clive Thomas the referee (himself a big mate of Cloughie), invited Forest to play a charity match at Ninian Park in aid of the Boys' Club of Wales of which Frankie Vaughan the singer was also a patron. In Hospitality after the game, I grabbed the chance to speak with Clough who was really generous with his time and we seemed to hit it off. The amount of knowledge and information he imparted to me that evening was little short of incredible and I learned so much about the game that I didn't know. We'll never see his like again.
As for memorable games there can only be two for me. The first I watched on telly in my mate's house when we held on for that fabulous 0-0 after being reduced to 10 men early doors. The other, of course, was when I saw us beat Forest at the Liberty 3-1 with Pratley's famous last minute goal sealing the deal. Next stop Wembley and the rest is history.
But I will finish with two games that took place when we were both in the First Division. The first was at the Vetch on December 12th 1981 when we lost 1-2 in front of 17,500 people including me. Robbie James scored for us. The second game on May 8th 1982 at Forest, we won 2-0 with Robbie getting another two. I was working that day and totally gobsmacked when I heard the result. Not many teams beat Forest on their own patch in those days. And we deserved the win according to Cloughie. Great memories.
