Trentside Tales - Nottingham Forest F.C & Notts CCC
- Neil Harrison
** NOTE THAT WHEN I DETAIL HOW MANY YEARS AGO A GAME IS >>> I STARTED THE ARTICLE IN 15th FEB 2013 & CONTINUED FOR 12 MONTHS,, SO BEAR THIS IN MIND IF YOU ARE READING IT IN LATER YEARS ** ... NOT THE BEST WAY IN HINDSIGHT BUT JUST WANTED TO HIGHLIGHT! ...
21 years ago....15/2/92, Forest hammered Bristol City 4-1 at the City Ground in front of 24,615 in the 5th Round of the FA Cup to take us through to a Quarter-Final tie at Portsmouth, which sadly we lost 1-0. A forgetable day for our legedary keeper Mark Crossley! Only once since have we reached the Quarter-Final stage when we lost 1-0 at home to Aston Villa in 1996.
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We are long overdue a good cup run but my first memory of a great run was back in the 1973/74 season. This season actually mirrors that season to the day and I alluded to our magical 4th Round tie recently on Facebook, LTLF & LinkedIN.
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Sun 27th Jan & the Duncan Mckenzie show as 2nd division Forest simply outplayed high flying 1st division Man City, resulting in a resounding 4-1 win at the CG in front of 41,472. As a then 13 year old, that game still remains one of my favourite ever. The game had kicked off early as there was a floodlight ban due to the ongoing power workers & or miners stike so you could say that aftenoon lit up an otherwise dull time. Anyhow, we went on to meet Portsmouth in Round 5, exactly 39 years ago this Sunday (17/2/74) where we secured a 1-0 win thanks to a Duncan Mckenzie penalty to earn us a Quarter-Final at Newcastle ... and that CERTAINLY is another story; one which still rankles & hurts to this day but I will save that for another day.
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18/2/91 - 22 years ago today - Forest 3-0 Newcastle in a 4th Round replay in the FACup in front of 28,962 at the City Ground, setting up a 5th Round trip to Southampton the following Monday. From Sat 16th Feb to 4th March, we played 6 games in 17 days as we played catch up in the Cup.
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They aint too keen these days in playing that many games but if you reflect back to the 1970's, I can remember us playing things like 3 games in 5 days, 4 in 9 days and so on, with an especially busy programme at Easter & Christmas.
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On This Day - (Feb-May) - Officially started website 24/2/13 ...
On This Day - (Feb to May) - Started Article 15/2/13
19/2/89 - 24 years ago today Forest produced another strong performance in the 5th Round of the FACup with a resounding 3-0 win at Watford, setting up a Quarter- Final tie at Old Trafford v Man Utd. The Watford game for the record was screened live by the BBC & as the Reds progressed towards Wembley on 3 fronts (League Cup, FACup & Simod Cup).
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We would make 2 Wembley finals, winning both the League Cup & the Simod Cup, but after a wonderful win at Old Trafford in the Quarter-Final, nobody could imagine what would prevent us from reaching the FACup final, just one word - 'Hillsborough'.
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22/2/78 - 35 years ago Nottm Forest entertained Leeds Utd in the semi-final 2nd leg of the League Cup. Confidence was high as we had won 3-1 in the 1st leg 2 weeks earlier at Elland Road. However 20 mins or so into the game & we found ourselves trailing 1-2 and they then hit the bar which would have levelled the tie by half time.
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In the 2nd half, we simply blew them away winning the game 4-2 (7-3 on aggregate) to reach Wembley for the 1st time since 1959 & the first time in my lifetime, in what was another great night at the City Ground in front of 38,131.
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Liverpool, current champions of England & Europe awaited in the final, but that was all about to change ... in more ways than one!
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22/2/03 - 10 years ago, Forest hamered Stoke 6-0 at the City Ground in front of 24,085 with Marlon Harewood scoring 4 in the first half. It maintained the Reds play off push & for the record left Stoke rock bottom in the table. ​
24/2/68 - 45 years ago, I attended my first ever Forest game, a 1-0 win over Burnley in a 1st division encounter, in front of 26,110 at the City Ground. As I had only turned 7 years old on 25/1/68, there is very little I can remember about this game, other than I must have liked it because clearly, I wanted to go back!
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45 years on and many thousands of pounds worse off, I am still here. Week in - week out as are many of my family and friends. Mind you, most of them blame me for my obsessive infectious enthusiasm and my 'encouragement' of them as to why we all have to keep the 'red flag' flying high.
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The goal that day was scored by one of our hard men; Sammy Chapman, who would feature for many more seasons to come.
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We would only win 2 more of our remaining 13 games that season to finish in 11th place; something we would die for now. But, based on the previous season 1966/67 (to date, arguably the best in our histoty, although some may sight 1959), I know it was viewed with huge disappointment. I saw both of them, one of which was a 1-0 win over Everton; a night match at the CG and the last home match of the season. Night games meant pop and crisps at the Pauncefort Pub, East Stoke Nr Newark - so very fondly remembered.
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The next few seasons would bring about a gradual decline until relegation in 1971/72, tearfully heartbreaking for a then 11 year old but I will save some of 'those' stories for another day.
25/2/90 - Forest battled to a goaless draw at Highfield Road against Coventry in the League Cup Semi-Final 2nd Leg to reach Wembley for the 2nd successive year, courtesy of a 2-1 aggregate win. We went on to defend the trophy beating Oldham 1-0 on a lovely warm day in April, the 2nd time we had achieved this feat. (1978 - Liverpool, 1979 - Southampton).
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The sequence slightly changed thereafter as we lost the final in 1980 to Wolves. We did not make the League Cup Final in 1991, but we did in 1992 losing 1-0 to Man Utd (a game probably more 'memorable' for 'action' off the pitch rather than on it!).
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In that 'gap year-1991' we did of course make the FA Cup Final.
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I must confess, returning from Wembley in 1992, after the Man Utd defeat, I did not expect that by 2013, Forest would still not have returned.
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Maybe, just maybe that might just change in May?
26/2/89 - Few who were there will forget the League Cup Semi-Final 2nd leg at Ashton Gate played in torrential rain and eventually saw the Reds edge out the third teir side 1-0 after extra time thanks to a Gary Parker goal. The 1st leg at the City Ground, some 11 days earlier had seen Forest scrape a 1-1 draw thanks to a late own goal in front of 30,060. It booked our 1st Wembley visit for 9 years, and we would go on to beat Luton in the Final 3-1.
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26/2/74 - Forest beat Leyton Orient 2-1 at the City Ground in front of 16,632 to lift the Reds to 6th place in the league, 3 points behind 3rd place Blackpool with a game in hand. In those days, it was the top 3 who went up automatically (play offs not been thought of) & it was still 2 points for a win. WHY do I remember this game so fondly, you may ask?
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Well... 73-74 was my first really memorable season; although it ended in tears. I started supporting Forest in the 1967/68 season as I have previously made reference to, aged 6 or 7. Although, we ended that campaign in 11th place, a gradual demise was to follow where there would be a constant outflow of great players. In 1968/69, the Main Stand was burnt down & relegation avoided in the 40th game of a 42 game season eventually finishing 18th (out 22). 1969/1970 & 1970/1971 saw 15th & 16th place finishes respectvely before the inevitable relegaton in 1971/72 (21st place). As an 11 year old, I was mortified at the game relegation was sealed with a 1-3 home defeat to Wolves in the penultimate game of the season. We had at least, in the end, put up a late fight but it was too little too late.
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Whilst I would pride myself on fully grasping what supporting your local team was all about & having a pretty good understanding of football in general for such tender years, I was still very young. However, my long term memory certainly is much better than my short term memory and I do have very fond memories of some games during this period.
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I went up to my Comprehensive School in 1972, confident that the Reds would soon be back. There were plenty of Forest fans in the school but alas plenty of the usual so called fans of the usual big clubs. (Nothing new there & it's the same today of course). We started the season well enough and after 5 games were in 2nd place. However, it was all downhill after that, eventually finishing 14th.
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Anyway, back to 73/74. By the Orient game, we had already progressed to the 5th Round of the FACup, a run which had included 'that never to be forgotten game' v Man City in the 4th Round & there was real belief that we could go all the way to Wembley & gain promotion back to the top division.
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As a by now 13 year old, for me we had halted the slide, turned the corner and it was onwards and upwards. We also had the brilliant entertainer Duncan McKenzie in a rich vein of form.
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History of course tells us that we would be cheated out of the FACup by a combination of Newastle fans, a clown referee & a gutless spineless F.A. The 3 games against them in the space of 13 days in March (2 replays) mixed with 5 league games proved too much for a thin squad and knocked the stuffing out of the players. The league form dropped and we eventually finished 7th, 4 points off promotion. I don't like Liverpool very much but was delighted when they embarrased the Geordie cheats in the final.
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I blame them two fold, 1) I am convinced that had we gone through to the semi-final as we 100% deserved to do, we would also have been promoted & 2) Despite the incredible European Cup successes etc that would follow in later years, they had stolen away & deprived us with the chance of getting to Wembley as a 2nd division club. (Sunderland had beaten the mighty Leeds the previous season as a 2nd division club). In those days the FACup Final was a magical day for all and despite what we went on to achieve in Europe etc, I for one have never forgotten, in footballing terms, the way the whole sorry saga left me feeling. And, you can never turn the clock back.
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At least, the season had been memorable, although there would be more pain to endure before a certain B.C arrived in Jan 1975, to change Nottingham Forest forever and unimaginably.
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www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewPqaxNkLfU the Reds reach Wembley in the rain ... Bristol City 0-1 Nottm Forest
27/2/93 - On this day 20​ years ago, our brief revival in our fight against relegation, in what was to prove Cloughie's final season, was brought to a halt with a 2-0 defeat at the City Ground against Man City in front of 25,956. The reds had ended 1992 rock bottom of the newly formed Premier League, and only 3 wins had been registered in 21 league games, which had included the season opener v Liverpool (1-0) in front of the Sky camera's (Their first live televised Premier League game).
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1993 had started better and a run of 7 games had seen 5 wins, 1 draw & only 1 defeat (0-2 v Man Utd at Old Trafford, the eventual champions) & lifted us to the lofty heights of 19th. Sadly, we registered just 2 more wins and the inevitable relegation would be confirmed on the penultimate game of the season at home to Sheff Utd in a 0-2 defeat. The emotional scenes that followed as the City Ground thanked and waved goodbye to Cloughie were unparalelled. Relegation did not seem to matter. It was just 'thank you for the memories' as thousands of people shed genuine tears of emotion for a legend in the truest sense of the word.
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I also went down to Ipswich on the last game, an otherwise meaningless end of season affair. From memory a then capacity crowd at Portman Road of 22K were present. Forest's official allocation of 2-3,000 had been snapped up but believe me there were Forest fans all around the ground, some estimates at the time between 8-10,000.
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There would be one more farewell for Cloughie's retirement at the local County Cup Final v Notts County before the great man walked away.
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The world of football lost him completely on the 20th Sept 2004 when he sadly died of stomach cancer. I for one would do anything to rid the planet of that vile disease, the scourge of the planet & the human race. I am, like thousands of other Forest fans priviliged to have been lucky enough to have had him at our modest club for 18 unforgettable years.
28/2/09 - 4 years ago today, we travelled down to Reading, much more in hope than expectation​. They were in 3rd place with 2 games in hand over the top 2 which, had they won both would have gone top. Furthermore their home record read P17 W12 D3 L2 F37 A10 Pts 39. Meanwhile the Reds were in 21st position, just outside the relegation zone, with a very tricky run of matches up & coming.
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No surprise then that thanks to a wonderful Lewis McGugan strike on 61 minutes, we came away with a vital 1-0 win, although we remained in 21st. I remember driving home that day, plenty of Forest fans ringing the various radio shows very confident that we would now, under Billy's leadership, stay up.
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I have attached a clip of the celebrations following Lewis's goal (My daughter Natalie's all time hero! 'Partly' based on the fact his D.O.B is 25/10/88 & hers 26/10/88) although there is not muh footage around on this game.
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However, whilst we beat Preston 2-1 in the next game at the C.G, there followed a run of 5 games where only 2 points were picked up to leave us 22nd and in the relegation zone. During this run we played Watford away, a night game which we lost only 2-1but we were awful and I have to confess to leaving the game 15 mins early & quite honestly we should have lost by more. No comment then as 4 days later we were hammered 5-0 at Burnley!
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A 1-0 defeat to top of the league Wolves at the C.G followed that & then a vital 1-1 draw at fellow relegation strugglers Barnsley kept us in the survival hunt but it was nail biting stuff.
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Next up, Bristol City at home. Trailing 1-2 and 8 mins to go, they had a player sent off and within a minute Garner had equalised. Moving into stoppage time, then 'on loan' striker Dexter Blackstock smashed home the winner at the Trent End amidst wild celebrations for the majority of the 22,776 crowd. I knew we were going to stay up after that, even though after the next game away to Sheff Utd on Easter Monday we dropped back into the relegation zone after a battling 0-0 draw, a great effort considering Kelvin Wilson had been sent off early in the game. It was doubly pleasing as they were going for automatic promotion and this did them no favours. I particularly dislike Sheff Utd and I don't like Bramall Lane but it was enjoyable that day.
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In the 44th game we beat Coventry 1-0 at the C.G in front of 27,856, which put us 20th. 'Another' weekend away in Blackpool saw us earn a 1-1 draw in an early kick off in the 45th game and thousands (it seemed ) of Forest fans 'retired' to the Manchester Pub. The place then erupted as Wolves gained a late equaliser against Barnsley keeping them in 21st & behind Forest in the table as the season moved into the final week.
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2 days later, live Monday night Sky game ... Norwich 0-2 Reading... and we were safe, thankfully spared the last day nerves, which as it happened we beat Southampton 3-1 anyway in front of a rammed C.G crowd of 29,008, to end the season in 19th & Billy the King had saved us. It saddens me to say, had we stuck with Colin Calderwood, I don't think we would quite have had enough and I liked and respected him. He got us out of that awful League One & I, like many Forest fans will always be grateful to him for that. Make no mistake, over the last 10 years or so we have had a lot worse Manager's than Colin.
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There would be much enjoyment & heartache over the next 2 seasons but I'll save some of those stories for another day.
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www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDZMO0potgo Reading 0-1 Forest 28/2/9 ​
28/2/04 - Deja vu & guess what? Another relegation battle! After the sacking of Paul Hart following a 1-0 defeat at home to Coventry on 7/2/4, Joe Kinnear had been brought in to save us from relegation. His 1st 3 games had all ended in draws leaving us in 22nd place. Fellow strugglers Bradford City were the visitors to the C.G on this day & it took an injury time winner from Gareth Taylor to secure a 2-1 win and lift the Reds out of the relegation zone in front of an excellent 26,021 as we battled to avoid the drop to League One.
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As it transpired the Reds suffered just 2 defeats in the 17 games that Kinnear was in charge thus avoiding relegation fairly comfortably - in the end finishing 14th.
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Alas, the relief was short lived as the following season would see us drop into the 3rd teir of English football for the 1st time since 1950/51 where we would spend 3 painful years, before returning in wonderous style on a dramatic last day of the season. But, again that will be another story for another day. The relegation season of 2004/5 was the worst I experienced in my 45 years of watching the Reds thanks to the likes of Mr Kinnear & Mr Megson. Dark days indeed.
MARCH
​21 years ago today, 1/3/92, I witnessed what for me remains my favourite game ever & the 2-1 win (AET) at White Hart Lane in the 2nd leg of the League Cup Semi-Final taking us through to Wembley. I have made several references to this on my site already so I won't repeat myself but if you want a further trip down memory lane, take a look in the history secton.
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1/3/98 - 15 years ago today, there was a top of the table clash at the C.G with 2nd place Forest taking on leaders Middlesbrough. Going into the game they were 3 points ahead with a goals difference of +28 whereas Forest's was +23. Goaless at half time, the Reds simply blew them away with 4 2nd half goals to replace them at the top of the table in front of 25,286 and a live TV audience.
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4 days later we would be brought back down to earth with a bang as we lost 0-3 at home to fellow title chasers Sunderland in front of 29,009. The table after this game was as follows... could it have been much closer?
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P Pts
1) Nottm Forest 35 68
2) Middlesbrough 35 68
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3) Sunderland 34 65
4) Charlton 35 62
5) Sheff Utd 34 58
6) Ipswich 35 55
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The Reds though held on to top spot for the remainder of the season suffering just 1 more defeat, 4-2 at Charlton & would efectively secure promotion on the 45th game, a 1-0 win over Reading in front of 29,302 at the C.G. The table actually showed it was not a mathematical certainty but the very slight improbability did not stop thousands invading the pitch celebrating what to date, represents our last promotion to the top flight:
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P Pts GD
1) Forest 45 93 +40
2) Sunderland 44 87 +37
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3) Charlton 45 87 +31
4) M'Bro 44 87 +33
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On the 28/4 Ipswich beat Sunderland & promotion was confirmed. I remember an Ipswich fan I knew telling me the chant directed towards the Sunderland fans that night was "Have we f***** your season up?", M'Bro would draw 1-1 the next night and the title was secured. That just left the formality of a celebration party as over 6,000 Forest fans travelled to West Brom for the final match, which incidently ended in a 1-1 draw. Middlesbrough, for the record went up as runners up before Charlton defeated Sunderland in an epic penalty shoot out at Wembley Stadium to claim the final promotion spot via the Play Offs.
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Dave Bassett, had done what he was good at, getting sides promoted & we played some pretty good attacking football that season. Nobody could predict what was to follow. We should have been looking forward to a Premier League campaign but by the time I travelled down to Highbury for our 1st match against Arsenal, the champions, ( a Monday night live Sky game), we had sold Kevin Campbell & bless him, Pierre Van Hooijdonk had gone on strike. The pair had bagged an amazing 57 goals in the pomotion season with Pierre scoring 34 of them. We put on a good performannce that night only losing 1-2. 2 wins followed but alas the 3rd one did not come until the 30th Jan, by which time we were rock bottom. The then board, had simply pulled the rug from under him & the shares (the club had floated on the AIM) effectively collapsed so fools like me lost their cash.
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Relegation inevitably followed (again) & we have not returned to the top flight since...yet! I'll save some of that season's stories for another day. But, as we started life in the second tier again in 1999/2000 the club made perhaps it's worst ever decision as Platt was appointed Manager. He would go on to almost single handedly destroy the club over the next 2 years, and as certain types do, leave a mass of destruction behind when he left, for others to try and sort out. I don't think we realise just how close, largely as a result of some of his actions, he put us to going out of business.​
History shows us another Forest legend. The late Nigel Doughty (RIP) would step in and save the club. Where we would have been without his support many many times over, I dare not imagine. He will always be sadly missed.
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2/3/78 - 35 years ago, Forest beat QPR 3-1 in the FACup 5th Round, 2nd Replay to progress to the Quarter-Final in front of 33,950 at the City Ground. The 1st game was at Loftus Road and had ended 1-1 with the C.G replay on 27th Feb ending in the same score in front of 40,097. Having scraped out of Division 2 the previous season, Forest sat top of the table and unbelievably were attacking an unprecedented treble. Unfortunately we would bow out in the Quarter-Final losing 2-0 at West Brom on 11th March.
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The League Cup however would be secured on 22nd March 1978 for the first time in the club's history, with a 1-0 win against Liverpool in the Old Trafford Replay following the goaless draw Wembley 4 days earlier, in front of 100,000. These were unbelievable times and days and nights that I will never forget. Any proper football fan's first trip to Wembley to see his or her team is something special, as indeed are all trips to the National Stadium. After the win at O.T, I do remember quite a lot of carnage outside the ground as Forest fans clashed with Scousers, all over the place with seemingly Man Utd and Man City fans running amok too. I suppose it all added to the occasion and the ambiance!
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On 22nd April, the league title was secured with a 0-0 at Coventry in front of nearly 37,000 of which some 12,000 Forest fans were present. To this day you still have to pinch yourself over what was achieved that season and the fact that in our now 148 years existence it is the only time it has ever happened. I feel priviliged that I was fortunate to see it all (or most of it) and I don't ever expect to see it again. That is not being negative at all, just trying to be realistic and it also emphasises the level of achievement more - I hope.
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We went on to win back to back European Cups, (something not even Man Utd have done) & I think you can safely say if football is still being played in a 1,000 years a club the size of Nottm Forest will not win the European Cup again, let alone twice. ( It's got a fancy dan name these days anyway... the 'Champions League' which is a contradiction in terms of course) but it gave me memories that will last forever despite the 'pain' of a 37 hour coach journey back from Madrid on a Wright's 50 seater!
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Of the future, what can we hope for at best? Stable in the Premier League & winning the odd Cup would be wondrful. COYR!
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​Just a further few interesting points to note, across the 77/78 season when the title was won, Forest played 8 league games in April alone. The following April in 78/79, there were also 8 league games PLUS the 2 legged European Cup Semi-Final and then the last 5 league games in the 1st 18 days of May. This was 'catch up' due to the involvement in all competitions & in these days teams did not necessarily have to complete their league programme on the same day. There was none of the disgraceful modern-day nonesense where domestic cup competitions are dishonored in favour of money. Matches often played on mud heaps with much smaller squads and in Cloughie's case he usually ensured the full first team would even be played in friendlies!
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Some would say hardly ideal preparation for a European Cup Final on that balmy night in Munich, but we won 1-0 to become European Champioins... enough said.
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There are many examples across the 70's and 80's & before, and perhaps even the early 90's where many games were played in a short space of time but it did not seem to bother anyone that much. Everyone, for the most part, just got on with it.
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The one thing I think is most wrong with football today is the attitude towards the Cups for a lot of clubs. In the Premier League, for example, for many it is just about staying up and little interest is shown in the Cups. The big boys would much rather come 4th and gain entry into the 'Champions League' rather than win the FACup, and it is all down to money. They will probably get nowhere near winning it, but they do not care about that. That part of football is totally wrong. Wembley finals are wonderful days out for the fans, and football and sport should be about winning and winning medals, not money.
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You might think I am unrealistic here and I probably am. But, overnight I would change things and award the 4 Champion's league places to the winners of the 2 domestic cup competitions and just the top 2 in the league. Or at least, the FACup winners and top 3 with the League Cup winners, as is now the case, going into the Europa League.
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Football may appear awash with money at the highest level but I doubt any of us know the true level of debt, and we all know what happened with the financial crisis of 2008! Football seemed to get away with that somehow but it won't forever. I would much rather I saw my team win the FACup at Wembley than come 4th in the Premier League. Simple as that!
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With the TV money on offer these days, I guess there may be some clubs that don't even see the fans throuh the turnstyles as all that important. There are some that just rip their fans off with ticket prices but they should beware, things can change. They would do well to remember that.
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The 3rd March has seemingly thrown up a few notable moments down the years. Obviously ,I am not going to sight them all but here is a quick round up of a few:
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3/3/74 - 39 years ago, Forest continued their experimentation with Sunday football, this time in the league, ( We had played 3 FACup ties at home since Jan, all attracting excellent crowds and way above the league average for the season) in the 'Nottingham' derby. 29,657 attended a dull 0-0 draw with Notts County, but it kept the Reds in the promotion hunt in 6th place just 3 points behind 3rd place (top 3 went up automatically). It was also 6 days before thousands of Forest fans would make their way north for 'that' FACup Quarter-Final at Newcastle. You will possibly already have seen several references on my site to that saga but I make no apologies for a bit of spleen venting again. We were cheated out by Newcastle fans; clueless, inept ,incompetent, imbecile offcials & a gutless, spineless F.A. A massive miscarriage of justice. Enough said.
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3/3/79 - Million Pound man Trevor Francis made his full Forest debut in a 1-1 draw at Ipswich. It did not take him long to repay some of the then huge price tag. He would of course go on to score the winning goal in that balmy night in Munich to win the European Cup. He would play a huge part the following season in helping retain the trophy unluckily missing out in the final following sustaining a horrific injury in a 4-0 win at the C.G on 3rd May against Crystal Palace. Bought for a million, sold for a million Aug 1981; one of the greatest players ever to represent the 'Garibaldi Reds'.
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3/3/90 - Forest beat Man City 1-0 in a Division 1 clash at the C.G in front of 22,644, but it was 'that' Gary Crosby goal that caused a bit of a stir. Perfectly legal for me. If you can't remember it have a look at the link below.
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3/3/7 - The Reds moved back into an automatic promotion place in League One with a thumping 5-1 win at the C.G against Huddersfield in front of 19,070. I have got to revisit this game for my daughter Natalie, as it saw her hero, Lewis McGugan score his 1st senior goal for the club. Sadly a 1-0 defeat at mid table Doncaster followed, before a hard earnt 1-1 at top of the table Scunthorpe (Billy Sharp scored for them!) in what set a new record crowd for them at Glanford Park, 8,906. We dropped out of the automatic promotion places after that game, and did not get back in. We all know only too well what happened against Yeovil in the play-offs. I don't think 'nightmare' does that 2nd leg justice!
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3/3/8 - Having failed in the play offs the previous season, the Reds were now in their 3rd consecutive season in League One and a 0-1 defeat at home to fellow promotion contenders Carlisle did nothing to ease the anxiety and nerves in front of an excellent 28,487 (a game from memory also televised live by Sky). It would leave us in 4th place and with only 1 win in the next 6 games to follow ( a 2-1 win at Northampton in arctic freezing conditions; I don't think I can ever remember being colder at a game). The prospect of another season at this level loomed. There would of course be incredible twists and turns to come before the season was out, but I will save them for another day.
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www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmFIRMmqM4U THAT Gary Crosby goal! Forest 1-0 Man City 3/3/90
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4/3/69 - Forest beat QPR 1-0 at the City Ground in front of 21,055. Whilst there is nothing particularly special about that in itself, I thought it worth of a quick note because it started a sequence of 6 successive home games before March was out. We had lost at Burnley 1-3 on the Saturday 1st March and were deep in a relegation battle. The sequence yielded 4 wins and 2 defeats, the last game of the run, a 1-2 defeat against Man Utd in front of 41,892, and from memory I saw the likes of Best, Law & Charlton that night. It left the Reds in 17th, 6 points clear of the drop zone & we would end the season in 18th, but it was a sign of things to come.
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4/3/78 - Forest beat West Ham 2-0 at the C.G in front of 33,924, a result which left us well clear at the top of the table as evidenced in the league table below:
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P Pts
1) FOREST 29 45
2) Man City 30 39
3) Everton 30 39
4) Arsenal 31 38
5) Liverpool 29 36
6) Leeds 30 36
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These were unbelievable times for us Forest fans & remember it was only 2 points for a win at this time so the gap was big. We had an FACup Quarter-Final to look forward to the following week, a local 'derby' against Leicester after that & then the small matter of a league cup final against champions Liverpool on 18th at Wembley, busy times indeed, as the Reds set out to gain an unprecedented treble. More to come about all that.
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4/3/95 - Forest and Spurs battled out a 2-2 at the C.G in front of a near capacity crowd of 28,711 in the Premier League. After a tricky spell in Jan & Feb, the Reds started to build momentum again as they challenged for a EUFA cup spot, finishing the day in 5th place. The interesting thing about the result is that all 4 scorers had a Forest connection. Teddy Sherringham gave Spurs a 1-0 lead on 79 minutes before Bohinen & Lee responded with goals on 84 & 85, 2 minutes later up popped Colin Calderwood to equalise for Spurs.
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As it transpired the Reds finished the season in 3rd place & qualified for the EUFA Cup, with a large amount of thanks going to the brilliant Stan Collymore. These days 3rd would earn you a Champions League spot, but nevertheless a wonderful achievement.
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5/3/80 - 33 years ago Forest lost at home 1-0 to Dynamo Berlin in the Quarter-Final of the Eurpean Cup in front of 27,946. The doubters gave Forest little chance of remaining in the competition & retaining their trophy. Matters were not helped when the league cup final was lost to Wolves on 15th March , 3 days before the return leg behind the iron curtain. A brilliant Trevor Francis with 2 goals & a penalty from Robbo guided Forest into a 3-0 half time lead, eventually winning the game 3-1 and an aggregate score of 3-2. Ajax awaited in the semi-final.
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5/3/96 - History repeated itself as Forest travelled to Munich in the Quarter-Final of the UEFA Cup to play Bayern Munich (the ground where the Reds had famously lifted the European Cup 17 years earlier). A battling performance on the night & a Steve Chettle goal gave us hope for the 2nd leg as we narrowly lost the game 2-1. By this time, Forest were the only English team still left in any of the European competitions that season and the fans certainly reminded everyone of it "Last team in Europe". Sadly, progression to the semi-finals was not to be as Klinsman & Co ripped Forest apart at the CG 2 weeks later in a 1-5 mauling in front of 28,844.
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5/3/5 - What a difference a decade can make! Forest travelled to Leicester, desparately placed in 23rd in the Championship and heading for League One. I actually had corporate hospitality that day but that's another story (we were not sat in the away end). Gareth Taylor somehow gave us a 1-0 win in a game Leicester dominated. 3 days later, we won 2-0 at Watford but still found ourselves in 23rd place. Any hopes of a revival were brought back down to earth with an almighty bang as we lost the next game 6-0 at Ipswich & we would win just 1 more game all season; relegation confirmed at QPR in the penultimate match. My worst season ever watching the Reds. Horrible!
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Just 3 years ago, 6/3/10, the Reds beat Swansea City 1-0 at the CG in front of 25,012, a Luke Chambers effort in the very last minute sealing the 3 points, a win that lifted us into the automatic promotion places (2nd). West Brom were 3rd, 1 point behind but with a game in hand. ​
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It represented the 10th home win on the trot & it did not end there.
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Sadly, 2 away defeats followed. Preston 3-2, where we were shocking in the 1st half (3-0 down) & then to Barnsley 2-1. That dropped us to 3rd where we remained for the rest of the season. So, play offs it was v Blackpool & we all know all too painfully what happened there.
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7/3/79 - On this day 34 years ago Forest beat Grasshoppers Zurich 4-1 at the C.G in the 1st leg of their European Cup Quarter-Final tie. The game certainly was not as comfortable as the result may suggest as with 3 minutes to go, the Reds led just 2-1 but late goals from Gemmill & Lloyd sent the 31,949 crowd home happy. 2 weeks later in Zurich, the 2nd leg ended 1-1 and the Reds were in the semi-final.
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7/3/84 - Europe again! This time the EUFA Cup. Forest beat Sturm Graz 1-0 at the C.G in front of 19,459 in the 1st leg of their Quarter-Final tie thanks to a Paul Hart goal. It set up a tense 2nd leg in Zurich 2 weeks later where the Reds gained a 1-1 draw after extra time to go through to the semi-finals 2-1 on aggregate.
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7/3/98 - The Reds stayed top of the table and on course for promotion, following a 4-1 win at Crewe, courtesy of a Kevin Campbell hat trick.
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There were also a couple of memorable FACup Qaurter-Final encounters on this day:
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7/3/81 - 32 years ago, we drew 3-3 with Ipswich in front of a packed 34,796 at the C.G. Trailing 0-2 after 23 minutes, we turned it around to be leading 3-2 only for Thijssen to take it to a replay 7 minutes from time, which we lost 1-0 3 days later. In my FACup section, I will go into that trip in a bit more detail!
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7/3/92 - What a difference a week can make. We had beaten Spurs in the League Cup semi-final 6 days earlier to reach Wembley and were looking to make further progress in the FACup as we took on 2nd division Portsmouth in the FACup Quarter-Final at Fratton Park. Alas, it was not to be, a Mark Crossley clanger on 2 mins was enough to see us eliminated as we lost 1-0.
8/3/75 - In Cloughie's only 8th league game in charge, we lost 2-3 at home to Aston Villa, leaving us in a precarious 15th position in the table. It is not the football however that I remember this game for but the fighting before, during and after the game as Forest & Villa fans fought pitched battles. Radcliffe Road was a battle zone & I remember seeing fans running all over cars with the police seemingly having little or no control of the situation. I also remember our school headmaster ranting and raving in the school assembly on the Monday morning about what he had probably also seen. The crowd was only 20,205 but sadly we would see a lot more of this over the coming seasons.
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8/3/77 - Forest's promotion campaign stuttered as we lost 1-2 at home to neighbours Notts County at the C.G in front of 31,004. We need not have feared, we still got promoted! And the rest, as they say, is history.
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9/3/74 - 2nd division Forest headed to 1st Division Newcastle for that 'infamous' FACup Quarter-Final tie. They thought their name was on the Cup that season & that we were there just to make the numbers up. We certainly made some numbers up as an estimated staggering 14,000 made the trip in a capacity crowd of 52,551. I do recall at the Forest end of the ground, there was not full segregation, which only added to the chaos & mayhem that would follow.
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Leading 3-1 with 'them' down to 10 men came the pitch invasion. I believe a Forest player, Dave Serella was smashed in the face by a Geordie thug as the referee took the players off the pitch. Forest players were clearly rattled by the incident & when they returned we lost the game 4-3 although their winner was about 10 yards offside! The clown of a referee simply dare not disallow the goal. As it happens, the game was ordered to be replayed but at a neutral ground - Goodison Park. 40,685 turned up on a Monday night 18th March to again see the Reds unlucky not to win in a 0-0 draw. 3 days later we lost the 2nd replay 1-0 and just to add insult to injury, we had a perfectly good goal ruled out. As a then 13 year old, it was a really painful experience. We had been robbed; deprived of the opportunity of getting to an FACup Final as a 2nd division side (we would have won the semi-finl against Burnley) and I still loathe Newcastle to this day.
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9/3/91 - Happier Quarter-Final memories on this day as 6,000 Forest fans travelled to Norwich (our full allocation) with Roy Keane sending us through to the semi-finals in a 1-0 win. I remember there being an horrendous journey home that night though - the roads out that way not the best!
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9/3/96 - On what is traditionally Quarter-Final weekend, we travelled to White Hart Lane for a 5th round replay against Spurs. With Forest still involved in the EUFA Cup there had been some fixture congestion, not helped by the abandonment of the first game at the CG due to heavy snow! When that game was replayed it ended 2-2, with 2 cracking goals from Ian Woan. The replay at WHL also ended in a draw 1-1 & so it went to penalties. An inspired Mark Crossley (penalty save king) saw us through to a 3-1 win ... as 'Norman' sprinted the length of the pitch to celebrate in front of the travelling Forest fans.
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10 years ago - 10/3/03, Forest entertained rock bottom Grimsby at the C.G as Paul Hart's play off push continued. We took the lead with an Andy Reid goal on 23 mins but subsequently found ourselves 1-2 down as the game moved into stoppage time. Up popped Gareth Williams with an equaliser to spare the blushes for the majority of the 25,507 in attendance. Grimsby went on to get relegated & we of course failed in the play offs - a sign of things to come over the next few years.
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10/3/81 - Having drawn 3-3 at the City Ground, 3 days earlier in a classic FACup Quarter-Final tie against Ipswich in front of a packed 34,796 crowd, we set off for the replay still hopeful of reaching the semi-finals. Alas, it was not to be as we lost 1-0, ending any hopes of a trophy for the season.
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10/3/01 - There were few memorble matches under Platt but on this day 12 years ago, we beat Sheff Utd 3-1 at Bramall Lane to briefly move into the play off places, in 6th position. It was a false dawn as we won just 2 of the remaining 10 games to end the season in 11th. The good news for Forest, Platt left in the summer for the England U21 job & we were soon to discover the mess the clown had left behind as we very nearly went out of business. Nigel Doughty to the rescue along with the sale of Jermaine Jenas.
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Some very memorable moments from this day in history starting with 11/3/72 as Forest lost at home to Ipswich 0-2 in front of the lowest crowd of the season, just 9,872 as relegation to Division 2 grew increasingly more certain. It was the 7th succssive defeat and as a then 11 year old, I distinctly remember the "Gillies Out" chants echoing around the sparsly populated terraces. We did beat Chelsea 2-1 in the next game, our 1st win for 10 games and there would at least be some fight over the remaining games but the writing was on the wall, relegation confirmed in the penultimate game, a 1-3 defeat at home to Wolves.
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11/3/78 - A rare blip in a wonderful season as the Reds treble hopes came to an end with a 2-0 defeat at West Brom in the Quarter-Final of the FACup. Disappointment for around 10,000 travelling fans, a few of whom thought it would be fun to try to set fire to the stand!
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11/3/80 - The Reds warmed up for their 3rd successive league cup final with a 4-0 trouncing against Tottenham in front of 25,633 at the CG, 2 goals apeice for Kenny Burns & Trevor Francis. Unfortunately, the LCF did not then go to plan as we lost 1-0 to Wolves. My 1st bitter taste of defeat at Wembley.
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11/3/89 - Whilst the Forest teams of the late 80's & early 90's did not quite reach the heights of those 3 amazing seasons (77/78 to 79/80), we still played some wonderful football. On this day we outplayed Arsenal to record a 3-1 win at Highbury with goals from Clough, Carr & Pearce. Arsenal would go on to win the title in that dramatic night at Anfield.
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11/3/95 - The Reds on fire with a 4-2 win at Filbert Street, partly remembered for one of Stan's many entertaining goal celebrations, upsetting (ha ha) the home fans. More amusingly, it left Leicester bottom of the table & Forest 5th, challenging for a European spot, which would be achieved as we claimed our best to date 'Premier League' finish with 3rd place. In the money world of football make no mistake that was some achievement. At Forest, Stan Collymore was simply awesome, few better players have ever worn a Forest shirt, it was such a shame he was lured away by Liverpool's spice boy set. I recently attended 'An audience with Stan & Bryan Roy' at the Approach in Nottm. I asked the question to Stan: "how close did you come to staying at the end of the 94/5 season and did you regret leaving?" In hindsight, he did regret leaving, he said. I think had he stayed, he would have helped us win the EUFA Cup in 95/6 and become the best striker in England, if he wasn't anyway. That is how good he was.
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11/3/97 - I remember this trip to Ewood Park, Blackburn (we did not lose heavily there for once) as it was Van Hooiijdonks debut who had been bought from Celtic in a bid to keep us up, courtesy of 'those' new owners. We took a lead on 18 mins through Haland but the game ended 1-1 and Forest remained 17th in the table. We did not win again in the remaining 8 games and we were relegated, again. I did not go to Newcastle on the last game where we suffered a 5-0 mauling. From memory it was that bad that Radio Nottingham went off the air early.
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11/3/8 - One of those long league One hauls I do not miss and a trip down to Southend on a Tuesday night (why do we do it?). The game ended 1-1 and we remained in 4th... but we would prove that every point counted, achieving automatic promotion back to civilisation on that last dramatic day of the season.
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12/3/77 - Nottm Forest beat Hull City 2-0 at the CG in front of 15,126 (a good omen perhaps for the trip there this coming Saturday) as we stayed in contention for promotion, although this win left us in only 7th place. Goals from Withe & Woodcock, something that we would see with increasing regularity as the season drew to a close and promotion was achieved and of course the following season. This game saw one Garry Birtles make his debut but he would not feature again until Sept 1978.
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12/3/83 - Forest lost 0-1 at home to Luton Town in front of just 14,387, a 6th game without a win. Infact we would go on and lose the next 3 also, in a dreadful run that saw 3 draws and 6 defeats in 9 league games & just 1 win in 13. Add this to the FACup debacle at Derby (lost 2-0) and a drubbing at Old Trafford (lost 4-0) in the Quarter-Final of the League Cup (the train's heating broke down on the way home from that one!), it is safe to say things were not going to plan as Cloughie was in the process of rebuilding the side.
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We should have had more faith as the team won 7 and drew 2 of the last 9 to finish 5th and qualify for Europe.
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12/3/94 - In a tough game at Stoke (aren't they all), a Neil Webb goal gave Forest all 3 points as the Reds promotion campaign gathered momentum.
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12/3/5 - In the worst of all seasons that I have watched Forest, our mini revival came to a shuddering halt as we were slaughtered 6-0 at Ipswich. We were 6 down after 71 mins and it could have been worse. In most seasons, even the poorer ones, you can look back at some good memorable moments. This has to have the fewest of any bar the 2-1 win over West Ham on 26th Sept where the fans & past players paid their tribute to the legend that was Brian Clough, who had sadly passed away on the 20th Sept & somehow getting a draw at White Hart Lane in th 5th Round of the FACup before being hammered 3-0 in the replay.
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And how could I overlook this one! - 12/3/88 - Arsenal 1-2 Forest - FACup Quarter-Final - Cloughie reached his 1st ever FACup semi-final courtesy of this win at Highbury.14,000 travelling Forest fans in the capacity crowd of 50,157. In those days, for a cup tie, the home club had to make available 25% approximately of its capacity. These days it is 15%. The Forest coaches were double parked on the road that seemed to be about a mile long & ours was right at the back! Furthermore, we did not get to the game until 3.15pm due to heavy traffic.
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www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYjjcsG7TJE Worth watching the clip again!
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14/3/70 - Forest and Derby renewed rivalries in this season (69/70) for the 1st time since 1954/5. Forest had already beaten high flying Derby, newly promoted & managed by Brian Clough 2-0 at the Baseball Ground back in November in front of 38,225. Unfortunately, they got their revenge with a 3-1 win at the CG in front of 42,074. I will be devoting an entire section of my website to the Forest - Derby rivalry, one of the best 'derbies' in the country.
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14/3/72 - As Derby continued to challenge for the title, which they would go on and win, Forest beat Chelsea 2-1 at the CG, a 1st win in 10 games in front of just 13,348. The win left us still bottom of the league & 5 points from safety. We would end the season relegated in 21st place.
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14/3/78 - What a difference a 'Brian Clough' makes ... A John Robertson penalty gave us a 1-0 win over rivals Leicester City at the CG in front of 32,355 as the top of the table Forest 'warmed up' for our 1st trip to Wembley for 19 years, where we would be meeting Liverpool in the Legue Cup Final.
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14/3/79 - A bit of a case of deja vu as Forest beat Norwich 2-1 at the CG as we 'warmed up' for Saturday's League Cup Final against Southampton where the trophy would be retained for the 1st time by any club.
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14/3/09 - Billy reads the riot act as the Reds are hammered 5-0 at Burnley, leaving us in 21st place & relegation back to League One remains a real possibility. He saved us of course, but not before many more nail biting anxious moments.
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15/3/86 - Forest drew 1-1 at home to Aston Villa in a Division 1 clash in front of just 12,933 as football crowds continued to slump for a number of reasons: hooliganism was keeping some away, the economy largely damaged in Thatcher's Britain & in many cases delapidated grounds.
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It is interesting to look at some of the attendances at our away games just to highlight that this was a nationwide problem. Certainly jet setters & prawn sandwich brigades did not exist, you were much more likely to get food poisoning from the disgusting 'food'; stand in urine or get the odd slap.
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Anyhow Coventry v Forest - 9,500, WBA v Forest - 7,901, West Ham v Forest - 14,540, Arsenal v Forest -15,098, Spurs v Forest - 19,043, QPR v Forest 10,748, Livepool v Forest - 27,135, Chelsea v Forest - 17,743, Birmingham v Forest 10,378. Need I say more?
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We did attract 30,171 on the last home game against Everton but they were challenging Liverpool for the title. For the record they finished runners up! However the only other 2 home games to attract attendances of over 20k that season were against Man Utd - 26,274 & Liverpool 27,141 - worrying times indeed for all clubs.
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15/3/97 - Forest 1 v 1 Liverpool - The CG debut for one Pierre van Hooiijdonk saw the Reds earn an excellent point against 2nd place Liverpool in front of a near capacity crowd of 29,181. It wasn't enough to lift us out of the relegation zone & we would finish the season bottom, not winning another game.
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16/3/74 - The Reds warmed up for their replayed Quarter-Final tie with Newcastle (18th March) with a 2-0 win over Blackpool to maintain their promotion push in front of 15,724 at the CG. The strains of the Quarter-Final would impact on the team as only 3 of the last 10 games were won and eventually would finish the campaign in 7th, 4 points off promotion. So, I hold Newcastle responsible for harming our promotion campaign as well as cheating us out of the FACup.
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16/3/94 - Forest beat Barnsley 2-1 at the CG in front of 20,491, leaving us in 3rd place. Promotion would be secured on that memorable sunny day at Peterborough with a massive 10,000 travelling Forest fans in a crowd of 14,010.
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17/3/76 - On this day 37 years ago, Forest beat promotion chasing Sunderland 2-1 at the CG in front of 16,995. Sunderland would go on to win the 2nd Division Title whereas Forest would end the season in a credible 8th, more importantly perhaps losing only 2 of thie last 16 & only missing out on promotion by 7 points. That was some achievement based on the shocking start. After 10 games, we were in 20th! Peter Taylor would be united again with Brian Clough in the summer & we all know what happened next.
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17/3/79 - Forest became the 1st team to retain the Football League Cup defeating Southampton 3-2 at Wembley Stadium in front of 100,000. 2 goals from Garry Birtles & 1 from Tony Woodcock. Apart from the curtain raiser back in August where we hammered Ipswich 5-0, it was the most major trophy the Reds had won at the National Stadium in my lifetime, with the trophy being won the previous season against Liverpool in the Old Trafford Replay. This game definitely is right up there for me as one of my favourites of all time.
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17/3/93 - Forest lost 0-3 at home to Norwich City, a result that left them top of the new Premier League & Forest languishing in 21st. The fear of relegation feels ever more increasingly likely, which will be confirmed on the penultimate game.
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The 18th March has produced a few excellent memories over the last 40 odd years or so, so here are just a selection:
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18/3/74 - A huge Forest following travelled up to neutral venue Goodison Park for the replayed FACup Qurater-Final tie against the self proclaimed 'mighty Newcastle'. Forest certainly gave as good as they got and arguably were unlucky not to win the game which ended 0-0 in front of 40,685. Incredibly & amazingly the F.A deemed the sides would play the 2nd replay at the same venue and not the City Ground & in 3 days time. You wonder why they didn't just give Newcastle a bye to the semi-final. Outrageous!
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18/3/78 - My first ever trip to Wembley Stadium and Forest's first in my lifetime. The game with Liverpool ended 0-0 in front of 100,000 & whilst not a classic game, it was for me a classic occasion. Brilliant Forest support and a cracking performance by our 18 year old goalkeeper Chris Woods (Peter Shilton was 'cup tied' for this tournament for this season). We would meet again 4 days later in the Old Trafford replay!
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18/3/80 - Having lost the home leg of our European Cup Quarter-Final tie 0-1 against Dynamo Berlin, few gave Forest much hope of progressing to the semi-finals & going on to retain the trophy we had won on a glorious night in Munich the previoius season. It had not helped that 3 days earlier, we had been beaten 1-0 by Wolves in the League Cup Final, thus releasing our grip on that trophy. On a separate note, It is worthy of mention that that defeat in the League Cup Final was our 1st since Sept 1976 in that competition. Once again Forest would silence the doubters with an excellent 3-1 win behind the 'iron curtain' on what I am assured was a freezing cold night in Berlin.
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18/3/89 - 12,000 Foest fans (our full allocation) travelled up to Old Trafford for the Quarter-Final tie with Man Utd who were hot favourites to win the game. In front of a capacity 55,052, a Gary Parker goal just before half time was enough to see us through to another semi-final meeting with Liverpool. Nobody could have imagined how much significance that game would have on the future of English football.
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18/3/92 - Forest beat Man Utd 1-0 at the CG in front of 28,062, a result that left Forest in 11th place but Man Utd 2nd, 2 points behind Leeds in what would be the last football league championship season before the inaugural Premier League in 1992/3. Man Utd avenged that defeat at Wembley in the League Cup Final on 12th April defeating us 1-0, but Forest would have the last laugh winning 2-1 at Old Trafford 8 days later. Leeds would win the title by 4 points so you could say we cost United their title.
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www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8hFPfQ-i2c Cloughie leads out Forest 0-0 Liverpool 18/3/78 ... League Cup Final - a great day out!
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www.youtube.com/watch?v=-a2XHBEwJ-U Man Utd 0-1 Forest 18/3/89 - FACup Quarter-Final - our great run in all competitions continues!
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www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwKQ_Sh13Ic Man Utd 1-2 Forest 20/4/92 - Revenge for the league cup final defeat on 12th April!
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www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBqvCj4ps-Y The league cup final 12/4/92 - Man Utd 1-0 Forest
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Neither of the above 2 clips occured on 18th March but I can't find a clip of that 1-0 at the CG on that day in 1992. The fact that we played them 3 times in just over a month was significant in that season as a whole, hence me attaching the goals from the other 2 meetings. There are many more Forest v Man Utd clips on 'You Tube' etc, which I'm sure will feaure at some point in the future ... who can forget that Stuart Pearce free kick at O.T in 1990 just after the World Cup ... or Johny Metgod's winner in 84/85 in the last minute at the CG ... or Nigel Clough's winner in 85/86 at O.T & so on ... I can definitely forget Solskjaer's 4 goals in the last 10 mins in tha 1-8 reverse at the CG in 1999 in front of a stunned 30,025.
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But as far as Man Utd - Forest games go, do any better this one ... 17/12/77 ... Man Utd 0-4 Forest ... one of my favourite games ... it should have been 0-10 and it could have been!
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www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAIs0yFvHFk never tire of this one!
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19/3/94 - 19 years ago today, Forest beat Bolton 3-2 at the CG and moved back into 2nd place, thus eyeing up an immediate return to the Premier League in front of 23,846.
The game is best remembered for the return of 'Stan the Man' after being out injured for 2 months. He came on as a 2nd half substitute on 58 mins, scored within a minute to put us 3-1 up and would be later sent off for 'sparking out' one Phil Brown! Now, who would not thank him for that?
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19/3/96 - Having lost narrowly in the 1st leg in Munich 2-1, hopes were high for the return leg at the CG, of this EUFA Cup Quarter-Final, Forest being the 'only' remaining English club in Europe. It was not to be as Bayern hammered us 1-5 in front of 28,844. As always, Forest fans displayed a great sense of humour as chants echoed arund the CG, with minutes to go '5-1 down & still in Europe.' In our domestic games we had taunted opposition fans with us still being in Europe ... for example when we played Man Utd on 27/11/95, they had already been knocked out of Europe & we were leading them 1-0 a the CG to taunts from the Forest fans of '1-0 up and still in Europe' ... for the record that game ended 1-1. 7-2 on aggregate against Bayern was a little harsh on us but it had been a decent campaign.
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19/3/03 - Forest 3-0 Derby - 10 years ago today we completely outclassed Derby in front of 29,725 at the CG, leaving us in 5th place and them dangerously close to the relegation zone. We would later go on to endure play off misery at the hands of Sheffield Utd but for now, this was a night to enjoy at the CG.
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www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3LNnInBaEs Forest 1-5 Bayern Munich (Agg 2-7) - 19/3/96
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_U-KuQnbrjM - Forest 3-0 Derby - 19/3/03
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20/3/71 - A staggering 42 years ago, Forest beat Everton 3-2 at the CG in front of 21,643, 2 goals from Peter Cormack & 1 from Ian Storey Moore. On the 'new' screens at the CG they actually show a Cormack goal from this game, as the highlights at the time on BBC's MOTD. It started a run of 5 wins in 6 games for the Reds & would ensure no end of season nerves as we finished a comfortable 16th, well clear of relegation.
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20/3/76 - An unusual game to recall you may say the Reds lost 3-2 at York in front of 5,571, unfortunately remembered more for the needless violence caused by some Forest fans, whose reputation seemed to be becoming ever more notorious.
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20/3/04 - The 'infamous' coffee cup incident as we went down 4-2 at local rivals Derby County.
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20/3/12 - A rare highlight from the 11/12 season as we hammer Leeds 7-3 at Elland Road, the only other being - we managed to stay up!
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www.youtube.com/watch?v=aazYPLObu3k Leeds 3-7 Forest 20/3/12
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21/3/13 - It would have been the great man's 78th birthday today, RIP!
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21/3/74 - We finally succumbed to Newcastle; the F.A; the Ref & all, 1-0 in the Quarter-Final 2nd replay at Goodison Park. Once again, a further miscarriage of justice as we had a perfectly good goal disallowed for 'ungentlemanly conduct', otherwise known as a trick free kick, and the whole saga was brought to a totally unfair & unsatisfactory conclusion. We were cheated out, simple as that.
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Meanwhile, 34 years ago today - 21/3/79, Forest drew 1-1 in Zurich to comfortably progress to the semi-finals of the Eurpean Cup with a 5-2 aggregate win. They would meet German champions 1.FC Cologne.
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21/3/84 - 5 years on from 1979 and the Reds were back in Europe, this time the EUFA Cup. Having beaten Sturm Graz 1-0 at the CG 2 weeks earlier, we were in for a dfficult night. Trailing 1-0 at 90 minutes, the game went into extra time where a Colin Walsh penalty on 114 mins would see us through to the semi-final to meet Anderlecht. A massive carriage of misjustice awaited in that one.
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21/3/93 - As Forest were fighting for their lives, 21st in the Premier League, they met Leeds at the CG: a game televised live by Sky. Fortunately for me, as I had 'done' my ankle the prevous day & could barely walk, I had to miss a home game - a very very rare occurence! A Nigel Clough penalty earned us a 1-1 draw, fittingly on his Dad's birthday, but typical Nigel said "I was just glad to score for the team"
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21/3/00 - Huddersfield 2-1 Forest - The 'Platt' era - Just thought I should make some reference to this time. I remember coming away from this game thinking we could easily go down again under this bloke, the football was shocking. It left us in 19th place & we would lose again on the Saturday following at home to Blackburn. Worrying times indeed, especially given the millions of pounds he had wasted, although we would eventually finish 14th.
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22/3/75 - Forest lost 1-0 at home to Man Utd in a 2nd Division encounter at The CG in front of 21,693. Yes, Man Utd had actually dropped into the 2nd tier - for 1 season only as it turned out. The crowd was well above the average but way down on what was hoped for, many put off by the escalating violence off the pitch, especially at that time when United were in town. They were actually allocated the Trent End in an attempt by the police to segregate rival fans. It worked inside the ground, to a degree, but not outside!
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22/3/77 - A far more significant game than some people may realise as Forest beat Southampton 2-1 at the CG, in what was a re-arranged game. The previous meeting was abandoned with Forest trailing 0-1: we were playing awful. This was the start of a run of 5 straight wins & we would go on to secure promotion by 1 point!
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22/3/78 - One of the best 'Forest nights' I had experienced ever as we beat Liverpool 1-0 in the League Cup Final replay at Old Trafford in front of 54,290. A John Robertson penalty on 54 minutes gave us the trophy, the 1st 'major' trophy I had seen us win. We had won the Anglo Scottish Cup, the previous season & in the 10 years or so I had already 'clocked up' watching the Reds. Simply a wonderful night & we deserved it.
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www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vt4KfRiOpQ8 Watch & enjoy ... Again!
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23/3/85 - 28 years ago today, Forest travelled to rock bottom Stoke for a Division 1 encounter and chalked up a very comfortable 4-1 win. A decent away following in a very sparse crowd of just 7,453! Attendances everywhere continued to plummit amidst ever increasing crowd violence & dillapidated stadia.
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23/3/96- The return to the CG of Stan Collymore ... in a Liverpool shirt! We had not wanted Stan to leave at the end of the previous season. He had been simply awesome in his 2 year stay at the CG: the best 2 seasons of his career I would say & certainly one of the best players ever to wear the Garibaldi Red. In his day, the best English striker playing football at the time. Add to that, some 'banter' or worse had been further created on NYD at Anfield, where after having taken an early 2 goal lead, Stan was instrumental in turning matters around in securing a 4-2 Liverpool win. The game came after the heavy 1-5 defeat to Bayern Munich midweek and Forest (fans & players alike) were especially determined to put one over Stan and 3rd place Liverpool that afternoon.
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A Steve Stone goal on 42 minutes was enough to secure the 3 points in front of a full throated City Ground crowd of 29,058 with no hangover from the midweek defeat ... and revenge for NYD.
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I asked Stan earlier this year, when he and Brian Roy did a night at the 'Approach' in Nottingham if, in hindsight, it had been a mistake to leave Forest? He had had his head turned by Liverpool's spice boys, but he said "in hindsight, probably YES!"
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23/3/10 - Forest beat Crystal Palace 2-0 at the CG, to register their 12th consecutive home win and equal a 30 year old club record under the leadership of Billy Davies with goals from Wes Morgan & Nathan Tyson. I bet they both wish they were still at the CG now!
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24/3/93 - Forest picked up their 1st win in 5 games at the Dell against mid table Southampton, a 2-1 win courtesy of first half goals from Nigel Clough & Roy Keane. Matt Le Tissier pulled one back in the second half but also, somewhat famously, in the same game he had his penalty saved by Mark Crossley. Le Tissier took 50 penalties in all in his professional career, scoring the other 49!
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The result lifted Forest 1 place to 20th & gave us renewed hope of staying up, but we would only win 1 more & draw 1 more of the remaining 8 games, relegation confirmed at home to Sheff Utd in a 0-2 defeat in the penultimate game. As it turned out, the day was not about Forest staying up, but far more about thanking the retiring legend Brian Clough for the previous 18 years.
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24/3/07 - Under the leadership of Colin Calderwood, the Reds beat Cheltenham 3-0 at the CG in front of 22,640 in the league One clash. It left Forest in 3rd place, but we could not and would not break into the top 2 to claim an automatic promotion spot. It would be more play - off misery, this time to Yeovil in the semi-final and another season in league One.
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24/3/08 - Exactly a year on and it was begining to look like it could be a case of deja vu as Forest were held 0-0 at home to lowly Brighton, a disappointing result given 3 days earlier we had beaten Northampton 2-1 away. From memory, on Good Friday; a night game to end a 4 match winless run. For those of us there, I remember this game as being one of the coldest nights I can ever recall being at a game! I swear some older fans left at half-time, so painfully cold was the evening. The result left us in 4th place and a defeat 4 days later on a miserable Friday night at Doncaster left some wondering if we would even make the play - offs, let alone stay in contention for automatic promotion. We all know what happened of course, and promtion would be confirmed, against the odds on that lovely warm sunny afternoon in May at home to Yeovil.
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25/3/72 - On this day, 41 years ago, Forest beat Coventry 4-0 at the CG in front of just 12,205 loyal fans as they showed some real fight at avoiding a highly likely relegation. 2 days later, we came back down to earth with an almighty bang hammered 6-1 at Leeds. I am not totally certain about this but from memory our goalkeeper Jim Barron had to go off injured, the score may have even been 1-1 at the time, and of course, there were no substitute goalkeepers in those days.
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25/3/75 In B.C's 1st Nottingham 'derby', Forest drew 2-2 across the river at Meadow Lane, goals from George Lyall & Barry Butlin in front of 20,303.
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25/3/78 - Forest resumed league duties after securing the League Cup 3 days earlier, with a comfortable 2-0 win at home to Newcastle in front of 35,552 in the pouring rain. The result left the Reds 3 points clear at the top of the table with 3 games in hand over 2nd place Everton.
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25/3/89 - Forest beat local rivals Derby 2-0 at the BBG in front of 25,174. There were goals from Lee Chapman & Steve Hodge to continue an excellent run in all 4 competitions. We had already booked: an FACup Semi-Final place; a League Cup Final place; A Simod Cup Final place, & were now 5th in Division 1, 14 points behind Arsenal but with 2 games in hand. This was some achievement, especially given the size of the squad.
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26/3/74- 39 years ago, the Reds played their 5th game in 11 days, and somehow pulled off a 2-0 win against Portsmouth at the CG in front of 14,040. It left us in 4th place, 1 point behind Blackpool with a game in hand as we battled for that last promotion place. Unfortunately, the Newcastle Cup debacle would take its toll and we did not win any of the next 5 games & only 2 of the last 8 overall. I blame Newcastle! As well as the referee in charge of those cup ties & a gutless, spineless F.A. How different the season might have been we will never know, but the following season, 74/75 did not start well, the result of which saw the Manager Allan Brown sacked after the home defeat to Notts County, 0-2 on the 28/12/74.
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His replacment of course was the one and only Brian Clough. In the summer of 1974, Cloughie had been appointed the new Manager of Leeds Utd, where he lasted just 44 days. In that brief time though, he had managed to sign our 1 jewel in the crown, Duncan Mckenzie. Forest without Mckenzie for the 74/75 season were nowhere near as good as Forest with him & inconsistent form resulted in the sacking of Brown & the appointment of Clough.
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You could, without doubt, say in a round about way that there were perhaps a couple of blessings in disguise there: I remember my Dad saying that to me, following the sale of Mckenzie! Some Notts County fans, believe beating us that day, just after Christmas in 1974, was the worst result in their history, given the sequence of events that would subsequently follow. That said, they did have a legendary Manager of their own in Jimmy Sirrell: mad as a hatter, but remembered both sides of the River with much affection - and he did a fantastic job for Notts.
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26/3/77 - Forest beat Blackpool 3-0 at the CG in front of 16,658 to leapfrog them and move up to 5th in the 2nd division and maintain our promotion push, this time ultimately one that would end in success.
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27/3/71 - 42 years ago today, Forest beat Crystal Palace 3-1 at the CG thanks to an Ian Storey-Moore hat trick, to make it 2 wins in a row. They would go on and win 3 more out of the net 4 games to pull well clear of the relegation zone & as such book another season in the top flight of English football.
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27/3/72 - Exactly 1 year on and the garden was not so rosy. Despite a 4-0 home win 2 days prior, the Reds were hammered 6-1 at title chasing Leeds Utd, leaving themselves rock bottom of the table, with fewer games than fellow relegation strugglers remaining. Nobody could save us this time and relegation was confirmed bringing to an end a 15 year stay in the top flight.
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28/3/79 - Forest hammered rock bottom Chelsea 6-0 at the CG in front of 24,514, a win that left us in 4th place in the table. We only took the lead on the stroke of half time through Martin O'Neill who went on to grab a hat trick, the other goals coming from Garry Birtles & a brace from Tony Woodcock.
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28/3/98 - The Reds suffered a hiccup going down 4-2 at fellow promotion rivals Charlton. However, we still remained top of the league where we would remain for the rest of the season.
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28/3/08 - I have mentioned this game elsewhere before on my​ website, but on this night in 2008, we lost 1-0 at fellow promotion contenders Doncaster in a League One clash. It was an awful performance and the travelling Forest fans chanted "We're shit and we're sick of it". Many gave up on any chance of automatic promotion; some said we would not even make the play - offs. This is how the top of the table looked that Friday night:
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P Pts
1) Swansea 39 79
2) Carlisle 38 74
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3) Doncaster 40 72
4) FOREST 39 63
5) Southend 39 62
6) Tranmere 41 62
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7) Brighton 39 59
8) Leeds 38 57
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Had Carlisle won their game in hand the next day, they would have gone 14 points clear with 7 games to go. As it happened they drew & so the gap was 'only' 12 points. The next game was Carlisle away on the Tuesday night, defeat would have meant a 15 point gap, with 6 to play, but we went there and won 2-0. Of our last 7 games including Carlise, 6 were won & 1 drawn - overtaking Doncaster to clinch the 2nd automatic promotion spot on that last dramatic unforgettable day of the season at the CG. We needed to simply better Doncaster's result, we beat Yeovil 3-2 and then news came through confirmed that Cheltenham had beaten Doncaster ... & we were up.
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29/3/77 - 36 years ago today, Forest beat Orient 3-0 at the CG in front of 16,267. A result which left the Reds in 4th place: 2 points off the final promotion place. It was the 3rd win on the trot & 2 more would follow to register 5 straight wins. The season went down to the wire, but ultimately would end in success.
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29/3/10 - 3rd placed Forest travelled to league leaders Newcastle, the Reds 10 points behind & having played an extra game. We were also 9 points behind 2nd placed West Brom. To maintain any chance realistically of automatic promotion, a win was required but two 2nd half Newcastle goals, including one in the last minute, resulted in a 2-0 defeat. We finished the season in a very credible 3rd place but unfortunately more play-off misery - this time at the hands (or feet!) of Blackpool.
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30/3/85 - 28 years ago, Forest lost 1-2 at home to West Ham in front of just 13,560, which left us 7th in Division 1. You may wonder why I revisit this particular game? Well, I was standing in my usual pen in the Trent End (not the 2 outer pens or the most cental one but the other one) & I had got a bet on the Grand National. I don't bet much really & have never done down the years, but this was a special kind of bet!
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Basicallyy, in the 80's, I used to sell lottery tickets for Forest (quite a lot really!) and, like a mug, ended up buying a fair few myself. Anyhow, the club at the time was doing a Forest Lottery / Grand National Ticket. I used to sell 200-300 per month on average from memory. They were just scratch cards costing about 25p each and you could win between 25p & £1,000. Additionally, you might win Wine, chocolate eggs at Easter etc. This particular occasion, out of some 300 tickets I sold, only 1 had a horse's name on it & in my case it was a horse called 'Last Suspect.'
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On the day of the National it was 50-1 so I did not get too excited. However, the lottery prize money was £1k if it came 1st, £100 2nd & so on, plus my lottery ticket also entitled a £1 each way bet. Someone in the Trent End with a little radio was relaying details of the race, and kept mentioning 'Last Suspect'. A few around me probably wondered why I was looking happy as we slumped to a 1-2 defeat but as 'Last Suspect' came in 1st I was excited about my winnings: £1,000 plus 10% as the Agent, another £100, plus £1 each way bet and your stake money back £64.50. Total winnings £1,164.50 ... plus a pair of Main Stand tickets for the Coventry game 3 weeks later.
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30/3/89 - Our excellent season continued with a 2-0 home win against Man Utd at the CG in front of 30,092. Goals came from Stuart Pearce & Lee Chapman. It maintained 5th place in the table and we would end the season in 3rd.
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30/3/02 - We travelled to Maine Road and witnsesed a woeful performance going down 3-0 to Man City in front of a capacity 34,345 as they closed in on securing the title & promotion back to the Premier League. The only memorable thing about this game was that Stuart Pearce was playing for City. The Forest fans gave him a fantastic ovation, especially when he was substituted near the end of the game. I remember him almost scoring from one of his trademark free kicks, plus being down at the away end for a City corner & despite playing against us, everyone gave it the 'Psycho Psycho' chant. At the end of the match he got off the bench, ran down to the Forest fans and jumped in amongst us all - Psycho ... an absolute Forest all-time legend, behind just Robbo (in my opinion) & Brian Clough himself.
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31/3/69 - As a very young lad, I was at the CG to see the Reds lose 1-0 to Man Utd in front of 41,892 & for the 1st time see the likes of Best, Law & Charlton who were Man Utd legends. It left Forest in 17th place, still with work to do to avoid the drop.
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31/3/70 - Slightly spookily, exactly 1 year on & again we faced Man Utd at the CG again... losing! This time 2-1, & another big crowd of 39,228. With the season ending early as a result of the Mexico 1970 World Cup in the summer, Forest were already comfortably safe of any relegation fears. Who remembers the Esso World Cup Coins? Wish I still had mine, they would be worth a bob or two now!
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31/3/71 - And a further year on saw us travel to the BBG to complete an excellent 2-1 victory against our closest rivals Derby, in front of a packed 34,857 with goals from Paul Richardson & Ian Storey-Moore. The result left Forest 18th but relegation would be comfortably avoided.
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31/3/73 - Exactly 40 years ago today, Forest beat Division 2 leaders Burnley 3-0 at the CG in front of 12,522. I remember this game particularly as it was covered by BBC's MOTD camera's, rare indeed at the CG that season (we had been relegated the previous season & there had been little otherwise to shout about) with goals from Mckenzie, O'Neill & Lyons.
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31/3/79 - Trevor Francis netted his 1st Forest goal in a 1-1 draw with Bolton at the CG in front of 29,015. He would of course go on and score plenty more including 'that one' in our very last game of the season in Munich to win the European Cup against Malmo, simply unforgetable.
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31/3/92 - We travelled to Arsenal for what turned out to be an excellent game: falling behind after 5 mins, but then goals from Woan, Clough and Keane gave us a 3-1 lead before we conceeded late goals in a 3-3 draw.
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31/3/07 - 6 years ago, 3rd placed Forest met 2nd placed Bristol City in a top of the table League One clash at Ashton Gate in front of a capacity 19,249 including a large Forest following. The result was much better for City than Forest as they maintained a 4 point gap with 6 games to go. This would prove crucial as the season drew to a close. City were promoted as Runners - Up and Forest would fail in the play-offs.
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1/4/75 - A George Lyall penalty earned us a much needed 1-0 win against bottom of the table Sheff Weds in front of 14,077 in a Division 2 game at the CG. It was only our 2nd league win since Cloughie's arrival back in Jan, when we had beaten Fulham away: his 1st league game in charge. It left us 5 points clear of the relegation zone & we would finish the season in 16th.
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1/4/78 - Just 3 years on from the above, Forest beat Chelsea 3-1 at the CG in front of 31,262 to stay top of Division 1, 2 points clear of Everton but with 3 games in hand. We would of course go on to be crowned 'Champions of England' for the one and only time in our history.
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1/4/95 - The Reds had returned to the Premier League after a 1 year absence and travelled to Hillsborough in a rich vein of form picking up a 5th successive win in truly emphatic style, in a 7-1 win. It was one of the best Forest performances I have ever witnessed; even compared to our 'glory years'. Wedneday were flattered by the scoreline. Collymore was unstoppable - picking up 2 goals, there were 2 for Bryan Roy, the others coming from Pearce, Woan & Bohinen.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBQ3ua7tUuE Always worth another look! Sheff Weds 1-7 Nottm Forest
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1/4/08 - 5th placed Forest travelled to 2nd place Carlisle, off the back of an horrendous performance and result at Doncaster a few days earlier. More worryingly we were 12 points behind them with just 7 games to go & they had not lost for 14 games. Their home record read P18 W16 D1 L1. A fantastic 2-0 win was achieved just to keep that automatic promotion from League 1 alive for another week.
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*I write this 1/4/13, ahead of our game at Burnley today, not historically a happy hunting ground for us ... but let's hope it follows some of our previous 1st April's as detailed above!
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2/4/80 - 9th placed Forest beat 2nd place & title chasing Man Utd 2-0 at the CG in front of 31,417 at the CG, a win that lifted us to 5th, where we would end the season: as well as retaining the European Cup of course.
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2/4/83 - Forest beat Everton 2-0 at the CG in front of just 14,815 as attendances across the country continued to plummit. We had not won any of our previous 9 games and had registered just 1 win in the last 13, as well as crashing out the FACup at Derby & League Cup at Man Utd. Having dropped to13th in the table, it certainly was the start of our recovery. Including this game, we picked up 7 wins and 2 draws in the last 9, to finish 5th and secure a EUFA cup spot.
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2/4/86 - Forest beat title chasing West Ham 2-1 at the CG in front of 17,498 mainly remembered for another Metgod special. Frest would finish the season a credible 8th, with West Ham 3rd, just 4 points behind champions Liverpool.
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2/4/88 - Forest warmed up for their FACup Semi-Final with Liverpool on 9th April by beating them in a league match at the CG, 2-1 in front of 29,188. The win lifted us to 3rd, but still 16 points behind them in the table. Indeed they were also 11 clear of Man Utd in 2nd, and would go on to win the title at a canter with us fnishing an excellent 3rd.
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3/4/04 - Forest travelled to Bramall Lane and went some way to gaining revenge for the Play-Off defeat 10 months earlier, with a 2-1 victory courtesy of goals from King & Taylor. It also continued the climb away from the relegation zone & we would finish the season in a comfortable 14th, having been in the relegaton zone when Joe Kinnear had taken over from Paul Hart following the 1-0 defeat at home to Coventry back in February.
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Perhaps, almost as pleasing, Sheff Utd would miss out on reaching the play-offs by 2pts...& we had beaten them both home and away!
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4/4/88 - The Reds warmed up for their Semi-Final against Liverpool at Hillsborough, with a 3rd consecutive win,1-0 at Portsmouth. The Semi-Final of 88 would prove a classic, very unlike that of 89.
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4/4/93 - Forest lost 1-0 at home to Aston Villa in front of a near capacity 26,742, a result which took Villa top of the Premier League & left us in 21st place. The realisation that relegation was now a real possibility dawned, unthinkable after the previous 15 seasons in the top flight & how we had started the 16th, with a 1-0 win at home to Liverpool in front of the Sky camera's, their 1st ever televised league game.
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5/4/78 - A very weary Forest side ground out a 1-0 win at Aston Villa & on the same night 2nd placed Everton lost, thus increasing our lead at the top of the table to 4pts with 3 games in hand. Throughout April, the games continued to come thick and fast.
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5/4/89 - Forest warmed up for Sunday's League Cup Final with a comfortable 2-0 win at home to title chasing Norwich, a result which left us 4th; 5pts behind Norwich in 3rd & 9 behind leaders Arsenal. Liverpool were 2nd, 3 pts behind Arsenal with a game in hand, & partly due to the events that would unfold at Hillsborough on the 15th April, the season would end in the most dramatic fashion, as Liverpool met Arsenal at Anfield late in May. Arsenal needed to go to Anfield and win by 2 goals, which they achieved in the last minute! Forest finished the season in an excellent 3rd place. If you have never seen the film 'Fever Pitch', I strongly recommend it, even though it is about an Arsenal fan as, in reality, it could be about a fan of any club.
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5/4/97 - Any hopes of staying in the Premier League were dealt a severe blow as Forest lost 1-3 at home to fellow relegation strugglers Southampton in front of 25,134: a result that left Forest 18th and Southampton 19th. Worryingly, Forest had played at 2 more games than the bottom 2, & 3 more than the side in 17th. We would go on to finish bottom & be relegated along with Sunderland & Middlesbrough.
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5/4/98 - Exactly 1 year on & Forest beat Ipswich 2-1 at the CG in front of 22,292 to remain top of the table and an immediate return to the top flight.
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5/4/99 - Although Forest's position (rock bottom of the Premier League and 10pts from safety with a vastly inferior goal difference & with only 6 to play) looked hopeless, they at least showed some spirit to earn a 2-2 draw with Liverpool at the CG in front of 28,374. Forest held a 1 minute silence in memory of the Hillsborough disaster, as the 10th anniversary was only a matter of days away. Whilst I am so pleased that in 2012, at last , the families got the justice they deserved, I am also very proud of the way our football club & its fans have always behaved regarding the disaster.
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6/4/77 - Forest beat Bolton 3-1 at the CG in front of 24,580 in a vital promotion battle. The Reds went in to the game in 3rd place, with Bolton just 2 places & 1 point behind, but more worryingly, 2 games in hand. It proved 'the' key win in the run in as Forest clinched promotion over Bolton by just 1 point.
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6/4/02 - We travelled to Hillsborough with 3 games to go & still in a position where we could be relegated. A 2-0 win ensured, barring a series of sensational results,that we were safe.
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6/4/05 - A disgraceful performance saw us capitulate 2-0 away at Coventry in a vital relegation battle; a result which left us rooted in the bottom 3 & the travelling fans venting their fury. We would of course be relegated to the 3rd tier at the end of the season.
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7/4/93 - The Reds slipped to a 3-1 home defeat to Blackburn, leaving us bottom of the Premier League as boo's echoed around the CG, probably for the 1st time in any great volume all season. The cheers went up as our own defender Gary Charles was sent off!
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7/4/12 - Just 12 months ago we were locked into a relegation batte and this 1-0 defeat at home to fellow strugglers Bristol City left us still nervously looking over our shoulders.
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8/4/72 - Forest beat Newcastle 1-0 at the CG in front of just 12,470 with Peter Cormack scoring the winner (just read his book) as The Reds, still bottom coninued to fight for their 1st Division lives closing the gap from safety to just 4 points.
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9th April ... seems plenty happened on this day when trawling the archives...
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9/4/71 - The Reds travelled to Man City & pulled off an excellent 3-1 win to all but ensure, comfortably ,1st Division survival for another season.
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9/4/77 - A crowd of 32,518 packed into Meadow Lane (more 'away' fans than home as Forest fans were massed on the Spion Kop) to witness a vital local 'derby' whch ended 1-1. It left Forest in 3rd, with Notts 1 point and 1 place behind: Peter Withe grabbing the Forest equaliser on 27 minutes.
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9/4/80 - The Reds beat Ajax 2-0 in the 1st leg of the European Cup Semi-Final at the CG in front of 31,244. Goals came from 2 legends, Trevor Francis & John Robertson as we continued our bid to retain the trophy won the previous season in that wonderful night in Munich.
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9/4/88 - Around 29,000 Forest fans travelled to Hillsborough amongst a crowd of 51,627 for the FACup semi-final clash with the 'mighty' Liverpool. Wembley dreams were shattered in a 2-1 defeat but we had pushed them all the way and I think we deserved a replay. But it was not to be. The next time we met them in a semi-final, a year or so later, football paled into insignificance.
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9/4/89 - A wonderful joyous occasion as Forest beat Luton 3-1 in the League Cup Final (Littlewoods Cup) at Wembley Stadium in front of 76,130 with the Reds following clearly outnumbering their opponents. On the way down to the game I predicted we would be 1-0 down at half time and win 3-1, and that is exactly what happened. Sadly, I did not place a bet on it but that didn't matter. Thanks to goals from Nigel Clough (2) & Neil Webb, we lifted our 1st major trophy for 9 years. 6 days later, things would be very different.
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9/4/94 - A hugely significant win, 1-0 away at Charlton left Forest in 2nd place, 6 points clear of 3rd placed Leicester as an immediate return to the Premier League grew ever closer, Jason 'Pineapple on his head' Lee grabbed the winner.
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9/4/05 - Contrast this with some of above ... Desparately needing a win and perhaps even more desparately needing a performance to at last show we were fighting to try and avoid the drop to the 3rd teir, the Reds were hammered 3-0 at home to fellow strugglers Plymouth in front of a packed CG of 28,887. I left the game knowing there was no way we would be staying up, thousands left after 23 mins as we went 2-0 down. Relegation would be confirmed 3 weeks later.
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10/4/70 - Forest rounded off their season with a 1-0 win at the CG in front of just 10,589 for this 1st Division game, finishing in a comfortable 15th place. The season ended early to allow World Cup holders England preparation time for the 1970 Mexico World Cup. It's interesting to note just how much the attendances could vary in those days. Just 10 days earlier 39,228 had attended the CG for the Forest v Man Utd game and less than a month earlier 42,074 for the Forest-Derby game.
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10/4/72 - The Reds continued to fight for their 1st Division lives with a 2-0 win at Stoke: 2 wins in 3 days now. It left us 2 points from safety, 3 to play but we had played a game more than Crystal Palace who were occupying the last 'safety' position.
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10/4/93 - You occasionally come away from games with a gut feeling as to what it might mean for your season. We travelled down to QPR & after taking an early lead, found ourselves 2-1 down at half time. Within 10 mins of the restart we led 3-2, courtesy of goals from Kingsley Black. We played really well but sadly as Les Ferdinand went on to complete his hat trick and a penalty came from Clive Wilson it meant we lost the game 4-3 leaving us 5 points from safety with 5 to play.
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11/4/79 - We all have our favourite ever games and I have alluded to mine several times. This one is my brother's ... Forest 3-3 Cologne in the 1st leg of the European Cup Semi-Final, in front of a capacity crowd of 40,804 at the CG 'mud heap'. 0-2 down after 20 minutes, the Reds battled their way back to lead 3-2 after 63 mins, only for Cologne to pull level 5 minutes from time with a goal from Okudera. The unforgetable newspaper headlines the next day read 'Jap sub sinks Forest'. Many in the media thought that was it ... indeed Cologne started to publish information to their supporters of hotel packages for the Munich final. Forest had different ideas as the 2nd leg in 2 weeks time would show.
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11/4/84 - 5 years on, this time the EUFA Cup, but none the less 2 late Steve Hodge goals gave Forest a 2-0 advantage to take to Anderlecht for the 2nd leg on 25th April. The win was in vain due to the scandalous events that would unfold that night, even more scandalous the length of time it took for the truth to come out and even more outrageous still that nothing was done about it when it did. Bitter? You bet!
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11/4/09 - One of my favourite and most significant games in recent times as the Reds lifted themselves just outside the relegaion zone with a 3-2 win against Bristol City at the CG in front of 22,776. Trailing 1-2 with just 8 minutes to go, McAllister was sent off for Bristol City ... within a minute Joe Garner had levelled and then in stoppage time, on loan Dexter Blackstock smashed home the winner at the Trent End. The ground erupted in wild celebrations. We were not safe yet, but I knew after this there was no way we were going down. There were some more nervous moments over the remaining few weeks of the season but Billy would save us, indeed we were safe by the time we met Southampton at home on the last day: a 3-1 win in front of a packed CG, 29,008. It should be remembered however that after our penultimate game at Blackpool on the 25th April, a 1-1 draw, we were still not safe. Reading went to Norwich 2 days later, won 2-0 and then we were!
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12/4/82 - Forest won 2-1 at Meadow Lane in a top flight Nottingham 'derby' in front of a disappointing Bank Holiday crowd of just 19,304. We would finish the season in 12th place, interestingly considered disappointing at the time and the only time in our 16 year stay under BC that we did not finish in the top half, apart from his final season when we were relegated. I am sure we would all happily take that now as indeed would Notts, who finished the season in 15th place.
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12/4/93 - Forest ended a run of 3 defeats with a 2-1 victory at the CG in front of 25,682 to keep our hopes of staying in the Premier League alive and move off the bottom to 21st. Sadly, only 1 point in the remaining 4 games brought the inevitable relegation, confirmed in the penultimate game.
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13/4/71 - A crowd of 40,727 turned up at the CG to watch the 'double champions elect' Arsenal defeat Forest 3-0. Forest would win their next game but then lose the last 3 and end the season in 16th.
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13/4/88 - Forest met Liverpool for the 3rd time in 12 days, this time falling foul of an excellent Liverpool performance esulting in a a 5-0 defeat. Forest did not play badly, it's just that Liverpool were very good & would go on to win the title easily with Forest finishing a very credible 3rd, but 17 points behind. Personally, I put it down to having the stuffing knocked out of us 4 days earlier in the 2-1 FACup semi-final defeat.
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13/4/96 - The 13th April continued to be an 'unkind' day in history for the Reds as we slumped to a 1-5 defeat at home to Blackburn. Although we would end the season in a comfortable 9th place, the warning signs were there, and soon became very apparent in the following season.
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13/4/09 - Reduced to 10 men after just 16 minutes, Forest battled for this point in a 0-0 draw at promotion chasing Sheff Utd. Whilst it tempoarily dropped us back into the relegation zone, 2 wins and a draw in the last 3 games would see us safe.
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14/4/79 - Forest travelled to local rivals Derby for this Easter Saturday fixture and came away with both points in a 2-1 win in front of 30,156 at the BBG.
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14/4/90 - Almost 1 year after the Hillsborough disaster, Forest were fittingly the visitors to Anfield. Forest had already booked a place in the League Cup Final but were in a terrible run of form in the league, having picked up just 1 point in the last 7 games. 2-0 down after 14 minutes, a 5th consecutive defeat looked on the cards, but 2nd half goals from Steve Hodge & Nigel Jemson brought a hard earned point. Liverpool remained top of the league and would go on to be champions. They have not been since!
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14/4/91 - Happy FACup days at last for Forest as West Ham were 'hammered' 4-0 in the FACup semi-final at Villa Park to reach the Final for the 1st time since 1959: the 1st in my lifetime & the 1st for Brian Clough. A very memorable day out ... Tottenham and one Paul Gascoigne awaited.
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24 years ago today, Saturday 15th April 1989, we travelled to Hillsborough on a lovely warm sunny morning for the eagerly anticipated FACup Semi-Final showdown with Liverpool: a repeat of 12 months previous where we had narrowly been beaten 2-1 in a classic game. Another wonderful game was anticipated and Forest, buoyed by their League Cup Final win just 6 days earlier, fancied their chances this time around.
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A few hours later 95, & shortly after 96, Liverpool fans had died. Crushed to death in Britain's worst ever​ sporting disaster. Football too died that day, certainly the football I had grown up with. I have already devoted a section of my website to Hillsborough so I am not going to go into any more detail on here today, but I do not think it is appropraite to look at anything else that happened in the football world for Forest on that date through history. Incredibly, 77 years prior to Hillsborough, 15/4/12, the luxury liner 'Titanic' sank, having hit an iceberg, with horrendous loss of life: over 1,500 people. At least there was no scandalous 'cover up' for the investigation into the Titanic disaster.
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Football is vastly different these days to what it was. Not all of the changes have been for the better in a game now dominated by money. But, most importantly of all, as a result of Hillsborough it is much safer to watch football now than it was . Hillsborough was an 'accident' waiting to happen.
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Thankfully, in 2012 the families of the Hillsborough disaster finally got some of the justice they deserved as the truth & extent of the cover up came to light. Remembering today, all those who lost their lives. RIP.
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16/4/77 - 3rd place Forest travelled to Stamford Bridge to take on 2nd place Chelsea in front of 36,499. The Reds held a 1-0 advantage at half time thanks to a Martin O'Neill goal. Sadly, 2 Chelsea goals in the 2nd half meant that we would return to Nottingham empty handed. The result left us in 4th place with any of the top 8 still having a very good chance of getting in the top 3 and promotion. The nerves would continue to jangle a week later when we were beaten at home 1-0 by lowly Cardiff, a result that left some doubting the Reds promotion credentials.
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16/4/05 - The worst season I have ever witnessed continued to get worse as we travelled to meet Reading. Battered for most of the game, goalkeeper Paul Gerrard manages to get himself sent off on 71 minutes, 3 minutes later we are 1-0 down and there is no way back. The result leaves us in 23rd place, 6 points from safety; effectively 7 with our rubbish goal difference and just 3 to play. The drop to the 3rd tier of English football for the 1st time since 1950/51 & only 2nd time in our history looks imminent. There would be no great escape!
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17/4/94 - Forest travelled to the New Den to take on fellow promotion rivals Millwall in what turned out to be a nasty and menacing afternoon both on & off the pitch. No surprises there then! Twice behind, Forest battled their way to a 2-2 draw. Goals from Stan Collymore & Steve Stone delivered an impressive result, especially as we were reduced to 10 men with Des Lyttle seeing red. The result left us 2nd with Millwall 7th, and we had 5 games remaining in our bid to get back to the Premier League at the 1st time of asking.
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17/4/06 - Forest made it an incredible 6 league wins in a row with a 2-1 victory over Yeovil in front of an excellent Easter Monday crowd of 28,193 at the CG. Incredible considering that when Gary Megson had left his post (by mutual consent) following a shocking 3-0 defeat at Oldham, we were languishing in 13th place in league one and in a downward spiral. This victory lifted us into 6th place & the play-off places under the leadership of caretaker Managers Charlie & Frank. Sadly, the next game was lost 3-2 at Hartlepool, the only defeat in their 13 matches in charge but it was enough to cost us a play-off place ending the season in 7th; just 2 points off 6th.
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17/4/10 - We travelled to the seaside to take on Blackpool in what would be a fore runner to the play-off semi-final and came away with nothing following a 3-1 defeat. That result meant they had done the double over us with the 1-0 win earlier in the season at the CG. Tragically, they would defeat us 4 times before the season was out.
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18/4/78 - Forest beat QPR 1-0 at the CG thanks to a John Robertson penalty in front of 30,339. A point on Saturday at Coventry and we will be Champions of England for the 1st ... and only time.
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22/4/98 - Top of the league Forest travelled to 9th placed Stockport County and a 2-2 draw left us within touching distance of promotion back to the Premier League at the first attempt, having been relegated (again) the previous season. We think our fortunes have dipped in recent times, but consider Stockport in 2012/13, who look like they will be relegated from the Conference to the Conferenc North!
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18/4/09 - Forest beat Coventry 1-0 at the CG in front of 27,856, a win that lifted us out of the relegation zone with 2 games to go. The nerves were seriously jangling but I knew we would survive.
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See below league tables on the respective dates:
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http://www.statto.com/football/stats/england/division-one-old/1977-1978/table/1978-04-18 league table 18/4/78
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http://www.statto.com/football/stats/england/division-one/1997-1998/table/1998-04-18 league table 18/4/98
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http://www.statto.com/football/stats/england/league-championship/2008-2009/table/2009-04-18 league table 18/4/09
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19/4/80 - Forest avenged the 4-1 defeat at the BBG earlier in the season with a 1-0 win against rivals Derby County at the CG in front of 32,266. It was a result as the link to the league table below shows that as good as sealed Derby's relegation.
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19/4/08 - Forest beat Luton 1-0 at the CG to keep alive their unlikely (but slowly increasing) charge towards automatic promotion from the dreaded League One. Since the defeat at Doncaster, when to many all seemed lost, the Reds had now picked up 4 wins and a draw in 5 games & as the league table link below shows, we had just two games remaining. Would our nerves hold?
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http://www.statto.com/football/stats/england/league-one/2007-2008/table/2008-04-19 the battle to get out of league one
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http://www.statto.com/football/stats/england/division-one-old/1979-1980/table/1980-04-19 Derby almost doomed...
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20/4/91 - Forest entertained Chelsea at the CG in a mid-table clash, having reached the FACup Final 6 days earlier. With Cloughie in charge there was absolutely no chance of easing off in readiness for the 18th May final with the Reds dispatching Chelsea 7-0 in front of a very happy 20,305.
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20/4/92 - 8 days after having lost the League Cup Final 1-0 at Wembley to Man Utd, we travelled to Old Trafford to play top of the league Man Utd, who were locked in a battle with Leeds & Sheff Weds for the title. We certainly avenged Wembley with a wonderful 2-1 win, thus completing the double over them that season: 2 results which ultimately cost the the title as the attached link to the table shows:
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http://www.statto.com/football/stats/england/division-one-old/1991-1992/table/1992-04-20 Forest knock Man Utd off the top
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http://www.statto.com/football/stats/england/division-one-old/1991-1992/table Final Table 1991/92 ...the last one before the Premier league commenced in 1992/93 ... football would never be the same again!
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21/4/84 - Forest hammered Birmingham 5-1 at the CG in front of 15,323 to stay 3rd in the league behind Liverpool & Man Utd & 9 points off the top. We would pick up just 1 point in the next 2 games before winning the last 3, which included a 2-0 win against Man Utd on the last game of the season & the farewell for our excellent dutch keeper Hans Van Breukelen. When you look at the final league table for 1983/84 (see attached link below) and then factor in that we lost the opening game of the season 0-1 v Southampton at the CG plus Liverpool beat us 1-0 home and away, you see just how close we came to being Champions of England for the second time. Had we drawn the Southampton game and beat Liverpool in just one of the games against them, we would have been champions. This, coupled with the bent referee and bent Anderlecht in the EUFA Cup semi-final, shows jut what fine lines there can be in football, between winning and just missing out.
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21/4/93 - Forest travelled to North London to meet Arsenal with relegation looming. A goal in the depths of stoppage time from Roy Keane, in the last seconds of the game earned us a potentially vital point in front of just 19,024 and just 2 games remaining to save ourselves. Sadly, relegation would be confirmed in the next game on 1st May; a 0-2 defeat v Sheff Utd, in what would be Brian Clough's last home league game after over 18 glorious years in charge.
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http://www.statto.com/football/stats/england/division-one-old/1983-1984/table Final Table 1983/84
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http://www.statto.com/football/stats/england/premier-league/1992-1993/table/1993-04-21 After the point at Arsenal ... 21/4/93
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22/4/68 - Forest beat Everton 1-0 at the CG in what I am pretty certain was my 1st ever night match in a crowd of 23,809, with my 1st Forest hero Ian Storey-Moore grabbing the winner. It would be pop & crisps at the pub on the way home, not a bad way to end the night for a 7 year old & 'Storey-Moore with the goal' would become a very familiar theme in my formative years watching Forest. This was just as well as rarely did anyone else score many! We would end the season in 11th after losing the last 2 away games, 4-2 at Leicester & 6-1 at Liverpool.
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22/4/72 - The Reds held Man Utd 0-0 at the CG in front of 35,063 as we continued to battle for our 1st division lives. The result meant with 2 games remaining we could still stay up as the link below, to the league table, shows. 2 would go down out of Huddersfield, Forest & Crystal Palace. At one point, relegation had looked a certainty and it was of at least some credit to the players that we were still in the fight. Sadly, we lost the next game at home to Wolves 1-3 and after 15 years of top flight football & 5 seasons for me, relegation was confirmed. I was 11 & it did bring tears to my eyes that night.
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22/4/78 - What a contrast: 6 years on from the above. After 5 seasons in Division Two, Forest had been promoted back to the top flight. Some wondered before a ball was kicked would we stay up... All the critics got their answer as we travelled to Highfield Road, Coventry and earned the point in a 0-0 draw, that made us 'Champions of England', for the one and only time in our illustrious history. Take a look at the league table on this day & at the end of the season - it still makes incredible reading. Wonderful celebrations followed for the 12,000 or so travelling fans in a capacity crowd of 36,881 ... & thousands more back in Nottinghamshire ... and beyond.
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22/4/89 - Incredibly, just 1 week after the Hillsborough disaster, Forest are expected to resume duties which they do as we travel to Middlesbrough and win 4-3. The game was not quite as close as it may sound as with less than 10 minutes to go we led 4-1. The players certainly can be forgiven for easing off as perhaps their minds were still understandably elsewhere.
http://www.statto.com/football/stats/england/division-one-old/1971-1972/table/1972-04-22 Still fighting or survival ... 22/4/72
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http://www.statto.com/football/stats/england/division-one-old/1977-1978/table/1978-04-22 CHAMPIONS! And still 4 games to go 22/4/78
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http://www.statto.com/football/stats/england/division-one-old/1977-1978/table Final Table ... 1977/78 Season
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSOZLmKF4bg M'Bro 3-4 Forest ... Hillsborough remembered 1 week on ...
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23/4/77 - Forest suffered a 2nd succesive defeat, 0-1 at home to lowly Cardiff in front of 20,646. We drop to 4th as the attached link shows with 4 games remaining.
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23/4/80 - Forest are given a severe test from Ajax in front of 65,000 as we try to protect our 2-0 lead from the 1st leg at the CG in the European Cup Semi-Final. We finally concede on 65 minutes but hang on to win the tie 2-1 on aggregate, and a 2nd European Cup Final in Madrid awaits.
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23/4/83 - Forest beat Notts County 2-1 at the CG in front of 25,554 in an entertaining top flight Nottingham 'derby' after having fallen behind in the 1st minute. We would end the season in 5th place and qualify for the EUFA Cup & Notts would finish a credible 15th.
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23/4/97 - We make our last ever visit to the BBG. They have 1 more to play there, before it is due to be bulldozed to the floor (wish I could have driven the bulldozer!) and before they move to Pride Park next season. Several of the Forest fans started to demolish the ground before the final whistle by either taking their seats home with them or 'throwing' them at the Derby fans. At least we managed to hang on for a point in a drab 0-0 draw, and as such staved off relegation until the next match when it was confirmed.
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http://www.statto.com/football/stats/england/division-two-old/1976-1977/table/1977-04-23 League table after the Cardiff defeat ...
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http://www.statto.com/football/stats/england/premier-league/1996-1997/table/1997-04-24 Still not quite down... so at least we prevented Derby from having that pleasure!
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24/4/74 - After the traumas of the Newcastle cup saga, the Red's faint promotion hopes were finally ended with a 3-1 defeat at Aston Villa in the penultimate game of the season in front of just 12,439.
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24/4/76 - Forest signed off Brian Clough's first full season in charge with an encourging 3-0 win against Bristol Rovers in front of 12,127 at the CG to end the season in 8th place... A sign of things of come perhaps as there had been just 2 defeats in the last 16 games.
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24/4/91 - 4 days after thrashing Chelsea 7-0 at the CG, Norwich were dispatched 5-0 as the Reds continued to prepare for the FAcup final.
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24/4/99 - Another woeful performance as relegation from the Premier League is confirmed following this 2-0 defeat at Aston Villa, with still 3 games to go. Surprisingly, Forest would win the last 3 games of the season but 7 wins for the entire season really said it all, and 2 of these were in the 1st 3 games also. We have not returned since.
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24/4/04 - Forest beat Ipswich 2-1 at the CG in front of 27,848 to all but ensure survival in the Championship as the attached link shows. In reality we were safe and under Joe Kinnear we would lose just 2 of his 17 games in charge.
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25/4/78 - Already champions, Forest travelled to Ipswich and secured a 2-0 win, with defender Frank Clark scoring his only career goal.
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25/4/79 - Arguably one of Forest's best ever performances in Europe as we travelled to Cologne needing a win to progress to the final or an unlikely score draw of more than 3-3. On 65 minutes Ian Bowyer heads Forest in front and some 8,000 travelling fans in the 60,000 crowd go mad. We hold on for a 1-0 win and less than 2 years after haing scraped out of Division 2, we are in the European Cup Final. The likes of this will never be seen again even if we are still playing football in a thousand years.
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25/4/84 - By the most severe of contrasts to the above, we travelled to Anderlecht in the EUFA Cup semi-final with a 2-0 advantage from the 1st leg. We did not play well in the 1st half and went in at half time 1-0 down but still ahead in the tie. Then inexplicably, on 59 minutes the referee awards them a penalty where the player takes a dive wth no Forest player anywhere near him. On 88 minutes they go 3-0 up only for Paul Hart to score a perfectly legitimate goal which the referee disallows, 3-1 would still have taken us through to the final. Many years later, the truth is discovered, the referee had been bribed. This was an outrageous miscarriage of justice, worsened further when the truth came out in 1997 ... virtually nothing was done for Forest; the cheated players,;the cheated fans ... and nothing was done to Anderlecht. Scandalous! But not surprised.
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25/4/09 - We travelled to Blackpool for the early kick off (& an overnight stay of course) and earned 1-1 draw, then off to the Manchester Pub to keep an eye on the other 3pm kick off games etc. The pub subsequently erupted as Wolves got a late equaliser at Barnsley to keep Barnsley in 21st & us in 20th; both just outside the 3 relegation places and both with 1 game to play. Southampton and Charlton were already down but 1 more relegation place remained. 2 days later, Norwich lost their penultimate game at home to reading and were safe, last day nerves spared.
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http://www.statto.com/football/stats/england/league-championship/2008-2009/table/2009-04-25 League table after the 25th April games
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25/4/11 - Forest travelled to Bristol City and secured a 3-2 win to keep us in 6th place and take the final play-off spot, still by means guaranteed as the attached link shows.
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http://www.statto.com/football/stats/england/league-championship/2010-2011/table/2011-04-25 table 25/4/11 ...
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We would also win our last 2 games and indeed that meant we had won 5 out of the final 6 of the regular season. As the final table shows (attached) we needed to! Sadly, but not surprisingly we would keep up our 100% play-off record going with defeat to Swansea in the semi-finals.
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http://www.statto.com/football/stats/england/league-championship/2010-2011/table Final Table 2010/2011
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26/4/75 - The Reds signed off their 1st 'part season' under Brian Clough with a 2-1 win aginst West Brom at the CG in front of 11,721 to finish in 16th place ... 3 places lower than when he took over, but we all knew things were looking up.
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26/4/86 - Forest took on Everton at the CG, who were battling it out with their rivals Liverpool for the 1st Division title. Liverpool were top on 79 points with 3 to play, with Everton 2nd on 79 points with 4 to play. On this day, Liverpool won their game whereas Forest held Everton to a 0-0 draw... LIverpool went on to win the title by 2 points. In a time of dwindling attendnces all over, there was a crowd of 30,171 at the CG for this one, our last home game of the season v a season average for us of 16,815.
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26/4/98 - Forest beat Reading 1-0 at the CG thanks to a Bart-Williams goal on 87 minutes in front of a virtual capacity crowd of 29,302 to all but, barring freak results, seal promotion back to the Premier League. As the link shows, it was almost certain, and 2 days later it was absolutely confirmed when Ipswich beat Sunderland. The final table link is also attached below.
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26/4/03 - Forest, under Paul Hart finally secure their play off place in a 3-3 draw with Millwall in front of an 'all Forest crowd' of 29,463 at the CG. Under a recipricol arrangement both clubs had banned away fans due to the problems the previous season.
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26/4/08 - Forest win again in their penultimate League One fixture at Hartlepool thanks to a Lewis McGugan strike on 84 minutes to take automatic promotion to the last day of the season. Forest had now won 5 and drew 1 since that defeat at Doncaster when automatic promotion looked like it had disappeared. As the attached link shows, we would go into the last game in 3rd place, 1 point behind Doncaster & level on points with 4th place Carlisle, who less than a month ago had been some 12 points ahead of Forest. The equation was simple, we needed to at least equal Carlisle's result and better Doncaster's.
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http://www.statto.com/football/stats/england/division-one/1997-1998/table/1998-04-26 Table 26/4/98
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http://www.statto.com/football/stats/england/division-one/1997-1998/table Final Table 1997/98
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http://www.statto.com/football/stats/england/league-one/2007-2008/table/2008-04-26 League One Table 26/4/08
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http://www.statto.com/football/stats/england/league-one/2007-2008/table Final Table 2007/08.
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27/4/94 - Forest travelled to local rivals Derby and registered a relatively comfortable 2-0 win to set up the opportunity to clinch automatic promotion in the next game ... at Peterborough ... as the attached link to the table shows.
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27/4/09 - Not a Forest game! But a very happy one from recent times as Reading travel to Norwich and inflict a 2-0 defeat. Norwich fill the last relegation spot and Forest are safe with one game remaining ... at least we can relax for once in what has been an enjoyable but anxious season.
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http://www.statto.com/football/stats/england/league-championship/2008-2009/table/2009-04-27 Safe, at last! 2008/09
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http://www.statto.com/football/stats/england/division-one/1993-1994/table/1994-04-27 Almost there 1993/94
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28/4/79 - Forest draw 0-0 with league leaders Liverpool in front of a capacity 41,898 at the CG: a result which, as the attached link suggests, left them clear favourites to regain the title we took from them the previous season. They would go on to win it with Forest finishing as Runners Up, but winning the European Cup & League Cup in what was a fantastic, unbelievable season.
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28/4/12 - A very forgetable, horrible season for several reasons, thankfully comes to a close with a 2-0 win at the CG against already relegated Portsmouth. Little could we imagine the changes that lay ahead over the summer & beyond.
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http://www.statto.com/football/stats/england/division-one-old/1978-1979/table/1979-04-28 Table after the 0-0 draw with Liverpool
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http://www.statto.com/football/stats/england/league-championship/2011-2012/table Final Championship Table 2011/2012
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29/4/78 - I know Man Utd picked up their 20th title last week but on this day 35 years ago the Reds were formally (as formal as it got in those days) presented with the League Championship trophy ahead of the game at the CG v Birmingham in front of 37,625. It may have been a dull 0-0 draw but to see my team parading the trophy as 'Champions of England' for the very first time, and probably the last, was a special footballing moment. Add to that, we had also won the League Cup for the 1st time, plus numerous individual honours which certainly had made for an unforgettable season. That, plus what followed over the next 2 years is part of the reason why Nottingham Forest FC will always be regarded as one of England's most famous clubs. And despite all other clubs chanting these days to us 'Your'e not famous anymore' it is, by definition, an acknowledgment of how they see our club... even if they don't realise it!
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http://www.statto.com/football/stats/england/division-one-old/1977-1978 Final Table 1977/78 ... Forest Champions of England!
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29/4/90 - Forest beat Oldham 1-0 in the League Cup Final at Wembley Stadium in front of 74,343, courtesy of a Nigel Jemson goal on another very memorable day in the history of Nottingham Forest & a beautiful sunny day. It has proved, to date, to be our last 'major' honour if you strip out the ZDS Cup in 1992 & Champions of the '2nd tier' in 1998.
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30/4/94 - One of my all time favourites as we travel to already relegated Peterborough and come from 2-0 down to win 3-2 and secure promotion back to the Premier League at the first time of asking. Going into the game we still needed 2 points from our last 3 games, including this one but as it transpired, given how results went elsewhere on this day, even if we had lost, we still would have confirmed promotion as the table shows. We trailed 2-1 with 8 minutes to go before Stuart Pearce equalised and it was then left to Stan to score his 2nd of the game and the winner on 88 minutes to set off wild celebrations amongst the 10,000 Forest fans in an attendance of just over 14,000.
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http://www.statto.com/football/stats/england/division-one/1993-1994/table/1994-04-30 Promotion Confirmed 30/4/94
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30/4/05 - One of the worst days in the history of our club as the unthinkable happens and we are relegated to the 3rd tier of English football following this 2-1 defeat at QPR in our penultimate game of a disastrous season. The last and only other time we had played at this level was for 2 seasons way back in 1949/50 & 1950/51. We would have to endure that level of football for 3 seasons and for such a proud club, that should never have happened ... it must never happen again.
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http://www.statto.com/football/stats/england/league-championship/2004-2005/table Relegated to League One ... 2004/05
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30/4/11 - Forest sign off their home programme with an emphatic 5-1 drubbing of already relegated Scunthorpe at the CG to all but claim the last play off place with 1 game to go. To miss out we would have to lose our last game at Palace, Leeds would have to win at champions QPR and there would need to be a 6 goal swing in favour of Leeds. Leeds did win at QPR 2-1, but we hammered Palace 3-0 so we were in the play-offs again, only to suffer our obligatory heartache, this time at the hands of Swansea.
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http://www.statto.com/football/stats/england/league-championship/2010-2011/table Final Table 2010/2011
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1/5/93 - In our penultimate game of the season - a must win, to give us any chance of staying up and even then needing results elsewhere to go our way, Forest lose 2-0 at home to Sheff Utd in front of a capacity crowd 26,752. It signifies the end of an era as the CG says farewell to the greatest ever football manager of all time, Brian Clough. After over 18 years in charge and 16 consecutive seasons in the top flight, Forest are relegated and Brian Clough is to retire at the end of the season. Amidst incredibly emotional scenes, the relegation becomes secondary, it's all about the fans wanting to let Cloughie know how much he is loved and respected and to thank him for all the wonderful memories which, without him, never would have been possible.
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I remember reading an article in the Nottm Post a couple of days later ... It simply said 'few managers are ever afforded such adulation, none have been in the face of relegation' or words to that effect. For me, he was without doubt the best and like thousands more present at the CG that day, my emotions got the better of me. Thanks for the memories. ​
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1/5/04 - In our penultimate game of the season, Forest, all but safe of relegation at last defeat play-off chasing Wigan 1-0 at the CG in front of a capacity crowd of 29,172. Forest would also win their last game of the season at promoted West Brom 2-0 to make the record since Joe Kinnear took over Won 8, Drew 7 & lost just 2... pretty similar to Billy's record since his return with 1 game to play ... Won 7 Drew 5 & lost 2 ... oh for that 8th win on Saturday against Leicester!
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2/5/59 - Whilst the 'On This Day' Section of my website is predominately about my years of following Forest, I can't walk by the 2nd May 1959 without a special mention, as we beat Luton Town 2-1 at Wembley to lift the FACup for the only time in the 20th century, courtesy of goals from Roy Dwight & Tommy Wilson. The Reds stormed into a 2-0 lead playing fantastic flowing football before Dwight was carried off with a broken leg. In those days, there were no substitutes and thus for many decades that followed we were the only team to win the Cup with 10 men. Man Utd equalled this feat in 1985, this time following a sending off. We did of course win the trophy in 1898, the only time in the 19th century ... I just hope we win it at least once in the early part of the 21st century.We have never won it in my lifetime, the closest we came being the 1991 FACup Final, when we lost to Spurs in the Final.
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2/5/72 - Forest signed off their 1971/72 campaign with a credible 1-1 draw at Everton, courtesy of a Peter Cormack goal, despite being already relegated. A very sad day for an 11 year old who would be moving up to Comprehnsive School in the coming September where I would encounter many glory hunters and 'fans' of the big clubs.
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2/5/83 - Liverpool may have been crowned Champions again, but that didn't stop us beating them 1-0 at the CG in front of 25,017 courtesy of a Peter Davenport goal. We would finish the season in 5th and qualify for the EUFA Cup.
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2/5/90 - After a poor run in the league with just 1 win in the last 10, Forest hammered Man Utd 4-0 at the CG in what was our penultimate game of the season. We were 4-0 up infact in 25 minutes, by which time the Man Utd fans present in the crowd of 21,186 were already heading for the exits.
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2/5/96 - Forest drew 1-1 with title chasing Newcastle at the CG in front of a near capacity crowd of 28,120. With 1 game to go, this left Newcastle 2 points behind Man Utd and it would be Man Utd who would claim the title ... again on the last day. We would finish a credible 9th, but disaster awaited the following season.
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3/5/97 - Forest could only muster a 1-1 draw with Wimbledon at the CG and so with 1 more game to go it's a 2nd relegation from the Premier league.
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3/5/98 - A year on & we are straight back up again, this time already promoted as Champions, 6,000 Forest fans travel to West Brom to party. The 1-1 draw is academic.
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3/5/08 - Who could ever forget this epic last day of the season battle to get out of League One? With 7 games to go following a 1-0 Friday night defeat at Doncaster, many thought any chance of automatic promotion had gone. Some thought we would even miss out on the play-offs. We went into this last game needing to equal Carlise's result & better Doncaster's. Forest beat Yeovil 3-2 in front of a packed CG crowd of 28,520 & Doncaster lost. We were up and hopefully the pain of ever playing at this level again was gone for good. It is worth looking at the table after that Doncaster defeat and comparing it to the final table so I have attached the links below:
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http://www.statto.com/football/stats/england/league-one/2007-2008/table/2008-03-28 Table 28/3/08
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http://www.statto.com/football/stats/england/league-one/2007-2008/table Final Table - League One - 2007/08 ... Promoted!
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4/5/78 - The wonderful 1977/78 season finally draws to a close. Forest hold European Champions & now European Cup finalists, Liverpool, to a 0-0 draw at Anfield. The result meant that in 4 attempts they had failed to beat us. They would go on to retain the European Cup a few weeks later but we would have a lot more to say about that & more over the next 2 seasons. No wonder they didn't like us very much.
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5/5/90 - Forest travelled to Hillsborough, barely a year after the disaster and I have to say it was an eerie feeling in the Upper tier of the Leppings Lane End, looking down at a completely empty terrace for obvious reasons. After some quiet reflection, this was the last day of the season and whilst a 3-0 win meant little for us, it relegated Sheff Weds. Forest finished 9th.
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6/5/91 - In our penultimate game of the season we beat Liverpool 2-1 at the CG in front of 26,181 to end their chances of the title. Forest would finish the league season in 8th, Arsenal were the champions and we had a date at Wembley to come on the 18th May (which was my Mum's birthday) in the FACup Final with Tottenham.
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6/5/95 - Forest beat Man City 1-0 at the CG in front of a capacity crowd of 28,882 with Stan Collymore fittingly scoring the winner & left Forest in a 2 way battle with Liverpool for 3rd place. Forest were 5 points ahead wth 1 to play and they had 2 to play. Forest did subsequently secure 3rd place, a wonderful achivement when we had secured promotion just 12 months earlier. Sadly, it was the last time Stan played a competitive game for us at the CG and he would be sold to Liverpool in the summer for a club record £8.5m. In my 46 or so seasons of following Forest, he is without doubt in the top 6 to ever represent the club: at his best he was unstoppable and in my opinion the best English striker in the country. I asked Stan at his 'Audience with...' at the 'Approach' in Nottingham back in January if, in hindsight, he regretted leaving Forest for Liverpool and he replied 'from a footballing perspective, yes'.
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6/5/06 - A massive Forest following of over 6,000 travelled to Bradford City on the last game of the season, incredibly still in contenton for a play off spot, given where we were in the table when Megson left the club and Charlie & Frank took temporary charge. 13th after 33 games & in a poor run of form under this temporary leadership, we had subsequently won 8, drawn 3 & lost 1. As the link below to the table shows, given goal difference, we needed to better Swansea's result. Sadly, that did not happen as we drew 1-1 and they won but it had been an uplifting end to an otherwise awful season.
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http://www.statto.com/football/stats/england/league-one/2005-2006/table/2006-04-29 League 1 table with 1 to play
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http://www.statto.com/football/stats/england/league-one/2005-2006/table Final League 1 Table
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7/5/77 - Forest finished their season with a tense 1-0 win at the CG against Millwall in front of 23,529. As the attached link to the league table shows, it would now be a tense wait. It left Bolton 4 points behind but with 3 games in hand. (Remember still only 2 points for a win at this time). They won their 1st game but then on the 14th May, as Forest were flying out to Majorca for an end of season holiday, they lost 0-1 at home to Wolves. This meant they had to beat Bristol Rovers 13-0 in their last game. For the record. Rovers held Bolton to a 2-2 draw so Forest were up.
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http://www.statto.com/football/stats/england/division-two-old/1976-1977/table/1977-05-07 Table 7/5/77 ... a tense wait!
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http://www.statto.com/football/stats/england/division-two-old/1976-1977/table Final Table 1976/77
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7/5/84 - Forest hammered Watford 5-1 at the CG in front of 13,732 which left us 5th in the 1st Division, still challenging for a runners up spot. With 2 to play, we coud not catch leaders Liverpool though who would go on to be Champions of England ... again.
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http://www.statto.com/football/stats/england/division-one-old/1983-1984/table/1984-05-07 Table 7/5/84
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7/5/88 - Forest beat Oxford 5-3 in an entertaining game at the CG in front of a sparse crowd of just 12,762 to guarantee an excellent 3rd place finish. Even though we still had 2 to play, we could not drop lower or move higher regardless of the remaining games in the season. With an exciting FACup run to the semi-final to reflect on also, it had been a very good season ... sadly though due to the ban on English clubs in Europe since the Heysel disaster in 1985, there would be no European football to look forward to for the 3rd place finish.
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http://www.statto.com/football/stats/england/division-one-old/1987-1988/table Final Table 1987/88
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8/5/93 - 20 years ago today Brian Clough walked out for the last time in a competitive game. Already relegated, thousands of Forest fans made their way to Portman Road, many more than the official allocation, indeed there were pockets of Forest fans all around the ground. Unsurprisingly, we lost 2-1 to Ipswich but fittingly Nigel Clough would score our goal.
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8/5/94 - A year on and it was party time at the CG. Already promoted Forest signed off for the season with a 2-2 draw with Sunderland in front of a capacity crowd of 27,010. The only sour note was that we had blown a 2-0 lead in the last 8 minutes.
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8/5/10 - Here we go again ... play off time. It all started so well with Chris Cohen goal on 13 minutes but it was Blackpool who would win the day defeating us 2-1 in this 1st leg. we were still confident though for the 2nd leg in 3 days time!
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9/5/79 - As the countdown to Munich continued, Forest played their last home match of the season: a 3-1 win against Man City to leave the Reds 3rd in the table with 2 away games remaining ... with the runners up spot still up for grabs. The crowd of 21,104 was disappointing, especially given some 25,000+ would make the journey to Munich, but this was partly due to the fact that part demolition of the old East Stand had already begun.
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http://www.statto.com/football/stats/england/division-one-old/1978-1979/table/1979-05-09 Table as at 9th May to play -Last game West Brom away! ... a game which, despite being just 18, I ran & filled a 50 seater coach in the battle for 2nd.
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10/5/03 - Forest took part in the play-offs for the very first time and were held to a 1-1 draw at the CG by Sheff Utd in front of 29,064. David Johnson had given us the lead on 55 minutes, a lead which lasted just 3 minutes with Brown equalising from the penalty spot. The key decision came in the 83rd minute with Michael Dawson being sent off reducing us to 10 men. More significantly he would miss the 2nd leg in just 5 days time at Bramall Lane.
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11/5/68 - So my 1st season folwing the Reds came to a close. A 6-1 defeat at Liverpool was not the ideal result for a 7 year old but the seeds were already sown ... there could never be another team to support ... it would be Forest 'forever'. We ended the season in 11th place, sounds a good season but very disappointing considering 1966/67 had be the club's best ever to date, where we had finished 2nd and reached the semi-final of the FACup.
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http://www.statto.com/football/stats/england/division-one-old/1967-1968 Final Table 1967/68 - My 1st ever following Forest (aged 7)
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http://www.statto.com/football/stats/england/division-one-old/1966-1967/table Above was considered disappointing as arguably the previous season ... 1966/67 had been our best in our history to date ... mind you the 1959 FACup winning team may disagree with that!
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11/5/91 - The Reds league campaign ended with another win in a high scoring game at the CG, 4-3 against Leeds to end the season in 8th place. The form going into next weeks FACup Final was excellent, we had won 5 and drawn 1 of our last 6 games, scoring 20 and conceeding just 5.
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11/5/07 - A very long journey down to Yeovil saw us come away with a slighly fortunate 2-0 win in the 1st leg of the League One play-offs, courtesy of 2 penalties. Surely, we would confirm our Wembley place a week later at the CG? The journey back was much quicker as we contemplated the Wembley day ... or weekend out. Hmm ...
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11/5/10 - Confidence was high for this 2nd leg of the Championship Play-Offs with the Reds needing to overturn a 2-1 1st leg deficit against Blackpool. It all started well with a Robbie Earnshaw goal on 7 minutes & that was the way it stood at half time. Blackpool levelled on 56 minutes only for Earnshaw to put us 2-1 up on the night on 66 minutes. Disaster struck on 72 minutes with a wickedly deflected goal and within 7 minutes we are 4-2 down on the night. It ends Forest 3-4 Blackpool, 4-6 on aggregate and there will be no Wembley Final. The Play-Off curse struck ... again!
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12/5/11 - The Reds entered their 4th Play-Off campaign, this time Swansea the visitors to the CG in the 1st Leg. Despite being reduced to 10 men for practically the whole game Swansea deservedly held on for a 0-0 draw. The long journey to Swansea was just 4 days away & we still believed we could do it this time.
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13/5/95 - Forest ended an excellent season with a 2-2 draw at Wimbledon exending their unbeaten run to 13 matches, which included 9 wins & 4 draws. The attached league table shows us in 3rd place, which meant we had qualified for the EUFA Cup. Nowadays of course that would secure a Champions League spot!
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http://www.statto.com/football/stats/england/premier-league/1994-1995/table Premier League 1994/95 - Final Table
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14/5/83 - Forest ended the season with a 3-0 win at already relegated Swansea to confirm European qualification for the next season. We had picked up 7 wins and 2 draws in our last 9 games to achieve this. Prior to this (following our 4-2 win against Coventry on 27th Dec, which left us 2nd in the table) there had been a run of 13 league games where we registered just 1 win & 5 draws. A quick look at the final table shows what might have been, had this run been even just average. Also during that awful run we had lost 4-0 at Man Utd in the League Cup Quarter-Final & 2-0 at Derby in the FACup ... 2 of my more forgettable trips ... for more than one reason!
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http://www.statto.com/football/stats/england/division-one-old/1982-1983/table Final Table 1982/83
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15/5/79 - 3rd placed Forest won 2-1 at Leeds to set up a last match of the season enounter at 2nd placed West Brom in what would be a battle for the runners up spot with Liverpool already Champions. The countdown to Munich could then begin.
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15/5/82 - A comparatively dull season compared with recent ones, ended on a high with a 3-1 win at title chasing Ipswich, thanks to a Peter Davenport hat-trick. It also ended Ipswich's title ambitions as Liverpool claimed the title with a win on the same day.
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15/5/03 - Play-Off misery is felt for the 1st time as we blow a 2-0 lead on the night & eventually lose 4-3 to Sheffield United after extra time and 5-4 on aggregate. Some, including my then 14 year old daughter, are inconsolable as the tears flow.
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16/5/84 - Forest ended a good season on a high beating Man Utd 2-0 at the CG in front of 23,651 to leapfrog them in the table and for 24 hours occupy 2nd place. Southampton would win 3-1 at Notts County the following night to claim runners up. But 3rd place represented quite some achievement. Further study of the attached League Table shows just how close we had come ... We had unluckily lost 1-0 to Liverpool at the CG on 31st December, had we won it 1-0 then 3 teams would have finished on 77 points. You then think ... just one more point and ...
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16/5/99 - Our last season ever in the Premier League, to date, ended with this 1-0 win against Leicester in front of 25,353. It meant that snce relegation had been confirmed on 24/4 at Villa, we had won our last 3 Premier League games. Hopefully we will achieve promotion next season (2013/14).
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16/5/11 - Play-Off misery again as we lost 3-1 at Swansea (aggregate 3-1) to keep up our 100% record. 4 Semi-Final Campaigns, 4 defeats. I have to say though, I thought we played really well in the 2nd half & deserved to take the game to extra time. It was good to see Billy in the Brian Clough Car Park around 2AM but little did we know what would unfold in the summer!
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17/5/85 - Forest travelled to White Hart Lane for the last game of the season (a Friday night from memory) knowing a win would earn us a EUFA Cup spot, provided Liverpool retained the European Cup later in the month. Spurs beat us 1-0 but it would not have mattered anyway becaue, as a result of the Heysel disaster in the European Cup Final, not just Liverpool were banned from European competition , but all English clubs. This followed the deaths of 39 Juventus fans at the Final. The 5 year ban (6 for Liverpool) would cost Forest European football more than once over the next few seasons as our league table placings & League Cup wins would ordinarily have qualified us for European competition.
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18/5/79 - 3rd placed Forest completed their league programme with a 1-0 win at 2nd place West Brom, thanks to a late Trevor Francis goal, to leapfrog them in the table and claim the runners up spot, Liverpool being Champions. The next goal he would score would be one of the most iconic in the Club's history as the countdown to the European Cup Final in Munich on 30th May began. For the record, I ran a coach to this game, not bad for an18 year old!
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18/5/91 - FACup Final ... Forest 1-2 Tottenham ... one of the most upsetting results in our history as far as I am concerned. Ever since I started going to Forest back in the 1967/68 season, I had always wanted to see us win the FACup. Back in the 70's and 80's Cup Final Day was still a magical & glamarous day & I really thought this was going to be our year. When we had last won it, in 1959, I was still 2 years off being born! What was my Mum's birthday could not do the trick for us.
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As history tells us, it was not to be. How Paul Gascoigne wasn't sent off ... (twice!) for GBH or attempted murder will always remain a mystery. The referee should have had him arrested rather than just laugh at those hideous 'tackles' he put in & having them down to 10 men would undoubtedly have changed the outcome of the Cup Final. There were so many incidents during that game, but the key one was the ridiculous decision not sending Gascoigne off. Psycho gave us the lead when he smashed home a trademark free-kick to give us a 1-0 half time lead. It was 1-1 at 90 minutes, but extra time brought that Des Walker, who had been brilliant again all season, own goal and the Cup was gone. Heartbreaking stuff and a lifelong dream dashed - but that's football. You get up again in August and by the time 3rd Round day in January comes about you believe it's going to be your year again. One of these days, it just might.
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18/5/07 - One of the most unbelievable nightmare results ever in our history as the Play-Off bug struck again. Leading 2-0 from the 1st leg at Yeovil, surely we could not blow this one, could we? With 8 minutes to go, it was 1-1 on the night, so 3-1 on aggregate but inexplicably we managed to lose the tie 2-5 after extra time and 4-5 on aggregate. Shell shocked & it just goes to show you can never take anything for granted in football.
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18/5/13 - ** Aside from the 2 European Cup Finals on 30/5/79 & 28/5/80, Nottm Forest have not played any competitive games later than 18th May in any Season since I started going in 1967/68. I will of course revisit these games on those particular dates, but please then see separate section on the site ... 'On this Day - August to October' which I will pick up again from August. Thankyou, Neil ... 18/5/13.
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27/5/80 - Exactly 33 years ago today, I was somewhere in Spain on a Travel Wright (of Newark) 50 seater coach, Madrid bound, to see us retain the European Cup on 28/5/80. We had left Newark midnight on the Sunday night and arrived in Madrid (from memory) around 11 A.M on the Tuesday morning (27/5/80).
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With the club's 150th Anniversary approaching in 2015, I reckon that night represents the greatest in the club's histor: even more than winning the League in 1977/78, and the first European Cup in 1979.
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For a club our size, to win a major trophy is one massive achievement, to win the European Cup is immense but to then retain it is something else. Only 8 clubs have managed that feat and only AC Milan since Forest.
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28/5/80 - On this day 33 years ago, Nottingham Forest beat strong favourites SV Hamburg 1-0 in the European Cup Final in the magnificent Bernabeu Stadium, the home of Real Madrid, to RETAIN the trophy we had won 12 months earlier in Munich. The goal came in the 19th minute courtesy of the brilliant John Robertson and that long long coach journey had been worth every second just to be there to see it. In the semi-final Forest had beaten Ajax and Hamburg had defeated Real Madrid otherwise we would have been playing them on their own ground in the Final ... we would have won!
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agMecX1A_9E Forest 1 v 0 Hamburg ... short clip
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wk73JCvp4LQ The whole game if you have time!
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This night represented the greatest ever in our famous history, in my opinion, and what an incredible achievement. Winning the European Cup then was every bit as difficult as winning the inappropriately named Champions League is today and retaining it for a club the size of Forest almost defies belief. Love the comment on www.ltlf.co.uk calling the Champions League a glorified EUFA Cup.
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http://www.forestforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=37247 Have a look at this link
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30/5/79 - Nottingham Forest beat Malmo of Sweden 1-0, courtesy of a Trevor Francis header on the stroke of half time to become 'Champions of Europe' for the first time. It does almost defy belief, when you consider that on 19th March 1977, just over 2 years previous, that a 2-0 defeat at Sheff Utd had left us 7th in the Division 2 promotion race.
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The cross for the goal came from the one and only John Robertson, in my view still the best Forest player of all time, made that way by the best management duo of all time, Brian Clough & Peter Taylor. The Final was not a classic but that did not matter, the hard work had been done along the way, defeating European Champions Liverpool in the 1st Round & so on.
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The achievement was immense, an unforgetable night as some 30,000 Forest fans celebrated wildly and thousands more back home. An estimated 200,000 people turned out in Nottingham the following evening to welcome the club home as the trophy was paraded from the City Ground to Nottingham's Market Square. Nottinghamshire (& the country too to a certain extent) were rightly proud of what the Club had achieved, a modest sized provincial club, Champions of Europe. It really is the stuff fairytales are made of.
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So much has been written about that night in Munich, there is nothing I could add. The even more staggering event was still to come as we would go on & retain the trophy 12 months later... and so our song lives on ... "We went to Europe, we won the Cup twice"
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See links below for that wonderful night ... 30/5/79:
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Rrx3JgGROE A few minutes of pure pleasure ... Forest 1-0 Malmo
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EYUw0Ux_f8 The whole game if you have time! ... Forest 1-0 Malmo
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Section Completed 30/5/13
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* Due to a slight problem with the editing of the site, there were a few dates missing for this Section of 'On this Day' ... which are now below:
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16/2/10 - It's always a pleasure to beat Sheff Utd & a Rob Earnshaw goal on 4 minutes was enough to secure all 3 points in this encounter in fnt of 22,076 at the CG. It left us still in 3rd place & challenging for promotion
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17/2/74 - The unexpected but excellent FACup run continued as we beat Portsmouth 1-0 at the CG, courtesy of a Ducan Mckenzie penalty, in front of another bumper Sunday crowd of 38,589. Maybee not the drama of that 4th Round win against Man City but it put us into the quarter-final & increased hopes of repeating what Sunderland had achieved the previous season, winning the FACup as a 2nd Division side. Newcastle's cheating fans, an inept referee & a gutless spineless F.A sadly would have different ideas.
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20/2/88 - For the 1st time since 1981, Forest reached the Quarter-Finals of the FACup, courtesy of this 1-0 win at Birmingham in front of 34,494, of which some 14,000 were travelling Forest fans. The game however pobably more remembered for some shocking scenes before, during and after the game as over 100 arrests were made, for what can only be described as serious crowd disorder.
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21/2/70 - An excellent run of 6 wins and 5 draws came to a shuddering halt as we were hammered 5-0 at Burnley. An otherwise pretty decent season petered out as we failed to register a win in the next 9 games which left just the last game of the season, a 1-0 win over Ipswich at the CG.
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23/2/5 - A rare bright moment in an horendous season as Preston were beaten 2-0 at the CG. It left us though still in 23rd place where we would remain for the rest of the season, where we would be relegated to League One.
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13/3/99 - A rare win in the Premier League for us, 3-1 at Wimbledon. It made little difference as we stayed bottom and remained bottom until the end of the season & relegation once again from he Premier League. To date, we have not returned. The hopelesness of the situation probably further highlighted by the fact we actually won our last 3 games.
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Section Completed
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