1/1/87 - 32,854 pack into the CG for the visit of Liverpool ... Very unusually I'm not one of them following the birth of my 1st daughter 3 days prior. The game ends in a 1-1 draw leaving Forest 4th & Liverpool 3rd in the table.

1/1/92 - Another 1-1 draw at the CG, this time at home to Luton ... Luton have the lead from the 1st minute ... but then in the last minute of the game ... 'You'll never beat Des Walker' smashes home his one and only goal in his long Forest career.

1/1/07 - There have been many occasions when I have asked myself 'what on earth am I doing here' ... & this was one of them. We travelled to Oldham for a top of the table league one clash (Forest 2nd & Olham 3rd ... Forest 3 points ahead of them) ... expecting a close game we find ourselves 3-0 down by half time & down to 10 men. 66 minues & we are down to 9 men ... 2 minutes later it's 4-0 ... & so far as I am concerned it's time to leave, not helped by the fact it's pissing down with rain. To cap an horrendous day, they score in the last minute ... 5-0 & overtake us in the table.

1/1/8 - Another league one clash (following last seasons promotion attempt ending in failure) and Huddersfield are the visitors to the CG. On 36 minutes Kelvin Wilson is wrongly sent off & Huddersfield take the lead from the resulting penalty. Forest show great fight in the 2nd half and although down to 10 men, level on 68 minutes through Chris Cohen. In injury time up steps Lewis McGugan to smash home the winner & to keep us in 2nd place. I knew after that we would get promoted ... and I was right ... although there would be many nerves to be shreaded before that final epic day of the season.  

 

2/1/71 - A repeat of the 1959 FA Cup Final as Forest are held to a 1-1 draw at the CG v Luton Town, a game I remember purely for the goal net collapsing!

2/1/82 - A shocking FA Cup experience as Forest are dumped out the cup 3-1 by 3rd Division Wrexham at the CG ... what made matters worse was the game had been postponed the previous day, so a wasted journey and we had taken a 2nd minute lead in the re-arranged match 24 hours later.

2/1/91 - Forest are on fire as Norwich are battered 6-2 at Carrow Road to stun the home fans.

2/1/99 - Another FA Cup disaster as Premier League Forest are beaten 1-0 at the CG by struggling '2nd tier side' Portsmouth ... & it's the end of the line for unlucky Manager Dave Bassett who is sacked after the game ... I have to say one of our best managers who was 'shafted' by the Board.

2/1/06 - One of those 'seeing is believing days' ... Forest are rubbish but in the last minute Tyson grabs an equaliser at Colchester to give us what looks like an undeserved point. We lose 3-1! ... I even felt sorry for manager Gary Megson! 

 

3/1/05 - Forest are rubbish in this Championship relegation battle beaten 3-0 at Cardiff, leaving us in 23rd place.

3/1/09 - FA Cup 'glory' & arguably one of our best results this century as we beat Man City 3-0 in this 3rd round tie ... sending the 6,000+ travelling fans wild ... goals from Tyson, Earnshaw & Garner.  

 

4/1/75 - 'Clough fever' is in the air as rumours grow of his potential appointment. On the pitch 2nd Division Forest hold 1st Division Spurs to a 1-1 draw in the FA Cup 3rd round, at the CG in front of 23,355 ... most shouting for the appointment of Cloughie ... this was made 2 days later on 6th January ... life besides the Trent would never be the same again ... and he would be in charge for the replay on 8th January.

4/1/03 - Not a timely reminder as we also play West Ham tomorrow (5/1/14) in this seasons FA Cup 3rd Round ... on this day, we were unlucky to lose 3-2 to Premier league West Ham ... a disallowed goal which should have stood and a missed penalty did not help our cause.

 

5/1/80 - FA Cup 3rd round day and we are in fine form battering Leeds 4-1 at Elland Road ... speaking of batterings I did get whacked round the back of the head with something ... before the game! ... but managed to scramble into the ground to witness this comprehensive victory. 

5/1/13 - An horrendous performance as we are dumped out of the Cup by League One Oldham 3-2 at the CG - one to forget!

 

6/1/74 - The start of what would be an excellent FA Cup run as Bristol Rovers are beaten 4-3 in front of 23,456 at the CG. The club experimented by playing the game on a Sunday which paid dividends with the significantly above average crowd, season to date.

6/1/75 - Arguably, the most significant day in the history of Nottingham Forest with the appointment of Brian Clough. I was only a couple of weeks or so off becoming 14 & in the 3rd year of my comprehensive school  ... but I knew this would change things at our club ... never though could I have imagined how much. We also had a replay to look forward to at Spurs in 2 days time having drawn at the CG 2 days earlier - 'those were the days' - when the replay was in the week following the original game!

 

7/1/90 - A game that many say saved Alex Ferguson's job as we are beaten 1-0 at the CG in the FA Cup 3rd Round by Man Utd. Forest have plenty of chances to win the game and Nigel Jemson scores what appears a perfectly good equalising goal late on but it is disallowed. Forest are out and United go on to win the Cup & countless further trophies over the next 20 odd years. I think you could safely say fate had played it's hand & we will never know what might have happened at United had Fergie lost his job.

 

8/1/75 - The Brian Clough magic works, his 1st game in charge and we dump 1st Division Tottenham out the Cup at White Hart Lane, courtesy of a Neil Martin header.

8/1/83 - One of the worst football days ever as Forest, 4th in Division One are beaten 2-0 in the FA Cup 3rd Round by bottom of Division 2 Derby at the BBG. What made matters worse it was billed Clough v Taylor, Peter Taylor having decided to come out of retirement to return to Derby. Rarely have I witnessed more violence inside & outside a football ground, before during and after the game ... our train back to Nottingham would certainly have needed a refit ... not good.

8/1/10 - Probably our best performance of the season as we beat West Brom 3-1 away to leapfrog them into 2nd place in the table ... fans really now believe we can make the Premier League. 

 

9/1/88 - Probably the worst ground I have ever been to as we beat Halifax 4-0 at the Shay in the FA Cup to set us on a cup run that would lead all the way to the semi-finals.

9/1/85 - The miners strike, now some 10 months in, was still raging, so a trip to Newcastle on a cold January night was always going to be tough ... in more ways than one.  The original game at the CG had ended 1-1, 3 days earlier but despite going 1-0 down early in the replay, we won 3-1 after extra time, courtesy of goals from Davenport Bowyer & Christie ... a little bit of cup revenge v Newcastle for 1974 & more would come over the following years in the same competition. 

 

10/1/09 - Billy's 1st game in charge ... & we pull off an excellent 2-0 victory at Charlton to climb to 20th in the table, goals from Tyson & Earnshaw. 

 

11/1/71 - The Reds come from behind to win a thrilling FA Cup 3rd Round replay 4-3 at Luton, goals from Cormack, Collier, Lyons & Rees.

11/1/75 - Brian Clough's 1st league game in charge of Forest sees us follow up on the cup win at Spurs with a 1-0 win at Fulham, the goal from Barry Butlin. We didn't know it at the time but we would play Fulham a further 4 times within a month, all in the FA Cup 4th Round, eventually losing 2-1 at the CG in the 3rd replay.

11/1/92 - The last ever top flight meeting between Forest & Notts County (and as things stand I cannot forsee the next) ends in a 1-1 draw at the CG in front of 30,168 ... Kingsley Black with the Forest goal on 3 minutes. Dryden equalised for Notts in the second half.

 

12/1/74 - The Reds promotion challenge took a dent with a 4-1 home to defeat to West Brom in front of 15,501 at the CG, the Forest goal ... yet again from Duncan Mckenzie. 

 

13/1/73 - The begining of a marathon 3rd Round tie against West Brom as the Reds earn a 1-1 draw to set up a replay ... In the end 2 further replays plus a match abandoned after 81 minutes as the mist rolled in from the Trent. We eventually lost 3-1 at Leicester's ground but the sides had met 4 times in 17 days ... plus we had fitted in 2 other league games!

13/1/79 - The Reds lost 2-1 at Arsenal, one of only 3 league defeats all season. 

 

14/1/78 - A tough East Midlands 'derby' ends in stale mate at the BBG, Forest dominate for large periods of the game but Derby hang on for the 0-0 draw. 

 

15/1/83 - The Reds beat West Ham 1-0 at the CG courtesy of a spectacular Ian Wallace goal ... significant as it would be our only win in 13 league games ... After beating Coventry 4-2 on 27th December, we did not win again in the league, apart from this win, until 2nd April where Everton were beaten 2-0 at the CG. Also during this awful run we suffered 2 humiliating cup defeats, 2-0 at Derby in the FA Cup & 4-0 at Man Utd in the Quarter-Finals of the League Cup, the latter getting me in more trouble for skipping my College 'day release' day, which the bank used to grant for exam study. Food for thought, that 13 match run brought 1 win 5 draws & 7 defeats ... We had a strong finish to the season eventually finishing 5th & qualifying for European football, just 2 points behind 2nd & 13 points behind champions Liverpool. In addition to this, early in the season we were so unlucky to lose 4-3 to Liverpool at Anfield - Had things just gone our way a little & that awful run just been even average, we could easily have been Champions. 

 

16/1/93 - Forest win consecutive games for the 1st time this season beating Chelsea at the CG in front of 23,249, a brace from Gary Bannister & 1 from Toddy Orlygsson ... could we have turned the corner in our fight against relegation? ... and were we really too good to go down?

 

17/1/78 - The Reds comfortably brush aside 3rd Division Bury's challenge with a 3-0 win at Gigg Lane to progress into the semi-finals of the League Cup where we will meet Leeds.

17/1/79 - Watford, currently top of Division 3, are our opponents in the semi-final of the League Cup & take an early lead in the 1st leg at the CG. A brace from Garry Birtles and one from John Robertson though give us a 3-1 lead to take into the 2nd leg ... and potentially another Final & the opportunity to become the 1st team to retain the League Cup.

17/1/12 - Pretty much as bad as it got as we are hammered 4-0 by Leicester in this FA Cup 3rd Round replay, and that miss from Robbie Findley. 

 

18/1/77 - The Reds were in fine form battering Bristol Rovers 6-0 in this FA Cup 3rd Round 2nd replay at Villa Park.

18/1/86 - The Reds visited top of the table Man Utd & produced one of their best performances of the season, coming from 2-1 down to win 3-2 with 2 goals in the last 8 minutes, including an 88th minute winner from Nigel Clough.

18/1/89 - An excellent 5-2 win in the Quarter-Final of the League Cup at the CG against QPR, with 4 goals from Lee Chapman ... but a match more remembered for Cloughie 'clipping' the ears of some Forest fans on the pitch at the end celebrating the win. In typical BC fashion they would later go down to the CG and apologise to him! 

 

19/1/83 - An awful performance as we are thrashed 4-0 in the Quarter-Finals of the Legaue Cup by Man Utd at Old Trafford ... not helped by the fact the heating packed up on the train back to Nottingham & another day where I skipped my 'day release' from Trent Poly (now Trent Uni) to earn me another bollocking at work (but for the usual reason!).

 

20/1/90 - Always good to beat Derby & this was no exception as goals from Hodge & Jemson give us a 2-0 win at the BBG, a win that lifted us to 4th in the table.

 

21/1/78 - An excellent performance sees the Reds beat Arsenal 2-0 at the CG, a game covered by the MOTD camera's and another wonderful bit of commentary from the late legendary David Coleman ... 'Withe hasn't seen him, he has now 2-0' . It was also revenge for our 3-0 defeat earlier in the season, goals from Needham & Gemmill and another cracking CG attendance of 35,743.

21/1/89 - Forest are on a fantastic run and make this 7 wins in a row (all competitions) as Villa are blown away 4-0 at the CG, goals from Hodge, Pearce, Parker & Laws ... and climb to 5th in the table.

 

22/1/80 - The 1st of 4 meetings in a month v arch rivals Liverpool as Forest seal victory against Liverpool, courtesy of a last minute penalty from John Robertson in front of a packed 32,220 at the CG in the 1st leg of the League Cup Semi-Final. It's dummies out again for the likes of Thompson, Hansen, Souness & Co.

22/1/11 - At last! - Forest record a win at 'Pride Park' , courtesy of a superb Robbie Earnshaw goal & an ideal follow up to the 5-2 battering we had given them at the CG a few weeks earlier on 29th December. 

 

23/1/09 - Another battle with our fierce rivals Derby, this time in the FA Cup 4th Round at Pride Park ... Rob Earnshaw scores our equaliser at the forest end of the stadium to give us a well deserved replay in this 1-1 draw.  

 

24/1/70 - Forest go 9 league games unbeaten with this 2-1 win against Sunderland at the CG (5 wins & 4 draws), something I was not used to seeing at that time and sit comfortably mid table ... we would pick up a win & a draw in the next 2 games before falling away badly ... the next 10 would bring 3 draws & 7 defeats before winning the final game of the season. A 15th place finish was more than acceptable however overall.

24/1/81 - A 4th Round FA Cup tie v Man Utd and a packed CG of 34,110 witness a 1-0 win for the Reds courtesy of a goal from Trevor Francis ... the FA Cup remains our only realistic hope of silverware for the season.

24/1/90 - Forest are excellent in this League Cup Quarter-Final replay at Tottenham ... despite going a goal down in the 1st minute, the Reds win the game 3-2, 2 goals from Steve Hodge & the other from Nigel Jemson to set up a semi-final against Coventry, as the Reds bid to retain the trophy.

 

25/1/87 - My 26th birthday sees us beat Everton 1-0 at the CG with the goal from Neil Webb, a result that leaves Everton 2nd & Forest 4th.

 

26/1/80 - 4 days after meeting in the league cup semi-final, Forest & Liverpool met again, this time in the 4th Round of the FA Cup ... Liverpool finally managed to get the better of us in a Cup competition running out 2-0 winners, in front of 33,277 at the CG.

26/1/97 - Always a pleasure to beat Newcastle, especially in the FA Cup & this is no exception as relegation battling Forest beat title chasing Newcastle 2-1 in their own backyard, with 2 goals in 4 minutes to turn around a 1-0 defecit. Chesterfield await in Round 5!

26/1/10 - Forest hammer QPR 5-0 at the CG and stretch the unbeaten run to 19 games ... had it been 6-0 we would have gone top. Sadly this was the high point regarding possible automatic promotion and we would slowly fall away. 

 

27/1/74 - One of THE best games ever played at the CG ... 2nd Division Forest absolutely played 1st Division Man City 'off the park' in the 4th Round of the FA Cup in front of a packed Sunday crowd of 41,472. Early kick off due to floodlight ban in respect of the miners & power workers strike ... & a game which has gone down in CG legend as the 'Duncan Mckenzie' show.  Slightly unfair as it was a brilliant team performance ... but he was the star of the show. The Forest goals were from Duncan Mckenzie, George Lyall & 2 from Ian Bowyer ...  I had turned 13 years old, 2 days earlier but on the Monday could go to school with head held high ... we were doing well in the league too and after several years of decline, could believe now that we were on our way back. 

 

28/1/91 - The 3rd Round tie v C.Palace is finally sorted in the 2nd replay (and numerous postponements) as Forest score 3 in 11 2nd half minutes to win 3-0 and the road to Wembley is up and running.

28/1/07 - A shocking performance by the team but a wonderful one from the 6,000 travelling fans as we are battered 3-0 at Chelsea in what was a very one sided game ... and in truth it could have been much worse, but for Chelsea easing off in the 2nd half. I can't remember exactly what that banner said at our end of the stadium but something like ... ' Drogba £30 million, Shevchenko £25 million, 2 European Cups - Priceless' ... we were a long way removed from those heady days. 

 

29/1/77 - Another FA Cup classic from the archives as fellow 2nd Division rivals & FA Cup holders Southampton are the visitors to the CG in a thrilling 3-3 draw in front of 38,284, the Forest goals, 2 from John Robertson & 1 from Tony Woodcock.  

 

30/1/79 - 3-1 up from the 1st leg, we travel to top of Division 3 side Watford for the 2nd leg of this League Cup Semi-Final ... the game ends 0-0 on a freezing cold night but it does not matter as we are at Wembley again to defend the trophy we won for the 1st time the previous season. I'm in trouble again for skipping school but the 'highlight' of the evening had to be the bloke on our coach having a p*** off the coach as we sped along at around 70 mph. 

30/1/80 - We beat Barcelona 1-0 at the CG in the 1st leg of the European Super Cup. I was working ay my 1st NatWest Branch at the time, Nottingham Trinity Square. That afternoon, we had pretty much the entire Barcelona squad in changing currency - how times change, in more ways than one!  

30/1/88 - Forest had a tricky trip to 4th Division Orient to overcome in this 4th round FA Cup tie, a game I was going to but ended up missing due to writing my car off in an accident on the way home from work the previous night. Orient made it difficult and we had to come from behind to win 2-1, all goals in the 2nd half.  This is a poignant game / weekend for me when I look back ... All my daughters have gone to Forest, but my 2nd born, Natalie is the fanatic and still goes home and away to this day. Without going into great detail, I was very lucky to escape pretty much unscathed in the accident to which I refer, one sight of the car and you would see why ... the date of the accident - 29th Jan 1988 ... Natalie's birthday is 26/10/88 ... you can do the maths.

30/1/99 - Firmly rooted to the foot of the Premier League, we travel to Goodison and somehow beat Everton 1-0 courtesy of a Pierre Van Hooijdonk goal ... our 1st win in the league since August. 

 

 

31/1/70 - A long way back in the archives for this one but even at just 9 years old, I remember thinking how poor this referee was ... we beat Liverpool 1-0 but if I am not mistaken, we had 3 goals disallowed. The victory meant it was 10 unbeaten in the league for the Reds (not something that I was used to) and lifted us to the lofty heights of 10th ... Sadly in the remaining 12 games, we would not win again until the last match of the season & finished the campaign in 15th.  

 

1/2/77 - 3 days after a thrilling 3-3 draw at the CG, the Reds travel to Southampton for this FA Cup 4th Round replay & are unlucky to lose 2-1, the Forest goal from Tony Woodcock.

 

2/2/74 - The Reds are on a high as top of the table Middlesbrough visit the CG, just 6 days after we had hammered Man City 4-1 in the FA Cup. Forest are in 7th, 12 points behind their opponents who have previously won 16, drawn 9 and lost 1 scoring 38 & conceeding just 15. Forest carry on from where they had left off and Middlesbrough don't know what has hit them as we win 5-1 to climb to 6th in the table, just 3 points off an automatic promotion spot. 

 

3/2/75 - The FA Cup 4th Round replay at the CG goes to a 2nd replay as Forest & Fulham end all square again, 1-1 ... the Forest goal from Neil Martin.

 

4/2/78 - The Reds go marching on in the fight for our 1st ever league title ... this time Wolves are dispatched comfortably 2-0 at the CG ... also remembered for a mildly amusing chant of 'Sammy Chung is a chinese take away' ... Chung being the Wolves manager at the time.

4/2/12 - The sad shocking tragic news comes through that Reds owner & Newark man Nigel Doughty has died, aged just 54. Without him there may well not have been a Nottingham Forest to watch. RIP to a great man.

 

5/2/75 - The FA Cup saga goes on as the 2nd replay at Fulham also ends in a 1-1 draw,just 2 days after the 1st replay.

5/2/80 - Some of our younger fans may find this one hard to believe but Forest held Barcelona to a 1-1 draw at the Nou Camp to win 2-1 on aggregate in the European Super Cup, the goal from Kenny Burns. I the 1st leg we had won 1-0 at the CG, courtesy of a goal from on loan Charlie George.

 

6/2/94 - Without Stan, Forest hammer Leicester 4-0 at the CG, a result which lifts us to our highest position in the table, season to date, 3rd & Leicester end the day in 5th.

6/2/99 - A game best forgotten as we are hammered 8-1 at home by Man Utd - with a few minutes to go, we trailled 5-1 at which point I said, 'come on let's go' ... I had not got to the bottom of the steps when it was 6-1, went to the loo and it was 7-1 & just as we got onto the street ... it was 8-1. That's the way it goes sometimes. 

 

7/2/09 - Forest battle hard to earn a 2-2 draw with QPR at the CG & at the same time give a fantastic reception & welcome back to Lee Camp, who had recently completed an excellent loan spell with us. Listening to his Radio Nottingham interview on the way home from the game, he made it very clear he wanted a permanent move to Forest.

 

8/2/78 - The Reds draw 1st blood in our 1st ever league cup semi-final as we beat Leeds 3-1 at Elland Road with a massive Forest following behind them ... 2 weeks later at the CG we were trailing 2-1 and they then struck the woodwork. However the 2nd half was all Forest as we won 4-2 on the night, 7-3 on aggregate and booked a place at Wembley for the 1st time since 1959.

 

9/2/92 - Forest are held 1-1 by Spurs at the CG in the 1st leg of the league cup semi-final. They thought they had the upper hand but an unforgetable 2nd leg on 1st March would see us win 2-1 (3-2 on aggregate) thanks to a Roy Keane header at the away end in extra time. Neither the poring rain or the IRA bom scare could prevent us reaching Wembley again. At time of writing (9/2/14), sadly we are yet to return ... yet!

 

10/2/75 - At the 4th time of trying, the Reds bow out of the FA Cup following a 2-1 defeat at the CG v Fulham in the 3rd replay.

 

11/2/81 - It's hard to imagine for some of our younger fans, but on this day, we lost 1-0 to Nacional (of Uruguay) in the World Club Championship Final, in Tokyo ... a game we should have won, but what an incredible achievement to have got there.

 

12/2/80 - Once again we get the better of Liverpool as we draw the 2nd leg of the league cup semi final at Anfield 1-1, to win 2-1 on aggregate and we are back at Wembley again. Carnage and chaos followed 'again' in the streets after the game!

12/2/90 - 10 years on from the above and we are at it again as we beat Coventry 2-1 at the CG in the 1st leg of the league cup semi-final ... 2 weeks later we draw the 2nd leg 0-0 and it's Wembley again.

12/2/94 - At time of writing, the last Nottingham 'derby' in the league where we are beaten 2-1 at Meadow Lane by Notts County.

 

13/2/91 - A freezing cold night in Newcastle for this delayed 4th Round tie ... 12 minutes in & we are wondering why we bothered as we find ourselves 2-0 down. A minute into the 2nd half Psycho pulls one back & then Nigel levels 2 minutes from time to take the tie to a replay at the CG.

 

14/2/75 - A Friday night 'Valentines Day' game at York ends 1-1, not particularly eventful but that's football for you ... you put up with a lot of mediocrity at times ... and worse, but that makes the good times all the better when they arrive.

 

For 15th Feb - End May, see separate section & for other 'On this Day's' across the year. This section ends here. Hope you have enjoyed.