Nottingham Forest – A Brief History

The Swans are in action tomorrow at twice European Cup winners Nottingham Forest but how much do you know about our opposition in our final away trip of the season?  Once again, courtesy of Wikipedia, we give you a brief history of Nottingham Forest.  Grab yourself a cuppa and read on.

Nottingham Forest Football Club is an association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. The football club was founded in 1865. Forest has played home matches at the City Ground since 1898, and competes in the EFL Championship, the second tier of the English football league system.

Forest has won one League title, two FA Cups, four League Cups, one FA Charity Shield, two European Cups, and one UEFA Super Cup. The club has competed in the top two tiers of English football since its admission to the Football League, with the exception of five seasons in the third tier. Its most successful period was under the management of Brian Clough and Peter Taylor in the late 1970s and early 1980s, which included back-to-back wins in the European Cup in 1979 and 1980.

In Clough’s last decade at the club, the Forest team won the 1989 and 1990 League Cups and were losing finalists in the 1991 FA Cup Final, before relegation from the Premier League in 1993. Upon an immediate return Forest finished third in the Premier League in 1995, before the club suffered relegation again in 1997 and, after a brief return, once more in 1999.

The Brian Clough Era

Brian Clough became manager of Nottingham Forest on 6 January 1975 twelve weeks after the end of his 44-day tenure as manager of Leeds United.^[11] Clough brought Jimmy Gordon to be his club trainer as Gordon had been for him at Derby County and Leeds.^[12] Scottish centre-forward Neil Martin scored the only goal in Clough’s first game in charge, beating Tottenham Hotspur in an FA Cup third round replay.^[13]

Ian Bowyer was already at Forest and had won domestic and European trophies with Manchester City. Clough signed Scots duo John McGovern and John O’Hare in February who both were part of Clough’s Derby County 1971–72 Football League title win. He signed Colin Barrett in March initially on loan. Clough brought John Robertson and Martin O’Neill back into the fold after they had requested transfers under Brown.^[3] Viv Anderson had previously debuted for the first team and became a regular under Clough.^[14] The young Tony Woodcock was at Forest but was then unrated by Clough and was to be loaned to Lincoln City.^[15] Forest were 13th in English football’s second tier when Clough joined. They finished that season 16th. Forest signed Frank Clark in July of that close season on a free transfer.^[16] The season after Forest finished eighth in Clough’s 1975–76 Football League first full season in charge.^[11] It was in this season McGovern became long standing club captain taking over from a game in which Bob ‘Sammy’ Chapman and Liam O’Kane were both injured.^[17]

Peter Taylor on 16 July 1976 rejoined Clough becoming his Assistant Manager as he had been when winning the league at Derby.^[11] Taylor included being the club’s talent spotter in his role. After assessing the players Taylor told Clough “that was a feat by you to finish eighth in the Second Division because some of them are only Third Division players”.^[18] Taylor berated John Robertson for allowing himself to become overweight and disillusioned. He got Robertson on a diet and training regime that would help him become a European Cup winner.^[19] Taylor turned Woodcock from a reserve midfielder into a 42 cap England striker.^[20] In September 1976 he bought striker Peter Withe to Forest for £43,000, selling him to Newcastle United for £250,000 two years later.^[21] Withe was replaced in the starting team by Garry Birtles who Taylor had scouted playing for non-league Long Eaton United. Birtles also went on to represent England.^[22] In October 1976 Brian Clough acting on Peter Taylor’s advice signed Larry Lloyd for £60,000 after an initial loan period.

Together Clough and Taylor took Forest to new heights. The first trophy of the Clough and Taylor reign was the 1976–77 Anglo-Scottish Cup. Forest beat Orient 5–1 on aggregate in the two-legged final played in December 1976.^[11] Clough valued winning a derided trophy as the club’s first silverware since 1959. He said, “Those who said it was a nothing trophy were absolutely crackers. We’d won something, and it made all the difference.”^[23]

On 7 May 1977, Jon Moore’s own goal meant Forest in their last league game of the season beat Millwall 1–0 at the City Ground.^[24] This kept Forest in the third promotion spot in the league table and dependent on Bolton Wanderers dropping points in three games in hand in the fight for third place.^[25] On 14 May Kenny Hibbitt’s goal from his rehearsed free kick routine with Willie Carr gave Wolves a 1–0 win at Bolton.^[17][26] Bolton’s defeat reached the Forest team mid-air en route to an end of season break in Mallorca.^[17] Forest’s third place promotion from the 1976–77 Football League Second Division was the fifth-lowest points tally of any promoted team in history, 52^[3][11] (two points for a win in England until 1981).

Taylor secretly followed Kenny Burns concluding Burns’s reputation as a hard drinker and gambler was exaggerated. Taylor sanctioned his £150,000 July signing. Burns became FWA Footballer of the Year in 1977–78 after being moved from centre-forward to centre-back.^[27][28] Forest started their return to the top league campaign with a 3–1 win at Everton. Three further wins in league and cup followed without conceding a goal. Then came five early September goals conceded in losing 3–0 at Arsenal and beating Wolves 3–2 at home.^[29] Peter Shilton then signed for a record fee for a goalkeeper of £325,000. Taylor reasoned: “Shilton wins you matches.”^[30] 20-year-old John Middleton was first team goalkeeper pre-Shilton. Middleton later in the month went in part exchange with £25,000 to Derby County for Archie Gemmill transferring to Forest.^[31] Gemmill was another Scottish former 1972 Derby title winner.^[27][32]

Forest lost only three of their first 16 league games the last of which was at Leeds United on 19 November 1977. They lost only one further game all season, the 11 March FA Cup sixth round defeat at West Bromwich Albion.^[29] Forest won the 1977–78 Football League seven-points ahead of runners-up Liverpool. Forest became one of the few teams (and the most recent team to date) to win the First Division title the season after winning promotion from the Second Division.^{[nb 1][33][34]} This made Clough the third of four managers to win the English league championship with two different clubs.^{[nb 2]} Forest conceded just 24 goals in 42 league games.^[30] They beat Liverpool 1–0 in the 1978 Football League Cup Final replay despite cup-tied Shilton, Gemmill and December signing David Needham missing out.^[35] Chris Woods chalked up two clean sheets in the final covering Shilton’s League Cup absence. McGovern missed the replay through injury, meaning Burns lifted the trophy as deputising captain. Robertson’s penalty was the only goal of the game.^[23][36]

Forest started season 1978–79 by beating Ipswich Town 5–0 for an FA Charity Shield record winning margin.^[11] In the 1978–79 European Cup they were drawn to play the trophy winners of the past two seasons, Liverpool. Home goals by Birtles and Barrett put Forest through 2–0 on aggregate.^[37] 26-year-old Barrett suffered a serious leg injury ten days later against Middlesbrough that ultimately ended his professional career two years later. On 9 December 1978, Liverpool ended Forest’s 42 match unbeaten league run dating back to November the year before.^[11] The unbeaten run was the equivalent of a whole season surpassing the previous record of 35 games held by Burnley in 1920/21.^[38] The record stood until surpassed by Arsenal in August 2004, a month before Clough’s death. Arsenal played 49 league games without defeat.^[39]

In February 1979, Taylor authorised the English game’s first £1 million transfer signing Trevor Francis from Birmingham City.^[40] In the European Cup semi-final first leg at home against 1. FC Köln, Forest were two goals behind after 20 minutes, then scored three to edge ahead before Köln equalised to start the German second leg ahead on the away goals rule. Ian Bowyer’s goal in Germany put Forest through. Günter Netzer asked afterwards, “Who is this McGovern? I have never heard of him, yet he ran the game.” Forest beat Malmö 1–0 in Munich’s Olympiastadion in the 1979 European Cup Final; Francis, on his European debut, scored with a back post header from Robertson’s cross. Forest beat Southampton in the final 3–2 to retain the League Cup; Birtles scored twice as did Woodcock once. Forest finished second in the 1978–79 Football League, eight points behind Liverpool.

Forest declined to play in the home and away 1979 Intercontinental Cup against Paraguay’s Club Olimpia. Forest beat F.C. Barcelona 2–1 on aggregate in the 1979 European Super Cup in January and February 1980, Charlie George scoring the only goal in the home first leg, while Burns scored an equaliser in the return in Spain.^[41] In the 1979–80 Football League Cup Forest reached a third successive final. A defensive mix up between Needham and Shilton let Wolves’ Andy Gray tap in to an empty net. Forest passed up numerous chances, losing 1–0.^[42] In the 1979–80 European Cup quarter-final, Forest won 3–1 at Dinamo Berlin to overturn a 1–0 home defeat. In the semi-final they beat Ajax 2–1 on aggregate. They beat Hamburg 1–0 in the 1980 European Cup Final at Madrid’s Santiago Bernabéu Stadium to retain the trophy; after 20 minutes Robertson scored, after exchanging passes with Birtles,^[43] and Forest then defended solidly.^[44] Forest finished fifth in the 1979–80 Football League.

Brian Clough reached his only FA Cup final in 1991 after countless replays and postponements in the 3rd, 4th and 5th rounds. Up against Tottenham Hotspur, Forest took the lead from a Pearce free kick, but Spurs equalised to take the game to extra-time, ultimately winning 2–1 after an own goal by Walker. Roy Keane declared himself fit to play in the final and was selected in preference to Steve Hodge; years later, Keane admitted he had not actually been fit to play, hence his insignificant role in the final.^[53]

Recent Times

On 18 May 2017, it was confirmed that Evangelos Marinakis had completed his takeover of Nottingham Forest,^[107] bringing an end to Al-Hasawi’s reign as Forest owner. Incumbent manager Mark Warburton was sacked on 31 December 2017 following a 1–0 home defeat to struggling Sunderland, with a record of one win in seven.^[108] He was replaced by Spaniard Aitor Karanka, who arrived on 8 January 2018, immediately after caretaker manager Gary Brazil had masterminded a 4–2 home win over FA Cup holders Arsenal in the third round of the FA Cup.^[109] Karanka made 10 new signings during the January transfer window.^[110] Following a 17th-place finish in the Championship for the 2017–18 season, Karanka made 14 new signings during the summer transfer window and the following season results improved.^[111] However, despite a strong league position, Karanka left his position on 11 January 2019 after requesting to be released from his contract.^[112] He was replaced with former Republic of Ireland boss Martin O’Neill four days later.^[113] However, O’Neill was sacked in June after reportedly falling out with some of the senior first team players. He was replaced with Sabri Lamouchi on the same day.^[114] In Lamouchi’s first season in charge, despite spending most of the season in the playoffs, Forest finished in 7th place despite sitting in 5th going into the final game.^[115] On 6 October 2020, Lamouchi was sacked by the club following a poor start to the 2020–21 season.^[116] He was replaced by former Brighton manager Chris Hughton.^[117] After an ultimately unsuccessful 11 months in charge, Hughton was sacked on 16 September 2021 after failing to win any of the club’s opening 7 games of the 2021/22 season.^[118]

Forest chairman Nicholas Randall had initially promised that Forest planned to return to playing European football within five seasons, and yet poor transfers and a toxic club culture meant that Forest remained in the Championship four years into the Marinakis era.^[119] In the summer of 2021, structural changes were made at the club to try and correct the previous mistakes. Forest appointed Dane Murphy as Chief Executive, and George Syrianos was brought in as head of recruitment to bring about a more analytics driven transfer policy. The Forest hierarchy committed to avoid the ‘short-termism’ of previous windows by no longer signing players for more than £18,000 a week and mostly targeting younger signings that could be sold for a profit.^[120]

Content retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nottingham_Forest_F.C..