Nottingham Forest Glory Years - late 1970's


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U-Reeeddddddssss  

It’s rather sobering to look at that gang of middle-aged/old men, mostly podgy with sparse grey hair.  I knew a few of them when they were young fit footballers knocking about town and frequenting the

40 years ago this week the mass exodus as begun  ....... T' Munich   

I've always considered that Peter Taylor received insufficient credit for the building of that side - 80% his work.

Mr Immodest Clough - the ultimate martinet - ensured the plaudits came his way...

To those of sufficient age, the best side ever to wear the Garibaldi was John Carey's 'fizz it about' team of a decade earlier.

"Where are my Grummitt,Hennesey,Newton,Barnwell,Storey-Moore and Hinton of long ago?..." et al...

Cheers

Robt P.

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Fair point,Rob although I always regarded the Clough-Taylor management team as a partnership.Ian Storey-Moore - good left-winger.Didn't Cloughie parade him on the pitch at the Baseball Ground introducing him to the fans as a Derby County player - and then he ends up signing for Man Utd ?

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I hate it whenever I read or hear of Peter Taylor being described as Cloughie's assistant. At Hartlepools, Derby, Brighton and Forest they were a genuine partnership with Taylor responsible for spotting and recommending many of the pair's most inspired signings.

I know that this afternoon both will be looking down, from the dugout in the sky, and cheering on The Rams to victory! !clapping!

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Yes...he did indeed.

Can claim a front row seat in that saga...

Ian & Carol Moore lived a couple of doors down from us at the time...

He felt, predictably, that he had been railroaded by Clough into going over to Derby - being initially unaware that Man U were also interested. Upon his return to Bingham, following the Derby pitch farce, he had a call saying "two other managers" (unidentified) were en route to Bingham to talk with him.

Imagine my amazement when, as I was cutting my lawn, a Jag parked outside my house and out stepped Frank O'Farrell and the legendary Sir Matt Busby! "Does Ian Moore live there?", asked Sir Matt..."erm, Yes, erm.." splutters I!

Ian rapidly signed for Man U, but the best of his career was behind him...carrying too many leg injuries to be effective.

Your Scouse mate Tommy Smith & Co kicked him to bits over the latter years, whilst he'd been carrying Forest on his back, alone, for many seasons....he can still point to a scar, and name the defender who inflicted it!

Eventually, he finished off with Chicago Sting in the North American league...

Still lives in Bingham, and scouts for his old pal Martin O'Neill at the Villa...

Smashing bloke...highly regarded in the town.

Cheers

Robt P.

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I hate it whenever I read or hear of Peter Taylor being described as Cloughie's assistant. At Hartlepools, Derby, Brighton and Forest they were a genuine partnership with Taylor responsible for spotting and recommending many of the pair's most inspired signings.

I know that this afternoon both will be looking down, from the dugout in the sky, and cheering on The Rams to victory! !clapping!

i

I agree.Peter Taylor must never be regarded as having been Cloughies assistant.They were very much a management team.Pity they fell out and never made it up before Peter died(at least I don't think they did.)However,I read that Cloughie was "moved" when Peter died and at least he attended his funeral.RIP both of you.

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Ian Storey-Moore was a terrific footballer in that era but Forest certainly had a few other 'aces' up their sleeve. Joe Baker for instance was probably one of the greatest centre forwards I've ever seen - very much a hero of mine, especially considering my Hibs allegiance too. Terry Hennessy was an extremely cultured centre back who read the game very well, whilst Henry Newton was an impressive performer and went in where others feared to. They were a very special side.

I still have the complete set of autographs of the 1966/7 team that finished runners-up to Man Utd, including the signatures of Johnny Carey and Tommy Cavanagh. This all brings back very pleasant memories.

I second others comments about Peter Taylor. Clough was never as effective without his asistant in my opinion. It was the perfect double act and I believe Taylor's role in finding players was paramount in the pair's success.

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I agree,Stu.Remember the song they used to sing about Joe Baker ? "Joe Baker,Joe Baker, is it true what the Trent End sing you are the King,oh yeah oh yea." (sang to the tune of "Grocer Jack" by Keith West.Finally, regarding Cloughie and Taylor, they were Joint Managers in all but name.

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This is supposed to be a thread about the 70's but has turned into a discussion about the 60's side, why is that then, do people have fonder memories of them for some reason.

Unfortunately for me, I left the City in 76 and missed out on the 'Glory Days', I used to travel to see them locally and witnessed Clarke being brought on as a sub in place of Peter Withe and scoring the winning goal against Ipswich at Portman Road that I believe clinched the Championship. I also went to the Charity Shield Match at Wembley that season when Forest took Ipswich apart 5-1, and Clough showed his perplexing character by taking off O'Neil when he was on a hat trick and playing out of his skin, that was the problem with the man, he could do some stupid things sometimes, and I recall the overwhelming number of Forest fans voicing their disaproval. O'Neil was brilliant that day, you don't take off a player who shines at Wembley, it's a once in a life time opportunity for them personally, and there was no reason for it apart from Cloughs arrogance. Don't get me wrong, the man was a genius, but sometimes he could be a real pain in the bum, we all know that, but thats why he never, unfortunately, became England manager.

One amusing tale of this period, when Forest were going for the European Cup, was that the preliminary matches were only shown as highlights on TV. I had an old mate from Nottm Uni who was Turkish, yet a fanatical Forest fan. He lived in a most remote part of Turkey, next to the Iranian/ Iraq border, but they used to show Forest matches live on their local TV, he would phone me up from this godforsaken part of the world and ask me for my thoughts on a match, only to find I'd been hiding from the score and not yet seen the highlights, he couldn't believe it.

If you want to make the comparisons between the 60's and 70's teams, it was money. The 60's team had no reserve strength because the directors wouldn't put their hands in their pockets.

When Joe Baker had his leg broken by Brian Labone, the 67 side was stuffed, they had no-one to come into the team, Hinton was OK, but that was it, though his style unbalanced the playing formula of the team, the rest of the reserves were just not good enough.

They had no sense either, when Barnwell was injured the next season they invested in the sad, past it Jim Baxter, what scouts had done their homework on him, and remember the Alex Ingram disaster, the greatest centre forward to grace Scottish turf, yeah, right, and let us not forget how they kept playing Sammy Chapman at centre forward, utterly unfair to him, but what did the fans know.

Well at least the 76/77 season saw a lot of red faces down here, Daan Saaf, it was well worth it.

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The Championship was clinched by the 0-0 draw at Coventry...perhaps best remembered for the Shilton wonder-save from a close in Ferguson volley.

In 55 years of following the game I have never ever seen a better 'keeper than Shilton...Banks & Co included.

The only goalie that came remotely close would be Harry Gregg of Man U, or possibly Dino Zoff.

Shilton won a record 125 England caps, but should have had 50 more because idiot Greenwood rotated him with the vastly inferior Clemence.

Cheers

Robt P.

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Shilton won a record 125 England caps, but should have had 50 more because idiot Greenwood rotated him with the vastly inferior Clemence.

Cheers

Robt P.

I totally agree with you, but didn't Clemence pull off a wonder save from Scanlon to stop Notts knocking Spurs out of the Cup, it ranks with McManus against Peter Lorimer, Leeds v Notts, League Cup, Elland Road.

Quite frankly, the finest save I ever saw in person was Peter Grummitt from a Dennis Law header in arguably one of the best games I ever saw live in any competition, 1967, Forest 3 ( Baker 2, Wignall 1 ) Man Utd 1, ( Best 1 ). I rated that save alongside Banks's epic against Pele, in fact I reckon Gordon learnt from it, Law and Charlton were so impressed that they actually shook the great Grummitts hand afterwards, another fantastic goalie neglected by England, though with our Banksie about, who was going to argue, so whats happened to the era when we had world class goalies who couldn't even get into the England B team.

An amusing tale of Forests 1980 European Cup win for our pal, the Liverpool supporter.

At the time I was restoring a 17th Century cottage in Braintree, it was a complete shambles and we were virtually living in the dining room. The day before the final, my brother in law anounced he was coming down from Yorkshire for a few days to help, but bringing his mad Irish mother and kids with him. After spending a panic stricken evening trying to clear bedroom space, I had to go up to Norfolk the next day to survey an old rectory. On the way home, travelling back at high speed, panicking to let them in, get some tea and settle down for the match, my Mini died on the hill outside Sudbury, the carb had fallen to pieces. Putting it back together as best I could, I crawled home at 20mph in a cloud of black smoke to find them sitting outside the front door, my missus was working late and not around to help.

Stocking up with Fish and Chips, booze and cramming into this tiny room, we watched the match on a grotty flickery telly affected by all the dust. Not forgetting that the others were Liverpool and Keegan fans in particular, I was in despair, but the nutty old girl got so excited, that when Robertson scored she did a lap of honour round the front garden losing her false teeth in the process, she insisted on waiting till full time and the presentation until we had to root around in the flower beds to find them, what a way to watch an epic win, something you never forget, more exciting than the actual match I reckon.

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Regards Shilton it's difficult to agree with much that's been said about him here. For my money Ray Clemence was nowhere near the goalie Shilts was. I'd put him up in the company of Yashin, Banks and Jennings. I can't pay him any higher compliment. I could never understand why the likes of Man Utd didn't snap him up. His only weakness in my view was that he was never very successful at saving penalties.

Picking up Firbeck's point about a lack of squad strength in the sixties side it was certainly true to say that. Further though, the curious difference in the later side was that Forest had plenty of players who came into the team from the squad who made sterling contributions but cost relatively very little cash. I'm thinking here of people like a young Gary Mills, Ian Bowyer, John O'Hare, Dave Needham etc. Forest didn't splash out so much on these people, they were just brought in by (probably) Peter Taylor's great judgement of a player.

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Russ

As a Liverpool supporter, how did you feel when Forest knocked you out of the competition in 78.

I recall cringing with embarassment after the match when Birtles and Mills were interviewed and Cloughie had a go at them for having their hands in their pockets, they were shy young lads on a high, not used to media attention, it really wasn't on to treat them like that, it made me wonder at the time what exactly Cloughs control over these players was all about, it seemed to work for a time, but was it right.

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Hi Firbeck,

I was always pretty philisophical whenever Forest beat Liverpool.It was the best way to be,after all,I was living and working down there and had lots of working colleagues and mates who were Forest fans.I lived in Stapleford for nearly 10 years and my local pub was The Magpie.A guy in there used to pull my leg when I wore my Liverpool F.C. jumper.He would say,"Russ,how you have the nerve to come into a pub full of Forest fans and called The Magpie,I'll never know."

Yeah,I know what you mean about Cloughie.He often used to humiliate his players but he certainly could work magic.

These days I'm only an "armchair" LFC fan.It's so expensive these days - £35 to watch LFC and with all the money the players are being paid and prima donna attitude of some of them I got fed up.I watch non-league these days.I am a season ticket holder of Prescot Cables who play in the Unibond Premier League.Ilkeston Town play in the same league.Ex-Forest player,Nigel Jemson,as you no doubt know,is their manager.

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I agree with you, Shilts was a great goalie, but did you know throughout the whole of his career he never saved a penalty ??!!!!!!!!!!!!

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One of the many qualities I recall of the late 1970s' Forest side was their durability. In that first season or two back in the top flight Forest often seemed to be a goal down but would pull back to get the win or a draw at least.

They were also very much a unit - a team. Everyone knew exactly what their assignment was out there on the pitch and carried it out dutifully. The side also had a great shape and balance. Consider the pairing of forwards Withe and Woodcock and how well their qualities complimented each other. On the left was the perfect creative force for them in John Robertson sending over inch-perfect crosses or subtle, clever through balls.

The centre back pairing of Burns and Lloyd was not only as hard as nails - extremely formidable in that respect, but also again a pairing that worked exceedingly well together with Burns acting as sweeper around the destructive force of Lloyd. Put all the above factors together with industrious and creative midfielders, full backs who liked to get forward regularly and a (much maligned) captain in McGovern who was a very unselfish marshall of his men and it provides for certainly one of the elite club sides that I've had the pleasure of watching.

After all that, probably the most impressive trait they had (especially when compared to today's prima donnas) was the great discipline they took out there over the white line. No arguing with the officials, accepting decisions and getting on with the game. Most referees would have agreed that officiating a game in which Nottingham Forest were involved was the easiest time they would have each season.

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  • 11 months later...

Shouldn't the match have been stopped and there been a dropped balloon!

Incidentally, I watched the Forest v Newcastle game on Sky yesterday, thoroughly enjoyed it, massive, atmospheric crowd without the benefit of free tickets, as father in law pointed out, could the billionare investors at Meadow Lane be realising that they might have backed the wrong horse.

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The kid was a Liverpool fan , I bet he's stuck in his house until he can get moved.

Incedently I don't think it'll be long before Munto pull out of Nott's , either off of there own bats or get kicked out by the F.A. / media that just won't get off their backs and let them get on with it !!!!

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Thanks for that Radfordred, it brought back bad memories.

We were standing at the right hand end just below the scoreboard that you can see on the film. The drama didn't end there, they rushed over to that end after the match as well, we left the ground under a hail of bottles and coins from the top of the stand we'd just vacated. It carried on when we went for a drink in the town that night, we gave up on so called Geordie hospitality, went to get a taxi outside the station and got threatened there as well, fortunately a bunch of sympathetic Sunderland fans intervened and gave them a good kicking.

I recall the first replay at Goodison, took some pics, I'll have to find them. Newcastle lived a charmed life, Forest won a free kick on the edge of the box and George Lyall stepped up to take it, we were expecting the usual blockbuster, but he ran up to take it, stopped, scooped it over the wall and into the net. The ref disallowed it for 'Ungentlemanly play', a##ehole, what planet was he on, or was his back pocket too full, imagine that happening now.

Ironically it was Liverpool that deservedly stuffed them in the final that year.

Remember also the following year when we were hoping that Notts would get revenge for their neighbours defeat, having seen off Everton and Leeds, they played Newcastle at St James Park in the quarter final of the League Cup and got defeated in the last few minutes by a goal direct from a bloody throw in, lucky sods.

I put it all down to that nasty looking git John Tudor, he was born in Ilkeston wasn't he? ended up coaching Tonka Utd in the States, honestly, says it all doesn't it.

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  • Cliff Ton changed the title to Nottingham Forest Glory Years - late 1970's

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