Nottingham Forest Miscellany

Pete Attaway

Description

Nottingham Forest Miscellany collects together all the vital information you never knew you needed to know about Forest. In these pages you will find irresistible anecdotes and the most mindblowing stats and facts - Heard the one about the 1986/87 programme advert offering free estimates from "Stuart Pearce, Electrician"? How about the Forest single recorded with Paper Lace that reached number one in Holland? Or the time Brian Clough quipped, "Larry Lloyd got two caps today, his first and his last!"? Do you know why Arsenal wear red shirts? Which ex-Forest star was sacked as Cowdenbeath's manager without playing a single game? Or David Pleat's age when he made his first-class debut for the club? All these stories and hundreds more appear in a brilliantly researched collection of trivia - essential for any Nottingham Forest fan who holds the riches of the club's history close to their heart.

Sujets

• History of sport
• Nottinghamshire

Informations

• Publié par: Pitch Publishing Ltd
• Date de parution: 01 septembre 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781909178373
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

NOTTINGHAM FOREST
Miscellany
© Pete Attaway
Pete Attaway has asserted his rights in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.
Published By: Pitch Publishing (Brighton) Ltd A2 Yeoman Gate Yeoman Way Durrington BN13 3QZ
Email: [e-mail] Web: www.pitchpublishing.co.uk
First published 2012 First published in eBook format in 2012
eISBN: 978-1-909178-37-3 (Printed edition: 978-1-908051-53-0)
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the Publisher.
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CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
FOREWORD
THE RECORDS
NOTTINGHAM FOREST MISCELLANY
INTRODUCTION
When piecing together a haphazard history of one’s favourite football club, it helps to have as much history as possible from which to draw. Therefore I count myself fortunate for my birth in Nottingham and my parents’ support of Forest which I inherited, as Forest, as a football club at least, have been booting footballs about since 1865, with varying degrees of success.
Of course, when one thinks of Forest, one invariably thinks of Brian Clough, as it was that sorely-missed managerial maverick who miraculously shaped the club briefly into one capable of competing with the best teams in Europe.
Taking nothing away from Old Big ’ed, I’ve attempted to draw as much from the whole history of NFFC rather than concentrate on those glorious years between 1976 and 1992, just to solidify the notion that Forest didn’t just spring into existence the moment BC strode into the City Ground, and vanished once he’d been escorted out after the worse season in his otherwise hugely successful managerial career.
Therefore, you’ll read about those founding years on the Forest Recreation Ground, entry into the Football Alliance and the rise to the first trophy, the 1898 FA Cup. You’ll read about the fall from grace, those fallow years as a middling second tier side until the fall into the Third Division South in 1949.
How about the re-establishment of Forest as a top flight side under the expert stewardship of Billy Walker and then Johnny Carey, then the brief skid back to the Second Division. Post-Clough, there’s the pogoing years from 1993 onwards, right up to the present day and the current man in charge, Sean O’Driscoll. It’s nearly always been interesting to be a Forest fan, and I hope this volume succeeds in enlightening the reader as to what an entertaining ride it has been.
Pete Attaway
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
As ever, a book is never the work of just one person, even if he is fortunate enough to see only his name on the front cover. For their help, I’d like to thank Ken Smales for his foreword, the NFFC webmaster Geoff Peabody, and again, John Sumpter of JMS Photography for supplying the photos. Thanks also to Paul and Jane at Pitch Publishing. For personal interest and support, I’d like to thank my wife Elaine for another year of suffering a house littered with books and old Forest programmes and memorabilia, and my children Ben, Louise and Brogan. Also thanks as ever to my friends Jack, Jennie, Steve, Holly, Megan, William, Ava, Nevaeh, Kim, Andy, Chris, Sarah, Oumar and Gary for providing me for the necessary distractions so my brain didn’t just fill up with random Forest trivia.
FOREWORD
To my knowledge, the first ‘serious’ book about Nottingham Forest was that written by local sports journalist Arthur Turner to commemorate the club centenary in 1965. Then there was a gap of some 25 years before the next hardback arrived when Pete Attaway, in conjunction with Breedon Books, published Nottingham Forest – A Complete Record 1865-1991 .
This was the standard Breedon book of match-by-match statistics along with some biographies of well-known players. It so happened that it coincided with the release of my own Forest – The First 125 Years of similar concept and that seemed to be the end of publications about the club.
Then Brian Clough’s arrival, with his trophy-laden years, spawned an avalanche of books about the club and BC himself, written mainly by professional journalists. Several other authors have tried their hand and a few ex-players produced autobiographies, but after Who’s Who by Tony Matthews and How They Gone On by Peter Gibson, with his book of programme covers recalling memories of past matches, the themes seemed to have dried up – until now.
So here is Pete Attaway’s book on what he describes as a hodgepodge of various stories and statistics throughout 150 years or so. Sounds interesting to me.
Ken Smales Nottingham Forest secretary 1961-1987
THE RECORDS
Record win: 14-0 v Clapton (A), FA Cup first round, 17th Jan1891 Record defeat: 1-9 v Blackburn R (A), Second Division, 10th Apr 1937 Most league points in a season: 94, First Division, 1997/98 Most league goals in a season: 110, Third Division South, 1950/51 Most consecutive league wins: 7, 9th May to 1st Sep 1922 Most consecutive league defeats: 14, 21st March to 27th Sep 1913 Longest unbeaten league run: 42, 26th Nov 1977 to 25th Nov 1978 Longest league run without a win: 17, 25th Oct 2003 to 28th Feb 2004 Record attendance: 49,946 v Manchester U (First Division ), 28th Oct 1967 Record gate receipts: £499,099 v Bayern Munich (Uefa Cup quarter-final second leg), 19th Mar 1996 Transfer fee paid: £4.8m to Celtic for Pierre van Hooijdonk, Mar 1997 Transfer fee received: £8.5m from Liverpool for Stan Collymore, Jun 1995 Most appearances: Bob McKinlay, 685, 1951-69 Most league appearances: Bob McKinlay, 611+3, 1951-69 Most goals: Grenville Morris, 217, 1898-1912 Most league goals: Grenville Morris, 1999, 1898-1912 Highest scorer in a season: Wally Ardron, 36, Third Division (S), 1950/51 Most capped player: Stuart Pearce, 76 (of 78) for England
ANGLO-SCOTTISH CUP WINERS
Seventeen years before Forest won their first piece of silverware under Brian Clough and Peter Taylor (the Anglo-Scottish Cup) the Reds were involved in a unique two-legged play-off between themselves, as FA Cup holders, and St Mirren, the Scottish Cup holders. Forest played the first leg of this tie at the City Ground, on 23rd September 1959 with a 5.30pm kick-off as these were the days before the ground had adequate floodlighting. Among the St Mirren side was Gerry Baker, brother of future Forest legend Joe, who was at Hibernian at the time. Goals from Tommy Bryceland, Davie Laird and Don Kerrigan gave the Scots a 3-2 victory, with Geoff Vowden scoring both of Forest’s goals. The return game at Love Street a week later finished in a 2-2 draw, Stewart Imlach and Billy Gray with a penalty scoring for Forest, Laird and the aforementioned Baker netting for St Mirren, hence handing the Scottish side bragging rights on aggregate. The return game was also the first time Forest had used air transport for travel to a domestic match.
WE ALL 8 BURNLEY
Forest suffered one of their most humiliating defeats ever when, on 21st November 1959, they travelled up to Turf Moor and came back down to earth after suffering an 8-0 loss to the home side. The stars of the show for the Clarets were Irish international Jimmy McIlroy, whose controlling of the midfield had the opposition running after shadows and trying to remember what possession felt like, and emerging striking sensation Jimmy Robson, who stuck five past the Forest custodian "Chick" Thomson. Ray Pointer added two goals for the Clarets, and Brian Pilkington also scored one. Burnley would go on to win the title, while FA Cup-holders Forest endured an unexpected season of struggle.
THE MILLENNIUM GOAL
When inside-forward Johnny Quigley scored the third and final goal of Forest’s final match of the 1959/60 season against Newcastle on 23rd April 1960, Forest ended that season having scored exactly 1,000 goals in post-war league football. During the same period, they’d conceded 845. Notably, the game against Newcastle was Quigley’s 100th for the club.
HOME, BUT AWAY AS WELL
Most Forest fans will know that Forest played five ‘home’ league games and one League Cup match at Meadow Lane after the Main Stand fire in 1968, but this wasn’t the only time the club used the ground of their near neighbours to fulfil fixtures. The first and only other occasion was on 23rd November 1946 when the River Trent burst its banks and the City Ground pitch lay underneath a couple of feet of water. Rather than hand their players scuba-diving gear, the club asked Notts County to borrow Meadow Lane for the game against Manchester City, one that City won 1-0 thanks mainly to the excellent form of their goalkeeper Frank Swift. Forest have played a total of seven ‘home’ games at other grounds, and have failed to win a single one of them.
FA CUP FIRSTS
Forest hold a number of ‘firsts’ when it comes to the FA Cup. They were the first club to reach the semi-final at their first attempt (in 1880). During that run the side met Old Etonians in London and became the first ever provincial side to play an FA Cup tie in the capital. In 1885 Forest played the Glaswegian team Queen’s Park at the Merchistone Castle Ground in Edinburgh, the only time a qualifying tie has been played in Scotland, and in 1889 Forest played the Irish side Linfield Athletic, hence becoming the first team to play sides from England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland in the competition.
FOREST REJECT
As Matt Gillies’ Forest sank out of the top flight in 1971/72, there could not have been so galling a match for Reds spectators as the penulti