Forest 40 years ago

Having started so brightly in the First Division, culminating in a 3-0 home win against Derby County , Forest had a break from league action when they were drawn to play West Ham United in the League Cup 2nd round on Tuesday night, 30th August 1977. Forest's Very Poor Record in the League Cup (Prior to 1977) Now to say Forest's record in the League Cup had been poor over the years would be an understatement in the extreme. In the 17 seasons since the competition had started (in 1960-61) Forest's best performance had been to reach the 4th round (the last 16) which they managed only twice - in the very first season (when several clubs didn't even enter) and again in 1969-70. Forest didn't even take part in the competition themselves for four seasons (between 1962-63 and 1965-66). Forest's League Cup Record 1960-1976 Team Best Round P W D L F A Forest 4th (1960-61, 1969-70) 31 13 5 13 45 42 West Ham, on the other hand, had al

After the relatively low-key second game against Bristol City (1-0 win through a Peter Withe goal) the next up was one of the big ones of the season - one Forest fans had been looking forward to since the fixtures came out... Derby County at home. So, on Saturday, 27th August, it was the "original" local "derby" match. A series of matches with a long history stretching back to the first league encounter on 1st October 1892, a 3-2 win for Forest at Derby. This was to be 52nd league or cup tie between the clubs and at the time, the win tally was even: Played  Forest Won  Drawn Derby Won 51                21             9             21 It has to be admitted that, historically, up to this point in time, Derby had been the most successful of the two clubs. Of the 79 seasons since either team joined the league, Derby had finished higher than Forest on 49 occasions. Forest had been top dogs on only 38% of seasons. Derby's most dominant season over us was i

Forest's first home match back in the top flight, after their brilliant opening day win at Everton , with all due respect, wasn't one that whet our appetite when looking at the fixture list and the attendance that Tuesday night reflected a certain lack of interest. Bristol City attracted 21,743 to the City Ground. It was by far the lowest home league attendance of the season and only two (the County Cup final v Notts County and the League Cup 2nd round match v West Ham) were worse. So, what is it about Bristol City? Bristol City Football Club Bristol City, although based in England's 10th biggest city, have never really had a reputation for football - only finishing in the top ten three times. Bristol is about 33% bigger than Nottingham - both cities have two clubs but Bristol has to be one of the greatest centers of football underachievement in England. "The Robins" are Bristol's top team (Rovers have an even worse record) and have been going for a lon