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Forest 1 Bristol City 0

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 long time. They were formed in 1894, and got elected to the second division (there were only two in those days) in 1901 - nine years after Forest, and won promotion to the top tier 5 years later when they hit their best ever slot - 2nd to Newcastle United. Four years later they were relegated, never to return for 66 years.

Bristol City's best ever season - First Division 1906-07


Bristol City have only finished above Forest 18 times in their 123 year history, most recently last season (2016-2017). In 2007-8 Bristol City were fully 22 places above us, as they finished 4th in the 2nd tier as Forest were runners up in the 3rd. In contrast, Forest have finished above City 98 times and in 1982-83 finished 77 places above them in the league as Forest finished 5th whilst Bristol City ended up 14th in the 4th tier.

Forest 1 Bristol City 0

Peter Cormack
OK, enough sneering at poor old Bristol City. What about the match? I must admit I have no real memory of it at all, other than that I stood at the Bridgeford end of the ground and it was the first use of my new season ticket.

I do remember that "The Robins" included Peter Cormack and Norman Hunter in their line up. Cormack had scored 15 goals in 74 appearances for Forest when they were last in the First Division before leaving for Liverpool, and Norman Hunter had been a hard rock in the formidable Leeds United side of Don Revie.

If any fan has any memory of the game, please leave a comment below but sorry, my mind is a complete blank on this.

So, I'll finish with the teams, the other scores that week and then a few pages of the match day programme.



My 3rd Season Ticket

Teams

Nottingham Forest
1 John Middleton, 2 Viv Anderson, 3 Frank Clark, 4 John McGovern, 5 Larry Lloyd, 6 Kenny Burns, 7 Martin O'Neill, 8 Ian Bowyer, 9 Peter Withe, 10 Tony Woodcock, 11 John Robertson.
Goal: Peter Withe.

Bristol City
1 John Shaw, 2 Gerry Sweeney, 3 Geoff Merrick, 4 Gerry Gow, 5 Gary Collier, 6 Norman Hunter, 7 Trevor Tainton, 8 Tom Ritchie, 9 Kevin Mabbutt, 10 Peter Cormack, 11 Clive Whitehead, (Sub 12 James Mann for Geoff Merrick).

Attendance 21,743.

Other Results


Manchester United continued their good start to the season by beating Coventry City at home but here we were, two games in, joint top of the league.


Next up, a match we had been looking forward to ever since the fixtures came out - home to Derby County.

Match Day Programme


























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