If you catch a train from London to Gloucester it will probably stop at Swindon. If you listen out you'll probably hear the station announcer shout "Swindon, this is Swindon!". At least that's what my wife tells me. I've never heard it myself. The point is that for most people, this is the most likely way you'd get to hear of Swindon. But for Forest fans, at the start of 1978, Swindon was upper-most in our minds as the next team we had to face on a football pitch. After four big league games in seven days, culminating with a top of the table clash with Everton, it was time for a break from the stresses of being five points clear at the top of the league with an F. A. Cup 3rd Round match.
Before going to that match I want to spend a bit of time delving into the history of this great cup competition and Forest's success or otherwise in it. I'll also describe Swindon Town's heroic F.A. Cup and League Cup exploits as well as their amazing success in the Anglo-Italian Cup.
Some may dispute this, and it does sound a bit controversial, but it does appear that it was the British public school system that first codified various forms of football and were instrumental in organizing the first tournaments. Each school originally had its own rules but it was soon recognised that this needed to change. The "Cambridge Rules", were such an attempt to consolidate these diverse rules. They were written down in 1848 after a meeting of various school representatives, and went on to form the core of the laws of the game of "Football". JC Thring of the Shrewsbury school (the same one Charles Darwin attended) is credited with having most influence.
In rugby (union) the first tournament seems to have been the United Hospital Cup played between the six London medical schools. The first winners, Guy's, won it in 1875
Gaelic football, native to Ireland, is also very old but the Sam MacGuire Cup only started in the 1920s. The Irish code seems to have had a big influence in Australia too. "Australian Rules" were codified pretty early too, during the era of the British Empire, and the aussies can probably claim that they were the first to organise annual football tournaments for AFL, although none of the pioneering tournaments continued for very long. The VFL (Victorian Football League, forerunner to the AFL, Australian Football League) started in 1877 although for the first decade fixtures were organised in an ad hoc way. The VFL controlled fixtures and points only from 1888.
Similarly, in North America, a form of football started being played under local rules that eventually became codified. It seems that formal competitions began around the same time, by about 1876. Also in North America, the oldest known team sport, lacrosse, appears to have been played by the indigenous Iroquois people that inhabited what is now New York and Pennsylvania but, perhaps unsurprisingly, there is little evidence of any organised tournaments along the lines that a "proper" Englishman would understand.
Anyway, the bottom line here is that various forms of football seem to have been independently codified in various, largely English-speaking, parts of the world and once that happened, regular annual competitions were naturally created to test the relative strengths of the best teams.
Very early in that list of competitions, if not the very earliest, was the English F. A. Cup. The Scottish Cup started two years later.
Clapham Rovers won 3-0 at Upton Park - a match that is notable for the first F.A. Cup goal scored by a fellow called Jarvis Kenrick.
Of interest to me is the fact that Maidenhead United (now playing in the 5th tier, the National League) hosted one of those four games, a 2-0 win against nearby Marlow. The ground they played on that day, York Road, is still used today, making it the oldest continually used ground by the same club in the world.
I only learned this a few years ago. It bugs me because I used to live half an hour away and worked in Maidenhead for two years (at Ashton Tate, home of the PC database product dBase) but I never went there. Hopefully, I'll visit it in the next couple of years.
It was a strange tournament with various teams mysteriously being allowed through to the next round without winning. Corruption? in football? Surely not!
One thing I simply can't understand is how Forest can be such an old club (founded in 1865) and yet never played in the first F.A. Cup (which started seven years after they did) or the first league (started 23 years afterwards). I'm sure in those days it was a case of "invitation only" and Forest obviously didn't get one, but it does make you wonder who they were playing all those years before joining the official competitions. Obviously, a lot of clubs existed at the time which went extinct but I'd like to see more evidence of the matches they actually played between 1865 and 1877, for example.
Forest's first set of recorded competitive games, that I have been able to discover was their first cup run in 1878-79, the seventh time the Cup had been contested. Forest were one of the 37 clubs that played in that competition and they did really well, getting to the semi-finals.
If you had to characterise this first cup run in one word it would have to be "old". Forest's first F.A. Cup match was, fittingly, against the oldest current league club, their most local rivals Notts County. In the next round we beat the oldest independent club still playing, Sheffield F. C. on the way. In the next round they beat "Old" Harrovians. Then, in the quarter finals they played the oldest university in England, Oxford University. Unfortunately, Forest were knocked out 2-1 to the eventual winners "Old" Etonians.
Forest's pretty good start to their F.A. Cup history continued and they made it to the semi-final again the next season, this time losing to Oxford University. Then, after five seasons of failure, going out early to Aston Villa, twice, Sheffield Wednesday and Notts County, Forest again made it to the semi finals in 1884-85 losing to the Scottish club, Queens Park after a replay. Following this, Forest experienced being at the wrong end of a giant killing act two years running when they lost to Staveley and a team called "Lockwood Brothers" (not members of a big family but a works team that took a stand against professionalism). Forest made the 5th round the season after that losing to Sheffield Wednesday (or "The Wednesday" as they were called in those days.
Forest reached the semi-finals again in 1892 losing to first time winners West Bromwich Albion and then the quarter finals (the 3rd round at this time) for 3 out of four seasons.
Finally, in 1898, in the 28th season of the F.A. Cup, Forest actually won it. As Forest were a first division side (they finished 8th out of 16 first division teams the season before) they got a bye to the first round proper, played on Saturday 29th January 1898, where they were drawn against Grimsby Town, at the time a mid-table Second Division team. Forest won 4-0 to go through to the second round. Another home tie was the reward, against struggling second division side Gainsborough Trinity on 12th February. Forest won that 4-0 too.
In the Quarter Finals Forest were drawn against West Bromwich Albion, away at Stoney Lane, the ground they used to play on before their move to the Hawthorns. In the semi finals, Forest drew a non-league side but before you scoff, this wasn't just any non-league side. Southampton were a force to be reckoned with long before their league status was acquired in 1920. Forest prevailed after a replay. They drew 1-1 at Bramall Lane, Sheffield and then won 2-0 at Crystal Palace, in London.
The team they played in the final, also at Crystal Palace, was Derby County, close both geographically and in terms of league placing in the First Division. Derby's path to the final had been much more difficult than our's. They'd beaten Aston Villa - the team on their way to winning the first division - 1-0 at home in the first round. Then, they beat Wolves away, again by 1-0. Wolves had finished 3rd in the first division the previous season. In the quarter final they drew with Liverpool 1-1 at the Baseball Ground before winning the replay, at Anfield by 5-1. Liverpool were runners up to Villa in the league that season. It didn't get much easier. In the semi-finals they were drawn against Everton, who finished 4th in the league that season. Derby won through to the final 3-1.
So the prospect of playing Forest in the final probably didn't hold much fear for Derby. We were the worst team they played (according to league position) in their entire cup run. Piece of cake, right? Derby surely would win.
Wrong.
Forest triumphed 3-1 having gone in at half time with the scores level. Perhaps playing two games on the trot at Crystal Palace gave them an edge.
The famous photograph of the winning Forest side always amuses me as the Forest players do not look very happy. Apparently they were not too impressed with the photographer's insistence that they should wear the white shirts of the Derby County team in order to increase the contrast and make it a better photograph.
Forest continued to do pretty well in the Cup for the next decade or so, reaching both the semi-finals and the quarter finals twice more.
Two seasons later, Swindon were back in the hunt for the cup. Again a similar number of non-league sides were given a bye to the first round. Swindon beat another non-league side Sutton Junction in the first round 5-0. Forest, meanwhile, had lost at home to Bradford Park Avenue 0-1. This isn't as bad as it sounds from today's perspective as Bradford finished above us in the second division that season. Swindon's next opponents were Notts County in the 2nd round. County at the time were a (struggling) first division side, so this was a big upset. In the 3rd round Swindon overcame fellow non-leaguers, West Ham United 4-0 after a replay. Then, in the quarter finals, Swindon had one of their most famous victories in their history, beating Everton 2-1. Everton were runners up to Blackburn Rovers in the First Division that season.
So, to the semi-finals again and Swindon were drawn against Barnsley, a fairly good second division side. Having beaten Everton and Notts County they might have been expected to prevail over Barnsley but, it was the Yorkshire outfit that won 1-0 after a replay at Meadow Lane, Nottingham. It would be Barnsley's year as they beat West Bromwich Albion in the final for their only F.A. Cup glory and win the new trophy for the first time
It was around this time that Forest were relegated from the first division and would, with only a couple of brief re-entries into the top flight, struggle as a second division side between the wars.
Forest's F.A. Cup performances during those years were also appropriately barren. For the next 39 seasons, the best Forest did was to reach the quarter finals, and they did so just three times, in 1926, 1928 and 1957.
Things could only get better.
Forest had already been managed by Billy Walker for almost twenty years but they had only just returned to the top flight a couple of seasons earlier when they won promotion along with Leicester City in 1957 (and reaching the F.A. Cup quarter final.) In their first two seasons back Forest established themselves as a comfortable mid-table side.
Walker's first managerial post was Sheffield Wednesday where he had taken them to an F.A. Cup win against West Brom in 1935 so there must have been a positive feeling at the club as their cup run developed in 1958-59. This could be Forest's year...
But for the purists, here is the match in full...
As Forest paraded the F.A. Cup through the streets of Nottingham I still had another 15 weeks to go before I took my first breath and a further six or seven years or so before I'd even know that Nottingham Forest existed. Isn't life a peculiar thing?
The following season was also Swindon Town's best ever in the league, when they finished 5th in the second division, just three points behind promoted Blackpool.
Swindon Town went into decline themselves from this point, in terms of league placing, and were relegated back to division three in 1974 having never finished above us in the second division during the two years we shared the same division.
But there was a final, incredible, glorious chapter to Swindon Town's history in the next couple of seasons. You'd never guess this if you didn't know but Swindon actually won European silverware for two seasons running. One of the incentives for big clubs to start to take the League Cup more seriously in the 1960s was the lure of a place in Europe - in the Fair's Cup. But cruelly, it did not apply to third division clubs. As a consequence of this injustice to Swindon Town (and Queen's Park Rangers who had also won the League Cup as a third division side), a brand new European Competition was conceived - the Anglo-Italian League Cup.
It was really just a two-legged play-off match between the League Cup winners of England and the Coppa Italia winners in Italy. The first leg was held in Rome where A. S. Roma beat Swindon Town 2-1 but the second leg, at the County Ground saw Swindon thrash the Italians 4-0 to claim the cup.
Next season, as winners of the Anglo-Italian League Cup, Swindon Town qualified for a much more ambitious tournament, the Anglo-Italian Cup, contested by 12 teams, six from Italy and six from England.
Swindon Town won the inaugural tournament with some amazing results. They beat Juventus 4-0 at home and 1-0 away and also won at SSC Napoli away, but lost at home. These results qualified them for the final, again against Napoli. The final was played in the Italian city under the watchful gaze of the volcano Vesuvius. 55,000 saw Swindon extend their 1-0 half time lead to 2-0, and then 3-0 before Napoli fans started throwing rocks onto the pitch. As the scenes got worse, the game had to be abandoned with ten minutes left to play and the cup was, quite rightly, awarded to Swindon. Seats were ripped up and set on fire inside the stadium later on. Incredible.
So with Forest five points clear at the top of the first division, Swindon, really shouldn't have posed many problems as they were a mid table 3rd division side that day.
No chance of that happening!
Nottingham Forest
1 Peter Shilton, 2 Viv Anderson, 3 Colin Barrett, 4 John McGovern, 5 David Needham, 6 Kenny Burns, 7 Martin O'Neill, 8 Archie Gemmill, 9 Peter Withe, 10 Tony Woodcock, 11 John Robertson.
Goals: Peter Withe 1, Tony Woodcock 2, John Robertson 1.
Substitutions: John O'Hare (12) came on for Peter Withe(9).
Swindon Town
1 Jimmy Allan, 2 John Trollope, 3 Andy Ford, 4 Kenny Stroud, 5 Colin Prophett, 6 John McLaughlin, 7 Dave Moss, 8 Chris Kamara, 9 Chris Guthrie, 10 Ray McHale, 11 Dave Cunningham, 12 Russel Lewis.
Goals : Dave Moss 1.
Substitutions: Russel Lewis (12) came for Chris Guthrie (9).
Attendance: 28,953
In the second half, Chris Kamara was booked for flattening John McGovern before Peter Withe finally scored to end his goal famine after a cross from Martin O'Neill. Twelve minutes later, Robbo added a third having beaten Trollope and scoring from an acute angle.
John O'Hare replaced Peter Withe in the 77th minute and straight away helped Forest score their 4th - Tony Woodcock getting his second. With six minutes to go Dave Moss grabbed a consolation goal for Swindon but it was too little, too late.
The big match of the 3rd round was the all first division tie, Everton v Aston Villa. Everton continued their impressive form, after a two game blip in the league, and smashed Villa 4-1.
The only shock of the day was Hartlepool beating Crystal Palace 2-1 to go into the 4th round for only the second time in their history.
The other big story was another all first division tie: Leeds v Manchester City. Reminiscent of Forest's bundling out of the cup against Newcastle a few years earlier, Leeds fans tried to get the game abandoned by invading the pitch when they went 2-0 down. The referee refused to do so, announcing over the tanoy that the match would be completed even if it had to be resumed at midnight. After a twenty minute break, with the help of mounted police, the match was resumed. Leeds scored a goal but didn't manage to reverse the result as Newcastle did with Forest.
Before going to that match I want to spend a bit of time delving into the history of this great cup competition and Forest's success or otherwise in it. I'll also describe Swindon Town's heroic F.A. Cup and League Cup exploits as well as their amazing success in the Anglo-Italian Cup.
The Oldest (Still-Running) Football Tournament in the World - The F. A. Cup
People should be skeptical when they hear things like "the oldest tournament in the world" but if you do a bit of research it's hard to find anything older than the F.A. Cup for a national competition for a team sport. Sport generally, of course, is a very ancient part of human culture. Almost 3,000 years ago (in 776 BC - and that's not "Before Clough") the classic Olympic games apparently started in Greece. Although there were a myriad of sports played between different "city-states" none could be really described as a team sport. The first "modern" (but unofficial) Olympic Games was held in Athens in 1859 the IOC taking over and organizing the first "official" one in 1896.
Various forms of team sports that involved kicking a "ball" (often something like a pig's bladder) arose all over Europe in the middle ages. In England, shrovetide football matches were violently fought out between neighboring villages. In Italy too, a violent precursor to codified football was played, now called "calcio storico". But none of these had the semblance of a formal competition.
Various forms of team sports that involved kicking a "ball" (often something like a pig's bladder) arose all over Europe in the middle ages. In England, shrovetide football matches were violently fought out between neighboring villages. In Italy too, a violent precursor to codified football was played, now called "calcio storico". But none of these had the semblance of a formal competition.
Cricket has been going on longer than football but, surprisingly, no officially codified national tournament existed in England before 1890, when the County Championship started. Although it is true that from around 1864 county cricket clubs started claiming to hold the championship "title", presumably after informal "test" matches.
Some may dispute this, and it does sound a bit controversial, but it does appear that it was the British public school system that first codified various forms of football and were instrumental in organizing the first tournaments. Each school originally had its own rules but it was soon recognised that this needed to change. The "Cambridge Rules", were such an attempt to consolidate these diverse rules. They were written down in 1848 after a meeting of various school representatives, and went on to form the core of the laws of the game of "Football". JC Thring of the Shrewsbury school (the same one Charles Darwin attended) is credited with having most influence.
In rugby (union) the first tournament seems to have been the United Hospital Cup played between the six London medical schools. The first winners, Guy's, won it in 1875
Gaelic football, native to Ireland, is also very old but the Sam MacGuire Cup only started in the 1920s. The Irish code seems to have had a big influence in Australia too. "Australian Rules" were codified pretty early too, during the era of the British Empire, and the aussies can probably claim that they were the first to organise annual football tournaments for AFL, although none of the pioneering tournaments continued for very long. The VFL (Victorian Football League, forerunner to the AFL, Australian Football League) started in 1877 although for the first decade fixtures were organised in an ad hoc way. The VFL controlled fixtures and points only from 1888.
Similarly, in North America, a form of football started being played under local rules that eventually became codified. It seems that formal competitions began around the same time, by about 1876. Also in North America, the oldest known team sport, lacrosse, appears to have been played by the indigenous Iroquois people that inhabited what is now New York and Pennsylvania but, perhaps unsurprisingly, there is little evidence of any organised tournaments along the lines that a "proper" Englishman would understand.
Anyway, the bottom line here is that various forms of football seem to have been independently codified in various, largely English-speaking, parts of the world and once that happened, regular annual competitions were naturally created to test the relative strengths of the best teams.
Very early in that list of competitions, if not the very earliest, was the English F. A. Cup. The Scottish Cup started two years later.
The First F.A. Cup Competition: In 1871-72
The very first set of F.A. cup games in England were played on the 11th November 1871. As there were 15 teams in the tournament, there should have been seven first round ties and one bye. But three games weren't played for various reasons. The two most northerly teams, Donnington Grammar School (only as far 'north' as south Lincolnshire) were due to play Queens Park - from Glasgow! but they couldn't agree a date in time to play the match. So, it was re-arranged for the second round but Donnington forefeited the match as they couldn't afford the trip to Glasgow. Harrow Chequers forfeited their match too - against eventual winners, The Wanderers and Royal Engineers (the other finalists) were awarded a walk over against Reigate Priory. All but five of the teams were based in London.
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| First round of F.A. Cup Matches in November 1871 |
Clapham Rovers won 3-0 at Upton Park - a match that is notable for the first F.A. Cup goal scored by a fellow called Jarvis Kenrick.
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| Jarvis Kenrick - Scorer of the first ever F. A. Cup goal - for Clapham Rovers |
I only learned this a few years ago. It bugs me because I used to live half an hour away and worked in Maidenhead for two years (at Ashton Tate, home of the PC database product dBase) but I never went there. Hopefully, I'll visit it in the next couple of years.
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| Maidenhead United (in the 5th tier), still play on the same ground today. |
It was a strange tournament with various teams mysteriously being allowed through to the next round without winning. Corruption? in football? Surely not!
The Oldest First Division Club - Nottingham Forest
One thing I simply can't understand is how Forest can be such an old club (founded in 1865) and yet never played in the first F.A. Cup (which started seven years after they did) or the first league (started 23 years afterwards). I'm sure in those days it was a case of "invitation only" and Forest obviously didn't get one, but it does make you wonder who they were playing all those years before joining the official competitions. Obviously, a lot of clubs existed at the time which went extinct but I'd like to see more evidence of the matches they actually played between 1865 and 1877, for example.Forest's first set of recorded competitive games, that I have been able to discover was their first cup run in 1878-79, the seventh time the Cup had been contested. Forest were one of the 37 clubs that played in that competition and they did really well, getting to the semi-finals.
If you had to characterise this first cup run in one word it would have to be "old". Forest's first F.A. Cup match was, fittingly, against the oldest current league club, their most local rivals Notts County. In the next round we beat the oldest independent club still playing, Sheffield F. C. on the way. In the next round they beat "Old" Harrovians. Then, in the quarter finals they played the oldest university in England, Oxford University. Unfortunately, Forest were knocked out 2-1 to the eventual winners "Old" Etonians.
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| 11v11.com has a record of every British match played |
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| Old Etonians - Too good (and apparently, too relaxed) for Forest in 1879 |
Forest's pretty good start to their F.A. Cup history continued and they made it to the semi-final again the next season, this time losing to Oxford University. Then, after five seasons of failure, going out early to Aston Villa, twice, Sheffield Wednesday and Notts County, Forest again made it to the semi finals in 1884-85 losing to the Scottish club, Queens Park after a replay. Following this, Forest experienced being at the wrong end of a giant killing act two years running when they lost to Staveley and a team called "Lockwood Brothers" (not members of a big family but a works team that took a stand against professionalism). Forest made the 5th round the season after that losing to Sheffield Wednesday (or "The Wednesday" as they were called in those days.
Forest reached the semi-finals again in 1892 losing to first time winners West Bromwich Albion and then the quarter finals (the 3rd round at this time) for 3 out of four seasons.
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| Forest's progress in the Cup for the first 27 years (8 = Semi Final, 7 = Quarter Final etc.) |
Finally, in 1898, in the 28th season of the F.A. Cup, Forest actually won it. As Forest were a first division side (they finished 8th out of 16 first division teams the season before) they got a bye to the first round proper, played on Saturday 29th January 1898, where they were drawn against Grimsby Town, at the time a mid-table Second Division team. Forest won 4-0 to go through to the second round. Another home tie was the reward, against struggling second division side Gainsborough Trinity on 12th February. Forest won that 4-0 too.
In the Quarter Finals Forest were drawn against West Bromwich Albion, away at Stoney Lane, the ground they used to play on before their move to the Hawthorns. In the semi finals, Forest drew a non-league side but before you scoff, this wasn't just any non-league side. Southampton were a force to be reckoned with long before their league status was acquired in 1920. Forest prevailed after a replay. They drew 1-1 at Bramall Lane, Sheffield and then won 2-0 at Crystal Palace, in London.
The team they played in the final, also at Crystal Palace, was Derby County, close both geographically and in terms of league placing in the First Division. Derby's path to the final had been much more difficult than our's. They'd beaten Aston Villa - the team on their way to winning the first division - 1-0 at home in the first round. Then, they beat Wolves away, again by 1-0. Wolves had finished 3rd in the first division the previous season. In the quarter final they drew with Liverpool 1-1 at the Baseball Ground before winning the replay, at Anfield by 5-1. Liverpool were runners up to Villa in the league that season. It didn't get much easier. In the semi-finals they were drawn against Everton, who finished 4th in the league that season. Derby won through to the final 3-1.
So the prospect of playing Forest in the final probably didn't hold much fear for Derby. We were the worst team they played (according to league position) in their entire cup run. Piece of cake, right? Derby surely would win.
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| Forest v Derby in 1898 - Note it was assumed both teams adopted the "W" formation |
Wrong.
Forest triumphed 3-1 having gone in at half time with the scores level. Perhaps playing two games on the trot at Crystal Palace gave them an edge.
The famous photograph of the winning Forest side always amuses me as the Forest players do not look very happy. Apparently they were not too impressed with the photographer's insistence that they should wear the white shirts of the Derby County team in order to increase the contrast and make it a better photograph.
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| Forest, Cup Winners 1897-98 but "do we 'ave t'wear these shirts?" |
Forest continued to do pretty well in the Cup for the next decade or so, reaching both the semi-finals and the quarter finals twice more.
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| Forest's Cup Record 1897-1909 |
Swindon Town - Old Giant Killers
The F.A. Cup, remember, started 16 years before the league did so all the early participants were non-league sides. It took 13 seasons before even a league club 'to be' would win the cup, when Blackburn Rovers did so. But after 1884 every cup winner was either a league club or a club that would become an original member. It should not be surprising though, that in the early days non-league sides tended to do very well. Southampton got to the final in 1900 and 1902, for example.
Another non-league side that almost got cup glory in these early days was Swindon Town, the club Forest had been drawn against in the 3rd round of 1978.
In 1909-10 Swindon Town were one of 13 non-league sides given a bye to the first round. The list included Southampton, QPR, Crystal Palace, Plymouth Argyle, Reading, Millwall, Norwich, West Ham, Brighton and Portsmouth, so these were not unambitious clubs.
In the First Round, Swindon were drawn away to fellow non-league Crystal Palace and won 1-0. Forest had beaten Sheffield United 3-2 at home. In the next round, Swindon beat second division Burnley at home 2-0 whilst Forest beat non-league Northampton 1-0 after a replay. In the last 16 Swindon beat Tottenham Hotspur at home 3-2. Although Spurs were by then a First Division team it was only their 3rd season in the league and so this wasn't as great a giant killing as it might sound and not as much as Coventry dumping Forest out of the Cup 3-1. In the quarter finals Swindon beat Manchester City 2-0 at home. Man City were, at the time, a second division team but were winning the division on their way back to the top flight.
So, to the semi-final, where Swindon Town were drawn against eventual winners Newcastle United. Newcastle, as the team that finished 4th in the first division, were expected to prevail, and they did.,
This was the last season the contested trophy was the original design (see above.)
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| Swindon Town F. A. Cup Semi-Finalists 1910 |
So, to the semi-finals again and Swindon were drawn against Barnsley, a fairly good second division side. Having beaten Everton and Notts County they might have been expected to prevail over Barnsley but, it was the Yorkshire outfit that won 1-0 after a replay at Meadow Lane, Nottingham. It would be Barnsley's year as they beat West Bromwich Albion in the final for their only F.A. Cup glory and win the new trophy for the first time
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| For once a historic comparison with Forest always on top |
Things could only get better.
Forest's 1959 F.A. Cup Win is Conceived
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| Billy Walker |
Walker's first managerial post was Sheffield Wednesday where he had taken them to an F.A. Cup win against West Brom in 1935 so there must have been a positive feeling at the club as their cup run developed in 1958-59. This could be Forest's year...
Making the headlines in the first two rounds was the giant-killing exploits of a non-league side, Tooting & Mitcham, a London-based side near to Wimbledon. In the first round they beat third division Bournemouth & Boscombe Athletic (as they were called then) 3-1. Swindon, by the way, beat Aldershot 5-0 the same day.
The first round games were played on 15th November 1958. Now please forgive me a bit of weird self-indulgence here. It is entirely possible that later that night my mum and dad, having had a few ales in the pub, had a 'romantic' encounter that, well, resulted in me! My birthday is the 18th of August 1959 so, assuming a "normal" 40 week pregnancy it is likely I was conceived some time in the middle of the previous November. Anyway, poetic licence and all that, I am going to assume that this is actually what happened here.
Now, as I am a male, it means that the single lucky one of dad's sperms that made me must have contained a Y chromosome. It would have come into existence, through a simple cell division, about nine weeks earlier around 14th September, at the start of the season. It's a humbling thought that in just those few weeks Dad would have made around 18 billion other sperms, each one of which could have produced an infant that would have been different to me.
Mum's ovum, by complete contrast, would have formed when she was developing in her mother's womb, some time around April 1924, before the war when her family were still living in Stamora, in Romania. Maybe it was formed at the time that Forest played Aston Villa drawing at home 0-0 and then losing away 2-0 in successive matches and must surely have contributed to their relegation that season. All of her ova were made at that time and all stayed dormant until her puberty after which, just one had been released every month. Compared to dad's 18 billion sperm in 9 weeks, this would probably have been only mum's second egg released during that time.
Anyway, back to football, and Tooting & Mitcham beat Northampton Town 2-1 in the second round on the 6th December by which time I would have still been less than 2mm long as a tiny embryo of just three layers of cells in my mother's womb. Swindon, meanwhile lost to Norwich City, another 3rd division side that were destined to a great giant killing run themselves. See my Norwich blog for more on that.
The first round games were played on 15th November 1958. Now please forgive me a bit of weird self-indulgence here. It is entirely possible that later that night my mum and dad, having had a few ales in the pub, had a 'romantic' encounter that, well, resulted in me! My birthday is the 18th of August 1959 so, assuming a "normal" 40 week pregnancy it is likely I was conceived some time in the middle of the previous November. Anyway, poetic licence and all that, I am going to assume that this is actually what happened here.
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| Dad's 9 week old sperm meets mum's 25 year old egg |
Now, as I am a male, it means that the single lucky one of dad's sperms that made me must have contained a Y chromosome. It would have come into existence, through a simple cell division, about nine weeks earlier around 14th September, at the start of the season. It's a humbling thought that in just those few weeks Dad would have made around 18 billion other sperms, each one of which could have produced an infant that would have been different to me.
Mum's ovum, by complete contrast, would have formed when she was developing in her mother's womb, some time around April 1924, before the war when her family were still living in Stamora, in Romania. Maybe it was formed at the time that Forest played Aston Villa drawing at home 0-0 and then losing away 2-0 in successive matches and must surely have contributed to their relegation that season. All of her ova were made at that time and all stayed dormant until her puberty after which, just one had been released every month. Compared to dad's 18 billion sperm in 9 weeks, this would probably have been only mum's second egg released during that time.
Anyway, back to football, and Tooting & Mitcham beat Northampton Town 2-1 in the second round on the 6th December by which time I would have still been less than 2mm long as a tiny embryo of just three layers of cells in my mother's womb. Swindon, meanwhile lost to Norwich City, another 3rd division side that were destined to a great giant killing run themselves. See my Norwich blog for more on that.
Next in line for Tooting & Mitcham in the 3rd round was, of course, Nottingham Forest - at home. The match was played on 10th January 1959 on a frozen pitch. It looked like Forest would be a third scalp to add to their collection as they raced into a 2-0 lead with goals from Grainger and Murphy. But Murphy also scored an own goal too and with a penalty, Forest managed to grab an equaliser and win a replay back in Nottingham.
As an eight week old foetus at the time, I would have only been about 2 cm long by now but I would already have looked like a little infant with two arms and legs, two eyes and a beating heart. My lower limbs would have already rotated 180 degrees like all land-living animals so my knees would bend the right way.
As an eight week old foetus at the time, I would have only been about 2 cm long by now but I would already have looked like a little infant with two arms and legs, two eyes and a beating heart. My lower limbs would have already rotated 180 degrees like all land-living animals so my knees would bend the right way.
Back to the football, and here's some great footage of the tie in south London on the frozen pitch from Pathe...
Forest won the replay 3-0 in front of 42,362 with goals from Roy Dwight, Tommy Wilson and Stuart Imlach.
In the 4th Round draw, Forest were paired with a home tie with Grimsby Town. Grimsby were struggling against relegation from the second division at the time. Forest won 4-1.
As Forest were beating Grimsby on 28th January I would have tripled in size by then at about 6 cm. My eyelids would have formed and my brain might have begun perceiving sounds from my mother. Under the effect of testosterone, I would have started to become visibly a boy.
Next up was Birmingham City away. Birmingham were a good First Division side at the time. Forest drew 1-1 at St Andrews on 14th February and then drew the replay by the same score at the City Ground four days later. Five days after that, a second replay was played at Filbert Street, Leicester. There was no problem this time as Forest won 5-0 to win their place in the quarter finals.
Meanwhile baby Algis was still growing inside his mum. By now I would have been about 10 cm long but I would have already looked like a little infant, but perhaps an infant ape as my skin would have started to be covered with hair, called lanugo.
Forest were awarded another home tie, against cup holders Bolton Wanderers in the 6th Round on 28th February. The Reds won 2-1 to get through to their first semi-final appearance for 57 years since they lost to Southampton in 1902.
In the semi-final, Forest were drawn against struggling Aston Villa. They had already won the cup 6 times but would get relegated at the end of this season. The match was played at Hillsborough. Forest won 1-0 with a late Quigley goal.
More great footage - I love the staged fan histrionics.
Meanwhile, back at 46 Cookson Street, Kirkby-in-Ashfield, Notts, I was about 15 cm long. My mum, even through she was now four months pregnant, would still probably not have had a visible bump. Dad was working at Bentinck Colliery and my three year old sister might have been playing dolls with her friends, maybe one of them enacting being a mum and having a baby.
Inside mum's womb, all my organs would have formed and all I needed to do now was to get bigger, grow a bigger brain and put some weight on.
Oh well, back to football and onto to Wembley for the 1959 Cup final!
As Forest were beating Grimsby on 28th January I would have tripled in size by then at about 6 cm. My eyelids would have formed and my brain might have begun perceiving sounds from my mother. Under the effect of testosterone, I would have started to become visibly a boy.
Next up was Birmingham City away. Birmingham were a good First Division side at the time. Forest drew 1-1 at St Andrews on 14th February and then drew the replay by the same score at the City Ground four days later. Five days after that, a second replay was played at Filbert Street, Leicester. There was no problem this time as Forest won 5-0 to win their place in the quarter finals.
Meanwhile baby Algis was still growing inside his mum. By now I would have been about 10 cm long but I would have already looked like a little infant, but perhaps an infant ape as my skin would have started to be covered with hair, called lanugo.
Forest were awarded another home tie, against cup holders Bolton Wanderers in the 6th Round on 28th February. The Reds won 2-1 to get through to their first semi-final appearance for 57 years since they lost to Southampton in 1902.
In the semi-final, Forest were drawn against struggling Aston Villa. They had already won the cup 6 times but would get relegated at the end of this season. The match was played at Hillsborough. Forest won 1-0 with a late Quigley goal.
More great footage - I love the staged fan histrionics.
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| Me, during the Villa game |
Inside mum's womb, all my organs would have formed and all I needed to do now was to get bigger, grow a bigger brain and put some weight on.
Oh well, back to football and onto to Wembley for the 1959 Cup final!
Nottingham was apparently quite deserted that day as thousands made their way to North West London to the famous twin towers. Among the throng were two 'Glamour Girls', as they became known. Marian Hickling and Margaret Scott both worked as clerks at the Prudential assurance company and were mad Forest fans.
The iconic photo below shows them outfitted in clothes - red and white, obviously - that they had put together themselves. Notice, for example, each had one white and one red sock and one white and one red shoe.
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| Famous photo of Forest fans, the 'glamour girls' at an open-ended Wembley Stadium |
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| Final F.A. Cup Final Tie for Forest |
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| Team Sheet |
Forest took the lead after just ten minutes with a five-man move. Here's how Don Wright describes it in "Forever Forest"...
"Left-back Joe McDonald headed a long kick by the Luton goalkeeper infield to winghalf Jeff Whitefoot who played the ball on the bounce for inside-left Billy Gray to glance it on with a flick of his head into the path of left-winger Stewart Imlach. Five defenders tracked back but Imlach cut them all out with a cross pulled back for Roy Dwight, racing in, to strike the ball fistr time with his left foot and send it crashing into the roof of the net."
Tommy Wilson added a second with a header just five minutes later. It looked all over already but on 33 minutes disaster struck for Forest as Roy Dwight clashed with Luton right back, Brendan McNally and it turned out he'd broken his leg. Dwight was removed from the action and sent to hospital where he watched the rest of the match on the telly with the other patients!
With captain Jack Burkitt also suffering from a dislocated shoulder and no substitutes allowed in those days, it was a heroic battle for Forest to hang on to win the cup. Dave Pacey pulled one back for Luton mid way through the second half. After this, Forest's right back, Billy Whare was reduced to almost being a spectator wide on the wing as he suffered from cramp. But Forest's nine men hung on bravely to win.
Here are the highlights...
"Left-back Joe McDonald headed a long kick by the Luton goalkeeper infield to winghalf Jeff Whitefoot who played the ball on the bounce for inside-left Billy Gray to glance it on with a flick of his head into the path of left-winger Stewart Imlach. Five defenders tracked back but Imlach cut them all out with a cross pulled back for Roy Dwight, racing in, to strike the ball fistr time with his left foot and send it crashing into the roof of the net."
Tommy Wilson added a second with a header just five minutes later. It looked all over already but on 33 minutes disaster struck for Forest as Roy Dwight clashed with Luton right back, Brendan McNally and it turned out he'd broken his leg. Dwight was removed from the action and sent to hospital where he watched the rest of the match on the telly with the other patients!
With captain Jack Burkitt also suffering from a dislocated shoulder and no substitutes allowed in those days, it was a heroic battle for Forest to hang on to win the cup. Dave Pacey pulled one back for Luton mid way through the second half. After this, Forest's right back, Billy Whare was reduced to almost being a spectator wide on the wing as he suffered from cramp. But Forest's nine men hung on bravely to win.
Here are the highlights...
But for the purists, here is the match in full...
The queen was there to present the famous trophy to captain Jack Burkitt.
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| I say, that was most awfully well done! How brave! Jolly good show, Mr Burkitt! |
The cup was paraded in Nottingham.
As Forest paraded the F.A. Cup through the streets of Nottingham I still had another 15 weeks to go before I took my first breath and a further six or seven years or so before I'd even know that Nottingham Forest existed. Isn't life a peculiar thing?
Forest's and Swindon Town's Glorious 60s
The Cup Winning side would never play together again but Forest continued to do reasonably well in the competition and were only knocked out in the 3rd Round twice in the next eight years.
In the league, after a scare of near relegation the season after their cup win, they established themselves in the first division and finished 5th in 1963-64. But the best season for Forest fans during these times was of course 1966-67 when everything seemed to click into place under Johnny Carey and we almost grabbed some real glory again.
Forest finished second in the league that season but I want to focus on their great cup run that season here.
In the 3rd round Forest were drawn at home to Plymouth Argyle and we won 2-1. In the 4th Round Forest beat Newcastle United 3-0. Then, in the 5th Round, who should Forest be drawn against, but Swindon Town, at the City Ground.
Swindon were then doing quite well in the third division in those years (they had finished 7th the season before and would end up 8th in the season of this cup run) and had had a great cup run themselves. They beat two non-league sides to reach the 3rd round. Horsham away 3-0 in the first round and Ashford 5-0 in the second. In the 3rd round Swindon drew West Ham United at Upton Park where they got a 3-3 draw before beating them 3-1 at home in the replay. In the 4th round Swindon were drawn at home to second division (but struggling) Bury. Swindon won the match 2-1 to earn the right to a 5th Round tie in Nottingham.
Forest v Swindon ended 0-0 and so a replay was required at the County Ground. That too, ended as a draw 1-1. So to a second replay and Forest seemed to have a knack of doing, at the third attempt they swept Swindon away 3-0 at Villa Park on 20th March.
In the 6th Round Forest beat Everton 3-2 in one of the greatest games ever at the City Ground with an Ian Story-Moore hat trick.
This seems to have been the third (not the second as I previously reported) biggest attendance ever at the City Ground.
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| Top 20 Attendances at the City Ground (I was there in Bold.) |
So to the semi final and a match at Hillsborough again against high flying Tottenham Hotspur. Spurs, like Forest, were going for the double that season. In the end Forest pipped Spurs to second place on goal average but only after they had broken Forest's hearts in the Cup.
The match went Spurs' way and they went into a 2-0 lead before Forest were able to get a late consolation goal.
After just missing out on the league and cup double, Forest went into decline. They finished 11th the next season and then would struggle against relegation until they finally dropped to division two in 1972. In the Cup they'd get knocked out at the first attempt in three of the five following seasons.
Swindon, on the other hand, had a positive change in fortunes. Two years later they won promotion from the third to the second division, going up with Watford and, whilst doing so, had their most glorious season in their history. Astonishingly, as a third division club, they won the League Cup, beating Arsenal 3-1 at Wembley in front of over 98,000 fans.
Swindon's cup run had been pretty special, if dominated by home wins. It started in August with a 2-1 home win over fellow third division side, Torquay United. Then they beat fourth division promotion challengers Bradford City 4-3 after a replay. In the third round they beat second division strugglers Blackburn Rovers 1-0.
Next was first division Coventry City, 3-0, again after a replay. In the quarter finals they drew Brian Clough & Peter Taylor's Derby County as they were on their way to winning the second division to get back to the top tier. They drew 0-0 at The Baseball Ground before beating them at their County Ground fortress, 1-0.
In the semi-final Swindon overcame first division Burnley, again after a replay, after the two legged tie finished 3-3. Swindon won the replay 3-2 to earn their first appearance at Wembley and the right to face Arsenal, who would finish 4th in the top tier that season.
On paper, Swindon surely had no chance.
I won't describe the match as you can get a very good feel of it from this clip. It's incredible to see how poor the surface at Wembley was at that time. It looks like a farmer's field.
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| Danny Williams, Swindon's Cup-winning mananger |
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| Swindon's best ever league placing |
But there was a final, incredible, glorious chapter to Swindon Town's history in the next couple of seasons. You'd never guess this if you didn't know but Swindon actually won European silverware for two seasons running. One of the incentives for big clubs to start to take the League Cup more seriously in the 1960s was the lure of a place in Europe - in the Fair's Cup. But cruelly, it did not apply to third division clubs. As a consequence of this injustice to Swindon Town (and Queen's Park Rangers who had also won the League Cup as a third division side), a brand new European Competition was conceived - the Anglo-Italian League Cup.
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| European Silverware for Swindon |
Swindon Town won the inaugural tournament with some amazing results. They beat Juventus 4-0 at home and 1-0 away and also won at SSC Napoli away, but lost at home. These results qualified them for the final, again against Napoli. The final was played in the Italian city under the watchful gaze of the volcano Vesuvius. 55,000 saw Swindon extend their 1-0 half time lead to 2-0, and then 3-0 before Napoli fans started throwing rocks onto the pitch. As the scenes got worse, the game had to be abandoned with ten minutes left to play and the cup was, quite rightly, awarded to Swindon. Seats were ripped up and set on fire inside the stadium later on. Incredible.
The tournament was only played eight times with professional teams, from 1970 to 1974 and then again from 1993 to 1996. It had a brief period as a tournament for semi-professional teams in between.
So, by the time I was interested in football, Swindon had a reputation to me as a fairly decent second tier side. Certainly a team to take seriously if you drew them in the F. A. Cup Third Round.
The Magic of the 3rd Round
One of the most keenly anticipated dates in the football calendar is the day of the F.A. Cup 3rd Round draw. This is the round where all the big clubs are randomly drawn, potentially against lower league or non-league teams. For many years now, the top two tiers have been made up of 44 clubs and so, to make a round of 64 teams that go into a series of simple knock-out rounds until the final, an extra 20 clubs is required. Those 20 are the winners of the second round of 40 and those 40 or the winners of the first round of 80 clubs. As the lower leagues are made up of 48 clubs, and they are guaranteed a place in the cup, it means 32 non-league teams are selected to enter the F.A. First Round. Since the 1920s this selection has been done through a series of qualifying rounds that start very early in the season. Recently, around 700 clubs have taken part in the F.A. Cup, but it all really starts to get most interesting at the 3rd round.
Since I have been interested in football there have been some great 3rd round matches. The first one I remember was Arsenal getting drawn at then non-league Yeovil in 1971. Yeovil had won their place in history for beating Sunderland in an F. A. Cup 4th round tie in 1949. But Arsenal prevailed 3-0 on this occasion.
1972 included that famous giant killing of Newcastle United at Edgar Street, Hereford. The commentary from John Motson for Ronnie Radford's equaliser that day was legendary.
Two years later, Hereford were at it again, beating West Ham United in the 3rd Round 2-1 after a replay. The first F.A. Cup 3rd round tie I watched was this season - a boring 0-0 draw between Sheffield Wednesday and Coventry on Saturday but I saw a much better one the next day, in one of the first Sunday matches played in England. Forest beat third division leaders Bristol Rovers 4-3. Their forward line was known as "smash and grab", with Warboys and Bannister scoring goals for fun for them. This was the era of Duncan McKenzie and set us on our way to a great cup run that ended against Newcastle in very controversial circumstances.
The 1974-75 season had a cluster of great 3rd round ties. I watched Forest draw 1-1 with Tottenham Hotspur just before the start of the Cloughie era. Wimbledon (the original club before the Milton Keynes debacle) beat Burnley 1-0 at Turf Moor. Stafford Rangers were victorious over Rotherham. Walsall put Manchester United out 3-2 and Wycombe Wanderers took Middlesbrough to a replay as did Altincham against Everton.
In 1975-76 I watched Forest get beaten by third division Peterborough United and Manchester United knocked out Oxford United 2-1. Bury shocked Boro 3-2 and Tooting & Mitcham prevailed over none other than Swindon Town.
The season before this, Forest had again drawn Bristol Rovers and drew twice before Forest did their 2nd replay trick again and overcame them 6-0. Northwich Victory beat Watford, Wrexham beat Sunderland and Wimbledon took Middlesbrough to a replay.
So, finally, to this season's 3rd Round and the match I saw this time: Nottingham Forest v Swindon Town.
Swindon had settled back in the third division and, to be honest, had no players that I was very familar with at the time. With the benefit of hindsight the one player in the team who would become quite famous was Chris Kamara.
Since I have been interested in football there have been some great 3rd round matches. The first one I remember was Arsenal getting drawn at then non-league Yeovil in 1971. Yeovil had won their place in history for beating Sunderland in an F. A. Cup 4th round tie in 1949. But Arsenal prevailed 3-0 on this occasion.
1972 included that famous giant killing of Newcastle United at Edgar Street, Hereford. The commentary from John Motson for Ronnie Radford's equaliser that day was legendary.
Two years later, Hereford were at it again, beating West Ham United in the 3rd Round 2-1 after a replay. The first F.A. Cup 3rd round tie I watched was this season - a boring 0-0 draw between Sheffield Wednesday and Coventry on Saturday but I saw a much better one the next day, in one of the first Sunday matches played in England. Forest beat third division leaders Bristol Rovers 4-3. Their forward line was known as "smash and grab", with Warboys and Bannister scoring goals for fun for them. This was the era of Duncan McKenzie and set us on our way to a great cup run that ended against Newcastle in very controversial circumstances.
The 1974-75 season had a cluster of great 3rd round ties. I watched Forest draw 1-1 with Tottenham Hotspur just before the start of the Cloughie era. Wimbledon (the original club before the Milton Keynes debacle) beat Burnley 1-0 at Turf Moor. Stafford Rangers were victorious over Rotherham. Walsall put Manchester United out 3-2 and Wycombe Wanderers took Middlesbrough to a replay as did Altincham against Everton.
In 1975-76 I watched Forest get beaten by third division Peterborough United and Manchester United knocked out Oxford United 2-1. Bury shocked Boro 3-2 and Tooting & Mitcham prevailed over none other than Swindon Town.
The season before this, Forest had again drawn Bristol Rovers and drew twice before Forest did their 2nd replay trick again and overcame them 6-0. Northwich Victory beat Watford, Wrexham beat Sunderland and Wimbledon took Middlesbrough to a replay.
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| Last few years of Cup History |
So, finally, to this season's 3rd Round and the match I saw this time: Nottingham Forest v Swindon Town.
Swindon had settled back in the third division and, to be honest, had no players that I was very familar with at the time. With the benefit of hindsight the one player in the team who would become quite famous was Chris Kamara.
Chris Kamara
Kamara was a tough-tackling central midfield player who ended up making over 640 league appearances for eleven clubs. The club he played for most was Swindon Town. He had two spells with them, he made 147 appearances from 1977-81 and then a further 87 between 1985 and 1988.
At the time of this match, Kamara had just turned 20, his birthday being on Christmas Day. I must admit I don't think I noticed him much and certainly have very few memories of the game.
Kamara would go on to management, doing well at Bradford City, winning promotion with them in 1995 and making some good signings, such as Mark Schwarzer. Later, he became probably best known for his time as a correspondent for Sky Sports and in the media generally.
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| Kamara was funny in Kyiv |
I saw him once in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, entertaining England fans before the England v Sweden game in the Euro's in 2012 and he even made an appearance on the comedy quiz show "Would I Lie to You?" claiming his name "Chris" was short for "Christmas" as he was born on that day. It turned out to be a lie.
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| Swindon were mid table in the Third Division at the time |
The Teams
John Trollope, the Swindon captain, had already made over 700 appearances for this one club before this match and would end up on 770, a career spanning 20 years. He was the only surviving player from the great League Cup victory against Arsenal and the Anglo-Italian glory. He normally played left back but was switched to the right for this game in an attempt to thwart John Robertson.No chance of that happening!
Chris Guthrie return to the team in place of Chic Bates but otherwise it was an unchanged team, like Forest's for the 6th match running.
1 Peter Shilton, 2 Viv Anderson, 3 Colin Barrett, 4 John McGovern, 5 David Needham, 6 Kenny Burns, 7 Martin O'Neill, 8 Archie Gemmill, 9 Peter Withe, 10 Tony Woodcock, 11 John Robertson.
Goals: Peter Withe 1, Tony Woodcock 2, John Robertson 1.
Substitutions: John O'Hare (12) came on for Peter Withe(9).
Swindon Town
1 Jimmy Allan, 2 John Trollope, 3 Andy Ford, 4 Kenny Stroud, 5 Colin Prophett, 6 John McLaughlin, 7 Dave Moss, 8 Chris Kamara, 9 Chris Guthrie, 10 Ray McHale, 11 Dave Cunningham, 12 Russel Lewis.
Goals : Dave Moss 1.
Substitutions: Russel Lewis (12) came for Chris Guthrie (9).
Attendance: 28,953
The Match
On paper it should have been an easy match and, according to the account of John Shipley in "Nottingham Forest 1977-78 Champions", it was too. I honestly have no memory of the game at all, other than that I stood at the Bridgeford End of the ground.
Forest dominated the first half and John Trollope was walloped by Robbo time and time again. It wasn't until the 37th minute though before Forest made their superiority count when Anderson created an opening for Peter Withe who slotted it across to Tony Woodcock who beat Allan into the corner of the Tent End net.
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| Gemmill shooting early on |
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| Woodcock, 1-0 |
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| Withe 2-0 |
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| Robertson 3-0 |
So, Forest were through to the 4th round.
Other 3rd Round Ties
The big match of the 3rd round was the all first division tie, Everton v Aston Villa. Everton continued their impressive form, after a two game blip in the league, and smashed Villa 4-1.The only shock of the day was Hartlepool beating Crystal Palace 2-1 to go into the 4th round for only the second time in their history.
The other big story was another all first division tie: Leeds v Manchester City. Reminiscent of Forest's bundling out of the cup against Newcastle a few years earlier, Leeds fans tried to get the game abandoned by invading the pitch when they went 2-0 down. The referee refused to do so, announcing over the tanoy that the match would be completed even if it had to be resumed at midnight. After a twenty minute break, with the help of mounted police, the match was resumed. Leeds scored a goal but didn't manage to reverse the result as Newcastle did with Forest.
So, into the 4th round draw went these 32 teams:
14 first division teams: Arsenal, Chelsea, Everton, Ipswich, Leicester, Man City, Man Utd, Newcastle, Middlesbrough, Forest, QPR, WBA, West Ham, Wolves. 12 second division teams: Blackburn, Bolton, Brighton, Bristol Rovers, Burnley, Luton Town, Mansfield Town, Millwall, Notts County, Orient, Southampton, Stoke. Two from the third: Walsall, Wrexham, one from the fourth Hartlepool and Blyth Spartans the only remaining non-league side.
After a welcome break from the league, Forest were set to return to the mire next week with the big local derby clash at the Baseball Ground. The return of Brian Clough and Peter Taylor to club where they had earned so much praise and glory... and controversy.
The Programme
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