After achieving what, in my view, was probably the most important league win of the season, at home to Arsenal, to move six points clear at the top of the league, Forest had a break from the pressure of being league leaders and returned to cup action.
Did I say "break!?" Forest's next opponents in the F. A. Cup were even tougher than the week before, Manchester City, in the 4th Round. Man City had won their previous six league games and were consequently top of the first division current form table.
The game, originally arranged for the traditional end of January Saturday fixture, had to be postponed, along with seven other games due to the weather. So instead, we lined up against City on a Tuesday night.
Manchester City's History
The match was a repeat of the early top-of the table clash between the two clubs at the City Ground earlier in the season, so I won't repeat my usual overview of the away team's history. Click here for that.But what I have done is put together a few You Tube videos of Manchester City's F. A. Cup history because I missed out on that last time.
There doesn't appear to be any footage of Man City's first F. A. Cup win in 1904 but here's a Pathe report for their second appearance in the final, when they lost to Bolton Wanderers - only the 4th final to be played at Wembley.
Ten years later, Man City won the cup for the second time, when they beat Portsmouth in the final.
22 years later, they beat Birmingham City 3-1.
And their last (of four in 1978) was when they beat Leicester City 1-0 in 1969.
The Duncan McKenzie show, January 1974
Of course, for me, Nottingham Forest playing Manchester City in the F. A. Cup 4th round will always be special because it was in that tie on January 26th 1974 when Forest beat them 4-1 and Duncan McKenzie gave one of the most brilliant performances I've ever seen.I've covered this before too, so click here to read about good old Duncan.
Tell mi mam, mi mam
Forest were getting close to appearing at Wembley not just one way, but two ways. The prospect wasn't lost on some of us in the Trent End who came up with a new version of the old F.A. Cup song to the tune of "que sera sera".
Que sera sera
Whatever will be, will be
We're going to Wembley!
Well, it wasn't difficult song to come up with - after all, at the time we thought we might well be going to Wembley twice, so just add a glass of champers and a Nottingham accent and new variant on the song was born....
Tell me mam, me mam!
To put the champagne on ice
We're going to Wembley Twice!
Tell me mam, me mam
The Teams
Considering the number of competitive games Forest were getting through it's amazing to note that, yet again, Clough/Taylor fielded an unchanged side. Ignoring the League Cup games, where Forest were forced to make changes because they had three first teamers who were cup tied, this was a truly remarkable run.
The big change in the City team, compared to the earlier clash in the league in October was the inclusion of Colin Bell, back from injury a few weeks earlier.
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, John Robertson 1.
Manchester City
1 Joe Corrigan, 2 David Clement, 3 Willie Donnachie, 4 Tommy Booth, 5 Dave Watson, 6 Gary Owen, 7 Peter Barnes, 8 Colin Bell, 9 Brian Kidd, 10 Asa Hartford, 11 Dennis Tueart.Goals : Brian Kidd 1.
Substitutions: Mike Channon(12) came on for Gary Owen (6).
Attendance: 38,509
The Match
My shockingly bad memory alarms me more here than ever before. I definitely went to this game but I have absolutely no memory of it whatsoever. I was even surprised to read that it had been postponed from the Saturday to the Tuesday night.
I can only apologise for this, and a rather poor, truncated blog post.
Anyway, in the interests of completion, I have cobbled together some of the reporting of the match from my trusty source, John Shipley's "1977/78 Champions Nottingham Forest".
Apparently we were "magnificent" and took the lead in the 3rd minute. According to Shipley "... a four-man move set up the chance. Viv Anderson and Kenny Burns played the ball out of defence before finding Tony Woodcock, who brought Peter Withe into the play. Withe hit a defence splitting pass across to John Robertson, who gave the large crowd a repeat of the goal he scored at Bury. Controilling the ball beautifully, Robbo wrong-footed the two defenders that attempted to block his path and then fired a low right-foot shot that passed between them into th net just inside the post, beyond the despairing dive of Joe Corrigan. Another one for the photo album." And here it is...!
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| John Robertson puts Forest 1-0 up in the 3rd minute |
At the start of the second half, City brought on Mike Channon, for Gary Owen but it was Forest who nearly scored. Peter Withe had an open goal at his mercy but somehow ballooned the ball over the bar. You could just imagine Cloughie's reaction to that!
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| Peter Withe misses a "sitter" |
Then O'Neill almost grabbed the second before Shilton saved a low shot from Brian Kidd. Then Peter Withe almost made amends for his miss before finally doing so, just on the hour - a header from a Robbo cross. Withe hadn't scored a league goal in 15 matches, since 22nd October, although he had scored against Swindon in the F.A. Cup 3rd round and at home to Villa in the League Cup 4th since then.
Peter Withe makes it 2-0 in the 59th minute
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| Peter Withe makes it 2-0 in the 59th minute |
Brian Kidd pulled one straight back for City two minutes later but rather than signal a late rally by the Mancunians, it was Forest who piled on the pressure. Withe and Woodcock both hitting the woodwork before the end.
Other 4th Round Ties
The highlight of the round was undoubtedly Blyth Spartans' heroic 3-2 win at the Victoria Ground to knock Stoke City out of the cup, but it was all over for Hartlepool, playing in the 4th round for the only time in their history, going down 4-1 at Portman Road.
Middlesbrough knocked high-flying Everton out 3-2 at Ayresome Park and West Bromwich Albion beat Manchester United after a replay.
Another giant killing was third division Wrexham beating first division strugglers Newcastle United, again after a replay.
Footage of Wrexham beating Newcastle...
And West Brom beating Man Utd.
5th Round Draw
Having beaten the in-form team in the English league, we were hoping for an easier draw in the next round. With Manchester City, Everton and Liverpool all out, that left Arsenal as the next highest placed team in the draw. Of the 16 teams left, only 8 were in the first division, 5 were in the second division, 2 were in the third and one, Blyth Spartans were non-league.
What we didn't want was an away draw to a London side - but that's exactly what happened.
What we didn't want was an away draw to a London side - but that's exactly what happened.
Arsenal v Walsall
Bristol Rovers v Ipswich Town
Derby County v West Bromwich Albion
Middlesbrough v Bolton Wanderers
Millwall v Notts County
Orient v Chelsea
Queen's Park Rangers v Nottingham Forest
Wrexham v Blyth Spartans
Next week, though, it was back to league action with a home tie against Wolves.
The Programme
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