Just as Forest ended their home league programme with a 0-0 draw against Bristol City yesterday, so did the champions of England, forty years ago. Through the unlikeliest of goal-scoring heroes, Frank Clark, Forest had won at Ipswich 2-0 on the Tuesday before and now we were all in celebratory mood for the last home league game of the season against Birmingham City.
It was the day that forest were presented with "The Lady", the elegant, Victorian-designed first division championship trophy in front of another big crowd at the City Ground.
It was heart warming to see that Forest have done the same as me (and far more professionally, of course) by producing a lovely nostalgic video of the day (and the whole season) to the tune of Van MacCoy's "The Hustle" - with clips of the day interspersed with great goals of the season as well as media snippets of topical things going on in 1977-78. Well good on 'em!
The final result, perhaps unsurprisingly, was a bit of an anti-climax, ending 0-0. So, looking for positives, I'll celebrate the clean sheet and the crowd. How many clean sheets did Forest get throughout the season? And how many people came to watch them play at the City Ground?
It was the last full league programme of 1977-78 so I'll review the promotions and relegations around the country too.
Some of the players gathered recently to commemorate the 40th anniversary. Nothing makes you feel older than seeing former sporting heroes that now look like how your dad used to.
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.
Substitutions: Ian Bowyer (12) came on for Tony Woodcock(10).
Birmingham City
1 Jim Montgomery, 2 Jimmy Calderwood, 3 Gary Pendrey, 4 Gary Emmanuel, 5 Joe Gallacher, 6 Kevan Broadhurst, 7 Kevin Dillon, 8 Trevor Francis, 9 Keith Bertschin, 10 Terry Hibbitt, 11 Steve Fox.
As Liverpool showed before, and since, the hallmark of a championship winning side seems to be the clinical 2-0 win and, indeed that was the modal score of Forest's season.
Forest still had three games lined up even after the final full programme of the season - bizarrely, a testimonial match for Brian Clough & Peter Taylor and then two very tough away games. They had to still go to West Bromwich Albion, who had already knocked us out of the cup there, and finally Liverpool - the team we'd replaced as English league champions.
It was the day that forest were presented with "The Lady", the elegant, Victorian-designed first division championship trophy in front of another big crowd at the City Ground.
It was heart warming to see that Forest have done the same as me (and far more professionally, of course) by producing a lovely nostalgic video of the day (and the whole season) to the tune of Van MacCoy's "The Hustle" - with clips of the day interspersed with great goals of the season as well as media snippets of topical things going on in 1977-78. Well good on 'em!
The final result, perhaps unsurprisingly, was a bit of an anti-climax, ending 0-0. So, looking for positives, I'll celebrate the clean sheet and the crowd. How many clean sheets did Forest get throughout the season? And how many people came to watch them play at the City Ground?
It was the last full league programme of 1977-78 so I'll review the promotions and relegations around the country too.
Championship Trophy Presentation
I went in the Trent End again to witness bizarre scenes as a very smartly dressed Clough & Taylor marched out into the center circle followed by the players before being presented with the First Division Trophy itself.
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| The Definitive Image of the 1977-78 Season |
Some of the players gathered recently to commemorate the 40th anniversary. Nothing makes you feel older than seeing former sporting heroes that now look like how your dad used to.
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| Miracle men |
Almost a million
Another big crowd of 37,625 poured across to Trent side to see Forest celebrate the title win. It was our 7th biggest home crowd of the season, and it would put us even closer to that elusive figure of 1,000,000 paying fans for a season. I hadn't noticed before how five of the top seven games ended in draws.
Reaching 1,000,000 fans in a season is not a big deal for clubs like Manchester United, who first did this in 1947-48, and have repeatedly achieved it every season since 1996-97. Any Premier league club that averages more than 52,632 these days will pass 1,000,000 spectators just from their 19 home league games. So, this season, that's Manchester United, Spurs, Arsenal and Manchester City.
But for Forest get to within 34,000 of that milestone (albeit in all competitions and including a testimonial) is pretty impressive, especially when one remembers that the season before they didn't get much above 400,000 and in the season Cloughie came to Nottingham we only just passed 300,000 fans.
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| The League Cup Final crowds (100,000 at Wembley and over 54,000 at Old Trafford) are both plotted on the chart but not included in the cumulative figures. |
This was more than double the aggregate crowd Forest had had in their previous 5 seasons and almost double the one before that.
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| Aggregate City Ground Attendance (League and Cup games only) |
The Teams
John O'Hare made way for John McGovern and Tony Woodcock returned, forcing Ian Bowyer back to the bench, although that switch was reversed at half time as Woodcock had to go off injured.
For Birmingham City Jimmy Calderwood returned after missing one match, replacing Malcom Page. Tony Towers made way for Terry Hibbitt, who returned after a one match lay off.
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.
Substitutions: Ian Bowyer (12) came on for Tony Woodcock(10).
Birmingham City
1 Jim Montgomery, 2 Jimmy Calderwood, 3 Gary Pendrey, 4 Gary Emmanuel, 5 Joe Gallacher, 6 Kevan Broadhurst, 7 Kevin Dillon, 8 Trevor Francis, 9 Keith Bertschin, 10 Terry Hibbitt, 11 Steve Fox.
Attendance: 37,625
The Game
I stood in the Trent End for this match. I do not remember much about it other than the party atmosphere that surrounded the City Ground before the game as the players came out early to be presented with the trophy and then paraded it around the ground.
The match itself was actually far from a dull affair and Birmingham can count themselves unlucky not to have won it. Shilts was on great form again to maintain yet another clean sheet and our growing unbeaten records. Ian Bowyer came on for the injured Tony Woodcock at half time.
Birmingham really pummeled the Forest goal for most of the second half and Forest really had to rely on their goalkeeper for several times. Bowyer, however, almost snatched it at the end.
We were certainly happy to take a 0-0 that day.
The match itself was actually far from a dull affair and Birmingham can count themselves unlucky not to have won it. Shilts was on great form again to maintain yet another clean sheet and our growing unbeaten records. Ian Bowyer came on for the injured Tony Woodcock at half time.
Birmingham really pummeled the Forest goal for most of the second half and Forest really had to rely on their goalkeeper for several times. Bowyer, however, almost snatched it at the end.
We were certainly happy to take a 0-0 that day.
Last Saturday of the League Season
As the title race was over, attention turned to the bottom and the relegation battle. Critically, West Ham United lost their last game of the season at home to Liverpool whilst Wolves suddenly found some form and got a massive win at home to Manchester United.
West Ham's game was the Big Match of the day... watched by a massive crowd of over 37,000. I didn't know Upton Park held that many.
Among Everton's six goals against Chelsea were two more from Bob Latchford, taking his finally tally to 30. Trevor Francis wasn't going to score five at Forest that day.
So, it was almost all over for West Ham. Despite some great recent end of season form, they found themselves needing Wolves to lose their last two games to stay up.
Aston Villa and Liverpool were the teams on form as the season closed.
In the second division, Bolton drew their last game 0-0 at home to Fulham as did Southampton and Tottenham. The game at the Dell had the look of a stitch up as a draw guaranteed both Saints and Tottenham got promotion to the top flight. Brighton beat Blackpool 2-1 in their last game, but it wouldn't be enough if Saints drew with Spurs. Only an 11-0 win or more would have been sufficient.
Mansfield were finally relegated after drawing at home to Orient. Even if the Stags had won it would not have made any difference as Cardiff City won at Sheffield United. Orient were still hoping to avoid the drop though with two games still to play.
All tables below taken from 11v11's very impressive table generator.
As Mansfield were being relegated from their only season in Division Two back to the third tier, coming the other way were Wrexham, promoted to the second division for the first time in their long history - the 2nd oldest club in England & Wales.
Portsmouth were relegated to the fourth division for the first time ever, and Hereford United dropped tiers for the second year running.
In the fourth division Watford were on the rise and won the fourth division title. In five more years they'd be playing Forest in the first division. Talking of teams on the rise, you may notice that in mid table there was a club from London called Wimbledon. In nine years, they'd be playing Forest in the first division too. Another team about to enter the league and rise to the first tier were Wigan Athletic, who would replace Southport at the end of this season.
West Ham's game was the Big Match of the day... watched by a massive crowd of over 37,000. I didn't know Upton Park held that many.
Among Everton's six goals against Chelsea were two more from Bob Latchford, taking his finally tally to 30. Trevor Francis wasn't going to score five at Forest that day.
So, it was almost all over for West Ham. Despite some great recent end of season form, they found themselves needing Wolves to lose their last two games to stay up.
Aston Villa and Liverpool were the teams on form as the season closed.
In the second division, Bolton drew their last game 0-0 at home to Fulham as did Southampton and Tottenham. The game at the Dell had the look of a stitch up as a draw guaranteed both Saints and Tottenham got promotion to the top flight. Brighton beat Blackpool 2-1 in their last game, but it wouldn't be enough if Saints drew with Spurs. Only an 11-0 win or more would have been sufficient.
Mansfield were finally relegated after drawing at home to Orient. Even if the Stags had won it would not have made any difference as Cardiff City won at Sheffield United. Orient were still hoping to avoid the drop though with two games still to play.
All tables below taken from 11v11's very impressive table generator.
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| Spurs back in Division One on goal difference. Mansfield relegated with Hull City. |
Portsmouth were relegated to the fourth division for the first time ever, and Hereford United dropped tiers for the second year running.
Clean Sheets and Score Profile
So, as Forest's game yesterday ended 0-0 as did the final match 40 years ago, here's a quick look at Forest's amazing defensive record when they won the league - the best ever, remember, at that time, in terms of goals conceded per game.
Over half of Forest's games home or away in all competitions ended in a clean sheet. If it wasn't due to a brilliant defensive performance by Kenny Burns & co, there was always Peter Shilton (or Chris Woods in the League Cup) there to frustrate any would be goal scorer.
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| Forest kept a clean sheet in 54% of their games |
As Liverpool showed before, and since, the hallmark of a championship winning side seems to be the clinical 2-0 win and, indeed that was the modal score of Forest's season.
Forest's unbeaten home record continued to stretch onward. It was now at 31.
Forest still had three games lined up even after the final full programme of the season - bizarrely, a testimonial match for Brian Clough & Peter Taylor and then two very tough away games. They had to still go to West Bromwich Albion, who had already knocked us out of the cup there, and finally Liverpool - the team we'd replaced as English league champions.
The Programme
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