So this is it. The last blog for the last game of a fantastic season 40 years ago. It's been a labour of love writing these posts and I've learned a lot myself from doing so. Often it's resulted in embarrassment realising that I didn't know something, even though I was there, week after week. The latest example of that was just two days ago when I discovered Robbo had played in 239 consecutive games. How did I not know that? I had intended to write a piece about John anyway and was thinking of focusing on his contribution to our goals scored in terms of assists as I had a hunch it would be pretty spectacular. Turns out, over 50% of Forest's 104 goals that season were either scored or, to a significant extent, made by Robbo. I knew he'd had a long run of consecutive matches, like I'd reported for Tony Woodcock for the Villa away game, but I just didn't realise how long. I had it in my mind that Robbo, like Tony Woodcock and the others, must have had the occasional injury and so his run was about to come to an end... but no.
I feel like a fool for not knowing about Robbo's run. But now I do know that, I feel like I understand the whole phenomenon of Forest's success much better. John Robertson's contribution to Forest's success was immense. Much bigger than I had realised, even though I watched most (72% to be exact) of it right in front of my eyes. Clearly the whole thing couldn't have happened without Cloughie and Taylor. They saw his talent and managed to nurture it, but it was Robbo that actually did it. He created and/or scored the goals week in week out at the very highest level of the game. Once he lost his edge, so did Forest. That was no coincidence.
Anyway, amazingly, just two days after Robbo got our last goal of the season, we had to line up again at the ground of the team who most wanted to beat us. The team we'd knocked off the English championship perch and the team we'd snatched the first silverware of the season from, the League Cup, it has to be said, in somewhat controversial circumstances.
I am ashamed that I didn't go to this match. I can't explain why. It might just have been fear. Liverpool has a reputation for being a scary place to visit and after my experience at West Ham I was rather apprehensive about repeating anything like that.
So, for this last entry of the season I just want to remind anyone who reads it how dominant Liverpool were as Forest returned to the first division and so how remarkable it was for Forest's bunch of 16 players to have eclipsed them so soon, from nowhere. A large section of these players, remember, had been at home in mid-table mediocrity when Clough had arrived just three and a bit years ago.
Incredible. As the Forest video so beautifully put it (see the Birmingham City post) ...
If we stretch the margin back further, to the last ten years, Liverpool still dominate, but the margin isn't quite so dramatic - mainly because Don Revie's Leeds United were as dominant themselves before Liverpool were.
In fact, stretching it right back to the beginning of football league history, Liverpool had, by now, established themselves as overall top dogs - having won two more league titles than the next highest, Arsenal.
Larry Lloyd played a blinder apparently and he even scored - although it was disallowed because the referee judged he'd impeded Ray Clemence. John McGovern volleyed close to the Liverpool post but apart from that most of the play was towards the Forest goal.
The final whistle went and Forest, at last, could relax and celebrate a brilliant season.
The other tables were as follows...
I have the full set...
Anyway, the bottom line at the end of this season was that despite Liverpool's dominance of the English football scene for years. They'd now met their match, at least for a while. Forest had played them four times this season and we'd not lost.
We drew at home with the at the City Ground on Boxing Day.
We held on to get a second chance against them at Wembley in the League Cup Final with three first team regulars cup tied and 18 year old Chris Woods in goal.
We'd managed to beat them 1-0 in the replay at Old Trafford with the same, depleted, side.
And now, despite all the emotional effort for Liverpool to beat us in their own back yard and without player of the season Kenny Burns in the heart of our defence, we still managed to keep a clean sheet against Kenny Dalglish & co.
We had truly matched 'em.
This season, Liverpool had a relatively barren season in England in terms of silverware - knocked out of the F.A. Cup at the first hurdle, beaten in the League Cup final by some unknown team from the Midlands and pushed into second place in the league, by seven clear points, by the same team. But they managed to retain the European Cup, surely the most illustrious club prize of all.
Six days after the 0-0 draw with Forest, Liverpool headed south to Wembley Stadium where this years final was due to be played. Lined up against them was the Belgian champions, FC Bruges.
Liverpool won 1-0 with a 65th minute goal from, you've guessed it, Kenny Dalglish.
Congratulations to Liverpool on winning back to back European titles. That is an impressive achievement which put them alongside the most iconic European clubs - Real Madrid, Benfica, Inter Milan, Ajax Amsterdam and Bayern Munich, who had done it before.
Forest were set to compete with this lot:
As Cloughie might have said, watching Liverpool retain the European Cup, "we'll 'have some of that, thank you!"
Could Forest match Liverpool on the European stage too?
You know the answer but I'll cover that in my next blog in a few months but I need to stop doing this for a while now.
Thanks to anyone who has read this far. As I am about to post this last blog it's great to see that I've had over 78,000 views on 59 blog posts, averaging 1,325 per post. Thanks, especially to Andy Smales, my Boro-fan mate from Nottingham University for encouraging me to write more when I would have given up and for contributing two great passages for both the games Forest played against Boro.
If you like this stuff please share it with your football friends and please post comments or write to me if you spot any mistakes.
I feel like a fool for not knowing about Robbo's run. But now I do know that, I feel like I understand the whole phenomenon of Forest's success much better. John Robertson's contribution to Forest's success was immense. Much bigger than I had realised, even though I watched most (72% to be exact) of it right in front of my eyes. Clearly the whole thing couldn't have happened without Cloughie and Taylor. They saw his talent and managed to nurture it, but it was Robbo that actually did it. He created and/or scored the goals week in week out at the very highest level of the game. Once he lost his edge, so did Forest. That was no coincidence.
Anyway, amazingly, just two days after Robbo got our last goal of the season, we had to line up again at the ground of the team who most wanted to beat us. The team we'd knocked off the English championship perch and the team we'd snatched the first silverware of the season from, the League Cup, it has to be said, in somewhat controversial circumstances.
So, for this last entry of the season I just want to remind anyone who reads it how dominant Liverpool were as Forest returned to the first division and so how remarkable it was for Forest's bunch of 16 players to have eclipsed them so soon, from nowhere. A large section of these players, remember, had been at home in mid-table mediocrity when Clough had arrived just three and a bit years ago.
Incredible. As the Forest video so beautifully put it (see the Birmingham City post) ...
"The Miracle had Begun."
Liverpool Dominant in times B.C.
To say that Liverpool were dominating English football 40 years ago would be an understatement. As much as I hate the current Premier League (or, as it should be called - "The Greediership") even I have to concede that the question "who is most likely to win the league next season?" has more uncertainty about it even today than in the late 1970s and early 80s. The answer then was almost always "Liverpool".
But the point I would make is that their dominance wasn't due to some rich guy piling in more cash than other clubs' rich guys. It was actually down to very good management, sustained over many years, to produce a true culture of success at the club.
Here's a snapshot of the last three seasons of the first division before Forest's return. Look at the gap at the top. Liverpool had secured 19 points more than second place Ipswich. It's the biggest gap in the whole table and this was in the days of two points for a win.
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| First Division Record Three Years B.C. (@F) |
In fact, stretching it right back to the beginning of football league history, Liverpool had, by now, established themselves as overall top dogs - having won two more league titles than the next highest, Arsenal.
 |
| Liverpool, English League Champions more than anyone else in 1978 |
Forest, the new kids on the Block
So, how it must have surprised and irked them, when plucky little Nottingham Forest arrived on the scene and then totally dominated the league - if only for one season (or two or three).
The Teams
Bizarrely, Kenny Burns was given the day off, as he had to go to London to collect the Player of the Year Award. This meant Forest had to re-shuffle their back four as David Needham was injured and not available. I suppose Colin Barrett must have slotted in next to Larry Lloyd and Frank Clark took the left back slot, but anyway, somehow they managed.
Liverpool were unchanged for the third time in a row.
Liverpool were unchanged for the third time in a row.
Liverpool
1 Ray Clemence, 2 Phil Neal, 3 Alan Hansen, 4 Phil Thompson, 5 Ray Kennedy, 6 Emlyn Hughes, 7 Kenny Dalglish, 8 Jimmy Case, 9 David Fairclough, 10 Terry McDermott, 11 Graeme Souness.
Nottingham Forest
1 Peter Shilton, 2 Viv Anderson, 3 Colin Barrett, 4 John McGovern, 5 Larry Lloyd, 6 Frank Clark, 7 Martin O'Neill, 8 Archie Gemmill, 9 Peter Withe, 10 Ian Bowyer, 11 John Robertson.
Attendance: 50,021
The Game
There was a big crowd at Anfield that night, for obvious reasons. The fourth biggest attendance for a league game at Anfield to be precise.
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| Anfield League Attendances 1977-78 |
John Shipley (thanks again) describes the match as one where Forest practiced their tactics for Europe next season, keeping a clean sheet against a barrage of attacking play.
It seemed to work and despite Liverpool's obvious desire to put one over on us, they couldn't do so, even though the Player of the Year, Kenny Burns, was absent collecting his Player of the Year. If ever Liverpool managed to pierce through our defensive shield there was that man, Peter Shilton waiting, with quite a bit to prove himself at the home of Ray Clemence.
It seemed to work and despite Liverpool's obvious desire to put one over on us, they couldn't do so, even though the Player of the Year, Kenny Burns, was absent collecting his Player of the Year. If ever Liverpool managed to pierce through our defensive shield there was that man, Peter Shilton waiting, with quite a bit to prove himself at the home of Ray Clemence.
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| Ray Kennedy gets close attention from Viv Anderson |
Larry Lloyd played a blinder apparently and he even scored - although it was disallowed because the referee judged he'd impeded Ray Clemence. John McGovern volleyed close to the Liverpool post but apart from that most of the play was towards the Forest goal.
The final whistle went and Forest, at last, could relax and celebrate a brilliant season.
The Final Tables
What an amazing final league table this is.
Forest finished seven points clear in the end. Liverpool had secured the same number of points as had won the the league the season before. Clearly, they had to up their game now Forest were around. The season before that, Liverpool had won the league too and secured 60 points - so this was a major statement from Forest.
No change at the top of the scorer's chart. Kenny Dalglish finished 3rd.
It's amazing, from today's perspective, to see that Forest had the 7th highest home average attendance in the top division.
And that as a crowd puller, we were second only to Liverpool - when you look at the average away attendances.
Forest ended the season in 4th place in the current form (last 3 home/away) table. They never dropped below 6th for the entire season, demonstrating remarkably consistent form throughout. The hallmark of champions. Liverpool had had one spell when their form was in the relegation zone.
The other tables were as follows...
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| Spurs back (just) and Stags relegated back after just one year in Div Two |
 |
| Wrexham up to Division Two and Pompey down to Division Four, both for the first time |
 |
| Watford on the rise and Southport would make way for Wigan Athletic (thanks to Patrick Smith for that correction) |
Tribute to the Forest Squad
So, hats off to our brilliant squad of 16 players who won us the league. I gave more attention to Robbo last time, Burnsy a few weeks earlier, Shilton on his debut and Tony Woodcock after the Villa game. I'll cover the others, individually at some point next season but here they all are - all 17 of them - in order of league appearances.
U Reds!
U Reds!
And, while we're on topic of playing squads, let's compare it to Liverpool's.
It's interesting to note that although the overall cost of the Liverpool squad is more than twice as much as ours, they still had 158 "free" appearances in the form of Case, Heighway, Thompson, Fairclough, Callaghan, Smith and Lee. This proves it was not all about money 40 years ago.
Forest bettered them in this regard having 170 from Robbo, O'Neill, Anderson, Woodcock, Clark and Middleton.
How many of Manchester City's title winning squad came through their youth scheme? Zero.
Forest bettered them in this regard having 170 from Robbo, O'Neill, Anderson, Woodcock, Clark and Middleton.
How many of Manchester City's title winning squad came through their youth scheme? Zero.
The average age of Liverpool's squad was slightly lower than our's. But it was three bigger. They, consequently, had a greater spread of appearances in the league than we did, averaging 25.6 appearances per player compared to our 28.9.
All of these stats, of course, gleamed from good old Rothman's Football Yearbook.
I have the full set...
Anyway, the bottom line at the end of this season was that despite Liverpool's dominance of the English football scene for years. They'd now met their match, at least for a while. Forest had played them four times this season and we'd not lost.
We drew at home with the at the City Ground on Boxing Day.
We held on to get a second chance against them at Wembley in the League Cup Final with three first team regulars cup tied and 18 year old Chris Woods in goal.
We'd managed to beat them 1-0 in the replay at Old Trafford with the same, depleted, side.
And now, despite all the emotional effort for Liverpool to beat us in their own back yard and without player of the season Kenny Burns in the heart of our defence, we still managed to keep a clean sheet against Kenny Dalglish & co.
Liverpool - European Champions
In England, we'd matched them but Liverpool, of course, weren't just the previous English Champions two successive seasons before Forest. They were also the European Champions and about to retain the trophy.
They first won the European Cup in 1977 after beating the German champions Borussia Moenchengladbach 3-1 in Rome.
Here are the highlights of that match...
This season, Liverpool had a relatively barren season in England in terms of silverware - knocked out of the F.A. Cup at the first hurdle, beaten in the League Cup final by some unknown team from the Midlands and pushed into second place in the league, by seven clear points, by the same team. But they managed to retain the European Cup, surely the most illustrious club prize of all.
Six days after the 0-0 draw with Forest, Liverpool headed south to Wembley Stadium where this years final was due to be played. Lined up against them was the Belgian champions, FC Bruges.
Liverpool won 1-0 with a 65th minute goal from, you've guessed it, Kenny Dalglish.
Congratulations to Liverpool on winning back to back European titles. That is an impressive achievement which put them alongside the most iconic European clubs - Real Madrid, Benfica, Inter Milan, Ajax Amsterdam and Bayern Munich, who had done it before.
Forest and Liverpool in Europe
The amazing thing now was that Nottingham Forest were about to step onto this same stage. Look at the list of 23 European Cup winners in the seasons so far. Forest were about to compete with the best in Europe including, thanks to their retention of the trophy, Liverpool.
Forest were set to compete with this lot:
Could Forest match Liverpool on the European stage too?
You know the answer but I'll cover that in my next blog in a few months but I need to stop doing this for a while now.
Thanks to anyone who has read this far. As I am about to post this last blog it's great to see that I've had over 78,000 views on 59 blog posts, averaging 1,325 per post. Thanks, especially to Andy Smales, my Boro-fan mate from Nottingham University for encouraging me to write more when I would have given up and for contributing two great passages for both the games Forest played against Boro.
If you like this stuff please share it with your football friends and please post comments or write to me if you spot any mistakes.
So, for the last time this season... The Programme
As a European Cup commemorative issue, the Anfield Review for their last league match of the season, was very impressive. In fact I can't remember another match day programme that went to 52 pages. The programme writers were very magnanimous to Forest about their league win (if not their League Cup success!).
Nostalgic Forest fan.... Over.... and out!
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