40 Years ago, there was a famous escape from East Berlin. It's hard to imagine today, but at the time a big chunk of Germany, including almost half of its capital Berlin, was effectively occupied by the Soviet Union. The contrived puppet state was called the Deutsche Demokratische Repiblik (DDR). Yes, that's right, it must have been a piss take - the German Democratic Republic. It was so democratic they needed to build a wall around it to keep their citizens in. In fact the whole border between East and West Germany was strictly locked down from the tip of Czechoslovakia all the way to the Baltic Sea. Most of it wasn't a wall, exactly, but it was still fenced off and basically hermetically sealed. Just in case anyone tried, it was patrolled by armed militia who had orders to shoot anyone that tried to cross. Bizarrely, deep inside the DDR, towards the eastern border with Poland, there was an island of true democracy and freedom, a relic from the end of the war in the form of a massive slice of the former capital that was then called "West Berlin". It had prospered since the war like most places in the west, but it was surrounded on all sides by drab socialism and millions of oppressed people who all knew how good life could be if only they could cross that wall and live in freedom.
The Berlin wall didn't really just divide the eastern part of the city from the west, of course, it surrounded the whole of the western part like an inverse prison. It was there specifically to prevent East Germans escaping to the West but, and now the subject turns from the serious to the frivolous, in March 1980, it provided a nearby backdrop to a completely different, far less serious, form of escape - Forest's seemingly unlikely 3-1 victory against Dynamo Berlin to reach the European Cup Semi Finals.
So, in this blog I'll cover how Forest lost the initiative at home to the East Germans, but brilliantly regained it on the other side of the wall. I'll do a quick history on Dynamo Berlin and East German football generally, and take a look at what happened there after the wall came down.
Oh... and there was a Wembley appearance too. Nestled in between the two legs of the European Cup Quarter Final, Forest made their third successive appearance in the League Cup Final. This time, they faced a resurgent Wolverhampton Wanderers and this time, they lost.
I'll do a brief one on David Needham, another unsung Forest miracle man and cover a few other games I went to, including some great home wins with Trevor Francis in sparkling form, as well as a bizarre end to the month where I went to my 60th English league ground to watch Scunthorpe United play Wigan Athletic in the Fourth Division to witness the home debut of a certain Ian Botham - the footballer.
... And, as always, passing under the radar both then and now was John Robertson. He made his 200th consecutive appearance for Forest. I've said it many times and I'll keep saying it - Robbo was perhaps the most underestimated of all of Forest's heroes in the glory years. Clough and Taylor discovered him but they surely did not realise how indispensable the little man was. Without Robbo, would Forest have won anything? How on earth did he play so many consecutive games at the very highest level of the game, at a time of sludge pitches and "bites yer legs" defenders with so little fanfare? Amazing!
Previously... Burns denies Barclena's bonuses (February 1980).
Saturday, 1st March - Bolton Wanderers 1 Nottingham Forest 0
The month began with a seemingly straightforward away game at bottom of the table Bolton Wanderers. Forest were not on great form, but Bolton were bottom of that too. Surely, a team brimming with such talents as Trevor Francis, John Robertson, Stan Bowles, Garry Birtles and Martin O'Neill would prevail.
Alas, no. Another away defeat for Forest frustrated their attempts to rise up the table. This was Forest's 9th league defeat in their last eleven away games. An astonishingly bad run.
I have not been able to find any video action or even so much as newspaper report about the game which is just as well as it seems it was a very forgettable match.
Needless to say, I didn't go - in fact I missed all the games that day. I can't image what I did instead.
Bolton Wanderers
1 Jim McDonagh, 2 David Clement, 3 David Burke, 4 Peter Nicholson, 5 Paul Jones, 6 Mike Walsh, 7 Tadeusz Nowak, 8 Neil Whatmore, 9 Chris Thompson, 10 Peter Reid, 11 Mike Graham, 12 Mike Carter.
Goal: Neil Whatmore 1
Sub Mike Carter (12) for David Burke(3).
Nottingham Forest
1 Peter Shilton, 2 Bryn Gunn, 3 Frank Gray, 4 John McGovern, 5 Larry Lloyd, 6 Kenny Burns, 7 Martin O'Neill, 8 Stan Bowles, 9 Garry Birtles, 10 Trevor Francis, 11 John Robertson.
Elsewhere that day, Ipswich had one of their most famous victories of the 1980s, beating Manchester United 6-0 at Portman Road. Liverpool took full advantage, winning the Merseyside derby at Goodison 2-1 to move four points clear with a game in hand. The other form team, Arsenal, won 3-2 at the Victoria Ground. Despite Bolton's win, they stayed rooted at the foot of the table, with Everton now slipping close to the relegation zone.
Here's half an hour of that remarkable Ipswich thrashing of Manchester United...
Ipswich, Liverpool and Arsenal were the teams in form. Forest now back to mid table.
As thoughts turned back to the European Cup, news came in the Forest's opponents Dynamo Berlin had won 9-1 in their league game.
On the Monday night, Brighton and Villa drew 1-1.
So, it was back to European football for us and, on the following Wednesday another trip down the City Ground for a dramatic evening of cup football.
At the time, I didn't really focus much on Forest's opposition, so here's a little bit on them to make up for that ignorance, all those years ago.
Dynamo Berlin history
In the blog post about Forest's previous opponents in the European Cup, Arges Pitešti, I described what must be the most corrupt story ever in football history - when Romania's tyrannical leader, Nicolae Ceaușescu got his men to transform a tiny "nothing" club in his home village of just 6,000 inhabitants into a Romanian football superpower. FC Olt Scornicești got the best players, had a never ending series of favourable refereeing decisions, and a 20,000 stadium built for them as they magically rose up the Romanian football ladder. In the 1981-82 they finished 4th in the top division and players such as Dan Petrescu (later of Chelsea) graced their team. It all went pear shaped after the revolution though, of course. |
| Erich Mielke - Executioner and head of Dynamo Berlin |
The Stasi was a truly loathsome organisation whose "profession" was learning as many secrets about the population at large as possible in order to keep them from dissenting from the Communist dictates that originated in the Kremlin but were dressed up to look local. It's worth noting that another Stasi guy, who actually worked under Mielke for last four and a half years is someone we all know only too well.
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| KGB man Putin's Stasi Photo ID |
But anyway, I digress. Mielke basically relocated an already successful team - the imaginatively named "Dynamo" Dresden - and brought all their best players to Berlin.
All of this was going on as Germany, crushed from both sides after the war, tried to rebuild itself.
The DDR-Oberliga (The East German Football League) was started in the 1949-50 season. 14 teams took part, none of them carrying the name Berlin or "Dynamo" in the early days.
In the blog post for the titanic semi-final battle Forest had with 1 FC Koln, I covered the fascinating history of German football generally and how, pre-war there was never an all-German League but 16 regional leagues. Under Nazi rule after the "anschluss", when Austria was occupied by Hitler's forces, another region was added.
So, the DDR-Oberliga was actually the first "national" German league as the West German equivalent, the Bundesliga didn't start until 1963-4.
The first Berlin club to participate in the Oberliga was Vorwärts Berlin (conveniently reallocated from Leipzig) but they were relegated straight away. Another attempt was made to have a strong East Berlin side when SC Dynamo Berlin was ordered to be transformed from Dynamo Dresden by Mielke, as described earlier.
This was the last season for a few years, that the Oberliga played the standard European Autumn-to-Spring season. In order to fit in better with their Kremlin masters it seems, it was decided to start playing over the summer with Calendar based season, as they did in the USSR. So, bizarrely, the next "season" was just played in the autumn, with clubs only playing each other once, rather than home and away. This is referred to as the "1955 season" and Dynamo Berlin, for what it's worth, finished 3rd.
Vorwärts Berlin, now back in the top flight, became the "top dogs" clinching the title in 1958. Dynamo got relegated in 1956 but by 1960 the two top East German teams were both from East Berlin.
It's strange to think that at this time in history there was no Berlin wall and thousands of people (often in the so-called "brain drain") had been finding ways to leave East Germany and relocate in the West.
On Saturday, 12th August 1961 though, that all changed and the DDR leaders closed the border and gave the order to erect the infamous Berlin wall that would divide the city for the next 28 years or so.
Here's some CIA aerial footage of the wall just a few days later.
It's hard to imagine that whilst all this was going on, a normal football season was taking place in East Germany. I say "normal" but even this isn't right as the authorities had decided to switch back to an Autumn-Spring season again, so there were actually three matches played between each club from early in 1961 until Spring the following year.
East German football was re-organised in the mid 1960s. (Well, you have to step in, sometimes, right?) Basically, the idea seems to have been to create an elite of ten or so so-called "focus" clubs who were going to get the best young players and nurture them to the elite East German team.
The only surprising thing is how long it took. At the end of the 1977-78 season, when Forest took the English First Division by storm, BFC Dynamo had still not one a single DDR-Oberliga title. That's zero titles in 31 seasons of the East German League.
But finally, the Stasi and Mielke got their way and Berliner FC Dynamo finally reached the pinnacle of German "Democratic" Football, winning the Oberliga just "last" season - the season before the one I'm covering here.
It's interesting to speculate why it took so long and a favourite theory has to be simply because the Stasi were so hated and everyone knew that they were Erich Mielke's club. There's plenty to read about all that on the interweb if you look.
So, this was Berliner FC Dynamo's first appearance in the European Cup. On their way to the quarter finals, they had beaten Polish champions Ruch Chorzow (4-1 on aggregate) and Swiss title winners Servette Geneva (4-3).
But let's be honest, nobody gave them a prayer against Forest that night. Football's a funny game though. We were supposed to have beaten bottom of the table Bolton, too, weren't we?
Match 386: Wednesday, 5th March 1980, European Cup Quarter Final (1st Leg).
Nottingham Forest 0 Berliner Fussball Club Dynamo 1 (City Ground 191, Nottingham Forest 273 Dynamo Berlin 1) Attendance 27,946.
I trundled over Trent Bridge, along with almost 28,000 others, to watch my ninth European Cup match. Sadly, I have no memory of the game at all.
There was no change in the team, despite their disappointing defeat at Burnden Park. Anderson was still injured and therefore Bryn Gunn stepped into his No 2 shirt. I really need to "do one" on Bryn as he make 131 league appearances for the club over an eleven year spell. Perhaps for the final one, in May.
Nottingham Forest
1 Peter Shilton, 2 Bryn Gunn, 3 Frank Gray, 4 John McGovern, 5 Larry Lloyd, 6 Kenny Burns, 7 Martin O'Neill, 8 Stan Bowles, 9 Garry Birtles, 10 Trevor Francis, 11 John Robertson.
Dynamo Berlin
1 Bodo Rudwaleit, 2 Michael Noack, 3 Norbert Trieloff, 4 Rainer Troppa, 5 Reinhard Lauck, 6 Ralf Strasser, 7 Frank Terletzki, 8 Artur Ullrich, 9 Hans-Jurgen Reidiger, 10 Harmut Pelka, 11 Wolf-Rudiger Netz.
Goals : Hans-Jurgen Reidiger 1.
Substitutions: Bernd Schulz(14) came on for Harmut Pela (10) and Bernd Brillat (12) came on for Wolf-Rudiger Netz (11).
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| Reidiger - goal poacher |
As was customary, the away team played in their usual "home" strip so Forest switched to all yellow that night.
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| Reidiger gets the vital goal after the hour |
This was the moment that Clough shaking his head. The chance was brilliantly carved out of nothing but then Francis skied the ball over the bar. Ruing the missed chance on camera later he'd say "That's why we pay you, Trevor."
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| Congratulated after the game |
Here are the match highlights with some fascinating footage at the end with Brian Clough being interviewed by Gary Newbon.
In the other quarter final ties, Ajax gained the upper hand against the French champions, Strasbourg and Celtic seemed to have done enough to give them an advantage against the mighty, mighty Real Madrid. Kevin Keegan's Hamburg had edged into a 1-0 lead over Jugoslav champions Hajduk Split.
Here are the highlights of the other quarter finals...
Strasbourg v Ajax...
Celtic 2 Real Madrid 0
Hamburg 1 Hajduk Split 0
Saturday, 8th March - F A Cup 6th Round
The following Saturday it was F.A. Cup quarter final day. Forest, had been knocked out by Liverpool at home in the 4th round and so, as usual, had to sit and watch from the sides as the tournament got to the pointy end.Liverpool won impressively again, this time at White Hart Lane, whilst the other in-form teams Arsenal and Ipswich had mixed days. Arsenal edged past second division Watford but Ipswich lost at Everton. West Ham made up the fourth semi-finalists with a win over Aston Villa.
Here are the highlights of three of the ties...
Everton v Ipswich...
24 minutes of highlights of Spurs v Liverpool, introduced by Jimmy Hill on Match of the Day with commentary by John Motson...
And here's Brian Moore, introducing West Ham United v Aston Villa.
Meanwhile, back in the league, nothing of any great bearing on the table happened.
I missed out on a match again that day. It wasn't very often, in those days, that I missed out on two consecutive Saturdays of a full football program. I wonder what was going on.
Match 387: Tuesday, 11th March 1980, Division One.
Nottingham Forest 4 Tottenham Hotspur 0 (City Ground 192, Nottingham Forest 274 Tottenham Hotspur 7) Attendance 25,633.
Next Tuesday, I was back at the City Ground for a much welcomed return to form by the Reds as they brushed Spurs aside 4-0 with two goals apiece from Kenny Burns and Trevor Francis.
Viv Anderson returned to the Forest side.
Nottingham Forest
1 Peter Shilton, 2 Viv Anderson, 3 Frank Gray, 4 John McGovern, 5 Larry Lloyd, 6 Kenny Burns, 7 Trevor Francis, 8 Stan Bowles, 9 Garry Birtles, 10 Martin O'Neill, 11 John Robertson.
Goals: Kenny Burns 2, Trevor Francis 2.
Substitutions: Ian Bowyer (12) came on for Stan Bowles(8).
Tottenham Hotspur
1 Barry Daines, 2 Chris Hughton, 3 Paul Miller, 4 Terry Yorath, 5 Don McAllister, 6 Steve Perryman, 7 Osvaldo Ardiles, 8 Chris Jones, 9 Gerry Armstrong, 10 Glen Hoddle, 11 Peter Taylor, 12 Terry Naylor. for Terry Yorath (4).
This was the equal joint worst defeat for Spurs all season. (They also lost 4-0 at Norwich.) |
| Kenny Burns makes it 1-0 |
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| Burns again - 2-0 |
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| Trevor Francis makes it 3 |
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| Francis scores his second to compliment a great pass from Martin O'Neill and round off a fine 4-0 win |
Match report...
Wolves beat Villa on the Monday night and Liverpool continued their excellent form beating Manchester City 2-0 at Anfield to stretch their lead to six points at the top of the table. Both Arsenal and Ipswich dropped points so Forest moved up to 6th place, four behind Ipswich, in 3rd, with a game in hand.
Man City now had the worst form in the first division as they slid close to the relegation zone like Everton.
Everton did get a creditable point at Old Trafford on the following night though.
I didn't miss the match the following Saturday.
Even though it was getting a bit routine for Forest fans in those days, our fourth Wembley appearance in three years could not be missed, of course.
Another coach trip down the M1, getting "beered up" for the match - probably as the Forest players were. Another blurry day. At least with cup finals, you have the video record to look back on.
Match 388: Saturday, 15th March 1980, League Cup Final.
Nottingham Forest 0 Wolverhampton Wanderers 1 (Wembley 6, Nottingham Forest 275 Wolves 9) Attendance 96,527.
The suspended Larry Lloyd made way for David Needham and Martin O'Neill and Trevor Francis swapped shirts from the Spurs game.
Jimmy Gordon led the Forest team out that day.
Clough & Taylor just went to their seats...
It wasn't a very memorable game but Wolves' goal, which I thought I'd remembered was scored in our end (opposite the tunnel), was a rare Shilton cock up when he collided into David Needham letting the ball luckily bounce straight into the path of Andy Gray who couldn't believe his luck. Wolves hung on to win their first silverware (another League Cup win) since 1974.
I say I thought I'd remembered... of course, watching the video clip put me straight on that one. How frustrating this memory thing is. I've a trace of a memory of that goal in my mind - but it was wrong for forty years. How depressing.
Here, for their 3rd consecutive Wembley final, are the teams - three ways!
Nottingham Forest
1 Peter Shilton, 2 Viv Anderson, 3 Frank Gray, 4 John McGovern, 5 David Needham, 6 Kenny Burns, 7 Martin O'Neill, 8 Ian Bowyer, 9 Garry Birtles, 10 Trevor Francis, 11 John Robertson.
Wolverhampton Wanderers
1 Paul Bradshaw, 2 Geoff Palmer, 3 Derek Parkin, 4 Peter Daniel, 5 Emlyn Hughes, 6 George Berry, 7 Ken Hibbitt, 8 Willie Carr, 9 Andy Gray, 10 John Richards, 11 Melvyn Eves.
It was 0-0 at half time...
Half way through the second half... the crucial moment of the match. Shilton bundles into needham, the ball kindly drops for Andy Gray... 1-0!
It was 0-0 at half time...
Half way through the second half... the crucial moment of the match. Shilton bundles into needham, the ball kindly drops for Andy Gray... 1-0!
Here's the first half...
Here's the second half...
Emlyn "Crazy Horse" Hughes with the Cup.
Oh well. You can't win 'em all.
Meanwhile back in the league, Liverpool got another impressive win, 3-1 at Ashton Gate, whilst Manchester United dropped another point at Brighton. Liverpool now had a lead of six points with a game in hand. Surely the title was returning to Anfield.
At the bottom, Bolton lost at home to Derby leaving them ten points from safety with just eleven games to go.
So, after a big disappointment at Wembley on Saturday Forest had to raise their spirits for the very tough second leg behind the Berlin Wall. Already 1-0 down from the first leg, things were looking grim.
As David Lacey, Guardian football writer, had put it "... if they could not score against Wolverhampton's rickety barricades at Wembley they are unlikely to do so on Wednesday against Dynamo's more thoroughly constructed fortifications. Moreover Burns is suspended and misses the Berlin game: an unhappy state of affairs for Forest, hardly alleviated by the news that the East German champions won 10-0 on Saturday."
19th March European Cup Quarter Finals (2nd Leg)
Dynamo Berlin 1 Nottingham Forest 3
Obviously, I didn't go. Even if I had the time and money, I don't think my dad would have allowed me to go behind the iron curtain at that time, so fearful of the communists was he.
The Forest team flew directly to East Berlin's Schoenefeld Airport and were greeted by the sight of Russian aircraft, twenty field guns lined up with 150 soldiers milling about.
They all had to go through a pretty scary and rigorous security check. It was, apparently worst for Robbo as he was carrying a novel to read on the plane with a big red swastika on the cover. "Verboten" and confiscated. They were taken by bus, with their "bodyguard" to the Stadt Berlin Hotel - reserved for VIPs. In East Berlin zey haf meny hotels!
The next morning they were taken to the ground to get a little familiar with it and a bit of light training.
Then, it was back to the hotel for some lunch but on the way they persuaded their minder to stop the bus at the Brandenburg Gate to do a bit of site seeing for the East side.
After their dinner (and a few drinks) it was off to the match...
The Forest team flew directly to East Berlin's Schoenefeld Airport and were greeted by the sight of Russian aircraft, twenty field guns lined up with 150 soldiers milling about.
They all had to go through a pretty scary and rigorous security check. It was, apparently worst for Robbo as he was carrying a novel to read on the plane with a big red swastika on the cover. "Verboten" and confiscated. They were taken by bus, with their "bodyguard" to the Stadt Berlin Hotel - reserved for VIPs. In East Berlin zey haf meny hotels!
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| Forest players stayed on the 31st floor - along with their "bodyguard" |
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| Forest players after a bit of training at the Ground |
Then, it was back to the hotel for some lunch but on the way they persuaded their minder to stop the bus at the Brandenburg Gate to do a bit of site seeing for the East side.
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| Needham, Bowyer, O'Hare, Bowled and Ken Smales near the Brandenburg Gate |
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| Smales, Taylor, Clough with two translators. |
After their dinner (and a few drinks) it was off to the match...
The Dynamo ground, the Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Sportpark was very close to the Berlin Wall in the north of the city, just nestled inside the aptly named "Mauerpark."
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| Friedrich Ludwig Jahn Sportpark - was close to the Berlin Wall |
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| Open Ended Ground |
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| Just behind the popular side was the Berlin Wall |
Larry Lloyd returned to the side in place of the suspended Kenny Burns but Forest were otherwise unchanged.
Dynamo Berlin
1 Bodo Rudwaleit, 2 Michael Noack, 3 Norbert Trieloff, 4 Ralf Strasser, 5 Bernd Brillat, 6 Rainer Troppa, 7 Frank Terletzki, 8 Artur Ullrich, 9 Hans-Jurgen Reidiger, 10 Harmut Pelka, 11 Wolf-Rudiger Netz.
Goals: Frank Terletzki 1 (pen.).
Nottingham Forest
1 Peter Shilton, 2 Viv Anderson, 3 Frank Gray, 4 John McGovern, 5 Larry Lloyd, 6 David Needham, 7 Martin O'Neill, 8 Ian Bowyer, 9 Garry Birtles, 10 Trevor Francis, 11 John Robertson.
Goals : Trevor Francis 2, John Robertson 1 (pen.).
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| Francis gives Forest an early lead. |
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| Forest's second - it's Francis again! |
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| Robbo is bundled over - penalty! |
3-0 to Forest and it's not even half time.
Here are the match highlights...
John Motson interviews Clough after the match.
Here's the transcript...
Elsewhere, Ajax easily overcame Strasbourg, as expected, but the other two games (like Forest's win) were very dramatic...
Here are the Dutch champions strolling into the semi finals... Ajax 4 Strasbourg 0
Amazing recovery by Los blancos as the Spanish champions overtun a 2-0 deficit to overcome Celtic... Real Madrid 3 Celtic 0
And Hamburg nearly threw it away in Split but the German champions went through on away goals... Hajduk Split 3 SV Hamburg 2
The four semi-finalists: SV Hamburg, Ajax Amsterdam, Real Madrid and... Nottingham Forest.
Although this defeat ended Berliner FC Dynamo's efforts in the European Cup for the 1979-80 season, it was really just the beginning of a "golden era" for the club.
When they won the DDR-Oberliga in 1979 it was their first ever title. Incredible, then, that they were destined to win the next ten, with just three other clubs winning the final three before the collapse of the Berlin wall.
The last Oberliga...
It all went pear shaped for Dynamo Berlin even before the demise of the iron curtain but since those heady days, when they could just call the head of the Stasi if they wanted to nobble a referee or get a new brilliant player, things have gone very down hill... very fast.
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| "You're not Stasi any more!" |
Meanwhile, back in England, Liverpool strengthened their claim still further on the title with a powerful 3-0 win over Leeds United.
David Needham - Another Unsung Miracle Man
So, David Needham. There's a player that doesn't get much attention when thinking about the Forest heroes. As we've seen in this post he's played in some key battles for the club since that magnificent debut at Old Trafford back in December 1977, when Forest thrashed Manchester United 4-0 on their home patch to stake out their intent to win the league.
So, here's a brief account of his career, my small tribute.
David Needham was born in Leicester on 21st May, 1949 and signed on at Meadow Lane for Notts County at the age of just 16. This, is a remarkably long time ago - well before even the appointment of Jimmy Sirrell!! Tim Coleman was the manager at the time. Needham made six league appearances for him, in 1965-66. Coleman was followed by the Forest stalwart, Jack Burkitt, who made over 460 league appearances for the Reds but did nowt as a manager at Notts County, as they finished 20th in Division Four that season, Needham making 17 appearances. He was followed by Andy Beatty, again ex-Forest. The magpies improved and David Needham, still just 19, made 31 appearances. Beatty was followed by Billy Gray, yet another man with a big Forest connection for the 1968-69 season. Notts struggled but David Needham only missed a couple of games.
Finally, in November 1969, Jimmy Sirrell was appointed and things started to take off for County - and Needham.
So, here's a brief account of his career, my small tribute.
David Needham was born in Leicester on 21st May, 1949 and signed on at Meadow Lane for Notts County at the age of just 16. This, is a remarkably long time ago - well before even the appointment of Jimmy Sirrell!! Tim Coleman was the manager at the time. Needham made six league appearances for him, in 1965-66. Coleman was followed by the Forest stalwart, Jack Burkitt, who made over 460 league appearances for the Reds but did nowt as a manager at Notts County, as they finished 20th in Division Four that season, Needham making 17 appearances. He was followed by Andy Beatty, again ex-Forest. The magpies improved and David Needham, still just 19, made 31 appearances. Beatty was followed by Billy Gray, yet another man with a big Forest connection for the 1968-69 season. Notts struggled but David Needham only missed a couple of games.
Finally, in November 1969, Jimmy Sirrell was appointed and things started to take off for County - and Needham.
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| Notts County 1970 - with Jimmy Sirrell and David Needham well established, at just 22. |
By the time I started watching football in 1970, Notts County's center back pair of Brian Stubbs and David Needham were infamous as a solid unit.
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| Stubbs and Needham |
Under Sirrel, Notts won promotion to the Third Division in 1970-71 and just two years later, joined Forest in the Second Division. From 1973 to their promotion in 1977 Notts were, more often than not, Forest's bogey team and we'd curse Needham and Stubbs for their uncompromising defending.
I never saw Forest ever beat Notts with David Needham in the side. The only time I did see a Forest win in the Nottingham derby was the 4-0 win in the League Cup early in the 1977-78 season, whilst Needham was playing for Queen's Park Rangers.
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| Ca'anty - ar bogey team! |
By then, David Needham had moved south to Queens Park Rangers for £90,000.
Clough and Taylor paid £140,000 in December 1977, just in time for the big match at Old Trafford.
By March 1980 Needham had made 45 league appearances for the club.
He continued with the Reds until 1982, and would make 86 league appearances in the end. He made his last appearance for the club on May 8th, 1982 at home to Swansea City. Forest lost 0-2.
Needham had a brief spell in North America playing for Toronto Blizzard before coming back to England to play out his career at Kettering Town. He finally hung his boots up at the age of 37 - that's a career of 22 years.
570 league appearances is a pretty good record in anyone's books and he did have a knack of scoring the occasional goal too, although none, as far as I can tell, were all that significant.
But when you stand back and look at his career overall, it's his massive spell at Notts County that stands out. Over 75% of his matches were for the 'pies.
David Needham, unlike Larry Lloyd, has kept himself in shape these days...
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| David Needham at a reunion with Trevor Francis |
Match 389: Saturday, 22nd March 1980, Division One.
Nottingham Forest 2 Southampton 0 (City Ground 193, Nottingham Forest 276 Southampton 10) Attendance 27,625.
In the line up for Southampton was newly returned Charlie George after his brief four games on loan at Forest.
Nottingham Forest
1 Peter Shilton, 2 Viv Anderson, 3 Frank Gray, 4 John McGovern, 5 David Needham, 6 Kenny Burns, 7 Martin O'Neill, 8 Stan Bowles, 9 Garry Birtles, 10 Trevor Francis, 11 John Robertson.
Goals: Garry Birtles 1, John Robertson 1 (pen.).
Southampton
1 Peter Wells, 2 Manny Andruszewski, 3 Malcom Waldron, 4 Graham Baker, 5 Dave Watson, 6 Chris Nicholl, 7 Trevor Hebberd, 8 Phil Boyer, 9 Mike Channon, 10 Nick Holmes, 11 Charlie George.
Substitutions: Austin Hayes(12) came on for Malcom Waldron (3).
Here are some action photos taken at the match and printed in the Forest Review for the next home match, v Manchester United.
The captions were a bit strange though, I have to admit.
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| ...but Wells is nowhere near Birtles. |
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| .Garry didn't take penalties. It was Robbo. and ..if this was a penalty, what's the No 6 doing there? |
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| "Hits the side netting" - means not a goal, right? |
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| ...but according to the next photo, it brought the fans to their feet. You can clearly see players celebrating too so they weren't fooled by the angle. |
Here's a (blurry) image of the front page of the Football Post that evening...
Elsewhere, Liverpool ground out yet another home win, against Brighton, whilst United won the Manchester derby, also by 1-0.
Liverpool were now eight points clear at the top with just nine games to go.
Here are the highlights of Aston Villa's 1-1 draw with Ipswich Town.
Here are five minutes highlights of the Manchester derby...
And here's David Hodgson's goal for Middlesbrough against Everton on the same day...
Here's a general piece about the day's play.
Forest's form was starting to look good again. If only they could improve their away performances.
Forest's home form in the league had been very good indeed, in fact...
P 16 W 11 D 4 L 1 F 33 A 11 Pts 26
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| City Ground still a fortress in the League |
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| Home form only - Forest three points behind Liverpool & Man Utd with a game in hand |
The next Tuesday, I paid another visit to Saltergate, home of Chesterfield, presumably with Chesterfield. (To those new to this blog, the first reference there is to "Chesterfield F.C." and the second to "Steve Armstead" a fan from Twickenham who we called "Chesterfield" because it was so wierd.)
Match 390: Tuesday, 25th March 1980, Division Three.
Chesterfield 2 Swindon Town 1 (Saltergate 6, Chesterfield 10, Swindon 3) Attendance 8,101.
Chesterfield were, at the time, pushing for promotion to the second tier which explains the impressive attendance of over 8,000.
The win took them into the top three but unfortunately it was a position they were unable to maintain. The Spirites missed out on promotion to local rivals Sheffield Wednesday by just one point. This remains Chesterfield's best league position since 1950-51 when they were relegated from the Second Division.
Saturday, 29th March 1980, Division One
Brighton & Hove Albion 1 Nottingham Forest 0
Attendance 25,128.
On the final Saturday of March, Forest went on their travels again, way down south to Brighton, where their away form let them down yet again as Brighton completed the double over us.
Burns returned for David Needham which must have disappointed him greatly but there was a massive event that day that passed completely under the radar...
200 Up for Robbo!
200 appearances at the very top level of the game, remember. It was during the spell that Forest won the league, the League Cup twice and the European Cup (one more still to go there) as well as the European Super Cup and a League Cup runners up medal. All this at a time when pitches were often like mud baths and defenders definitely had a licence to kick.
Fabulous, Robbo!
Brighton & Hove Albion
1 Graham Moseley, 2 John Gregory, 3 Keith Williams, 4 Brian Horton, 5 Steve Foster, 6 Gerry Ryan, 7 Neil McNab, 8 Peter Ward, 9 Paul Clark, 10 Mark Lawrenson, 11 Perer O'Sullivan.
Goals: Keith Williams 1.19/3/80
Substitutions: Gary Stevens (12) came on for Gerry Ryan(6).
Nottingham Forest
1 Peter Shilton, 2 Viv Anderson, 3 Frank Gray, 4 John McGovern, 5 Larry Lloyd, 6 Kenny Burns, 7 Martin O'Neill, 8 Stan Bowles, 9 Garry Birtles, 10 Trevor Francis, 11 John Robertson.
Forest's away form was now officially terrible, on a par with teams in the bottom three.
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| Relegation away form - Forest had lost 10 out of the last 12 |
In other results, Liverpool had a shock defeat at Spurs, whilst Manchester United won 2-0 at Crystal Palace to keep the pretence of an interest in the title going a little longer.
The only highlights I could find were those of Manchester City's 2-2 draw with local rivals Bolton Wanderers...
It was a point that kept the hopes of Bolton's most optimistic fans alive but these were gloomy times for Manchester City who were now perilously close to the relegation zone themselves.
Look who's bottom of the current form table...
I didn't trek down to the Goldstone Ground that season. My first visit there was still a few months away, the following season (1980-81) - a match Forest would actually win (1-0 with a goal from Ian Wallace.)
Instead, I made a bizarre trip north to visit a new ground - The Old Show Ground of Scunthorpe United. This was a fourth division club going through tough times but exciting things were stirring there.
Match 391: Saturday, 29th March 1980, Division Four.
Scunthorpe United 1 Wigan Athletic 3 (Old Show Ground 1, Scunthorpe 4, Wigan 2) Attendance 2,140.
I don't remember much about the day out except the odd feeling that we (I presume I was driven there by Chesterfield with Boro) were able to park the car almost outside the ground just before kick off as the crowd was so small.It was a tatty old ground. If any "Shows" had ever been on view there, they must have been a very long time ago. Still, they all count and I was now almost 2/3rds of my way to visiting all 92.
My visit to The Old Show Ground brought up the 60 for me...
The game was noteworthy only for the home debut for Scunthorpe United by a certain Ian Botham. Beefy came on as a substitute at half time for right back Steve Daly. It was only his second appearance for the club.
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| Botham signs for Scunthorpe United |
So, all eyes were on him when he came off the bench for the second half at home to Wigan with the home side 1-2 down.
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| Botham in his Old Show Ground debut - I woz there! |
Read more about Botham's time at Scunthorpe here.
Scunthorpe United: Gordon, Davy (sub, Botham 45 mins), Peacock, Kavanagh, Deere, Oates, Cowling, Cammack, Pilling, Partridge, Stewart.
Wigan Athletic: Brown, Fretwell, Whittle, Gore, Methven, Davids, Corrigan, Wright, Houghton, Shearer, Urquhart; sub, Moore.
Referee : Mr B Hill (Wellingborough). Attendance : 2,140.
Botham had previously made 17 appearances for then non-league Yeovil Town. He'd go on to make another nine appearances for Scunthorpe.
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| Ian Botham played for Yeovil Town and Scunthrorpe United |
EurOpen League Update
I've been a bit remiss in neglecting my "EurOpen League" these last few months. I had intended to chip away each month adding a few more countries to my ever growing survey of how open each national league is in Europe and then comparing them. I have to admit the task did get a bit overwhelming when I realised just how many "new" countries league's had been added to UEFA's domain since the year 2000. The last time I added to the list was back in November.
So, my plan is to add four more here - the four countries whose champions got knocked out in the quarter finals I've just reported on. Then, next month, I'll add ten more - the eight countries whose champions got knocked out in the second round, plus the two semi-finalists. I'll then, hopefully be in a position to finsish the whole thing off by the end of May as I complete the whole project.
That's the plan, anyway.
Ok, so four more countries to add...
German League (Bundesliga)
Now I've covered the DDR (Deutsche Demokratische Republike, remember?) earlier in this post and the West German League last season for the 1FC Koln match. So all that remains to be done here is to catch up with the Bundeliga in the period 2000 to present.
It's a depressing picture, I am afraid. As anyone who knows anything about football would guess, the Bundesliga has been completely dominated in the last twenty years by one club, Bayern Munich.
Although, one grudgingly admits they are a club run largely by fans, rather than some billionaire money launderer, it's still doesn't sit well with me that a once great and open league has become so very predictable.
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| Das Deutsche Kuchen ist nicht so lecher |
Almost three quarters of Bundesliga titles have been won by Bayern since 2001, including seven on the trot.
Before COVID 19 stopped world football in its tracks, they looked well on the way to making it eight...
French League (Ligue 1)
As noted above, the French Champions, Strasbourg were comfortably beaten 4-0 on aggregate by Ajax Amsterdam, after the first leg ended 0-0 in France.
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| l'equipe de Strasbourg 1979 |
France has historically had one of the most open leagues in Europe. From the start, in 1936, until 40 years ago, no less than 13 teams had won the title. The most dominant club, St Ettienne, wuinning it only 23% of the time
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| La tarte Française - très savoureuse! |
In the 22 years that followed, this competitive spirit lived on...
But you know what's coming, right? What about in the last twenty or so years?
Well, I must admit, I was thing PSG, PSG, PSG, PSG... but I'd forgotten that for an equally long period before they started to dominate, another club did the same, Lyon. Still, it's been a long time since Ligue 1 had more than 1 club as the No 1.
Nearly 80% of all titles in France have been won by two clubs in the last 18 years.
Since that bloody virus stopped football in France, on 9th March, PSG's march to their eighth successive title has been put on hold, so maybe there's the elusive silver lining we've been looking for.
It feels sacrilegious to mention it, but notice how well Rennes are doing since they sacked a certain manager?
Scotland's Premier League
Next it's Scotland as Celtic were marginally edged out of the European Cup Quarterfinals by Real Madrid. The Glasgow giants had won the first leg 2-0 but in a packed Bernabeu Los Blancos turned the tie on its head to send the brave Scots out.
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| Love those hoops and the numbers on their shorts |
It had been a close run season, for a change with no less than four teams involved.
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| A distinctly two-tone Scotch Pie |
Obviously, the Old Firm tie up of Scottish football has continued to this day. In the 20 years that followed, Rangers domination over Celtic has increased. Only four clubs won it in the 20 years up to the end of the millennium. I suppose Scottish football fans should be grateful even for that much diversity.
Because, of what's happened since then. Well, as anyone who knows their "off side" from their "side of"s will tell you, it's got worse.
Then there were two - finally the "Old Firm" got it all. In the last twenty season all the titles have been won by either Celtic or Rangers. There hasn't even been a close title race since 2011.
Boring!
And, no surprise for saying which team was top of the ladder when the pandemic halted Scottish football on 12th March - Celtic, of course - well on their way to their tenth successive title.
Croatian League (Prva hrvatska nogometna liga)
This was Hajduk Split's 7th Yugoslav title, putting them closer to Partizan Belgrade and Red Star Belgrade in first and second place. Still, with seven winners in 33 years, it was quite an open league.
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| Jugoslavenska pita - prilično ukusna |
Of course, we had no idea at the time but there would only be another 14 Yugoslav seasons before the whole country broke up and the smaller now free nations could form their own leagues.
The final set of Yugsolav league stats were as follows...
Since 1992, there has been a Croatian competition - obviously far weaker than the Yugoslav league was but at least now every match is between clubs from the same country.
I'm sad to say that it has been completely dominated by one club, Dynamo Zagreb.
71% of Croat titles have been won by the Zagreb club and only four clubs have won it in 28 years.
And, no prizes for guessing which team was top of the ladder when the lurgy struck...
So, let's plug these four countries into the growing EurOpen tables...
A quick reminder of the stats I've done before...
From 1888-1978 the English league was probably the most open league in Europe. No other country could boast 24 different champions, even in 80 seasons - that's a rate of 3 different title winners every ten years. Holland's league, for example, has actually ran for more seasons than England's - 83, because it continued during the first World War, but they had just 21 different title winners. The top five title winners in England between them still had won a minority of championships, a feature not found anywhere else.
At the other end of the spectrum, Portugal, Greece and, of course (yawn) Scotland. Portugal had just four different title winners in 44 seasons. Greece 5 in 42 and Scotland 9 in 80.
In the twenty or so years from then until the end of the Millennium, things changed completely for most of these leagues. Even before the era of the Greediership, the English league became (legitimately, i.e. not only because of loads a money) dominated by Liverpool and Manchester United. England could still boast seven title winners in 21 seasons but three quarters were won by the top two.
The most open leagues in Europe became Denmark and France with a few fading Eastern European countries having a strange period of being more open, perhaps as the dominance of the two or three elite clubs, that had been dominated by the Communist Party apparatchiks, began to fall apart. The leagues of Poland, USSR and Yugoslavia, for example, suddenly became more open - but the reverse seemed to happen elsewhere. East Germany, as we have seen, became totally dominated by Dynamo Berlin until the last few years, as did Romania with Steaua Bucharest.
At the other end of the spectrum, Portugal and Scotland continued to be dominated by "Old Firms." Holland, previously a pretty open league, became dominated by Ajax and the grip of La Liga by three Spanish giants got tighter than ever.
As for the final 20 years, this is very much a work in progress - not even half finished - but here are the results so far...
The prediction I have that leagues would have all got less competitive generally, doesn't seem to be borne out be the overall stats so far. In the period 1888-1978 across Europe there was, on average one different league title winner ever 4.5 years. This figure went up in the period between 1978 and 2000: One title winner every 3.2 years. As one might expect the last two decades has, so far, seen this go down again (to one every 3.7 years) but it's not as closed as it was before.
Anyway, more on this next month.
~
So, that ends my trip back in time, football-wise. All that remains is a nostalgic look (and listen) to the UK top twenty at the time.
Top 20 in March 1980
Here are my picks...
At No 20, Souxsie and the Banshees' "Happy House".
At 14, Madness' "Night boat to Cairo."
At 12, Barbara Dickson's "January, February."
At No 9, an iconic disco song of the time (not my taste!!) "Sexy Eyes" by Dr Hook.
At 8, Genesis with "Turn it on again".
At No 4, the classic "Turning Japanese" by The Vapors.
But this month's No 1 is Jam's "Going Underground".
Brilliant blog!
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