In April, 40 years ago, Nottingham Forest were rubbing shoulders with the greatest names in Europe. They were drawn against one of the coolest football clubs around, Ajax Amsterdam, in the semi finals of the World's No 1 club competition.
As the Dutch might say - for, us it was schitterend! (Google tells me that means "splendid") as Forest won through 2-1 on aggregate.
I'll scratch my head on that one and try to remember as much as I can. I only went to the home leg - and that was nearly a disaster as I was supposed to go to a University field trip scheduled at the same time. So, I'll add a personal twist to the post by taking you down to the Cotswolds village of Nailsworth and my investigation of the genus Lumbricus (earthworms to you and me) in the beautiful Woodchester Valley. How bizarre to think that this was my first visit to the Stroud area - a place I would get to know so well as my dear wife comes from there. And, to get back to football, who could have predicted that my irresistible visit to The Lawn to watch Forest Green Rovers, would be repeated later and that I'd even end up watching them at Wembley. More on that later.
I will, of course, take this opportunity to review the history of Ajax Amsterdam and Dutch football in general and "do one" on Viv Anderson, another of the Forest miracle men. Forest's home form continued to be title winning, brushing title chasers Manchester United aside 2-0, at the same time their away form continued drifting towards the standard of relegation material.
I'll describe a few other trips such as watching Leicester City clinch promotion at home to Charlton Athletic and Blackburn Rovers almost clinching it at Mansfield Town with a goal from my football hero, Duncan McKenzie.
And I'll chip away a little at my EurOpen league before finishing, as usual, by looking at the music scene at the end of April 1980.
The month of football started with one of the biggest home games of the season, against title chasing Manchester United.
Match 392: Wednesday, 2nd April 1980, Division One.
Nottingham Forest 2 Manchester United 0 (City Ground 194, Nottingham Forest 277, Manchester United 7) Attendance 31,417.
Forest's form had wobbled from the woeful to the wonderful repeatedly all season. Having beaten the mighty mighty Liverpool to reach their third Wembley League Cup final on the trot, they played poorly against Wolves and so failed to make it a hat trick of trophies. A week later, they'd beaten Southampton to maintain their impressive home record and now, with their biggest test of the season looming - a European Cup semi final clash with the mighty mighty Ajax of Amsterdam - Forest faced Manchester United at home on the Wednesday night.
Dave Sexton's Manchester United side had kept up their challenge of Liverpool all season but recently the wheels seemed to have come off after they got thrashed 6-0 at Portman Road by the league's form team Ipswich Town.
Could the City Ground fortress continue?
Here's the programme...
Here's the programme...
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.).
Manchester United
1 Gary Bailey, 2 James Nicholl, 3 Arthur Albiston, 4 Sammy McIlroy, 5 Gordon McQueen, 6 Martin Buchan, 7 Steve Coppell, 8 Ray Wilkins, 9 Joe Jordan, 10 Lou Macari, 11 Mickey Thomas.
Francis on fire, United's defence is petrified...
Robo, slots in, again, from the spot...
Garry Birtles with Martin O'Neill in attendance...
In other matches that week, Liverpool's grip on the title strengthened after beating struggling Stoke City 1-0 at Anfield. Ipswich Town's amazing form continued with a 2-0 win at White Hart Lane, their 18th consecutive undefeated game in the league. Spurs' form slumped further as a result.
So, on Wednesday night, Liverpool sat six point clear at the top of the league with just seven games remaining. Forest now moved up to 5th place, a further eight points behind Manchester United.
Forest's home form continued to impress. Only Liverpool and Manchester United had better home records than Forest at this point of the season.
Look at the team who were at the bottom of the current form league!
The following Saturday, I missed out on a trip to Villa Park to watch Forest but instead caught the 62 bus (or was it the 84?) from Kirkby to Mansfield to watch the Stags play Blackburn Rovers who were surely on their way back to the second tier. It was a chance to see my old hero, Duncan McKenzie.
Match 393: Saturday, 5th April 1980, Division Three.
Mansfield Town 0 Blackburn Rovers 1 (Field Mill 59, Mansfield Town 64 Blackburn Rovers 7) Attendance 7,385.
There was a big crowd at Field Mill that day but in fact it was only their fourth biggest all season. They had 16,109 for the visit of local giants Sheffield Wednesday and 11,272 early in the season for the visit of Shefield United, their "Steel City" rivals, who were also down in the third division at the time. And, Mansfield's last home match of season attracted 10,100 for the visit of champions-to-be Grimsby Town.Blackburn had a very strong side. Apart from Duncan McKenzie, it was graced by Howard Kendall and others too. Although I didn't realise it at the time, Simon Garner was in the side that day, at the start of his career. He was only twenty at the time and had only made 37 of his eventual 474 league appearances for the club. (He's third from the right in the second row of the team photo below) He'd later grace the Wycombe Wanderers side I supported when Martin O'Neill came to to take the club to the unprecedented heights of the third tier (two consecutive promotions and three Wembley wins).
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| Powerful Blackburn Rovers squad of 1979-80 |
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| Duncan McKenzie with Tony Parkes - presumably after getting promotion |
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| Simon Garner started his career at Blackburn, ended it at Wycombe Wanderers. |
Stags were struggling despite the efforts of Terry Austin, who top scored that season with 19 goals despite their eventual relegation.
Mansfield Town
1 Rod Arnold, 2 Derek Dawkins, 3 Arthur Mann, 4 Bob Curtis, 5 John McClelland, 6 Adrian Burrows, 7 John Miller, 8 Brian Pollard, 9 Terry Austin, 10 Kevin Bird, 11 Russell Allen.
Substitutions: Steve Taylor (12) came on for Kevin Bird(10).
Blackburn Rovers
1 Jim Arnold, 2 Mike Rathbone, 3 Jim Branaghan, 4 Howard Kendall, 5 Glenn Keeley, 6 Derek Fazakerley, 7 Noel Brotherston, 8 Andy Crawford, 9 Simon Garner, 10 Duncan McKenzie, 11 Tony Parkes.
Goals : Duncan McKenzie 1.
Substitutions: Stuart Metcalfe (12) came on for Andy Crawford (8).
I have no memory of the solitary goal but it was scored by Duncan and it put Rovers in a strong position in the promotion race with games in hand over both Sheffield Wednesday and leaders Grimsby Town.
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| Blackburn on their way up, Stags on their way down |
Meanwhile, at Villa Park, Forest were having another of their regular away-day nightmares and lost again, 3-2.
Saturday, 5th April 1980, Aston Villa 3 Nottingham Forest 2
Aston Villa1 Jimmy Rimmer, 2 Ken Swain, 3 Colin Gibson, 4 Allan Evans, 5 Brendan Ormsby, 6 Pat Heard, 7 Des Bremner, 8 David Geddis, 9 Terry Donovan, 10 Gordan Cowans, 11 Ivor Linton.
Goals: Allan Evans 1, Des Bremner 1, Larry Loyd (o.g.)
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.
Goals : Garry Birtles 1, Ian Bowyer 1.
Substitutions: Ian Bowyer(12) came on for Stan Bowles (8).
Attendance : 29,156
The back page of the Nottingham Football Post that day...
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| Martin O'Neill at Villa Park |
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| Viv Anderson |
Keeping the title race alive, Manchester United beat Liverpool 2-1 at Old Trafford in front of 57,342 the second biggest league attendance of the season. (their home game against Leeds in December attracted 136 more.)
Ipswich won again, defeating Norwich in the tractor derby. There were a couple of other notable local derbies that day too, Sunderland beat Newcastle United 1-0 at home in the Tyne-Wear derby attracting 41,752 for a second division match and in Sheffield, 45,156 watched the third division clash at Bramall Lane, which ended a 1-1 draw.
Derby's win against Leeds kept their hopes of avoiding the drop alive but it was starting to look grim for Bolton and Bristol City.
Contrast Forest's home form (as shown earlier) with their points tally away. This was Forest's fourth successive away league defeat, their eleventh in their last thirteen away games.
Title contenders at home + relegation form away = mid table mediocrity.
Here are the highlights of the biggest match of the day. It was a titanic battle, as one might expect for a Liverpool-Man U clash. Kenny Dalglish put Liverpool ahead early, in front of the Stretford End and then missed the most incredible sitter at the same end after United had equalised. Luckily the flag had gone up for offside, but Kenny couldn't have known that. United piled on the pressure in the second half to get the winner.
And here are highlights of the Sheffield derby, shown on Match of the Day that day. Another old Forest favourite, Terry Curran, was in the Wednesday side Jack Charlton was building and scored an absolute cracker to equalise. An ex-Forest player, that was admittedly not so well loved, figured for United, Barry Butlin.
In the Easter Monday programme Arsenal won 2-1 at Spurs and Manchester United kept up the pressure on Liverpool (just two points behind now) with a 3-1 win at all-but-relegated Bolton Wanderers.
In the Fourth Division Walsall became the first team to clinch promotion with a 2-0 home win against Tranmere. Unfortunately for them, they'd not win another game and would end up second to Huddersfield Town.
The next day in the heavy Easter programme pitted Bolton at home for a second home game in succession - which I must say I find quite bizarre, I'd never heard of that before. Could it really be true?
Certainly if it was, it could explain the really low attendance, just 10,613, the third lowest attendance of the season in the first division. Bolton and Boro drew 2-2 making relegation all but certain for Bolton.
To Europe, to Europe!
So let's now return our gaze to European football. 40 years ago every football fan knew about Ajax Amsterdam and their "sexy" total football. Johan Cruyff, Johan Neeskens and Johhny Rep et al were world famous and now, the club's latest iteration were coming to Nottingham.I must admit, at the time, I didn't ponder too much about the history of football in The Netherlands or that famous club, so I'll take this opportunity to do so now.
History of Dutch football and Ajax Amsterdam
Dutch football, like the English game, has a long history. The first club Koninklijke (Royal) Haarlemsche Football Club was formed in 1879 by a 14 year old called Pim Mulier. Does that ring any bells? It should if you're a Forest fan. Notice? Founded in 1879 and he was 14. So, remember that: the guy that started Dutch football was born in the same year Forest were formed, in 1865. The club originally played rugby but switched to football in 1883.But before we go on with this potted history, let's get one technical point right here. When people refer to "Dutch" they're talking about the people of the Netherlands, not Holland. Holland is part of the Netherlands. It's a bit like saying "England" when you really mean "Britain" or "The United Kingdom".
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| Holland is not the same as Netherlands |
For more about this, go to this link where this image above is taken from.
The Dutch equivalent of the English F.A. started six years after KHFC switched to the round ball game. The Netherlands Football and Athletics Association (Nederlandse voetbal- en atletiek bond, NVAB) was founded on 8th December 1889, about the same time the first league was started (but was not finished). Two clubs competed from Amsterdam, although Ajax was not even a twinkle in anyone's eye at this stage. The two clubs were called RAP (which stood for three amalgamated cricket clubs R.U.N., Amstels and Progress) and VVA which presumably had the word voetbal as one of the 'V's.
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| First Class "West" league table - unfinished |
The league expanded to six teams the next season, to seven in 1895, and then the year after, to ten teams. The structure was split into two regional leagues, west and east. It would appear to have been an unnecessary reorganisation as the Netherlands is hardly a big country. But in 1897-98 the winners of the two divisions, now totaling 12 teams, played in the national final. The first national title winners then, were, Vitesse Arnhem.
The first appearance of a club with that name in the (West) Dutch league came in the 1899-1900, but they weren't the famous club you might be thinking of. Instead they represented the lovely University town of Leiden, less than 50 km south west of the big city. I spent a few days in Leiden in 2008 at the museum there digitising ape pelves and femora for my PhD. Very pleasant it was too.
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| Ajax |
It comes from the mythological Greek hero who fought in the Trojan War. He was cousin of Achilles, according to legend, but committed suicide in the end and so was never defeated. He was supposed to be tall and strong and all that kind of stuff... anyway, enough hocus pocus!
Three young Dutch chaps started Ajax Amsterdam, Floris Stempel, Careel Reeser and Han Dade. Stempel was the club's first chairman and within two days of registering the club he'd organised Ajax's first (friendly) match against another local team - Amsterdam Football Club. Ajax lost 6-1.It was a slow beginning and Ajax Amsterdam didn't join the top flight of Dutch football until 1911, conveniently perhaps, just two years after Ajax Leiden left.
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| Jack Kirwan |
Getting promotion into the first tier meant that Ajax had to change the their kit from red and white striped shirts to the, now familiar, single broad red stripe on a white background. This was because Sparta Rotterdam already played in the same colours. I guess nobody had thought of away kits in those days.
Here's a fantastic action shot of a game that season with Ajax in their new kit.
Ajax were relegated in 1913-14 and struggled for a while. In 1916-17, however, still not back in the first tiers of Dutch football, Ajax Amsterdam won the NVB Cup (the Dutch equivalent of the FA Cup) for the first time, beating VSV (from Velsen) in the final 5-0. VS Velsen would later merge with IJVV Stormvogels in 1963 to form SC Telstar after the satellite launched that year. Ajax won promotion back into the West division the season after that.
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| Jack Reynolds |
They retained the title the next season too - even more comfortably this time. But then there was hiatus in their success - perhaps because Jack left. He was replaced by two other English managers but they never reached the heights of Mr Reynolds.Ajax would not lift the Dutch title again until 1931 by which time the Dutch football authority had become all royal, with the "Koninklijke" prefix being added to the title and that famous "K" preceding their acronym KNVB that football fans all over the world will be familiar with. By then, Jack Reynolds had returned where he'd stay for another 12 years up to the start of the second world war.
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| Ajax win the Western division for the first time in 1917-18 |
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| And follow it up bey winning the National Play-Off too |
The second period under Reynold's management before World War II was Ajax's first age of dominance of Dutch football, as they won the title five times in nine years. It was also at this time, in 1934, that the club moved to a new ground that they'd play on for the next 62 years, Der Meer. The capacity was 22,000 at the start, but it rose to 29,000 at one point before modern safety regulations reduced it back again. For big matches (like the semi-final against Forest, Ajax would play in the city's "Olympic" stadium. In 1942-43, for instance, Ajax played in the KNVB cup final there, beating FC Dordrecht 3-2.Hold on. What year was that? 1943? During the war?
Well, as you will remember The Netherlands was overrun by Nazi Germany pretty early in the war. Amsterdam was occupied by Nazi troops in May 1940, for example.
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| Uncomfortably friendly scenes as Nazis pile through Amsterdam in May 1940 |
In 1941-42 the title was won by ADO Den Haag whilst Ajax struggled. The club, rightly or wrongly, had a reputation for being "jewish" - not a good attribute to be associated with when your country has been taken over by Nazis.
Although league football had continued almost as before, the NVB cup was not played from 1939 until 1942. When it was reinstated, in 1942-43, it was, remarkably under the circumstances, won by Ajax Amsterdam. As mentioned above, they played the final at the Olympisch Stadion.
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| Eddy Hamel |
Eddy Hamel was only 41 and played right wing 125 times for Ajax. He was an American citizen but, as he was Jewish, local fascists denounced him and he was arrested at the end of 1942 and sent to do hard labor in Nazi occupied Poland, at Birkinau. He became one of the murdered six million a few months later.
Anyway, as the Dutch might say let's hope the people that nobbled Hamel "krijg de tering!" or maybe they should just "optyfussen!!" (Look them up, Dutch swearing is very funny.)
Getting back to football, Ajax somehow managed to perform well in the league too, while all this was going on, and the next season (1943-44) almost qualified for the national play offs.
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| Rinus Michels scored 5 on his debut |
In 1946-47 Ajax won their 8th Dutch title, which was still being played in the old, regional format.
You'll never guess who their manager was - yes, Jack Reynolds had returned after the Nazis had left for a third spell, making it 24 years altogether. No other Ajax manager has been in charge of the club anywhere near that long.
A new star came into the side that season. He made his debut against ADO Den Haag. Ajax won 8-3 and the young dude, called Rinus Michels, scored five times.
You'll never guess who their manager was - yes, Jack Reynolds had returned after the Nazis had left for a third spell, making it 24 years altogether. No other Ajax manager has been in charge of the club anywhere near that long.
A new star came into the side that season. He made his debut against ADO Den Haag. Ajax won 8-3 and the young dude, called Rinus Michels, scored five times.
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| Ajax win the regional title and the play off in 1947 |
Finally, in 1956-57, the regional format was superseded with the modern, national level Eredivisie we still have today. And, the first winners were Ajax Amsterdam...
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| Eredivisie 1956-57 |
The manager this time wasn't Jack Reynolds, or any other English or Irishman. This time, the manager was an Austrian, Karl Humenberger. This title win gave Ajax entry to the recently founded European Cup for the first time. Their first European adventure was, like Forest's in March 1980, behind the iron curtain in East Germany. Ajax played at Wismut Karl Marx Stadt and won 3-1. They won the home leg 1-0 to progress to the quarter final. Ajax were pitted against another Eastern European club, Vasas Budapest, but this time they lost. Ajax drew 2-2 at home but lost the away leg 4-0.
When Ajax won their 10th title, in 1959-60 - it only just, on goal difference from Feijenoord - and this time it was another Englishman, Vic Buckingham, that was in charge again.
When Ajax won their 10th title, in 1959-60 - it only just, on goal difference from Feijenoord - and this time it was another Englishman, Vic Buckingham, that was in charge again.
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| Rinus Michels Ajax Manager |
Question for football nerds: Which club held the most Dutch titles (10) before Ajax's 11th championship win? (answer later)
This would be the first time they'd won the league managed by a Dutchman - the famous Rinus Michels who would bring so much glory to Ajax - for the first time, at the European and World levels too. To be fair he did have one bit of luck. Coming through the ranks of the team at just that time was a young player called Johan Cruyff.
Having won the Eredivisie in 1966 allowed Ajax qualification to the European Cup for the second time in 1966-67.
In the first round, Ajax overcame Turkish champions, Besiktas 4-1 on aggregate. In the second they were drawn against English champions Liverpool and they made light work of them, beating them 5-1 in Amsterdam (19 year old Cruyff getting himself on the score sheet) and then drawing 2-2 at Anfield.
In the quarter finals they faced Dukla Prague and lost 3-2 on aggregate, having drawn the home leg 1-1.
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| Ajax's first of three successive Eredivisie Titles in 1966 |
During this European Cup run, Ajax won the Eredivisie again, qualifying them for the 1967-68 European Cup, the one Manchester United won after beating Benfice 4-1 at Wembley. Ajax didn't excel in this competition, getting knocked out by Danish champions Hvidovre 5-2 on aggregate.
But a third successive Eredivisie title gave them entry once more, in 1968-69. This time Ajax went all the way to the final, equaling the progress of Feijenoord a couple of years before. Ajax beat Nurnberg 5-1 (on aggregate) then Fenerbache 4-0, then Benfica in the quarter final (having drawn the tie 4-4 it was played in Paris and Ajax won 3-0.) In the semi-finals, Ajax beat Spartak Trnava 3-2 on aggregate but lost in the final to Inter Milan 4-1.
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| Cruyff No 14 |
The success continued under new coach, Timosoaran born Romanian Stefan Kovacs, though as they regained the eredivisie in 1971-72 and won through to the final of the European cup, as holders,
gaining revenge in the final against Inter Milan. They won 2-0 in Rotterdam. In 1972-73 they won the Eredivisie for the second consecutive time and the European Cup for the third, beating Juventus, the team that had cheated Clough/Taylor's Derby County out of the semi finals, 1-0 in Belgrade.
Here are the highlights of those three successive European Cup wins...
Here's a few more moments of Cruyff to savour...
After this, Ajax were dumped out of the European Cup the next season at the first hurdle by Bulgarian champions CSKA Sofia (sounds familiar!) and Feijenoord regained the Dutch the title followed by two years dominated by PSV Eindhoven, before Ajax won their 16th title, qualifying them for the European Cup yet again. Ajax made it to the quarter finals, before being beaten by Juventus on penalties after both ties ended 1-1.
We can't really move on from thinking about Dutch football in the 1970s without reminding ourselves of their brilliant sides in two successive world cups, reaching two finals and, unluckily losing both to the host nations.
In 1974, the first World Cup I went to, The Netherlands looked the best side for most of the tournament. They finished top of their group including Sweden, Bulgaria and Uruguay to reach the second stage "semi-final" group. There, they were drawn to play against Brazil, Argentina and East Germany (who had topped their group including West Germany) and won all three to qualify for the final. West Germany, similarly, won all three of their games, against Sweden, Yugoslavia and Poland.In many people's opinions (including mine) The Netherlands were unlucky to lose the final 2-1. It was was played at the beautiful-to-look-at-but-crap-to-look-from Olimpiastadion where Forest won their first European Cup in 1979 against Malmo. I missed out on that (due to exams) but at least I did see a match there in the 1974 World Cup - Poland's 7-0 crushing of Haiti.
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| Munich's Olimpiastadion - beautiful, except from the point of view of watching football. |
It all looked so promising after that 2nd minute penalty was awarded to the Dutch but, typically, West Germany came back with two first half goals and held on to win the trophy for the second time.
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| der kaiser mit der weltmeisterschaft |
Four years later, in Argentina, it was a similar story in the end after a dodgy start when Holland struggled to qualify from their group only drawing with Peru 0-0 and actually losing to Scotland 3-2 - thanks in part to that amazing goal from Archie Gemmill.
Once through to the "semi-final" group stage, the Dutch changed gear though and brushed past Austria 5-1, drew with West Germany 2-2 and beat Italy 2-1 to reach the final.
Argentina the hosts, had won their group in very suspicious circumstances, beating Peru 6-0 to overtake Brazil on goal difference in the last match. The fact this was the last time such an arrangement was allowed speaks volumes.
Before I forget, here's Gemmill's goal again...
In the final, played in front of millions of fans largely desperate for a home victory, the Dutch again fought bravely but succumbed 3-1 after extra time.
Another World Cup Final, another beautiful stadium that does fans no favors.
Of course, I didn't go to the World Cup in 1978 but I have seen Argentina play at the Estadio Monumental when I visited Buenos Aires in 2009. I saw them beat Venezuela 4-0 in a World Cup Qualifier on 28th March 2009.
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| Algirdes in Argentina in 2009 |
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| Captain Daniel Passerella holds the trophy |
Anyway, back to Ajax and bringing us up to date... After another title going to PSV Eindhover in 1977-78, Ajax won the Eredivisie for the 18th time in 1978-79 season, qualifying them for the (forty-years ago) European Cup I am reviewing here.
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| Ajax win the Dutch league for the 18th time in 1978-79 |
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| Ajax Amsterdam 1979-80 |
Here is the full list of Dutch football championship winners up until 1978-79. The answer to the question above, if you look carefully, is not Feijenoord, as one might expect.
The Dutch football league, then, is very old and it was traditionally been very open. No less than 21 clubs had won the title by 1979 and the top five winning clubs have won less than 2/3rds of all the titles.
So, let's wander over Trent Bridge down to the City Ground for the match.
Match 394: Wednesday, 9th April 1980, European Cup Semi Final (First Leg).
Nottingham Forest 2 Ajax Amsterdam 0 (City Ground 195, Nottingham Forest 278, Ajax Amsterdam 1) Attendance 31,434.
I don't remember much about this evening, except that I stood down the side in front of the Main Stand and that I was very disappointed that the usual European Cup culture of the away team playing in their home kit and vice versa was, for some reason, not followed. I was looking forward to seeing Ajax play in their iconic shirts.
Here's the match programme...
Forest fielded an unchanged side again.
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.
Goals: Trevor Francis 1, John Robertson 1 (pen.).
Ajax Amsterdam
1 Piet Shrijvers, 2 Piet Wijnberg, 3 Cees Zwamborn, 3 Wim Muestege, 4 Peter Boeve, 5 Rudi Krol, 6 Dick Schoenaker, 7 Frank Arnesen, 8 Soren Lerby, 9 Tscheu La Ling, 10 Henning Jensen, 11 Simon Tahamata, 12 Karel Bonsink. for Tscheu La Ling (9).
Francis turns the ball in to make it 1-0 to Forest after 33 minutes.
Zvamborn handles... and the ref points to the spot.
Robbo lines up...
... and, as usual, slots it in... 2-0!
Here's the report in the Guardian the next day...
Meanwhile in the other semi-final, Real Madrid took the initiative by beating Kevin Keegan's SV Hamburg 2-0.
Here are the highlights...
So, on the basis of the first leg results, it was all looking on for a very tough final for Forest against Real Madrid in the final in front of nearly 80,000 of their fans!
Here are some highlights of the first leg at Highbury that same night.
Field trip to Woodchester Valley, Gloucestershire.
Now, as I alluded to at the beginning, I actually got myself into a bit of trouble for going to the Forest v Ajax game. I was supposed to go to a week-long Nottingham University, Zoology Department field trip to Gloucestershire, and it wasn't optional. I really had to kick up a bit of a fuss to persuade my supervisor Dr Ian Duce, that I'd make my own way down, at my own expense and I'd only be missing out on a few days.
I suspect the only reason I got away with it in the end was because the head of department was a big Forest fan himself. Professor Peter Usherwood (the only mug shot I could find on Google to the left) wasn't going down to go on the field trip but I know that he was at the City Ground that night, the same as me.
It was a lovely trip and a beautiful place to visit. I caught the train from Nottingham to Stroud (changing at Birmingham if I remember rightly). It was the last time I wore my old "college-style" Forest scarf. I must have left on the train somewhere.
I remember walking to the bus station in the centre of Stroud and asking for the next bus to catch to get to Woodchester valley, where my fellow students had been camped already for a few days. The bus took my to nearby Nympsfield and then I had a twenty minute walk along Tinkley Lane and then a left turn down a hill into the valley.
It was a lovely trip and a beautiful place to visit. I caught the train from Nottingham to Stroud (changing at Birmingham if I remember rightly). It was the last time I wore my old "college-style" Forest scarf. I must have left on the train somewhere.
I remember walking to the bus station in the centre of Stroud and asking for the next bus to catch to get to Woodchester valley, where my fellow students had been camped already for a few days. The bus took my to nearby Nympsfield and then I had a twenty minute walk along Tinkley Lane and then a left turn down a hill into the valley.
Of course, because I arrived late I had to fit in with whatever projects I could, and I ended up in surely the least glamorous one. No searching for badgers for me. No, instead I got landed with a group who were studying earth worms.
Still, at least it meant we didn't have to get up in the middle of the night, except on the last night. More on that shortly.
We soon realised that the best local pub was the Britannia in nearby Nailsworth. It was a three mile walk along Tinkley Lane (which soon became Nympsfield Road) and it didn't take me long to spot a football ground on the side of the road. Amazingly... and I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw it... the club were called "Forest"! Ok... "Forest Green Rovers", but still. I soon found out that they were playing at home at the weekend and so that was my Saturday afternoon sorted out.
Match 395: Saturday, 12th April 1980, Hellenic League.
Forest Green Rovers 3 Didcot Town 2 (The Lawn 1, Forest Green Rovers 1, Didcot Town 1) Attendance 300?
The Lawn, as it was called in those days (as opposed to "The New Lawn" where they play today) was just by the main road and very easy to get to from where we were staying. I stood along the side next to the cute old main stand that was there in those days.
The game, between Forest Green Rovers and Didcot Town, was a Hellenic (just can't get away from these ancient Greek references this time, can we?) League match, a league covering the geographic area of Worcestershire, Berkshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, southern Buckinghamshire, southern Herefordshire and northern Wiltshire.
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| Hellenic League Final Table 1979-80 |
A couple of years after this, they'd win the Hellenic League and win the FA Vase beating Rainworth Miners Welfare in the final - another bizarre coincidence as I used to live just a few miles from "Renuth" as we'd call it.
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| Less than seven miles from my house to "Renuth" |
Here's a great clip of Forest Green Rovers' (and Rainworth's) first ever trip to Wembley with no commentary but a decent sound track...
and here's the programme...
FGR spent the next 13 seasons in the Midland Division of the Southern League (even competing under the name Stroud F.C for a while.) The club won successive Southern League Southern Division and Premier Division titles in 1996–97 and 1997–98, winning promotion into the GM Vauxhall Conference.
Forest Green reached Wembley again in 1999 - this time it was the FA Trophy Final (the Vase is strictly for amateurs only) and so they became the first club to reach the finals of both major non-league finals. Bizarrely, I went to this match too! By then I was married to a beautiful woman from Stroud and her brother and I had been Wycombe Wanderers fans for a few years when he lived in High Wycombe. Of course, he had friends from home who were Forest Green Rovers fans so it was a no brainer to go to Wembley again, just a few years after seeing Martin O'Neill lead the Chairboys to the same trophy there just a few years before. Frustratingly, there are no video snippets of this match on YouTube or even an image of the programme. But I remember sitting there on those uncomfortable wooden benches on the same side as the twin towers at the other end from the tunnel, on my last ever visit to the old Wembley on 15th May 1999.
Just to complete this odd detour about Forest Green Rovers, I did also return to The Lawn to watch them play Exeter City in an F.A. Cup 2nd Round tie in 2002. I think it was on Match of the Day but again I can find no video clips.
Anyway, I will always have a soft spot for Forest Green Rovers and feel nostalgic about their innocent days in the Hellenic League, which still remains a key part of the ever-impressive English football pyramid, even today...
Anyway, I ended up passing the unit. I typed up the the report of our earthworm project and still have it today. It's not the best piece of scientific work I've ever done, but at least it proves I didn't just go to the pub and watch football down there in Woodchester Park forty years ago.
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| Key worm stats |
On the final night we all trooped off one last time to the Britannia and staggered back afterwards for the (I am told) traditional "hoot" of a drunken race down the side of the valley to the spooky old (and, of course, allegedly haunted) Woodchester Mansion in total darkness.
I have no idea how I managed to get to the grand old building and back but I did. As far as I know no-one died but I think there were a few cuts and bruises, as well as terrible hangovers, to sooth the next morning.
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| Imagine running down the heavily wooded slopes of the valley in the absolute darkness, to the mansion completely drunk... |
At least I got a lift back to Nottingham with the University mini-bus.
F.A. Cup Semi Finals
While all that was going on, back in the football world, the F.A. Cup semi-finals had been played whilst I was watching Forest Green Rovers play Didcot Town.
Here are the highlights of the first Arsenal v Liverpool match at Hillsborough. Commentator Brian Moore.
And here's the other match, played at Villa Park...
Both games were drawn.
Forest would have played Arsenal at Highbury that day, but as the Gunners were playing Liverpool it gave them a rare Saturday off. Typically, Cloughie and Taylor didn't waste the opportunity to give the players a bit of a break in the sun and they arranged a couple of friendlies in the gulf. Forest played two sides in the United Arab Emirates and won both 4-1 and 8-2. Trevor Francis scored five in the later.
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| Trevor Francis in action in Abu Dhabi in a very strange Forest kit. |
In the league, Bolton lost at Bristol City condemning them back to the second division whilst giving the Robins a bit of a lifeline. Manchester United beat Spurs 4-1 to narrow the gap to just two points, although Liverpool still had a game in hand.
In the fourth division Huddersfield beat Scunthorpe to clinch promotion.
Bolton relegated...
Bolton played at home again the following Tuesday against Coventry and this attracted the lowest first division attendance of season, just 8,995.
F.A. Cup Semi Final Replays
The West Ham v Everton programme cover flipped a few photos around but was almost identical otherwise.
Here's some (very poor quality, apologies) highlights of West Ham's victory in the replay at Elland Road...
Typically, on the Thursday of that week, Forest played practically a full strength side at Sincil Bank, home of Lincoln City for a testimonial match for Bert Loxley.
The Forest side that night - just two days before a big home league game against Derby County and right in between the two legs of the European Cup semi finals, was...
Nottingham Forest
1 Jim Montgomery, 2 Viv Anderson, 3 Frank Gray, 4 John McGovern, 5 Larry Lloyd, 6 David Needham, 7 John O’Hare, 8 Ian Bowyer, 9 Stan Bowles, 10 Trevor Francis, 11 John Robertson
Goal: John O'Hare
Forest lost away again! 1-2, but honestly, you have to take your hat of to the club for supporting local people so kindly. The only player who wasn't a first teamer was Jim Montgomery and Shilton's deputy was hardly a sloucher. Can you imagine Manchester City or any Greediership club doing that these days? They wouldn't even play their best team for an F.A. Cup quarter final.
Match 396: Saturday, 19th April 1980, Division One.
Nottingham Forest 1 Derby County 0 (City Ground 196, Nottingham Forest 279, Derby County 11) Attendance 32,366
And so to the fixture most Forest fans look for when they're published at the start of the season - the Derby derby. The prospect was made a little sweeter because Forest's home record was so good and a defeat might seriously just send Derby down again. Consequently, the City Ground saw its biggest crowd of the season.
Unfortunately, once I again, I have no memory whatsoever of this game. I have no idea, even which stand I went in to watch it as I think I was switching around the ground quite a bit in those days.
Here's the match day programme...
David Needham came into the side in place of Kenny Burns, otherwise there were no changes.
1 Peter Shilton, 2 Viv Anderson, 3 Frank Gray, 4 John McGovern, 5 Larry Lloyd, 6 David Needham, 7 Martin O'Neill, 8 Stan Bowles, 9 Garry Birtles, 10 Trevor Francis, 11 John Robertson.
Goals: Frank Gray 1.
Derby County
1 David McKellar, 2 David Langan, 3 Alan Buckley, 4 Aiden McCaffery, 5 Roy McFarland, 6 Keith Osgood, 7 Steve Powell, 8 Barry Powell, 9 Alan Biley, 10 David Swindlehurst, 11 Kevin Wilson.
Substitutions: Paul Emson(12) came on for Kevin Wilson (11).
Here's the goal the won the game for Forest and nearly confirmed Derby's relegation...
A single, cracking shot by Frank Gray after a simple lay off from a free kick by Stan Bowles just before half time gave Forest the lead and they hung on to it 'till the end.
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| Frank Gray smashed the ball past David McKellar in the Bridgeford End |
The Football Post front page looked like this on Saturday evening...
Everton got hammered at White Hart Lane so Derby were still in with a chance of escape along with Bristol City, despite their 3-1 defeat at Manchester City who now appeared all but safe.
Liverpool drew yet again with Arsenal, in the league this time, so Manchester United now closed the gap to just one point after their 2-0 win at Norwich City. Ipswich Town won yet again stretching their unbeaten run to 23 games.
Coventry's match with Crystal Palace attracted their lowest attendance od the season, just 14,401.
So... it was nearly all over the the Rams. How things had turned in the last five years or so.
Forest's home record continued to be title top-of-the table stuff. With two games played less, Forest had captured just four points less than Liverpool.
If only our away form had been as good. Still on current form Forest were not doing badly.
The following Tuesday Bristol City kept their hopes of survival alive with an impressive 3-1 win over Middlesbrough. It seems that the belief had gone from the fans though as it was the lowest league crowd of the season at Ashton Gate, just 10,837.
So, to the second leg in Holland (and yes it is OK to say that because, remember, Amsterdam is in Holland as well in The Netherlands). I feel quite sick to report that I didn't go. I don't know why. It could have been money-related but it certainly had nothing to do with exams as I had a very fortunate hiatus from those in my second year.
I had actually already visited Amsterdam. After Germany and Austria which I'd visited in 1973 for my first ever holiday abroad - a school skiing trip to Innsbruck, and a brief train journey through Belgium, on my way to seeing three games in the World Cup in West Germany in 1974, visiting Amsterdam was my third adventure abroad. I wasn't even 17 at the time. It's bizarre that I went. I still can't quite remember why. At 17 I looked about 14 so it was definitely not an "adult" trip. It was a day trip - so bus there, then bus back, without so much as even a stop over. I think I might have been inspired by my dear sister who had gone over with a friend herself shortly before. She told me it was a great place and one gift that she kindly brought back for me - sadly, no longer in my position - was a football yearbook for ... wait for it... Ajax Amsterdam. The book had a bright red cover with the word AJAX written huge above a photo. I'm sure the words "Ik wil naar Ajax!" ("I want to go to Ajax") were on there too, somewhere.
So, I am doubly baffled why, on this occasion I stayed in Nottingham.
So, I am doubly baffled why, on this occasion I stayed in Nottingham.
So... Why didn't you go, Algi!?
23rd April 1980 - Ajax Amsterdam 1 Nottingham Forest 0. 54,955
Of course, Amsterdam is one of the easiest and most attractive places to visit from the UK and Forest had lots of support there. Apparently fans started arriving on Monday and in typical English-lads abroad style, they hit the bars. Of course, Amsterdam is famous for its red light district and there are a few infamous stories of Brian Clough and Peter Taylor taking the players to clubs to help them "relax".
Here's a famous photo of Cloughie with Forest's million pound superstar, Trevor Francis and the "little-fat-bastard" turned football genius John Robertson, about to make his 205th CONSECUTIVE first team performance for the club.
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| Oh.. to have been there |
This was the cover of the match programme for the evening...
There was a great atmosphere that night, I am told.
Kenny Burns came back in for David Needham and Ian Bowyer replaced Stan Bowles in midfield.
Ajax Amsterdam
1 Piet Shrijvers, 2 Peter Boeve, 3 Wim Muestege, 4 Piet Wijnberg, 5 Rudi Krol, 6 Soren Lerby, 7 Frank Arnesen, 8 Henning Jensen, 9 Tscheu La Ling, 10 Karel Bonsink, 11 Dick Schoenaker.
Goals: Soren Lerby 1.
Substitutions: Cees Zwamborn (12) came on for Wim Muestege(3).
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 Ian Bowyer, 9 Garry Birtles, 10 Trevor Francis, 11 John Robertson.
I must have watched it in the Junior Common Room at Sherwood Hall, or else at home with mum and dad at 15 Greenacres. Luckily, someone posted the match on YouTube so we can all reminisce forty years later.
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| Francis should have scored just before they did. |
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| Lerby scores for Ajax making for a potentially tense last 25 minutes |
I must have watched it in the Junior Common Room at Sherwood Hall, or else at home with mum and dad at 15 Greenacres. Luckily, someone posted the match on YouTube so we can all reminisce forty years later.
Here's the match in full... including a fascinating post-match interview with Peter Taylor.
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| Peter Taylor looking forward to facing Kevin Keegan |
Here are two match reports...
In the other semi-final SV Hamburg amazingly came from 2-0 down to overcome Real Madrid 5-3 on aggregate and so stop them having the home advantage in the final. So it would be Forest v Hamburg. Larry Lloyd and Kenny Burns v Kevin Keegan!
Here are the highlights...
It was a great night for English football as Arsenal famously won in Turin to beat Juventus and reach the Cup Winners Cup Final where they would meet Valencia at the infamous Heysel stadium in Brussels.
Here's how they did it...
Meanwhile, in the league, both Liverpool and Manchester United won again, keep the title race pretty close and Stoke's defeat kept Bristol City's and Derby County's hopes of escaping relegation alive a little longer..
The UEFA Cup final was decided that night too : An all-West German affair, Eintracht Frankfurt v Borussia Moenchengladbach.
Ok, now I want to switch my attention to a particular Forest player who has featured a lot throughout these that three years but someone who I have not yet given any special attention to. (Remember, you can click the 'Search' button at the top of the screen to search for my coverage of anything in this blog.)
Focus on Viv Anderson
Viv Anderson was definitely "one of our own", being born just up the river Trent for the City Ground in Clifton, Nottingham on 29th July 1956. I saw pretty much his entire Forest career. I will work out the exact percentages for the last blog post next month but I bet I watched around 75% of his appearances for Forest.
Viv Anderson made his professional debut at Hillsborough. Forest were away at Sheffield Wednesday on 21st September 1974, he'd not long turned 18. Me and my mates actually set off to attend this match but because of a cock up catching the right bus to Sheffield from Kirkby, we ended up at Chesterfield instead. Chesterfield beat Grimsby Town 2-0 that day, but we really missed out on a great day at Hillsborough. Not only did we miss Viv's debut, but Forest claimed a famous 3-2 victory with two goals from Neil Martin and one from Ian Bowyer.
I did see his second game, though. At home to Sunderland the following Saturday. That was a 1-1 draw and will always be memorable to me for a fantastic performance by Liam O'Kane, handing his No 2 shirt to Viv, and playing an absolute blinder in the back four. Anderson played again at Villa Park the following Wednesday. Forest lost 3-0 and the experiment with center back O'Kane was halted.
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| Anderson early in his Forest career |
Anderson didn't figure in Clough's team selection for another month, when he was bizarrely played at No 8 at home to Bolton Wanderers. I have no memory of where Viv played in the team that day but O'Kane missed out, with Dave Serella wearing the No 2 shirt. He wore the same shirt at York City away the following Friday. Anderson must have impressed Cloughie, however, as he would only miss two matches until the end of the season.
Of course, as I've covered here, the rest is history and Viv Anderson would become a massive figure in Forest's best ever side for just four months shy of ten years. As I covered in a post for early November 1978, Viv made his debut for England at home to Czechoslovakia at Wembley in 1979. He will always be remembered as being the first coloured player to get that recognition.
He won eleven caps for England whilst at Forest.
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| Anderson for England! |
Viv Anderson's debut for Arsenal at home to Chelsea at Highbury in front of 45,329. The game was drawn 1-1. He lined up alongside Tony Woodcock, another Forest hero. The following Wednesday, both Viv and Tony lined up against Forest at the City Ground in front of just 17,972. It wasn't a happy return for the ex-Forest boys as we won 2-0. Anderson only missed one league game all season. Anderson won another 15 England caps whilst with Arsenal.
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| Viv at Arsenal |
After three full seasons at Highbury, Viv moved on again. His last game for Arsenal was 2-0 defeat at Carrow Road, where Norwich beat the Gunners 2-1. After Arsenal, Viv moved to an even bigger club, Manchester United. His first match was at The Dell. Southampton and Manchester United played out a 2-2 draw at the start of the 1987-88 season. Anderson only missed three games that season but would only make another 15 league appearances for United (and another three England caps) in the next three seasons.
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| 4 years but only 54 appearances for Man Utd |
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| Anderson, Francis, Withe, Shilton, Woodcock... and that's just the Forest connection. What a side! |
After Manchester United, Viv joined Sheffield Wednesday. He scored on his first team home debut in a 2-1 win against Everton but would only make 15 starts (with 7 appearances as substitute that season.) After two seasons at Hillsborough, Viv moved on again. He played his last game for The Owls at QPR on 11th May 1993. Wednesday lost 3-1.
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| Viv for Wednesday |
By then, Anderson had played his last game for Barnsley too, a 0-1 home defeat to Watford on 12th April 1994.
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| Not Barnsley born, not Barnsley bred, not stong in arm, nor thick in 'ead. |
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| Viv's final bye bye was at Boro |
Unlike some we might mention (cough - Larry Lloyd) Viv's kept in pretty good shape in body and mind and regularly asked, as a pundit, to comment about the glory years.
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| Viv Anderson honorary degree from Trent University. |
Well played, Viv! We love ya!
Match 397: Saturday, 26th April 1980, Division Two.
Leicester City 2 Charlton Athletic 1 (Filbert Street 4, Leicester City 7 Charlton Athletic 3) Attendance 23,875- clinch promotion.
So, getting to the pointy end of the season now but, Forest's away form plus the fact they were playing miles away up in Middlesbrough, decided it for me - I'd go and watch another local game instead of a long away day.
I made a rare appearance at Filbert Street to see Leicester City confirm their promotion back to the first division after just one season down.
There were a couple of young players just starting out on their careers that day who I didn't make any big deal of at the time. For Leicester wearing No 7 was Gary Lineker, playing on the right side of midfield and being replaced by Pat Byrne. Lineker wasn't even twenty years old that day but would go on to make 194 league appearances for the Foxes, and 460 in total for four other clubs including Everton, Barcelona and Spurs. He also won 80 caps for England.
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| Gary Lineker made his 23rd (of 194) league appearance for Leicester that day |
Mark Wallington, Larry May and Alan Young played in every game that season.
For Charlton, making just his 5th league appearance was Paul Walsh. He wasn't even 18 yet. Walsh would go on to make almost 100 league appearances for the club before a long career with eight different clubs including Liverpool and Spurs. He'd have made 521 league appearances in total, plus five caps for England, by the time he hung up his boots sixteen years later.
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| Paul Walsh just starting out in 1980 |
Leicester City
1 Mark Wallington, 3 Peter Welsh, 4 Eddie Kelly, 5 Larry May, 6 John O'Neill, 7 Gary Linacre, 8 Mark Goodwin, 9 Alan Young, 10 Ian Wilson, 11 Bobby Smith.
Goals: Alan Young 1, Bobby Smith 1.
Substitutions: Pat Byrne (12) came on for Gary Linacre (7).
Charlton Athletic
1 Nicky Johns, 2 Tony Hazell, 3 Laurie Madden, 4 Dick Tydeman, 5 Leslie Berry, 6 Peter Shaw, 7 Keven Smith, 8 Paul Walsh, 9 Martin Robinson, 10 Steven Gritt, 11 Phil Walker.
Goals : Steven Gritt 1.
Substitutions: Colin Powell(12) came on for Paul Walsh (8).
Of course, I have no memory of the game whatsoever but Leicester's 2-1 win was enough to clinch them promotion back to Division One. Charlton were already relegated by then, and picked up only two points out of their last dozen games.
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| Leicester up, Charlton down |
Meanwhile, in the first division, Forest actually managed to get an away point - a very rare thing at the time. A 0-0 draw at Middlesbough doesn't sound very appealing though, so I don't think I missed much.
Gary Mills came in for Martin O'Neill for Forest, whilst for Boro, Jim Stewart continued in for Jim Platt whilst John Craggs and Dave Armstrong continued their ever-present campaigns. Making just his 35th appearance (of 109 in total) for the club was Mark Procter, who would eventually end up at Forest, of course.
Middlesbrough
1 Jim Stewart, 2 John Craggs, 3 Ian Bailey, 4 Graeme Hedley, 5 Alan Ramage, 6 Tony McAndrew, 7 Terry Cochrane, 8 Mark Proctor, 9 David Hodgson, 10 Micky Burns, 11 Dave Armstrong.
Nottingham Forest
1 Peter Shilton, 2 Viv Anderson, 3 Frank Gray, 4 John McGovern, 5 Larry Lloyd, 6 Kenny Burns, 7 Gary Mills, 8 Ian Bowyer, 9 Garry Birtles, 10 Trevor Francis, 11 John Robertson.
Ipswich stretched their unbeaten run to 24 games and Derby were relegated, despite a valiant win over fellow strugglers Manchester City. This was because another team at the wrong end of the table, Everton, managed to beat Southampton 2-0. Only Bristol City could save themelves and that was only a mathematical possibility. They had to win both their remaining games and hope Everton would lose all three of theirs.
Grimsby Town clinched promotion to to Division Two.
All to play for at the top.
Despite Forest's rare away point, the reds slipped to 20th place in the (away form only) Division One table.
But the point did us better in the current (last 3 home/away) form table...
Here's some (blurry) highlights of Man Utd's win against Coventry (with Italian commentary)...
The following Monday (28th April) Arsenal and Liverpool played their 2nd F.A. Cup Replay and, again, failed to find a winner. The match would now go to a fourth game, the first time three matches in a semi final had ever been drawn.
Bizarrely, in today's "get it over and done with asap" world, both Arsenal and Liverpool directors refused any notion of "sudden death" to decide even the 3rd replay. Arsenal's Dennis Hill-Wood said "We would rather play next Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday than resort to penalty kicks."
Here are 45 minutes of highlights of that match. If anyone watches this the whole way through I tips mi cap to ya! You're a bigger fan than me!
Everton got a point at home to Albion which all but sent Bristol City back to Division Two. The Robins now had to win both their last two games handsomely and hope Stoke City got absolutely thrashed.
But they were put out of their misery the very next night as they were the team on the end of a thrashing, 5-2 at The Dell.
Blackburn clinched promotion to the second division that night too with a 2-1 win at Gigg Lane, Bury.
Match 398: Wednesday, 30th April 1980, Division One.
Nottingham Forest 2 Norwich City 0 (City Ground 197, Nottingham Forest 280, Norwich City 4) Attendance 21,241- clinch promotion.
So to the last game of the month and another Wednesday night match at the City Ground for me.
Gary Mills retained his place instead of Martin O'Neill but Bowles returned for Ian Bowyer.
For Norwich, Martin Peters made his 205th league appearance. This put him just four short of 700 league games for just three clubs, West Ham, Spurs and Norwich. At the other end of the spectrum, Grieg Shepherd made his debut for the club.
Nottingham Forest
1 Peter Shilton, 2 Viv Anderson, 3 Frank Gray, 4 John McGovern, 5 Larry Lloyd, 6 Kenny Burns, 7 Gary Mills, 8 Stan Bowles, 9 Garry Birtles, 10 Trevor Francis, 11 John Robertson.
Goals: Trevor Francis 1.
Norwich City
1 Roger Handsbury, 2 Kevin Bond, 3 John McDowell, 4 Mark Barham, 5 Dave Jones, 6 Richard Symonds, 7 Clive Woods, 8 Greig Sherpherd, 9 Justin Fashanu, 10 Graham Paddon, 11 Martin Peters, 12 Peter Mendham. for Clive Woods (7).
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| 1-0 to Forest after a deflected Frank Gray free kick beats the keeper |
I do have two quite strong memories of this game. Firstly, standing in the Trent End waiting for the teams to come out, I remember feeling so embarrassed that the Nottingham public were showing such poor support for the club. Here they were, on the verge of a second successive European Cup Final appearance and with one of the best strikers English football has ever seen - Trevor Francis - on the most sparkling form. They had a home record that was second to none - they'd just won six home league games on the trot - and yet they could only muster just over 21,000 to watch. It was their worst home league crowd of the season.
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| Forest's home league attendances 1979-80. Norwich was the worst. Everton and Palace still to come. |
The other memory was of Trevor Francis scoring a belter of a goal at our end of the ground. I wish I had video evidence because I don't believe how good the goal was - in my mind.
I think it was in the second half and Forest were struggling to strengthen a 1-0 lead. Francis received the ball outside the box, with his back to goal. He must have been closely guarded by a Canaries defender but Trevor seemed to just ignore him. He made some room, turned, noticed a bit of space in front of him, looked up, pushed the ball ahead a little and then smashed the ball into the net almost as if to say "There! I was getting a bit bored with all this!"
Wow. What a player!
Not much affect on the league table...
Forest's current form stayed pretty good.
And our home record continued to be championship form.
The composite 1977-1980 table now looked like this. Liverpool's domination was again asserted but Forest were still one of the strongest club sides in England.
So these were Forest's games in April 1980...
Played 7 Won 4 Drawn 1 Lost 2. Good enough to win the European Cup? We'd soon find out but with Trevor Francis playing his best football for the club, we were all full of confidence.
EurOpen League Catch Up
I've decided not to try to complete the EurOpen league project in this blog - there's just too much to do. I'll endeavor to do a separate post for it later on. But here, just to tie up the European Cup semi finals, I'll bring Holland and Spain up to date as Ajax and Real Madrid exited from the tournament in the semi finals.Eredivise (Netherlands)
In summarising the history of Dutch football and Ajax earlier, I showed how the Netherlands was one of the oldest and most open leagues in Europe. 21 clubs had won the Dutch football title in 84 seasons from 1889 up to 1979.
But how open was the Dutch league between 1980 until the end of the millennium?
Answer - not very.
OK, it's only twenty years, but only four clubs have won the title in that time and 80% of those have been won by just two clubs, Ajax and PSV.
And what about the last twenty years?
Well, it doesn't seem to have got any worse, to be fair. At least there's a bit of a twist in the tale... PSV have been the most successful club in the Netherlands since the new millennium and there are still (the same) four clubs who have won it.
It's a shame that COVID 19 stopped football everywhere because it was looking like an exciting end to the season in the Netherlands with AZ running neck and neck with Ajax and Feijenoord not far behind.
La Liga (Spain)
So, Real Madrid must have been anticipating a juicy home match for the European Cup final of 1980 and being 2-0 up against Hamburg it must have hurt all the more to get thrashed 5-1 in the second leg. So, if there are any Real fans reading this, sorry to twist the knife but Spain now gets to be added to my EurOpen league as a team that got knocked out.
The Spanish league is not as old as some, having only started in 1931. It's also never been a particularly open league. In the 49 seasons until 1980 only eight clubs won the title, all but three of them by the five biggest.
That seems pretty bad but in the twenty years from 1980 until 2000, it got worse. Five title winners in twenty years doesn't seem too bad until you notice that 75% of all La Ligas wwnt to just two clubs - that I do not need to spell out.
In more recent years the domination of the Spanish "old firm" los antigua firma, as they might say, has been even stronger. Perhaps not as bad as Scotland yet, but they're getting closer.
At least it's been quite refreshing to see three titles going to relatively smaller clubs since the turn of the millennium.
And, of course, Spain also stopped La Liga in March when the Coronavirus pandemic hit them particularly hard. Looks like one of los antigua firma would have won it anyway.
So, let's catch up with the EurOpen league.
From 1888-1979 England had the most open league in Europe according to my stats. 22 different title winners in 80 years is pretty good in anyone's book, surely. Notice how Scotland (yawn), Greece and Portugal were at the other end of the spectrum.
Not much changed at the bottom apart from Holland's switch to domination by Ajax and the about to become extinct DDR oberliga being dominated by Dynamo Berlin.
So, now, we get to add two new entries to the latest version (still nowhere near complete) EurOpen league for leagues since 2000.
I will hopefully find time eventually to really improve these stats and show, what I still think is inevitable, that world football is getting increasingly less competitive and more and more dominated by fewer and fewer clubs.
UK Top 20 at the end of April
Finally, a bit of music to set the nostalgic atmosphere for 40 years ago...
This is what the UK Top 20 looked like at the end of April.
At No 15 - the Eurovision Song Contest Winner, "What's Another Year?" by Ireland's Johnny Logon. Admit it - you've never heard of it, right?
At 13, a typical 80s disco track "The Groove" from Rodney Franklin.
At 11, something that was a bit more my cup of tea, The Undertones "My Perfect Cousin". Great subbuteo line "He always used to beat me at Subbuteo coz he 'flicked to kick' and I didn't know!"
At No 2 Paul McCartney's "Coming Up" - not quite as good as his earlier stuff.
But No 1 forty years ago was the 80s classic Dexy's Midnight Runners, "Geno".
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