Forest 40 years ago

Forest ended 1977 with another away game, at Bristol City. This was their third game of four in seven days. Three days after a trip to the most north-eastern club in the first division ( Newcastle United ), the fixtures placed Forest at the most south-western club. Forest took it in their stride though and won away again, their fourth away win on the trot, to stay five points clear at the top of the first division. This also completed Forest's second double of the season - out of two teams we'd played home and away: We beat Bristol City 1-0 in our first home game of the season , and we'd beaten Manchester United 2-1 at home and 4-0 away . Playing four games in seven days must have taken some toll on the players forty years ago - as well as fans - and trying to recall my memoirs of them 40 years after the event is certainly taking some toll on me now. So, as this was the fourth of seven games that I missed that season, please forgive me for a relatively perfunctory ac

Forest's next match just two days after our 1-1 draw with Liverpool on Boxing Day was a trip to geordieland and St James' Park, Newcastle. This was their second of four matches in seven days, played on pitches that were far from pristine with a tiny squad in today's terms. I can just imagine Joe Mourinho's face if he was expected to manage in such a situation. Forest won 2-0 and as Everton lost at Leeds, we stretched our lead at the top of the First Division to Five Points. More on the match later but first, what is "Geordieland" anyway? Geordies I'd just finished my first (and after totally failing to cope with the maths, I thought last) term at Nottingham University where I had encountered people from all of the country in one place for the first time. It provided a colourful atmosphere with lots of regional accents. One such guy was a geordie - John "Radio" Manion. We called him "radio" because he sounded like someone was tr