Forest Win the League Cup

We won the cup!

Eee aye addio,

We won the Cup!

I never thought I'd sing that but I must have, forty years ago today, in Manchester, on Wednesday night, 22nd March 1978. It's an old English football song to the tune of the "farmer's in his den" with the middle line changed from "Hi ho, the derry-o".

But who cares about folk song history? This was it. Forest's first silverware in 19 years and proof, if any were needed, that under Brian Clough and Peter Taylor, Nottingham Forest had been transformed from a mediocre second tier outfit to one that could compete with, and often out-compete, the best. And Liverpool in 1978 were certainly that. They were still the current league champions, having won the title two years running and three times out of the last six. Liverpool had now won ten league titles, more than anyone else. They were also European Cup champions and on their way to winning it for the second time this season, having just reached the semi-finals against Borussia Moenchengladbach. They'd recently won the UEFA Cup twice and the European Super Cup and were F.A. Cup runners up last season.

But Clough & Taylor's Nottingham Forest had announced their arrival as the new kids on the block now. For a few years at least, Liverpool and the other big clubs would have to reckon with getting past us if they were going to add to their bulging trophy cabinets. It would be nice to say something like "Forest were back!" But, the truth is, we'd never really been there before. And, once Cloughie's reign was over, they'd leave the scene, in all probability, never to return.

So, soak up any success you get when you can. You might never get any more. That's really what this blog's about, nostalgically looking back on good times and relishing them now, because I didn't really do so then. At the time, I foolishly took it all for granted. You don't realise what you have, until, it's gone. A philosophical lesson for life, if ever there was one.

This is a relatively short entry that will focus on a couple of key incidents of the match itself as well as saying a fond farewell to young Chris Woods, the Forest hero for our final victory in the competition but, alas, never to play a first team game for us ever again.

Forest somehow had managed to cling on at Wembley and not lose, despite Liverpool dominating proceedings. Chris Woods, our 18 year old rookie 'keeper, was the main hero but the whole team fought tooth and nail to thwart what seemed an inevitable win for Liverpool.

Click below to see the report on the Wembley final.

Let's be fair though. Apart from the cup-tied Graeme Souness, Liverpool were at full strength and had, in those days, a massive squad of internationals to chose from. Forest, on top of their their usual three cup-tied first team regulars out - Peter Shilton, Archie Gemmil and David Needham, also had injuries to Colin Barrett and John McGovern was still struggling to recover from a groin injury.

As Peter Taylor said after the game, it was Liverpool's for the taking, but they didn't.

In the days before the replay, the press were still buzzing about Chris Wood's Wembley performance on Saturday.

PFA Awards

Almost overlooked at the time, and certainly by me forty years later (until I edited this blog retrospectively to include it) between the Wembley final and the Old Trafford replay was the small matter of the annual English P.F.A. (Professional Footballers' Association) awards.

This is where the players themselves vote on their fellow players, so it is a real accolade.

The award had only been going for four years...

They were announced on the Sunday, the day after the Wembley final. Forest players won the two biggest awards. Peter Shilton won the Player of the Year and Tony Woodcock the young player of the year.

Peter Shilton PFA's player of the year. Tony Woodcock, young player of the year.

Old Trafford Again

So the final was replayed at Old Trafford, Manchester, my third visit there, having watched Manchester United beat Oxford United in the F.A. Cup 3rd Round in 1976 and Forest's great 4-0 win at Manchester United earlier in the season, in December.

After the final at Wembley on Saturday, this was the second time I'd watched Forest play on a neutral ground.

I am pretty sure I got a lift to the match with Ian White, as I often did in those days. Our ticket was for the far side of the ground from where the players came out. So we got a pretty good view of the key incidents in the game.

I woz ere

The Teams

John McGovern's groin strain, which was clearly still giving him a lot of grief at Wembley, was judged too bad for him to make the squad and John O'Hare, a striker remember, in Clough & Taylor's days at Derby, was called on to fill in in midfield. Not a good sign for Forest having already been largely overrun in midfield at Wembley. Steve Elliot was the unused substitute.

Liverpool were unchanged.

Nottingham Forest
1 Chris Woods, 2 Viv Anderson, 3 Frank Clark, 4 John O'Hare, 5 Larry Lloyd, 6 Kenny Burns, 7 Martin O'Neill, 8 Ian Bowyer, 9 Peter Withe, 10 Tony Woodcock, 11 John Robertson.

Liverpool
1 Ray Clemence, 2 Phil Neal, 3 Tommy smith, 4 Phil Thompson, 5 Ray Kennedy, 6 Emlyn Hughes, 7 Kenny Dalglish, 8 Jimmy Case, 9 Steve Heighway, 10 Terry McDermott, 11 Ian Callaghan, 12 David Fairclough. for David Fairclough (12).

Attendance 54,375

The Game

The match atmosphere built up to a climax. Here's a bizarre but fascinating clip of the fifteen minutes or so BEFORE the replay started. It's a bit like being the proverbial "fly on the wall" 40 years ago. There's no commentary but you can hear the fans singing and the music being played over the tanoy to a growing crowd keenly anticipating what was about to unfold.

The Liverpool fans sang "Walk On" too quickly, as usual and Forest fans responded with a almost non-existent rendition of "We've got the Whole World in Our Hands" before we hear Liverpool fans arrogantly wondering out loud who the team in the yellow were. As always, it was weirdly gratifying to hear that the mighty Liverpool's Kop were so keen to repeatedly chant that they hate Nottingham Forest. Openly cocky and confident of an easy win here, they were going to find out in the next few encounters with Forest that we were no pushovers.

Woods made two saves early on from Phil Neal and Kenny Dalglish before Tony Woodcock laid on a glorious chance for Peter Withe only for him to head over from six yards.

The game got a bit feisty and Withe was booked for a foul on Phil Thompson, Viv Anderson for scything down Steve Heighway and then Ian Callaghan got booked for an innocuous looking challenge on Withe. His first in 849 appearances. At half time Liverpool went in on top but perhaps not so dominant as they'd been at Wembley.

Forest attacked away from the Stretford End in the second half, from right to left as we saw it. Early on Tony Woodcock split the Liverpool defence with an inch-perfect pass into the path of John O'Hare, who latched onto it and was running directly at Ray Clemence's goal when Phil Thompson cynically brought him down. Technically, it is true that Thompson seemed to first make contact just outside the box but O'Hare kept going and from where we were stood there seemed to be a second (or even third) contact by Thompson in the box too. Pat Partridge was in no doubt anyway, and pointed straight to the spot.

It is probably true that with the benefit of VAR today, the penalty would not have been given, but then again, Thompson would surely have seen red for the blatant foul that stopped a clear scoring opportunity. Dirty.

John Robertson lined up to take the kick and coolly slotted it to Clemence's right. 1-0!

No time to get cocky though and five minutes later Liverpool equalised - or so they thought. Terry McDermott, like at Wembley, was the frustrated "scorer". This time he was adjudged to have brought the ball under control with his arm before releasing his shot. Disallowed.

Forest clung on somehow to win their first trophy in 19 years.

Here's a 5 minute summary of the highlights. No sound but some brilliant footage...

The crucial moment in the game came just after half time.

Philthy Thompson cynically scythes down John O'Hare. Penalty!

The 3rd image in the frames in the middle seem to show Thompson making contact for a second time in the box.

Robertson... 1-0!

The crucial moment. 1-0!

The last word on this should go to Peter Taylor...

Forest's first trophy for 19 years

After this, Forest became one of 14 teams who had won the League Cup, and the most recent of eleven who had won it only once. So, from nowhere to fourth in the all-time League Cup winners table.

When one considers all the domestic trophies won, this was Forest's 3rd and, as a result we rose three places in the all-time English trophy winners table, overtaking Bury, Old Etonians and Blackpool to move up to 24th place.

Incidentally, this now meant Forest had officially a better record than Liverpool in the League Cup too, although we now only equaled them in terms of the average round.

Forest: Better than Liverpool in the League Cup

Average round achieved (top right) now equal but Forest ahead on overall success and seasons

Before leaving the League Cup final, though, let's not forget the players. The ones who actually did it.

There were seven ever-presents in the cup run, Ian Bowyer (who also top scored with six), Peter Withe (scored 5), Tony Woodcock (4 goals), John Robertson, Martin O'Neill (3 each), Viv Anderson (1 goal) and Kenny Burns. 14 players played some part in the triumph.

And... one last look at the cup (for this season!)

Bye Bye Chris Woods, and we thank you!

Amazingly, our hero of the League Cup, young Chris Woods, younger even than me, was never to play in the Forest first team ever again.

Talk about "short but sweet". Woods' Forest "career" had stretched back all of 148 days by now and all of seven games of which Forest had won six.

Chris Woods' Forest "career"

Chris Woods was born in Lincolnshire, in Swineshead not far from Boston.

The lad had been with the club as an apprentice with us for less than a year when he made made his debut against Notts County at the age of 17 years, eleven months and nine days.

I guess being understudy to someone of the class of Peter Shilton must have had its good points but there was no way Woods was ever going to be selected ahead of Shilton on merit, no matter how good his League Cup performances had been. Peter Shilton was in his prime at the time and would actually play first class football until he was 47!

Woods remained understudy to Shilton for another full season before moving clubs. He joined QPR for a fee of £250,000. Not bad for a goalkeeper in 1979 who had yet to play a single league game.

He made his league debut for QPR in the second division, at home to Bristol Rovers at Loftus Road on my 20th birthday, 18th August 1979. So Chris was 88 days short of 20. The Rs won 2-0. Woods only missed one game that season (out of 42 league and six cup games - Charlton away in the league) as QPR challenged but failed to regain promotion back to the top tier. Next season Woods played in Rangers' first 22 games before being transferred to Norwich City, who were about to have their best period ever in the first division. The fee was £225,000 and it was a logical move as Norwich were one of the closest league clubs to his birth place.

Woods made his first division debut for Norwich at Wolves on 14th March 1981 at the age of 21 and would go on to make 216 league appearances for the canaries, over five years, winning the league cup (different looking trophy though, relabeled the "Milk" Cup) with them too in 1985.

Woods with the "Milk Cup" (= League Cup)

Woods then moved to Scotland and played for Glasgow Rangers where he would stay for five more years, making 173 appearances. Graeme Souness, perhaps remembering his heroic performances for Forest against Liverpool, bought him for £600,000.

Somehow, you won't be surprised that Woods won a lot of silverware with Rangers, but he also claimed a British record for a goalkeeper when he went 1,196 consecutive minutes without conceding a goal - that's over 13 games' worth!

Chris Woods at Rangers

His was next signed for Sheffield Wednesday, by Trevor Francis for 1.2 million. He stayed there about 5 years too but this would be the last major club spell of his career.

Woods at Wednesday

Club career summary...

Chris Woods also won 43 caps for England, making his debut in a friendly against the USA in 1985, whilst at Norwich City.

In fact, it's a remarkable fact that Chris Woods is actually the 7th most capped England goalkeeper ever.

Most capped English Goalkeepers

Click here for full (and latest) data.

Chris Woods - England's No. 7 No. 1

Here's a clip of some of his saves...

Of course, Chris Woods, great that he was, could never come out of the shadows of the even greater Peter Shilton, but we will never forget those seven great performances for us right at the start of his long career that made such a difference and set us off on such a great start in the top flight.

Anyway, after winning the League Cup, it was now time for Forest to get back to the league campaign and a home tie against Newcastle. "Concentrating on the League" never meant more.