40 years ago I was starting to do Ok at Nottingham University, despite spending what seemed all my time watching football or travelling to and from games. This particular day, and the day after, for instance, I spent at least 28 hours on a bus travelling from Nottingham to Zurich and back with a few hours there in Switzerland to watch Forest get a 1-1 draw which sealed their place in the semi-finals.
In this blog I'll continue from the first leg match two weeks ago that Forest won 4-1 to take a big step past Grasshopper Club Zurich. That involves a fairly big chunk of league football that had happened since (actually some before) the 1st leg tie.
After reporting on Forest's Swiss success I'll finish by adding three more countries to my ever-growing "openness" table of European Leagues - Scotland, Poland and the old DDR.
Because the blog post has been "re-purposed" from the first leg, you might want to scroll down a few pages to get to the second leg if you already read that one.
Previously: Reds Beat Saints in Game of Two Halves at Wembley to Retain the League Cup
(also previously)...
40 years ago, Forest resumed their European Cup campaign after a four month break. 126 days is a longer break than you get from the end of one season to the beginning of the next so you could forgive some fans for almost forgetting we were even still in Europe.
In this relatively short blog post, I'll discuss the 3rd Round tie with Swiss Champions, Grasshopper Club Zurich (not "Grasshoppers" as I have always referred to them before) which was in the middle of my most fanatical period of my most fanatical year of almost 50 years of being a football fan.
I want to try to answer the question that was upper-most in my mind... "why Grasshoppers?" and review the other three quarter final matches that took place. I'll continue building my review of European football league "openness" both in the past and in the years up to the end of the millennium. I plan to complete the story, bringing this analysis up to date, with its doubtless conclusion of ever increasing domination by fewer and fewer clubs, next season. Hey, you never know - maybe I'm wrong about that. Maybe the leagues are getting more open... and then again, pigs might fly!
I'll "re-purpose" the blog post a second time for the second leg in Zurich in a couple of weeks and by then I'll catch up with Forest's progress in the league as they attempted, in vain, to retain their one league championship. What I will carefully avoid here is the League Cup Final against Southampton, at Wembley. That will get it's own post on the 17th March.
Previously... Arsenal home defeat and Francis' debut at Ipswich.
1979 remains my peak year in terms of football match attendance. I went to 83 games that year (66 in 1978-79 and 68 in 1979-80). And of all the months of 1979, March was my top month with 12 games attended. In fact, if you throw in the last five days of February too, I went to 16 games in just 36 days.
If we rewind back to Monday, 26th February, the night Forest lost 0-1 to Arsenal in the F.A. Cup 5th Round and so just failed to reach 50 consecutive home games unbeaten in all competitions, and take that as the first of these 16 games, it was pretty hectic from then on.
There were a lot of games that had been postponed due to the freezing weather that winter, so during the mild week that followed, as spring approached, there were plenty of games to go to if you were that way inclined. And at the time, my football mad university mates and I certainly were up for a random trip to a new football ground.
I actually went to five games in six days that week, ending with Trevor Francis' full Forest debut at Ipswich Town on the Saturday, taking me up to my 53rd ground visited.
The games in between, on Tuesday, Doncaster Rovers v Huddersfield Town, on Wednesday, Chesterfield v Swindon Town and on Friday, Stockport County v Northampton Town, are sadly completely lost from my memory. I am sure my computer-brained Boro mate (called Boro, of course) would be able to tell me not only who scored and how, but probably what the fan behind us said as they did, but I am simply not up to the task.
It's a bit of an illusion though, of course - this perceived difference in fanaticism. The key factor that's changed was that in 1979 there was very little opportunity to watch a match live on TV compared to nowadays. I think I watched one (the F.A. Cup Final) or two at most that way back then. So if you wanted to watch a game live, you just had to go. Simple as that.
In the season Forest won the league and League Cup, 1977-78, I went to 53 out of 60 (over 88%) of Forest's games. That was the only way to watch any of those games and of the seven that I missed I only got to see fleeting highlights of a few of them on the TV. That was an exceptional time, though. In the season I'm covering here, 1978-79, by this time 40 years ago, I'd been to 26 out of 40 Forest games - that's 65%. Contrast that with the current season, back here in good old 2018-2019: I have actually, physically, been to only three Forest games (as I live in Australia, I think that's not too bad) but I still watch most of their games live, streamed to my PC or, if it's a big match, at that massive sports bar screens at Perth's 24 x 7 Casino. The total there comes to 32 out of 40 games - 80%. I don't make any ridiculous journeys across the country to watch Forest any more, but I quite often set my alarm to wake me up at 3 am to watch a match before getting some shut-eye before getting up the next morning. So, who is the bigger fanatic? Me then? or me now?
Anyway, I'm going to deftly skip that question and move straight onto the following Wednesday, 40 years ago, and another big European night at the City Ground.
Grasshopper Club Zurich were founded on 1st September 1886 by an English student from Manchester Grammar School called Tom Griffith. it would seem he was a Blackburn Rovers fan because they bought a set of the famous blue and white halved shirts to use as their kit.
Frustratingly, it seems to be unknown where the "Grasshopper" name came from but one story alludes to the way their early players celebrated after scoring. So, what? they jumped up and down a lot?
They won the first Swiss championships in 1897-98 season. There were only eight team and they played in a strange grouped knock out tournament.
Within a few years, the tournament had evolved into east and west groups with ten teams. Grasshoppers won again.
They won the Swiss title three times overall in the first 13 years.
Bizarrely, the club withdrew from the competition for seven years - because they did not have a suitable ground to play on.
After that, because of Swiss neutrality in the two world wars, Grasshopper Zurich were to play every season without fail for 64 years, dominating the competition in the mid-late 1920s. All but two were in the Swiss top flight.
It's bizarre to think that whilst the second world war was sweeping across Europe, to the north, south, east and west of Switzerland, life carried on with a semblance of normality in the alpine neutral state. And Grasshopper club of Zurich won the title four times in that period if you include 1939 and 1945.
In 1952 Grasshopper won their 14th Swiss title and they won it again four years later but then, for them, went through a very barren period of 15 years without silverware.
They finally won the league again for the 16th time in 1971.
This started a period when Grasshopper Club would regularly represent Switzerland in European club competitions, although they never did very well until 1977-78 season, when they reached the semi-final of the UEFA Cup, failing to get to the final only on away goals from French club Bastia.
It was also the Season Grasshopper Club won their 17th Swiss title which, of course, qualified them for the European Cup. This was three more titles than the next best, Servette, with 14.
So, how did the Swiss league compare with others in terms of openness?
Well here's the full list of Swiss champions after Grasshopper won it in 1977.
So, with 17 winners in such a small league, that's a pretty open league in my book.
Here's the Swiss Pie-Chart...
And, if we add Switzerland to my growing table of European countries they are placed 8th out of 25 in terms of openness.
Here's a reminder of how the two clubs got to the quarter finals...
They lost the first leg 3-1 in Madrid but the away goal proved crucial as they won the return leg 2-0.
The team also included a few decent players, including Raimondo Ponte (who would soon join Forest) and Claudio Sulser (scorer of their shock early goal).
Nottingham Forest
1 Peter Shilton, 2 Viv Anderson, 3 Frank Clark, 4 John McGovern, 5 Larry Lloyd, 6 David Needham, 7 Martin O'Neill, 8 Archie Gemmill, 9 Garry Birtles, 10 Tony Woodcock, 11 John Robertson.
Goals: Larry Lloyd 1, Archie Gemmill 1, Garry Birtles 1, John Robertson 1 (pen.).
Grasshopers Zurich
1 Roger Berbig, 2 Roger Wehrli, 3 Heinz Hermann, 4 Francis Montandon, 5 Jonny Hey, 6 Richard Bauer, 7 Andre Meyer, 8 Kurt Eigl, 9 Claudio Sulser, 10 Raimondo Ponte, 11 Herbert Hermann.
Goals : Claudio Sulser 1.
Attendance: 31,949
Claudio Sulser gave Grasshoppers a shock lead after they'd had a bright start but Garry Birtles equalised before half time. A John Robertson penalty put Forest in front but with just three minutes remaining their 2-1 lead was not looking like it would be enough. Forest's pressure paid off though and late goals from Archie Gemmill and then Larry Lloyd crushed the spirit of the Zurich side and gave Forest one foot in the semi-finals.
Here's the proper Guardian match report...
And here are the match highlights....
And here's Austria Vienna's 3-1 win over Dynamo Dresden.
Here's the match report. As I didn't go, this is the best idea i'd get about the game. Looks like Trevor Francis, playing in O'Neill's slot this time, didn't play too well.
As Liverpool weren't playing, Everton missed the chance to go back to the top of the league. Leeds' win put them into the top four.
Click above to see the blog about that.
It's amazing how little regard people had for taking photos in those days. here I was, on my first football away trip to Europe ever and these are all the photos I took.
If you look at any of my football travel blogs you'll see this is woefully inadequate. What was I thinking? Not one at the match or even outside the ground. I am thoroughly ashamed of myself!!
Anyway, it's not just the programme I've lost. Practically all my memories of the whole thing have gone too. So sad.
Here's the Guardian report...
Anyway, thankfully there is, a video clip of the first 15 minutes of the match that has been uploaded so I can appreciate the start of this quarter final second leg as much as anyone else.
Pas trop mal!
And here's another quick clip of the two goals. Is it just me or was the penalty given against Viv Anderson a bit harsh? I enjoyed reliving the the tenacity of Martin O'Neill for the quick equaliser though.
We did set off for Kirkby straight after the match. I find that incredible too. What? Not even a bevv stop? I honestly don't think we did. A place in the European Cup semi-final clearly erased any misery suffered on that journey.
Just before hopping away from the subject of the Swiss champions, let's just take a peek into the future (from a 1979 perspective) of the Swiss league. Did it get more dominated by fewer clubs like most leagues?
The short answer is "yes" but not as much as elsewhere.
That was Ranger's 36th Scottish Championship win, putting them six ahead of Celtic at the time.
Here's the full honours board as it looked at that time...
The Scottish Pie is how you'd imagine it: Take away the big two and the rest of the slices make up only 17% of the cake.
It didn't change much in the next twenty odd years until the end of the century either.
Of the next 22 Scottish titles, Rangers picked up 12 and Celtic 6 of them, leaving just four for "the others". By the end of the 1970s and early 80s, a new "kid" on the block, called Alex Ferguson, was doing the unthinkable at Aberdeen - a team not in the old firm winning three titles in six seasons.
In fact for eight years, Rangers are nowhere to be seen on the Scottish Championship list.
Here's an odd-looking table for seasons 1978-79 through to 1985-86...
But, as if to teach Scottish football fans the way it should be done, Rangers would win ten of the next eleven titles, including a nine-in-a-row sequence to match Celtic's in the late 60s and early 70s.
So, overall, the Scottish championship pie up to the end of the century from this (1978-79) season looks very familiar (with the odd addition of Aberdeen and Dundee United in there.)
Honestly, how boring it must be to be a football fan in Scotland. I am sick of the Premier League these days with it's yawning divide between the "have millions" and the "have billions" and the dreaded inevitability that every season it's the "have billions" that fill the top six places, almost automatically (yes, yes, I remember Leicester City). But the Scottish league has ALWAYS been far worse than this. Apart from those eight years listed above, there has never been such a long period when one of the "Old Firm" teams didn't win the league. Of the 102 Scottish titles up until 1999-2000, a Glasgow team has won 85 of them and without wishing to steal my thunder from my next season's blog on this, it didn't get any better since then. They've won all of them.
It's enough even for me to question the genius of Martin O'Neill. When I remind XBox experts about how many trophies he's won compared to their strange love, Aitor Karanka, I often get a reply something like "well even I could win that mickey-mouse league". I always answer with incredulity, but they do have a point.
I suppose that must be one of the biggest reasons why Martin left Celtic and looked for a more challenging task back in England with Aston Villa and why Brendon Rodgers has traded the same club in for Leicester City.
Anyway, time to move on from Scottish football.
So, here's a good pub question for you:
Apart from (yawn) Celtic and (yawn) Rangers, which Scottish teams have won back to back championships? The answer lies in the tables above.
And, perhaps most surprisingly, this openness didn't seem to diminish in the years that followed. In the 2 seasons up to the end of the century no less than 10 Polish teams won the Ekstraklasa. Now to me, that's extra classy. (Sorry Dad! I shouldn't say such things, should I? Blady Poles!)
This was the table comparing 29 European Leagues from their origin until the date in question here, 1979.
Here's a snapshot of how they'd compare in the next 20 or so years up until 1999...
As you can see, things were even worse in Scotland, the second least open league in Europe for this period. The DDR went from being one of the most open leagues from 1948 until 1978, to being one of the most closed until the Berlin Wall came crashing down. Poland did well before 1978, and even better afterwards.
In this blog I'll continue from the first leg match two weeks ago that Forest won 4-1 to take a big step past Grasshopper Club Zurich. That involves a fairly big chunk of league football that had happened since (actually some before) the 1st leg tie.
After reporting on Forest's Swiss success I'll finish by adding three more countries to my ever-growing "openness" table of European Leagues - Scotland, Poland and the old DDR.
Because the blog post has been "re-purposed" from the first leg, you might want to scroll down a few pages to get to the second leg if you already read that one.
Previously: Reds Beat Saints in Game of Two Halves at Wembley to Retain the League Cup
(also previously)...
40 years ago, Forest resumed their European Cup campaign after a four month break. 126 days is a longer break than you get from the end of one season to the beginning of the next so you could forgive some fans for almost forgetting we were even still in Europe.
In this relatively short blog post, I'll discuss the 3rd Round tie with Swiss Champions, Grasshopper Club Zurich (not "Grasshoppers" as I have always referred to them before) which was in the middle of my most fanatical period of my most fanatical year of almost 50 years of being a football fan.
I want to try to answer the question that was upper-most in my mind... "why Grasshoppers?" and review the other three quarter final matches that took place. I'll continue building my review of European football league "openness" both in the past and in the years up to the end of the millennium. I plan to complete the story, bringing this analysis up to date, with its doubtless conclusion of ever increasing domination by fewer and fewer clubs, next season. Hey, you never know - maybe I'm wrong about that. Maybe the leagues are getting more open... and then again, pigs might fly!
I'll "re-purpose" the blog post a second time for the second leg in Zurich in a couple of weeks and by then I'll catch up with Forest's progress in the league as they attempted, in vain, to retain their one league championship. What I will carefully avoid here is the League Cup Final against Southampton, at Wembley. That will get it's own post on the 17th March.
Previously... Arsenal home defeat and Francis' debut at Ipswich.
Peaking Fanaticism
Looking back 40 years from here, it's hard to imagine how I could have been more fanatical about football than I am now, but the facts certainly seem to point in that direction. Certainly I went to a lot more matches than I do these days.1979 remains my peak year in terms of football match attendance. I went to 83 games that year (66 in 1978-79 and 68 in 1979-80). And of all the months of 1979, March was my top month with 12 games attended. In fact, if you throw in the last five days of February too, I went to 16 games in just 36 days.
If we rewind back to Monday, 26th February, the night Forest lost 0-1 to Arsenal in the F.A. Cup 5th Round and so just failed to reach 50 consecutive home games unbeaten in all competitions, and take that as the first of these 16 games, it was pretty hectic from then on.
There were a lot of games that had been postponed due to the freezing weather that winter, so during the mild week that followed, as spring approached, there were plenty of games to go to if you were that way inclined. And at the time, my football mad university mates and I certainly were up for a random trip to a new football ground.
I actually went to five games in six days that week, ending with Trevor Francis' full Forest debut at Ipswich Town on the Saturday, taking me up to my 53rd ground visited.
The games in between, on Tuesday, Doncaster Rovers v Huddersfield Town, on Wednesday, Chesterfield v Swindon Town and on Friday, Stockport County v Northampton Town, are sadly completely lost from my memory. I am sure my computer-brained Boro mate (called Boro, of course) would be able to tell me not only who scored and how, but probably what the fan behind us said as they did, but I am simply not up to the task.
It's a bit of an illusion though, of course - this perceived difference in fanaticism. The key factor that's changed was that in 1979 there was very little opportunity to watch a match live on TV compared to nowadays. I think I watched one (the F.A. Cup Final) or two at most that way back then. So if you wanted to watch a game live, you just had to go. Simple as that.
In the season Forest won the league and League Cup, 1977-78, I went to 53 out of 60 (over 88%) of Forest's games. That was the only way to watch any of those games and of the seven that I missed I only got to see fleeting highlights of a few of them on the TV. That was an exceptional time, though. In the season I'm covering here, 1978-79, by this time 40 years ago, I'd been to 26 out of 40 Forest games - that's 65%. Contrast that with the current season, back here in good old 2018-2019: I have actually, physically, been to only three Forest games (as I live in Australia, I think that's not too bad) but I still watch most of their games live, streamed to my PC or, if it's a big match, at that massive sports bar screens at Perth's 24 x 7 Casino. The total there comes to 32 out of 40 games - 80%. I don't make any ridiculous journeys across the country to watch Forest any more, but I quite often set my alarm to wake me up at 3 am to watch a match before getting some shut-eye before getting up the next morning. So, who is the bigger fanatic? Me then? or me now?
Anyway, I'm going to deftly skip that question and move straight onto the following Wednesday, 40 years ago, and another big European night at the City Ground.
Grasshopper Club Zurich
The quarter finals of the European Cup. Can you believe it? It would be an achievement for clubs like Spurs or Arsenal even today. And yet 40 years ago, we took it for granted as if it were nowt. How silly was that?
The opposition? Only Grasshopper Club of Zurich. So, Easy, then. Semi finals, here we come!
The opposition? Only Grasshopper Club of Zurich. So, Easy, then. Semi finals, here we come!
 |
| From Blackburn to Zurich |
 |
| Earliest Grasshopper Team Photo ca 1898 |
Frustratingly, it seems to be unknown where the "Grasshopper" name came from but one story alludes to the way their early players celebrated after scoring. So, what? they jumped up and down a lot?
They won the first Swiss championships in 1897-98 season. There were only eight team and they played in a strange grouped knock out tournament.
Within a few years, the tournament had evolved into east and west groups with ten teams. Grasshoppers won again.
They won the Swiss title three times overall in the first 13 years.
 |
| Early years, hopping down the ladder |
Bizarrely, the club withdrew from the competition for seven years - because they did not have a suitable ground to play on.
After that, because of Swiss neutrality in the two world wars, Grasshopper Zurich were to play every season without fail for 64 years, dominating the competition in the mid-late 1920s. All but two were in the Swiss top flight.
 |
| Grasshopper Team Photo 1921 |
It's bizarre to think that whilst the second world war was sweeping across Europe, to the north, south, east and west of Switzerland, life carried on with a semblance of normality in the alpine neutral state. And Grasshopper club of Zurich won the title four times in that period if you include 1939 and 1945.
 |
| Grasshopper - 4 titles in the war |
 |
| Grasshopper in 1941 (Don't mention the war) |
In 1952 Grasshopper won their 14th Swiss title and they won it again four years later but then, for them, went through a very barren period of 15 years without silverware.
 |
| Swiss Table 1951-52 |
They finally won the league again for the 16th time in 1971.
 |
| Swiss Table 1970-71 |
This started a period when Grasshopper Club would regularly represent Switzerland in European club competitions, although they never did very well until 1977-78 season, when they reached the semi-final of the UEFA Cup, failing to get to the final only on away goals from French club Bastia.
 |
| GC Zurich hopping about Europe in the 1970s. |
It was also the Season Grasshopper Club won their 17th Swiss title which, of course, qualified them for the European Cup. This was three more titles than the next best, Servette, with 14.
 |
| Swiss League (First Stage) 1977-78 |
 |
| Second Stage |
 |
| Swiss Champions 1977-78 |
 |
| Grasshopper Club's overall league record in Switzerland |
So, how did the Swiss league compare with others in terms of openness?
Well here's the full list of Swiss champions after Grasshopper won it in 1977.
 |
| Swiss Champions 1896-1978 |
So, with 17 winners in such a small league, that's a pretty open league in my book.
Here's the Swiss Pie-Chart...
And, if we add Switzerland to my growing table of European countries they are placed 8th out of 25 in terms of openness.
Grasshopper in the 1978-79 European Cup
English football cynics, especially ones who want to begrudge Forest their due credit for their European triumphs, might point out that playing AEK Athens and then Grasshopper club Zurich presented a relatively easy passage to the semi finals, but it should not be forgotten that Forest eliminated Liverpool, twice European Champions, in the first round and that the Zurich club were, themselves, having their best ever season in the European Cup having defeated Real Madrid in the previous round.Here's a reminder of how the two clubs got to the quarter finals...
They lost the first leg 3-1 in Madrid but the away goal proved crucial as they won the return leg 2-0.
The team also included a few decent players, including Raimondo Ponte (who would soon join Forest) and Claudio Sulser (scorer of their shock early goal).
 |
| Raimondo Ponte |
 |
| Claudio Sulser |
Match 312: European Cup 3rd round 1st leg, Nottingham Forest 4 Grasshopper Club Zurich 1 (City Ground 156, Nottingham Forest 240, Grasshopper 1)
So, we streamed over Trent Bridge once more for another exciting night of European Cup football, knowing that with Trevor Francis out of the reckoning until the final, both Tony Woodcock and Martin O'Neill were probables.
Forest were playing well in the league and I think it's fair to say that the vast majority of Forest fans were expecting a comfortable win.
As usual, it didn't quite turn out that way...
As usual, it didn't quite turn out that way...
Teams
There were no surprises in the line up that night and both and Tony Woodcock returned to line up alongside Garry Birtles.
1 Peter Shilton, 2 Viv Anderson, 3 Frank Clark, 4 John McGovern, 5 Larry Lloyd, 6 David Needham, 7 Martin O'Neill, 8 Archie Gemmill, 9 Garry Birtles, 10 Tony Woodcock, 11 John Robertson.
Goals: Larry Lloyd 1, Archie Gemmill 1, Garry Birtles 1, John Robertson 1 (pen.).
Grasshopers Zurich
1 Roger Berbig, 2 Roger Wehrli, 3 Heinz Hermann, 4 Francis Montandon, 5 Jonny Hey, 6 Richard Bauer, 7 Andre Meyer, 8 Kurt Eigl, 9 Claudio Sulser, 10 Raimondo Ponte, 11 Herbert Hermann.
Goals : Claudio Sulser 1.
Attendance: 31,949
Claudio Sulser gave Grasshoppers a shock lead after they'd had a bright start but Garry Birtles equalised before half time. A John Robertson penalty put Forest in front but with just three minutes remaining their 2-1 lead was not looking like it would be enough. Forest's pressure paid off though and late goals from Archie Gemmill and then Larry Lloyd crushed the spirit of the Zurich side and gave Forest one foot in the semi-finals.
Here's the proper Guardian match report...
And here are the match highlights....
Other European Cup Quarter Finals (First Legs) March 7th 1979
Here are highlights of Wisla's 2-1 win over Malmö FF.
And here's Austria Vienna's 3-1 win over Dynamo Dresden.
League Catch up
Since Forest played the first round match at the City Ground quite a lot had happened in the league which I haven't yet coveerd. In fact, there were even a few matches played before the 4-1 Grasshopper defeat that I missed, so for completion's sake, i'll quickly go through the First Division league matches up to this midweek in question.
Midweek 6th & 7th March
In the middle of the week of that first leg tie there were actually five games played in the first division.
Most notably, Everton won at Middlesbrough whilst Liverpool could only draw away at Coventry City. Birmingham raised their hopes of avoiding relegation a little by beating fellow strugglers, QPR, 3-1.
Saturday 10th
On the Saturday after the European Cup tie, Forest went to Goodison Park and earned a very creditable 1-1 draw. Garry Birtles scored for the reds, George Telfer for Everton. It was Trevor Francis' second full appearance for the reds. The same day, Boro beat Aston Villa, Leeds beat Derby and Arsenal beat Bristol City.
 |
| Trever Francis' second full appearance for Forest was at Goodison Park. |
Nottingham Forest team at Goodison Park
1 Peter Shilton, 2 Colin Barrett, 3 Ian Bowyer, 4 John McGovern, 5 Larry Lloyd, 6 David Needham, 7 Trevor Francis, 8 John O'Hare, 9 Garry Birtles, 10 Tony Woodcock, 11 John Robertson.
Goals : Colin Barrett 1.
Here's the match report. As I didn't go, this is the best idea i'd get about the game. Looks like Trevor Francis, playing in O'Neill's slot this time, didn't play too well.
As Liverpool weren't playing, Everton missed the chance to go back to the top of the league. Leeds' win put them into the top four.
As I said, I didn't go to Everton that day. The football mad crowd from Nottingham University returned to Lincoln that day, as the last time we tried to watch a game there it had been called off.
It was my first visit to Sincil Bank and the first time I'd seen Southend United play.
Match 313: Division Three, Lincoln City 1 Southend United 1 (Sincil Bank 1, Lincoln City 3, Southend United 1)
Bizarrely, a couple of my old mates from Ashfield Comprehensive, Kirkby-in-Ashfield, were there that day (at least if they weren't, they should have been). These were true football heroes - from Kirkby-in-Ashfield, Notts, but fanatical Southend United followers, home and away. Roger Marsh was the name of one of them but I can't for the life of me remember the other lad.
Why Southend? I hear you ask. It was all due to what can only be described as a love affair with a manager called Dave Smith who had worked wonders at Mansfield Town, their first club, taking from close to re-electio to winning the fourth division championship in his first season in management.
I don't know what Mansfield did to upset him but Smith went off to manage Southend United the next season (winning them promotion form the same division too a year later). Marshy & his pal decided to follow. Now that's loyalty for you, but one can't help but wonder if the Stags didn't deserve some loyalty too.
 |
| Dave Smith - Mansfield Manager (1974-76) |
Midweek 13 & 14th
The following week i went to two more games in two days, taking my recent tally up to six for the month so far.
Match 314: Division Two, Notts County 4 Sheffield United 1 (Meadow Lane 20, Notts County 28, Sheffield United 8) Attendance: 10,372
 |
| Another rearranged game |
On Wednesday, Forest played at home to Norwich City in yet another rearranged league game which was originally scheduled to be played 30th December.
It was typical of Cloughie to agree to play a league game just three days before they were due to play Southampton at Wembley in the League Cup final but once again he managed to pull it off.
Match 315: Division One, Nottingham Forest 2 Norwich City 1 (City Ground 157, Nottingham Forest 241, Norwich City 3)
Forest continued their impressive recent form since their defeat at Highbury and another win here would make it three home wins on the trot.
Trevor Francis' full home league debut again passed without him scoring but Tony Woodcock, who he'd replaced in his debut at Ipswich, seemed to take note by scoring twice. Instead, it was Martin O'Neill's turn to sit it out and watch the million pound man take his place.
Nottingham Forest
1 Peter Shilton, 2 Colin Barrett, 3 Frank Clark, 4 John McGovern, 5 Larry Lloyd, 6 David Needham, 7 Trevor Francis, 8 Archie Gemmill, 9 Garry Birtles, 10 Tony Woodcock, 11 John Robertson.
Goals: Tony Woodcock 2.
Norwich City
1 Roger Hansbury, 2 Kevin Bond, 3 Douglas Evans, 4 Mick McGuire, 5 Phil Hoadley, 6 Tony Powell, 7 Jimmy Neighbour, 8 Kevin Reeves, 9 Justin Fashanu, 10 Keith Robson, 11 Martin Peters.
Goals : Justin Fashanu 1.
Attendance: 24,046
Saturday 17th - While we were at Wembley
So, three days after that Forest played at Wembley to win the League Cup for the second year running.
Click above to see the blog about that.
There wasn't a full first division league programme but a few games were played.
Here are some highlights of Bristol City's draw with Middlesbrough...
And here's QPR's 3-1 win at Stamford Bridge...
The table looked like this at the end of the day, with Forest joining a pack of six clubs pulling away from the rest.
Garry Birtles was now 5th in the First Division top scorers table and we had three players in the top 17.
Forest found themselves top of the current (last 3 home/away) table for the first time since last season. Liverpool, unfortunately, were on very good form themselves, though, and were about to get even better.
Still, enjoy this table while you can - the composite one for both 1977-78 & 1978-79. Forest still lead but for how much longer?
So, four days after a fantastic, joyous return to Wembley to see Forest retain the League Cup I was up for my first ever European away match, the return leg against Grasshopper Club Zürich.
And here's QPR's 3-1 win at Stamford Bridge...
The table looked like this at the end of the day, with Forest joining a pack of six clubs pulling away from the rest.
Garry Birtles was now 5th in the First Division top scorers table and we had three players in the top 17.
Forest found themselves top of the current (last 3 home/away) table for the first time since last season. Liverpool, unfortunately, were on very good form themselves, though, and were about to get even better.
Still, enjoy this table while you can - the composite one for both 1977-78 & 1978-79. Forest still lead but for how much longer?
So, four days after a fantastic, joyous return to Wembley to see Forest retain the League Cup I was up for my first ever European away match, the return leg against Grasshopper Club Zürich.
To Zürich, To Zürich...
I've been to 62 countries today, as I write this - that's three under par, according to the bucket list mantra "one new country for every age of your life", as I'm currently 59 years old.
I was definitely a slow starter when it comes to travelling and this would be only the 5th trip abroad in my life. The first was a school skiing holiday to the Tyrol in Austria from Ashfield Comp in the winter of 1973. Then, in '74 I went over to see my Germany relatives in Nuremberg which just happened to coincide with the World Cup there. My uncle took me to three games. The third was a bizarre day trip to Amsterdam and my fourth trip was a lads stag do in Calais. That was a classy trip, that was. We drove down from Kirkby to Dover, parked the car in a multi-story, got the ferry over to France (only just) and then went on a pub crawl and then came back.
 |
| Les gars en tournée. Pardon! |
"What worit like?"
"We showed t'locals ow to sup ale!"
I can only say, I was thoroughly ashamed of myself. But it did pass, and no doubt sooner than it should.
Hardly a man of the world then!
 |
| Switzerland was my 7th country visited |
I went to Zürich on the bus. I think it was a Butler's bus from Cookson Street, Kirkby, the street of my first house, but I might be wrong. It might have been a Barton's.
It was a bloody long way, that's for sure. I can't remember when we set off but according to google it's 13.5 hour drive these days. Probably a few hours longer then. The drivers (surely there were two of them) must started our journey in the middle of the night as we did arrive quite early before the match.
It was a bloody long way, that's for sure. I can't remember when we set off but according to google it's 13.5 hour drive these days. Probably a few hours longer then. The drivers (surely there were two of them) must started our journey in the middle of the night as we did arrive quite early before the match.
It's amazing how little regard people had for taking photos in those days. here I was, on my first football away trip to Europe ever and these are all the photos I took.
If you look at any of my football travel blogs you'll see this is woefully inadequate. What was I thinking? Not one at the match or even outside the ground. I am thoroughly ashamed of myself!!
 |
| Zürich |
 |
| Zürich See |
 |
| Zürich's Quaibrucke |
 |
| Me in Zürich... somewhere |
The Programme
I cannot believe that I didn't buy a programme and the image below does look familiar but I must have lost it years ago because I have no trace of it in my collection.
 |
| I lost my copy somewhere |
Anyway, it's not just the programme I've lost. Practically all my memories of the whole thing have gone too. So sad.
The Teams
Peter Traber came in for Bauer for Grasshopper, whereas Colin Barrett replaced Frank Clark for Forest from the first leg.
Club Grasshoper of Zürich
1 Roger Berbig, 2 Roger Wehrli, 3 Heinz Hermann, 4 Francis Montandon, 5 Jonny Hey, 6 Richard Bauer, 7 Peter Traber, 8 Kurt Eigl, 9 Claudio Sulser, 10 Raimondo Ponte, 11 Herbert Hermann.
Goals: Claudio Sulser 1 (pen.).
Nottingham Forest
1 Peter Shilton, 2 Viv Anderson, 3 Colin Barrett, 4 John McGovern, 5 Larry Lloyd, 6 David Needham, 7 Martin O'Neill, 8 Archie Gemmill, 9 Garry Birtles, 10 Tony Woodcock, 11 John Robertson.
Goals : Martin O'Neill 1.
Attendance: 17,800
Forest have a hard time at the Hardturm
It certainly wasn't an easy passage and Forest must have been thankful for those two late goals at the City ground in the first leg.Here's the Guardian report...
Anyway, thankfully there is, a video clip of the first 15 minutes of the match that has been uploaded so I can appreciate the start of this quarter final second leg as much as anyone else.
Pas trop mal!
And here's another quick clip of the two goals. Is it just me or was the penalty given against Viv Anderson a bit harsh? I enjoyed reliving the the tenacity of Martin O'Neill for the quick equaliser though.
We did set off for Kirkby straight after the match. I find that incredible too. What? Not even a bevv stop? I honestly don't think we did. A place in the European Cup semi-final clearly erased any misery suffered on that journey.
Just before hopping away from the subject of the Swiss champions, let's just take a peek into the future (from a 1979 perspective) of the Swiss league. Did it get more dominated by fewer clubs like most leagues?
The short answer is "yes" but not as much as elsewhere.
 |
| Swiss champtions 1979-1999 |
 |
| Swiss Pie dominated by Grasshopper |
Das andere Viertelfinale
The quarter finals this year did have a distinct germanic look to them. Both East and West Germany had their champions in the last eight along with German speaking Austria and the Swiss champions, also from a predominantly German speaking part of the country. Only one of the four would progress to the semi finals though.
The same night I was in Switzerland, three other ties were due to take place across Europe to decide the last four. In the end the one in Glasgow had to be postponed due to five inches of snow on the pitch. Remarkably the game was played the very next night instead.
The same night I was in Switzerland, three other ties were due to take place across Europe to decide the last four. In the end the one in Glasgow had to be postponed due to five inches of snow on the pitch. Remarkably the game was played the very next night instead.
Dynamo Dresden 1 Austria Vienna 0
Any Vienna fans would have had a much easier journey to their away leg than we did. Only a 5 and a half hour drive for them.
 |
| Vienna to Dresden was probably not so easy to do in 1979 as it is today. |
Dynamo Dresden's 1-0 win was not enough to overturn Austria Vienna's 3-0 lead from the first leg and so the Austrians went through to the semi finals.
Malmö FF 4 Wisla Krakow 1
I can't imagine many Polish fans drove from Krakow to Malmö that day either but if they did they'd have had a similarly long journey as we did.
In the final tie the Swedish champions swept away the Polish title winners 4-1 to win through 5-2 on aggregate.
And so, onto the final tie, played on Thursday night...
Glasgow Rangers 1 FC Köln 1
43,000 packed into Ibrox to witness what must have been an exciting night of European action. I suspect many traveled from Germany but I wonder how many went by road.
 |
| It's a long way to Glasgow from Cologne |
Imagine driving all that way only to be told the match had been called off. Maybe that was why the game was played the very next night - so the fans that had made the journey could stay and enjoy the delights of Glasgow.
Köln were leading just 1-0 from the first leg so Rangers fans must have believed they had a chance to emulate Celtic's European success of 1967 in Lisbon. But a Deiter Muller goal just after half time put the game beyond reach despite a late equaliser from McLean, so Cologne went through to the semi finals.
Here's the match report...
The semi final would pair Forest with probably the toughest team left in the tournament, the German champions, FC Köln (or Cologne). So Malmö would face Austria Vienna in the other.
On the same page, David Lacy gave an upbeat account of Forest's chances of winning the trophy...
The semi final would pair Forest with probably the toughest team left in the tournament, the German champions, FC Köln (or Cologne). So Malmö would face Austria Vienna in the other.
On the same page, David Lacy gave an upbeat account of Forest's chances of winning the trophy...
Three more European leagues to analyse for "Openness"
I need to end this post by adding the three defeated teams' national leagues to my growing analysis of openness of European Leagues both pre 1978 and until the end of the century.
Scotland - League of the Old Firm
So, this year it was Rangers, and not Celtic, representing Scotland in the European Cup. As I am about to do this bit of research, my gut is telling me, as I'm sure it would anyone, that these two clubs are going to dominate the league massively. Let's see, shall we?
 |
| Rangers' team picture a few months later |
Rangers' manager, John Grieg had replaced Jock Wallace the previous May, who had been very successful at Rangers. Wallace had ended Celtic's nine year reign as Scottish champions and won the treble twice, including the season that propelled them into this European Cup. Wallace had also won the European cup Winners Cup with Rangers in 1972. Unfortunately this was a record Grieg could not emulate.
 |
| Jock Wallace's treble winners |
That was Ranger's 36th Scottish Championship win, putting them six ahead of Celtic at the time.
Here's the full honours board as it looked at that time...
 |
| A wee bit dominated by the "Old Firm" |
The Scottish Pie is how you'd imagine it: Take away the big two and the rest of the slices make up only 17% of the cake.
 |
| Not many crumbs for the "others" in the first 80 seasons |
It didn't change much in the next twenty odd years until the end of the century either.
Of the next 22 Scottish titles, Rangers picked up 12 and Celtic 6 of them, leaving just four for "the others". By the end of the 1970s and early 80s, a new "kid" on the block, called Alex Ferguson, was doing the unthinkable at Aberdeen - a team not in the old firm winning three titles in six seasons.
In fact for eight years, Rangers are nowhere to be seen on the Scottish Championship list.
Here's an odd-looking table for seasons 1978-79 through to 1985-86...
 |
| Not a Ranger in sight |
But, as if to teach Scottish football fans the way it should be done, Rangers would win ten of the next eleven titles, including a nine-in-a-row sequence to match Celtic's in the late 60s and early 70s.
So, overall, the Scottish championship pie up to the end of the century from this (1978-79) season looks very familiar (with the odd addition of Aberdeen and Dundee United in there.)
Honestly, how boring it must be to be a football fan in Scotland. I am sick of the Premier League these days with it's yawning divide between the "have millions" and the "have billions" and the dreaded inevitability that every season it's the "have billions" that fill the top six places, almost automatically (yes, yes, I remember Leicester City). But the Scottish league has ALWAYS been far worse than this. Apart from those eight years listed above, there has never been such a long period when one of the "Old Firm" teams didn't win the league. Of the 102 Scottish titles up until 1999-2000, a Glasgow team has won 85 of them and without wishing to steal my thunder from my next season's blog on this, it didn't get any better since then. They've won all of them.
It's enough even for me to question the genius of Martin O'Neill. When I remind XBox experts about how many trophies he's won compared to their strange love, Aitor Karanka, I often get a reply something like "well even I could win that mickey-mouse league". I always answer with incredulity, but they do have a point.
I suppose that must be one of the biggest reasons why Martin left Celtic and looked for a more challenging task back in England with Aston Villa and why Brendon Rodgers has traded the same club in for Leicester City.
Anyway, time to move on from Scottish football.
So, here's a good pub question for you:
Apart from (yawn) Celtic and (yawn) Rangers, which Scottish teams have won back to back championships? The answer lies in the tables above.
DDR (Deutsche Demokratische Republik) or The German Democratic (hahaha!) Republic
East Germany was a weird thing for the 41 years it lasted. I'm not going to get into the politics and history of it all but suffice to say that when i visited East Berlin in 1985 on my way back from Sweden it was a very strange experience indeed - like going back 50 years to the time of the war.
I'd participated in a big protest called "The Baltic Peace and freedom Cruise" which was basically a boat trip to taunt the Kremlin. The Soviet Union had been put on trial in Copenhagen for its illegal occupation of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia and our boat then sailed from the Danish capital along the Baltic Sea coast of what was then the occupied Baltic States, to finally stop in Helsinki where we tried to march (unsuccessfully) the obscenely large Russian embassy there. (I did my bit to put that right last summer!). After that we sailed to Stockholm for a Baltic dance festival.
Here's the BBC Documentary (40 Minutes) called "Cry for Home" produced by Richard Lightbody that describes the whole thing.
I decided to go back home to England via East Berlin. I caught a train from Stockholm, to Malmö (ironically) and then caught a ferry across to the port of Rostock.
I'd participated in a big protest called "The Baltic Peace and freedom Cruise" which was basically a boat trip to taunt the Kremlin. The Soviet Union had been put on trial in Copenhagen for its illegal occupation of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia and our boat then sailed from the Danish capital along the Baltic Sea coast of what was then the occupied Baltic States, to finally stop in Helsinki where we tried to march (unsuccessfully) the obscenely large Russian embassy there. (I did my bit to put that right last summer!). After that we sailed to Stockholm for a Baltic dance festival.
Here's the BBC Documentary (40 Minutes) called "Cry for Home" produced by Richard Lightbody that describes the whole thing.
I decided to go back home to England via East Berlin. I caught a train from Stockholm, to Malmö (ironically) and then caught a ferry across to the port of Rostock.
 |
| My 1985 trip to East Berlin |
Arriving at the port and getting onto the train felt like we'd gone back in time. Everything was dark and there were soldiers with rifles everywhere. As the train crawled across the country I peered out on the relatively drab communist state's countryside before pulling into the big old station in Berlin.
I think I only stayed there a few hours but I remember all the sad looking shops and the crappy old soviet style cars. It was truly bizarre that, as a UK passport holder, I was allowed to go on the underground and get off in West Berlin to do whatever I wanted. I think I caught the train back to England from West Berlin - an island of freedom surrounded by a large prison that was East Germany.
Anyway, wasn't this supposed to be about football?
The current East German champions were from Dresden, in the south of the state, near the Czechoslovak border.
At the time Dynamo Dresden were the joint top team in East Germany as this was sixth title win putting them alongside Vorwaerts Berlin, who's also won six.
So, the DDR had a pretty open league at the time, although it's probably not right to suggest that this was due to any liberal openness of the football league in those days. I suspect someone from the Stasi might notice if you were supporting a team against Dynamo a little too vociferously.
And look at the club names... "Chemie" "Turbine", "Motor". A bit "industrial" shall we say? I don't think there was much freedom in local communities deciding on what they wanted their teams to be called, or how they were run..
Did I say "open"? Well that was all about to change. The DDR, of course, didn't make it until the end of the century. As soon as the wall came down, well, so-to-speak, the writing was on the wall for the German "Democratic" Republic as the people there started voting with their feet.
But before those tumultuous events that those who watched (on TV or there) will never forget, there would still be another 13 "editions' of the Oberliga and all but three of them were won by Dynamo Berlin.
Oh well, good riddance to that.
I think I only stayed there a few hours but I remember all the sad looking shops and the crappy old soviet style cars. It was truly bizarre that, as a UK passport holder, I was allowed to go on the underground and get off in West Berlin to do whatever I wanted. I think I caught the train back to England from West Berlin - an island of freedom surrounded by a large prison that was East Germany.
Anyway, wasn't this supposed to be about football?
The current East German champions were from Dresden, in the south of the state, near the Czechoslovak border.
 |
| Dynamo Dresden DDR Oberliga Meister 1978 |
 |
| Dresden win the league in 1978 |
At the time Dynamo Dresden were the joint top team in East Germany as this was sixth title win putting them alongside Vorwaerts Berlin, who's also won six.
So, the DDR had a pretty open league at the time, although it's probably not right to suggest that this was due to any liberal openness of the football league in those days. I suspect someone from the Stasi might notice if you were supporting a team against Dynamo a little too vociferously.
And look at the club names... "Chemie" "Turbine", "Motor". A bit "industrial" shall we say? I don't think there was much freedom in local communities deciding on what they wanted their teams to be called, or how they were run..
Did I say "open"? Well that was all about to change. The DDR, of course, didn't make it until the end of the century. As soon as the wall came down, well, so-to-speak, the writing was on the wall for the German "Democratic" Republic as the people there started voting with their feet.
But before those tumultuous events that those who watched (on TV or there) will never forget, there would still be another 13 "editions' of the Oberliga and all but three of them were won by Dynamo Berlin.
Oh well, good riddance to that.
Polska
The last of the three exiting countries (I covered Grasshoppers earlier for the first leg, remember) is Poland.
Being of Lithuanian descent i always have felt close to Poland and Polish people. When I was too embarassed to have the conversation about my name at school I'd often say "it's like Poland". My dad had quite a few Polish friends although, being a strong Lithuanian patriot he always felt obliged to bad mouth them to me at every opportunity. I guess it's a bit like being a Forest fan - it comes with the territory that you have to hate Derby. Being fair minded and reasonable to those "sheep shaggers" just doesn't make you look like a proper Forest fan. So, I assume, it was with Lithuanian nationalists after the war. After all Pulsudski did take our capital, Vilnius away (never mind that 95% of the people living there at the time were Polish and wanted it to happen).
Anyway... football.
The champions representing Poland in the European Cup this season was Wisla Krakow.
Anyway... football.
The champions representing Poland in the European Cup this season was Wisla Krakow.
I spent a few days in Krakow (as did the England team) in the 2012 European Championship. What a beautiful city it is too.
 |
| Wisla Krakow - Ekstraklassa winners 1977-1978 |
This was Wisla Krakow's 5th title, putting them clear 3rd behind Ruch Churzow and Gornik Zabrze.
So, the Polish league really was pretty open for its first 44 years. 12 different champions in four decades is pretty good by my books.
And, perhaps most surprisingly, this openness didn't seem to diminish in the years that followed. In the 2 seasons up to the end of the century no less than 10 Polish teams won the Ekstraklasa. Now to me, that's extra classy. (Sorry Dad! I shouldn't say such things, should I? Blady Poles!)
 |
| Lots of slices in the polish Pie |
European Open League Championship Update
OK so that completes my update to the European leagues in 1978. Adding three more to the list is interesting. The DDR was actually the second most open league in Europe. Poland weren't as high placed as I thought they'd be but no surprise with (yawn) Scotland. Only Greece and Portugal are more dominated by few clubs.
Here's a snapshot of how they'd compare in the next 20 or so years up until 1999...
As you can see, things were even worse in Scotland, the second least open league in Europe for this period. The DDR went from being one of the most open leagues from 1948 until 1978, to being one of the most closed until the Berlin Wall came crashing down. Poland did well before 1978, and even better afterwards.
(From the first leg) - Next to Wembley to see Forest beat Southampton
(From the second leg) - Semi-final at home to 1FC Cologne
Comments
Post a Comment