Ian Bowyer - hero of England!!! Well, he was certainly the hero of every Forest fan, on this day, forty years ago as our team represented England in the European Cup semi-final. His stooping headed goal in the 65th stunned the majority of the home supporters in the Müngersdorfer Stadion, Köln and sent five thousand or so of us Forest fans, who had made the trip to watch, into an ecstatic craze. It just seemed too good to be true. The German champions had terrorised us with their lightning pace on the counter-attack in Nottingham two weeks earlier, going into an early 2-0 lead and then, finally equalising, overturning our own valiant comeback to lead 3-2, through their Japanese substitute, Yasuhiko Okudera. Even among the ranks of the Forest faithful, few truly believed Brain Clough's seemingly reckless sneer in the post-match interview "I hope nobody's stupid enough to write us off", would end well.
So... To Munich, To Munich... tra-laaa laa la-la-la-la-la, tra-laaa la-la-la-la!!!
But first, in this blog, I want to pay my tribute to the unsung hero of Forest's most fantastic period of their history: Mr Versatile himself, Ian Bowyer. As has often been the case, at the time I took it all for granted and didn't realise how remarkable a thing I was witnessing. This is certainly true of our "Bomber" Bowyer. How many positions did he play in? How many appearances did he make? All will be revealed.
I will also catch up on what was going on in the First Division since the first leg drama at the City Ground. Forest's form continued to sparkle but, unfortunately for us, so did Liverpool's, despite a setback at Villa Park. There's some great footage of a Forest victory over our Ram rivals at the Baseball Ground which started an incredibly hectic Easter programme where Forest played four games in just eight days - great preparation that, for a European Cup semi final!!
Forest had been a little unlucky to draw twice European Champions, Liverpool, in the first round of the tournament and now they had been paired with the German Champions, surely the toughest draw, of the semi finals. I'll take a look at the other match that went on that night, in Sweden: Malmö v Austria Wein and, as the Austrian Champions were eliminated, I'll take a brief look at their history and that of the Austrian League itself - a much longer one than the Bundesliga.
The "EurOpen" League (a statistical table showing the relative 'openness' of the 33 European football championships) will be updated with the Austrian league pre-1978 and then both the Bundesliga and the Austrian league up until 2000. The general trend towards leagues being dominated by fewer clubs certainly continued here.
After our trip to Germany, we 'll return to Nottingham - and Forest's big league clash with Liverpool at the City Ground which happened just three days later. This was the last time a crowd of over 40,000 packed into the City Ground - perhaps forever - so I'll say a sad farewell to big crowds at the City Ground.
Finally, catching right up to date, I report on the amazing Easter resurrection of Martin O'Neill. as Forest manager. After a run of four straight league defeats, even my faith in "the man" was wobbling. But, as I write this, with our sparkling 3-0 (it could have easily been 7-0) victory over promotion chasing Middlesbrough still buzzing in my mind, all is well on that front.
Previously: Forest 3 1FC Cologne 3
Ian Bowyer comes from the Wirral, being born in Little Sutton, near Ellesmere Port on 6th June 1951. But I can't find out anything else about his early years. He must have been a brilliant footballer at school though, because he was whisked off to sign terms with Manchester City as a youngster.
City, at the time were one of the top clubs in England. They'd won the First Division in 1967-68 and the F.A. Cup the season after. These were the "proper" City glory days of Joe Mercer and Malcolm Allison. (And not the greedy infinitely rich oil money days we're in right now.)
Ian Bowyer made his debut for City in the First Division at Newcastle 16th November 1968 aged just over 17. Newcastle won 1-0. He would make another two appearances that season and even scored a goal but I couldn't find any record of who that was against. Manchester City won the F.A. Cup that season. They beat Leicester City 1-0 in the final, but Bowyer didn't play.
1969-70 season was an incredible first full one for Bowyer. As an 18 year old, he made 33 full appearances in the first division and came on a substitute once. He scored 12 league goals.
Finishing in the top half of the first division is an achievement in itself but Manchester City really excelled themselves in the cups. In the League Cup, Ian Bowyer was a regular in their cup run, and scored two goals on the way to a pulsating two-legged semi-final against local rivals Manchester United. Like last night (here in 2019) City scored two at Old Trafford in the second leg, but unlike last night United did too. But as City had won the first leg 2-1 they went through to the final 4-3 on aggregate.
So, Ian Bowyer went to Wembley in his first full season as a pro in 1970...
They won the trophy beating West Bromwich Albion 2-1. Bowyer came on as substitute for Mike Summerbee and so experienced Wembley glory just 16 months after making his league debut.
In those early days Ian Bowyer always wore the No 11 or the No 10 shirt.
Here's some highlights of the match...
The League Cup wasn't the only silverware heading for Maine Road that season. Fresh from their F.A. Cup success against Leicester City, they represented England in the European Cup Winners Cup.
Ian Bowyer played his part int hat cup run too. In the first round City overcame Atletico Bilbao. They earned a 3-3 draw away, Bowyer playing at No 11. Then they won the home leg 3-0 in which Ian Bowyer scored.
Bowyer figured in both 2nd round games too as they brushed Belgian Cup Winners, Lierse SK, aside easily, winning 3-0 away and 5-0 at home, but Ian didn't manage to get his name on the scoresheet that time.
Manchester City overcame Academia of Portugal in the quarter finals, drawing 0-0 away and getting a 1-0 at home, a tie Bowyer missed out on completely, as he did the semi-final clash against the West German Cup winners, Schalke 04. City overcame a 1-0 away deficit to win through 5-2 on aggregate to get to the final against Gornik Zabrze, in Vienna.
Bowyer wasn't in the starting eleven but did come on as substitute early in the 23rd minute for the injured Mike Doyle. So he played in most of the 1970 Cup Winners Cup Final, which City won 2-1.
Here is the match in full. Amazing to see how the referee deals with Doyle's injury around the 20th minute mark. Gets the (very short) physio to literally carry Doyle off the pitch for treatment so that the game can carry on. We could do with a bit more of that these days, I think!
What a great start to his career then: Two cup finals, two trophies, two medals.
After such a brilliant career start, the next season, 1970-71, must have been a bit of a comedown for Bowyer. He only made 13 appearances altogether (including 6 as sub and one in the cup.) He added Nos 7, 8, & 9 to his collection of shirts worn. Six down, six to go (assuming subs always wore 12 in those days.) He didn't score in the league but did score in the F.A. Cup.
City finished half way in the league again, but qualified for Europe once more (as Cup Winners Cup Winners.) Bowyer came on as substitute at Linfield in the 1st Round second leg (Man City drew 2-2 to go through 3-2 on aggregate) and he came on as substitute at home to Gornik Zabrze in the quarter final second leg at Maine Road but didn't take part in the all-English semi-final against Chelsea, which Chelsea won.
Bowyer's last game for Manchester City was at home to Spurs. They lost 0-1 on May 1st 1971.
Events took a turn for the worse for Ian after that. Dramatic events behind the scenes at Manchester City were stirring and a new kid on the block, Peter Swales, was leading a take over bid of the board at the club. The current managerial pair of Joe Mercer and Malcom Alisson fell out over the matter and backed different sides of the dispute. Mercer favoured the existing board, Allison went with Peter Swales and the new lot. To cut a long story short, Swales won and Mercer arrived at the ground to find his car park slot and office had been removed. The manager's job had been promised to Malcom Allison.
It would seem that Malcolm Allison just didn't rate Ian Bowyer, so he was sold off.
So, Bowyer's brilliant start to his professional football career at this point read - Manchester City (1968-1971) 49 league appearances, 13 goals. 57 appearances altogether. One League Cup medal and one Cup Winners cup medal.
Anyway, if it was bad business for Malcolm Allison, it was bravo to Gordon Petchey, the Orient manager at the time.
Ian was an ever present in his first season, playing in all 42 second division games (all at No 11) and ended up their top scorer with 14 goals. His debut was at Oxford United on 14th August 1971, Orient drew 1-1. In his first game at Brisbane Road, he scored a hat-trick in their 4-1 win over Cardiff City. He also played in both League Cup games against Notts County that season.
Orient were second division strugglers at the time but they did enjoy a great F.A. Cup run in Bowyer's first season there. Again, Ian was an ever-present.
Orient beat Wrexham 3-0 in the 3rd round with one from "Bomber". Then, they won 2-0 at Leicester City, newly promoted to the first division, in the 4th, Bowyer scoring again. In the 5th round Orient played in a classic F.A. Cup match beating London rivals Chelsea 3-2.
Here are the highlights of that match...
Alas, other London rivals, Arsenal, beat them in the quarter finals at Brisbane Road 0-1 to end their glory.
The next season, 1972-73, Ian Bowyer played 33 times + 3 substitutions and scored just 4 goals. These couldn't have been happy times for Ian as Orient struggled against relegation.
As Forest had been relegated from the First Division by then, they played Orient twice that season. The match at the City Ground was on 2nd December 1972. Forest won 2-1. The return match, which Orient won 3-0, was played the following April. Ironically, Bowyer missed both games.
So, altogether Bowyer made 49 appearances for Orient - scoring 16 goals. His career, after such a promising start, didn't seem to be blossoming as he must have hoped. It was time for another move and in the close season, Ian Bowyer was snapped up by Nottingham Forest manager, Allan Brown, again for about £25,000.
The first time I saw him was at home to Bristol Rovers F.A. Cup 3rd Round, Sunday 6th January 1974. Forest won 4-3. The second time was that match again - against his old club Manchester City in the 4th Round. As I said earlier, Bowyer scored two but few noticed as McKenzie's magic cast a spell on everyone who saw the game.
Imagine how good that win must have felt for him. I didn't, at the time!
In those early days for Forest, Bowyer always played No 11 and out wide on the left, so the song that the Trent End sang about him didn't take much working out...
"Ian, Ian Bowyer. Ian Bowyer on the wing!
Ian, Ian Bowyer. Ian Bowyer on the wing!"
The third time I saw Bowyer was against runaway Second Division leaders, Middlesbrough. Forest were on fire in those days and ran out 5-1 winners. Bowyer scored another that day, making it three goals in three games in front of me.
The cup run continued with Forest edging past Portsmouth in the 5th Round with a Duncan McKenzie penalty to earn us a place in the F.A. Cup quarter finals, one of the most dramatic games I'd ever see.
I've covered this game before but I can't resist showing the highlights once more here. Ian Bowyer scored again but it was all to no avail as the Geordies cheated their way to that infamous 4-3 "victory" at St James' Park after thousands of Newcastle fans poured onto the pitch from the Leazes End to get the game stopped after Forest went 3-1 up. Of course, the game was ordered to be replayed at Goodson Park, Everton, and was drawn 0-0. But then the F. A. fatefully decided that the game should again be played on Merseyside, and not Nottingham where it rightfully should have been played. Malcom MacDonald got the only goal to send them through to the semi finals, and ultimately the final v Liverpool, after beating Burnley. Boo!!
I saw Forest 13 times that season and Bowyer played in all but one of them.
Early the next season, 1974-75, I am pretty sure that I saw Ian Bowyer take over in goal at the Manor Ground, home of Oxford United as Forest won 1-0 with a late goal from George Lyall. Regular goalie, John Middleton must have taken a knock so, with no goalie on the bench in those days, one of the outfield players had to step in, and I am pretty sure it was Bomber. I am hesitant because my memory isn't great, as any reader will know, and because my Rothmans' doesn't corroborate this story. In my defence, I have heard from other Forest fans independently who say the same thing. So, assuming the story is true, that's another position covered. Seven shirts taken, five to go.
In the 1975-76 season, Ian Bowyer was Forest's top scorer (albeit only with 13 goals), another claim to his name.
As I've reported in these pages over the last two years, Bowyer was played in some odd positions, including left back and right back as well as a defensive midfield player, so he wore No 2,3, 4 and 6 too, almost completing the set. The only shirt I think Bowyer didn't wear was No 5, but I would be very happy to be corrected on that.
The rest of the Ian Bowyer story at Forest has either been told through these blog pages, or is due to be written next season, so I'll fast forward now to when he left the club in 1981.
After 211 league appearances for Forest (scoring 49 goals), at the start of 1981, Bowyer was sold off to Sunderland. The move surprised us as he was such a piece of the furniture by then.
Bowyer only made six more appearances for the "Black Cats" at the start of the next season before returning to play under Brian Clough almost exactly one year after he'd left.
His 15th (and last) appearance for Sunderland was away at Brighton & Hove Albion, wearing the No 9 shirt. Sunderland lost 2-1.
Ian Bowyer's second spell at Forest was not as successful as his first but he was just as dependable. From 1982 until 1987 he made 205 league appearances and scored 19 goals. Four of his six most appearances per season were made in his second spell with the club.
"Bomber's" last game for Forest was against Norwich City at home on 20th April 1987. It was a 1-1 draw. Nigel Clough scored. In that final season he made 34 league appearances (+4 League cup) for us, scoring 3 goals, and always played at No. 6.
So, Ian Bowyer ended up making 509 appearances for Forest altogether (including subs and cups) scoring 91 goals.
It's natural that anyone who'd played under Brian Clough would want to have a go at management themselves and Ian Bowyer was one of a string of Forest legends that tried their hand at managing a club. Of course, no-one should be in any doubt as to which of the bunch has done best there. It's yer man himself, Martin O'Neill.
Bowyer went to Edgar Street as player manager and made his debut on August 15th 1987 at home to Rochdale. They drew 0-0. Ian made 40 appearances, and scored one goal, that season. It's interesting to note that, as manager, Bowyer, got to choose the position, and shirt number he preferred - it was in midfield and he wore number eight.
Next season Bowyer made another 28 appearances and scored one goal against Scarborough in Div 4. This was Bowyer's 600th league appearance (including substitutions) and, for once, he made the headlines, locally at least, for doing so that night...
On 23rd September 1987 Hereford United drew Nottingham Forest in the League Cup and played them over two legs. Bowyer was philosophical about the prospect. Here he is talking about the match, the step into management and the step down from the first to the fourth division...
Forest, as one would expect, gave Hereford a bit of a thrashing and won 5-0 at the City Ground in front of 11,617. Neil Webb scored two. Franz Carr, Nigel Clough and Paul Wilkinson scored the others. The 2nd leg at Edgar Street ended 1-1 in front of 3,905, Nigel Clough scoring for Forest. Ian Bowyer didn't play.
The 1988-89 season was the last that "Bomber" would play league football in. He made 5 appearances and brought himself on as sub 4 times.
His last start in the first team in the league was away at Peterborough United on 22nd October 1988. Hereford lost 2-1. Bomber last graced a football league match a few weeks later on 7th November 1988 when he cam on as a substitute in the 1-0 defeat at Tranmere Rovers, just nine days shy of exactly 20 years after his debut.
So, Ian Bowyer made 589 league appearances in total. Including 39 substitutions, that takes him to 629 altogether. He scored 102 league goals. If you throw in cup appearances too, the total passes 700, at 715 with 131 goals.
Apart from the season 1979-80, oddly, that is a pretty solid career.
Forest fans should appreciate that "Bomber" was a true Red, as 72% of his time was spent at the club.
With his playing career over, Bowyer continued as a manager at Hereford United for a while and even brought the club some very rare success when they won the Welsh Cup in 1990.
Here are the highlights...
Ian Bowyer played his son Gary Bowyer 14 times for Hereford, but bizarrely refused to get him to sign professional terms so after a bust up with the club's board of directors, he was sacked.
Bowyer had a brief spell with John Robertson (Martin O'Neill had left for Wycombe Wanderers by then) at Grantham Town for the 1990-91 season. Apparently he played 9 games and scored 1 goal. He played alongside former Norwich and Coventry midfielder Mick McGuire for a couple of games. (Thanks to Andy Sutton of the Football Historians Research Group for supplying that information.)
Ian also spent some time as assistant to Peter Shilton at Plymouth in 1994 and with Archie Gemmill at Rotherham United in 1996. He even returned to Forest as a coach in 2002 for a time.
In 2006 Bowyer joined Paul Hart at Rushden & Diamonds as assistant and his final bit of professional football work seems to have been a spell as a scout at Portsmouth.
So, thank you, Ian Bowyer. You never got the accolades you deserved. You were always Mr Dependable and Mr Vesatile, playing in practically every position on the pitch.
I haven't analysed every single team Bowyer played in, but just going from his first spell at Forest, Bowyer played in every position but one. I don't think he ever wore the No 5 shirt.
And, of course, on the occasion of this particular anniversary, let's not forget his impressive goals tally, and that one in particular that was scored at the Müngersdorfer Stadium.
So, let's now get back to 1979 and the run up to the second leg, after that pulsating 3-3 draw at the City Ground.
Saturday, 14th April 1979, Match 324: Division One
Three days after the 3-3 draw with the German Champions, we had another massive game - the Derby derby at the Baseball Ground. It was another great day out for Forest fans, although, to be fair, we were a bit lucky to win in the end.
Here are the teams. Ian Bowyer made his 157th appearance for the club that day.
Derby County
1 David McKeller, 2 David Langan, 3 Steve Buckley, 4 Vic Moreland, 5 David Webb, 6 Steve Wicks, 7 Steve Carter, 8 Steve Powell, 9 Roy Greenwood, 10 Paul Emson, 11 Andy Crawford.
Goals: David Webb 1.
Nottingham Forest
1 Peter Shilton, 2 Viv Anderson, 3 Frank Clark, 4 Ian Bowyer, 5 David Needham, 6 Kenny Burns, 7 Martin O'Neill, 8 Trevor Francis, 9 Garry Birtles, 10 Tony Woodcock, 11 John Robertson, 12 Frank Clark.
Goals : Martin O'Neill 1, Garry Birtles 1.
And the match report that lamented the lack of grass on the Derby mud bath.
See for yourself with these great match highlights...
Unfortunately for Forest, Liverpool also won that day to keep themselves well established at the top of the table. West Brom were faltering though and so Forest caught up with them a little.
Monday, 16th April 1979, Match 325: Division One
Nottingham Forest
1 Peter Shilton, 2 Viv Anderson, 3 Frank Clark, 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.
Leeds United
1 David Harvey, 2 Kevin Hird, 3 Frank Gray, 4 Brian Flynn, 5 Paul Hart, 6 Trevor Cherry, 7 Carl Harris, 8 Peter Hampton, 9 John Hawley, 10 Paul Madeley, 11 Arthur Graham.
Attendance: 37,395
Here's the match report.
It was a shame as Liverpool slipped up at Villa Park, only their fourth defeat of the season. Unfortunately for Forest, it would be their last. In fact, Liverpool would go on to win six of their last eight games after this.
Chelsea were leaking goals again. This time they conceded five at Highbury. This was their fourth straight defeat and they'd now lost all but two of their last 13 league games, conceding 33 goals. It was the defeat that sent them back to the second division after a two year spell in the top flight. They would stay in the second division for the next five seasons.
Here's the Villa v Liverpool match report.
The point against Leeds did put Forest closer to Liverpool but the gap was still seven points. Everton's win over Bolton meant that they leapfrogged us into third place.
The form (last 3 home/away) teams were Ipswich Town and Middlesbrough but Forest were up there too.
And after these results Forest were back level on points with Liverpool in the 1977-79 composite table.
Wednesday, 18th April 1979, Match 326: Division One
Nottingham Forest
1 Peter Shilton, 2 Viv Anderson, 3 Colin Barrett, 4 John McGovern, 5 Larry Lloyd, 6 Kenny Burns, 7 Martin O'Neill, 8 Ian Bowyer, 9 Trevor Francis, 10 Tony Woodcock, 11 John Robertson.
Goals: Trevor Francis 1.
Manchester United
1 Gary Bailey, 2 James Nicholl, 3 Arthur Albiston, 4 Sammy McIlroy, 5 Gordon McQueen, 6 Martin Buchan, 7 Steve Coppell, 8 David McCreery, 9 Joe Jordan, 10 Brian Greenoff, 11 Mickey Thomas.
Goals : Joe Jordan 1.
Substitutions: Ashley Grimes(12) came on for Martin Buchan (6).
Attendance: 33,830
So, another opportunity missed for Forest but they were now level on points with WBA and just six points behind Liverpool.
And after these results Forest regained top spot in the 1977-79 composite table.
Saturday, 21st April 1979, Match 327: Division One
Three days later and forest were in action again, this time at Birmingham City's St Andrews. Another 2-0 win kept us in the race and sent Birmingham City down, but Liverpool returned to winning ways with a single Dalglish goal at Anfield seeing off Bristol City.
Ian Bowyer made way for Garry Birtles, well technically, Trevor Francis, as he resumed his position as an attacking midfielder after a few matches playing in the no 9 role. It must have felt sad for Francis to be playing in the side that sent his first club crashing down to the second division. Unlike Chelsea, the Blues would bounce straight back up again next season though.
Birmingham City
1 Jim Montgomery, 2 Jimmy Calderwood, 3 Paul Van den Hauwe, 4 Tony Towers, 5 Joe Gallacher, 6 Alberto Tarantini, 7 Malcom Page, 8 Alan Ainscow, 9 Don Givens, 10 Stewart Barrowclough, 11 Kevin Dillon.
Substitutions: Alan Buckley (12) came on for Paul Van den Hauwe(3).
Nottingham Forest
1 Peter Shilton, 2 Viv Anderson, 3 Frank Clark, 4 John McGovern, 5 Larry Lloyd, 6 Kenny Burns, 7 Martin O'Neill, 8 Trevor Francis, 9 Garry Birtles, 10 Tony Woodcock, 11 John Robertson.
Goals : Garry Birtles 1, John Robertson 1.
Here are some highlights of the day. Ipswich's impressive 3-2 win at Bolton...
And West Brom dropping another point at home to Wolves in the Black Country derby.
These results meant that Forest climbed to second place in the league for the first time of the season. But six points behind Liverpool with just seven games to go was a gap surely too big.
One bit of good news from Germany that day was that 1FC Köln got hammered 5-1 by Bayern Munich.
I think this was the last time Forest headed the 1977-79 composite table.
Monday, 23rd April 1979, Match 328: Division Three
The following Monday, I nipped up to Field Mill to watch a top v bottom clash in the Third Division as the Stags fought out a 2-2 draw with Swansea City.
The following night Liverpool had a potential slip when they dropped a point at Southampton. West Brom drew another local derby - their fifth game without a win.
So, as Forest's thoughts returned to Europe, this was (according to my calculations - so probably not 100% accurate) the state of the first division's top scorers chart. Forest certainly now had five players who were regularly scoring goals. What a team!
We arrived a few hours before the kick off, time enough to do a bit of sight seeing and in Köln, of course, that meant a trip to the famous old Gothic Cathedral.
This is the only photo I have from that trip, looking out across the city from one of the spires. It feels criminal to me that I was so neglectful of this aspect of life. These days i take a few photos at every game I go to, no matter how insignificant it is.
It's great that Bowyer made the headlines the next day for a change.
I love this photo too...
As with the trip to Grasshopper Club Zurich, after the match the coach headed straight back to Nottinghamshire. I am sure a few beers were sunk on the ferry crossing over the Channel but it was all very civilized and... dull. These days, I'd have gone for a week!
My memory mate Boro tells me that when I arrived back at Nottingham University, I was waving an 1.F.C. Koln flag. I headed straight for Sherwood Hall bar with the typically ridiculous "from now on" claim: "From now on, whenever anyone orders a drink, I'm going to wave flag and sing 'FC Kolnio, La La La LaLa!" Needless to say, the flag's gone, and so has the memory!
So that was it, Cloughie's arrogant sneer had proved more than just bravado and once again Forest's critics had been confounded and more success was on the way.
After the match Brain Clough was understandably very proud of what they had achieved. He said "Tonight we practiced everything we have ever preached in the game. There was no dissent from the players, no shady tackling. We worked tremendously hard and gave a performance that everyone connected with the club can be proud of."
The new most popular song in the Tent End was, of course...
The first leg in Austria had ended 0-0 so it was all to play for in Malmo. Robert Houghton's side edged through with a single goal to seal their place against Forest in the final.
Here are some match highlights...
So, it's time to say goodbye to Austria and add them to the "EurOpen" league - remember the league table that ranks how "open' each European League is.
From its beginnings in 1914, until Austria Vienna's 10th title win in 1978, there had been 48 "editions" of the Austrian league. 15 clubs had won the title - so about 0.32 teams per season - a pretty decent average - and more "open" than most. To get the idea, just contrast it with Portugal where only four different clubs had won the league in pretty much the same period of time.
The other measure is that it's not just one club that has dominated the title wins either. The five most title winning sides still only accounted for just over 70% of all wins, leaving a decent 30% for the other ten clubs.
So, Austria, before 1979 at least, had one of the more "open" football leagues in Europe.
England, of course, before 1979, was even more open with 24 clubs sharing the 80 titles. That was about to change though - because the league was about to be completely dominated by one club - Liverpool and then when their reign finally ended, one other club - Manchester United.
But that's getting a little ahead of ourselves. Back in 1979, the English League was still pretty open and Forest had just shown that even a pretty mediocre second division club could, with the right management, aspire to winning the league within a few years. Ah, them wo't days, lad!
Saturday, 28th April 1979, Match 330: Division One
So, West Brom stayed above us on goal difference and Liverpool's seven point lead was maintained too.
So, Liverpool continued to edge Forest at the top of the composite 1977-79 table on goal difference...
This was Forest's 56th game of the season. After a rather dull start, they had sprung to life with a truly amazing run of results. Only three defeats in 56 games is incredible and much better than than Liverpool who had lost seven times in all competitions.
We never realised it at the time, of course, but that packed house at the City Ground of almost 42,000 would be the last time over 40,000 would ever watch a game on Trentside.
Forest were about to replace the old East Stand with a brand new, flash but awkwardly named "Executive Stand' - later to be renamed the "Brain Clough Stand' of course, and the capacity of the City Ground would drop dramatically as those vast terraces were replaced with seats.
So, here's a (surely incomplete) list of the biggest attendances at the city Ground that I have been able to gather. The ones in bold are matches I was fortunate enough to attend myself.
As the years went on, the capacity was further reduced to its current 28,000 but we recently had the great news that owner Evangelos Marinakis is planning to redevelop the ground - exactly as I had always dreamed it would be - staying on the banks of the Trent but with a brand new Main Stand (aka Peter Taylor Stand) to bring the capacity up to 38,000, the biggest in the East Midlands.
And what about Austria? Same story there?
Austria Vienna continued to dominate the Austrian league in the years up to 2000.
And there are definitely fewer slices of the Austrian pie too.
So, we see that the German Bundesliga slipped 13 places in the EurOpen league and Austria 10 in the period 1979-2000.
Squeeze and Cool for Cats...
Supertramp and The Logical Song...
Dire Straits - Sultans of Swing
Ami Stewart's version of "Knock on Wood"
Paul McCartney & Wings - Goodnight Tonight
A bit of DISCO, with Sister Sledge - He's the Greatest Dancer...
Catchy and unforgettable, Bony M's Hooray Hooray, it's a Holi-Holiday...
And, who could ever forget? (even though they tried!) - The Village People's "In the Navy"
So... To Munich, To Munich... tra-laaa laa la-la-la-la-la, tra-laaa la-la-la-la!!!
But first, in this blog, I want to pay my tribute to the unsung hero of Forest's most fantastic period of their history: Mr Versatile himself, Ian Bowyer. As has often been the case, at the time I took it all for granted and didn't realise how remarkable a thing I was witnessing. This is certainly true of our "Bomber" Bowyer. How many positions did he play in? How many appearances did he make? All will be revealed.
I will also catch up on what was going on in the First Division since the first leg drama at the City Ground. Forest's form continued to sparkle but, unfortunately for us, so did Liverpool's, despite a setback at Villa Park. There's some great footage of a Forest victory over our Ram rivals at the Baseball Ground which started an incredibly hectic Easter programme where Forest played four games in just eight days - great preparation that, for a European Cup semi final!!
Forest had been a little unlucky to draw twice European Champions, Liverpool, in the first round of the tournament and now they had been paired with the German Champions, surely the toughest draw, of the semi finals. I'll take a look at the other match that went on that night, in Sweden: Malmö v Austria Wein and, as the Austrian Champions were eliminated, I'll take a brief look at their history and that of the Austrian League itself - a much longer one than the Bundesliga.
The "EurOpen" League (a statistical table showing the relative 'openness' of the 33 European football championships) will be updated with the Austrian league pre-1978 and then both the Bundesliga and the Austrian league up until 2000. The general trend towards leagues being dominated by fewer clubs certainly continued here.
After our trip to Germany, we 'll return to Nottingham - and Forest's big league clash with Liverpool at the City Ground which happened just three days later. This was the last time a crowd of over 40,000 packed into the City Ground - perhaps forever - so I'll say a sad farewell to big crowds at the City Ground.
Finally, catching right up to date, I report on the amazing Easter resurrection of Martin O'Neill. as Forest manager. After a run of four straight league defeats, even my faith in "the man" was wobbling. But, as I write this, with our sparkling 3-0 (it could have easily been 7-0) victory over promotion chasing Middlesbrough still buzzing in my mind, all is well on that front.
Previously: Forest 3 1FC Cologne 3
A tribute to the unsung, all-round, hero - Ian Bowyer
I have to start with my personal tribute to Ian Bowyer and admit the guilt I feel now that I didn't really appreciate him at the time.
I have repeated several times, in these blog posts, the story of how I became a Forest fan. If you've been paying attention, you'll know how this goes. It was all about Duncan McKenzie's virtuoso performance against Manchester City in the F.A. Cup on a late January Sunday afternoon in 1974. It was a packed out City Ground with over 40,000 fans hoping for a cup upset. Manchester City, riding high in the First Division, came to mid table Forest expecting to win but they got hammered by a performance that will never be forgotten by anyone who witnessed it.
Forest won 4-1 but McKenzie only scored one of the goals. He played a blinder and made two others for the same player, who's task of putting the ball in the net was certainly made easier. But, he still had to score and it would have been particularly satisfying for him when he did.
The name of this player was, of course, Ian Bowyer and he was up against his first club who had let him go for a sniff after a really promising start to his career there. It really never occurred to me, before thinking about this blog post, how much Bowyer would have wanted to win that match and how much of an influence he had on that victory. McKenzie got all the attention but perhaps we should all have noticed Ian Bowyer's contribution at least as much.
Not getting the attention he deserves, seems to be the theme of the Ian Bowyer story. Unlike every Tom, Dick or Harry these days, it seems, there is no Ian Bowyer biography. (At least I couldn't find one.) If you look at his Wikipedia page, it's quite bare, considering this is a man who made over 700 club appearances and won two European Cups, one Cup Winners Cup, three League Cups, and one League Championship. I hope to improve that a little.
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| Ian Bowyer's Wikipedia Page |
Ian Bowyer comes from the Wirral, being born in Little Sutton, near Ellesmere Port on 6th June 1951. But I can't find out anything else about his early years. He must have been a brilliant footballer at school though, because he was whisked off to sign terms with Manchester City as a youngster.
City, at the time were one of the top clubs in England. They'd won the First Division in 1967-68 and the F.A. Cup the season after. These were the "proper" City glory days of Joe Mercer and Malcolm Allison. (And not the greedy infinitely rich oil money days we're in right now.)
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| Ian Bowyer was born near Ellesmere Port in June 1951 |
Ian Bowyer made his debut for City in the First Division at Newcastle 16th November 1968 aged just over 17. Newcastle won 1-0. He would make another two appearances that season and even scored a goal but I couldn't find any record of who that was against. Manchester City won the F.A. Cup that season. They beat Leicester City 1-0 in the final, but Bowyer didn't play.
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| Young Ian Bowyer |
1969-70 season was an incredible first full one for Bowyer. As an 18 year old, he made 33 full appearances in the first division and came on a substitute once. He scored 12 league goals.
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| Ian Bowyer was a regular in this side in his first full season as a professional footballer |
 Bowyer in action against Manchester United in the semi-final |
So, Ian Bowyer went to Wembley in his first full season as a pro in 1970...
They won the trophy beating West Bromwich Albion 2-1. Bowyer came on as substitute for Mike Summerbee and so experienced Wembley glory just 16 months after making his league debut.
In those early days Ian Bowyer always wore the No 11 or the No 10 shirt.
Here's some highlights of the match...
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| Cup Glory for Bowyer at the age of 18 |
Ian Bowyer played his part int hat cup run too. In the first round City overcame Atletico Bilbao. They earned a 3-3 draw away, Bowyer playing at No 11. Then they won the home leg 3-0 in which Ian Bowyer scored.
Bowyer figured in both 2nd round games too as they brushed Belgian Cup Winners, Lierse SK, aside easily, winning 3-0 away and 5-0 at home, but Ian didn't manage to get his name on the scoresheet that time.
Manchester City overcame Academia of Portugal in the quarter finals, drawing 0-0 away and getting a 1-0 at home, a tie Bowyer missed out on completely, as he did the semi-final clash against the West German Cup winners, Schalke 04. City overcame a 1-0 away deficit to win through 5-2 on aggregate to get to the final against Gornik Zabrze, in Vienna.
Bowyer wasn't in the starting eleven but did come on as substitute early in the 23rd minute for the injured Mike Doyle. So he played in most of the 1970 Cup Winners Cup Final, which City won 2-1.
Here is the match in full. Amazing to see how the referee deals with Doyle's injury around the 20th minute mark. Gets the (very short) physio to literally carry Doyle off the pitch for treatment so that the game can carry on. We could do with a bit more of that these days, I think!
What a great start to his career then: Two cup finals, two trophies, two medals.
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| Spot Bomber? |
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| Ian Bowyer - Euro King 1970 |
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| City with two Cups |
After such a brilliant career start, the next season, 1970-71, must have been a bit of a comedown for Bowyer. He only made 13 appearances altogether (including 6 as sub and one in the cup.) He added Nos 7, 8, & 9 to his collection of shirts worn. Six down, six to go (assuming subs always wore 12 in those days.) He didn't score in the league but did score in the F.A. Cup.
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| Glory days for City under Joe Mercer and his sidekick |
City finished half way in the league again, but qualified for Europe once more (as Cup Winners Cup Winners.) Bowyer came on as substitute at Linfield in the 1st Round second leg (Man City drew 2-2 to go through 3-2 on aggregate) and he came on as substitute at home to Gornik Zabrze in the quarter final second leg at Maine Road but didn't take part in the all-English semi-final against Chelsea, which Chelsea won.
Bowyer's last game for Manchester City was at home to Spurs. They lost 0-1 on May 1st 1971.
Events took a turn for the worse for Ian after that. Dramatic events behind the scenes at Manchester City were stirring and a new kid on the block, Peter Swales, was leading a take over bid of the board at the club. The current managerial pair of Joe Mercer and Malcom Alisson fell out over the matter and backed different sides of the dispute. Mercer favoured the existing board, Allison went with Peter Swales and the new lot. To cut a long story short, Swales won and Mercer arrived at the ground to find his car park slot and office had been removed. The manager's job had been promised to Malcom Allison.
It would seem that Malcolm Allison just didn't rate Ian Bowyer, so he was sold off.
So, Bowyer's brilliant start to his professional football career at this point read - Manchester City (1968-1971) 49 league appearances, 13 goals. 57 appearances altogether. One League Cup medal and one Cup Winners cup medal.
Bowyer Orient-bound
I still can't quite understand why Ian Bowyer was sold to Orient of the second division for just £25,000 on 12th June 1971. Perhaps his form fell away after his fantastic 1969-70 season, but even so, why Orient? Surely City could have got more money from a bigger club for this promising youngster who had already won two cup medals, and why did Ian agree to take such a dramatic step down? (Answers, please to algis@kuliukas.com.)Anyway, if it was bad business for Malcolm Allison, it was bravo to Gordon Petchey, the Orient manager at the time.
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| Ian Bowyer at Orient |
Ian was an ever present in his first season, playing in all 42 second division games (all at No 11) and ended up their top scorer with 14 goals. His debut was at Oxford United on 14th August 1971, Orient drew 1-1. In his first game at Brisbane Road, he scored a hat-trick in their 4-1 win over Cardiff City. He also played in both League Cup games against Notts County that season.
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| Bomber doesn't look very happy, does he? |
Orient beat Wrexham 3-0 in the 3rd round with one from "Bomber". Then, they won 2-0 at Leicester City, newly promoted to the first division, in the 4th, Bowyer scoring again. In the 5th round Orient played in a classic F.A. Cup match beating London rivals Chelsea 3-2.
Here are the highlights of that match...
Alas, other London rivals, Arsenal, beat them in the quarter finals at Brisbane Road 0-1 to end their glory.
The next season, 1972-73, Ian Bowyer played 33 times + 3 substitutions and scored just 4 goals. These couldn't have been happy times for Ian as Orient struggled against relegation.
As Forest had been relegated from the First Division by then, they played Orient twice that season. The match at the City Ground was on 2nd December 1972. Forest won 2-1. The return match, which Orient won 3-0, was played the following April. Ironically, Bowyer missed both games.
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| Not so good at Orient in the second season |
So, altogether Bowyer made 49 appearances for Orient - scoring 16 goals. His career, after such a promising start, didn't seem to be blossoming as he must have hoped. It was time for another move and in the close season, Ian Bowyer was snapped up by Nottingham Forest manager, Allan Brown, again for about £25,000.
Ian Bowyer on the Wing
Bowyer was not yet 22 when he signed for Forest and he made his debut for us on 20th October 1973 away at Blackpool. He scored along with Duncan McKenzie in a 2-2 draw. He played 28 league matches in his first season for us, every one at No 11.The first time I saw him was at home to Bristol Rovers F.A. Cup 3rd Round, Sunday 6th January 1974. Forest won 4-3. The second time was that match again - against his old club Manchester City in the 4th Round. As I said earlier, Bowyer scored two but few noticed as McKenzie's magic cast a spell on everyone who saw the game.
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| Boywer, typically, passing under the radar, despite scoring two key goals against his old club |
Imagine how good that win must have felt for him. I didn't, at the time!
In those early days for Forest, Bowyer always played No 11 and out wide on the left, so the song that the Trent End sang about him didn't take much working out...
"Ian, Ian Bowyer. Ian Bowyer on the wing!
Ian, Ian Bowyer. Ian Bowyer on the wing!"
The third time I saw Bowyer was against runaway Second Division leaders, Middlesbrough. Forest were on fire in those days and ran out 5-1 winners. Bowyer scored another that day, making it three goals in three games in front of me.
The cup run continued with Forest edging past Portsmouth in the 5th Round with a Duncan McKenzie penalty to earn us a place in the F.A. Cup quarter finals, one of the most dramatic games I'd ever see.
I've covered this game before but I can't resist showing the highlights once more here. Ian Bowyer scored again but it was all to no avail as the Geordies cheated their way to that infamous 4-3 "victory" at St James' Park after thousands of Newcastle fans poured onto the pitch from the Leazes End to get the game stopped after Forest went 3-1 up. Of course, the game was ordered to be replayed at Goodson Park, Everton, and was drawn 0-0. But then the F. A. fatefully decided that the game should again be played on Merseyside, and not Nottingham where it rightfully should have been played. Malcom MacDonald got the only goal to send them through to the semi finals, and ultimately the final v Liverpool, after beating Burnley. Boo!!
I saw Forest 13 times that season and Bowyer played in all but one of them.
Early the next season, 1974-75, I am pretty sure that I saw Ian Bowyer take over in goal at the Manor Ground, home of Oxford United as Forest won 1-0 with a late goal from George Lyall. Regular goalie, John Middleton must have taken a knock so, with no goalie on the bench in those days, one of the outfield players had to step in, and I am pretty sure it was Bomber. I am hesitant because my memory isn't great, as any reader will know, and because my Rothmans' doesn't corroborate this story. In my defence, I have heard from other Forest fans independently who say the same thing. So, assuming the story is true, that's another position covered. Seven shirts taken, five to go.
In the 1975-76 season, Ian Bowyer was Forest's top scorer (albeit only with 13 goals), another claim to his name.
As I've reported in these pages over the last two years, Bowyer was played in some odd positions, including left back and right back as well as a defensive midfield player, so he wore No 2,3, 4 and 6 too, almost completing the set. The only shirt I think Bowyer didn't wear was No 5, but I would be very happy to be corrected on that.
The rest of the Ian Bowyer story at Forest has either been told through these blog pages, or is due to be written next season, so I'll fast forward now to when he left the club in 1981.
After 211 league appearances for Forest (scoring 49 goals), at the start of 1981, Bowyer was sold off to Sunderland. The move surprised us as he was such a piece of the furniture by then.
H'away t'the Mackems, Lad!
It didn't really work out for Bowyer at Roker Park, despite a good debut at home to Manchester United on 28th January 1981, which Sunderland won 2-0 in front of 31,910. Bowyer made only eight more appearances that season, scoring just one goal for them (at home to Spurs in a 1-1 draw). At least Sunderland didn't get relegated.
Bowyer only made six more appearances for the "Black Cats" at the start of the next season before returning to play under Brian Clough almost exactly one year after he'd left.
His 15th (and last) appearance for Sunderland was away at Brighton & Hove Albion, wearing the No 9 shirt. Sunderland lost 2-1.
Ian's Coming Home!
Once Bomber was back, it was as if he'd never been away. Having returned to the squad for the first game of 1982, v Birmingham City at the City Ground - so missing the first 18 games - he was never out again. He played in every one of the last 23 league matches, and even scored for us, in a 2-1 win at Notts County. Yes, Notts in the First Division. It's hard to imagine that these days but they were there for three seasons until their relegation in 1984. |
| Yer wunt believe it - Caanty in t'fost div! |
Ian Bowyer's second spell at Forest was not as successful as his first but he was just as dependable. From 1982 until 1987 he made 205 league appearances and scored 19 goals. Four of his six most appearances per season were made in his second spell with the club.
"Bomber's" last game for Forest was against Norwich City at home on 20th April 1987. It was a 1-1 draw. Nigel Clough scored. In that final season he made 34 league appearances (+4 League cup) for us, scoring 3 goals, and always played at No. 6.
So, Ian Bowyer ended up making 509 appearances for Forest altogether (including subs and cups) scoring 91 goals.
Bowyer: Player-Manager for Hereford United
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| Player-Manager Ian Bowyer |
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| Following in Cloughie's footsteps... Martin O'Neill is No 1 |
Bowyer went to Edgar Street as player manager and made his debut on August 15th 1987 at home to Rochdale. They drew 0-0. Ian made 40 appearances, and scored one goal, that season. It's interesting to note that, as manager, Bowyer, got to choose the position, and shirt number he preferred - it was in midfield and he wore number eight.
Next season Bowyer made another 28 appearances and scored one goal against Scarborough in Div 4. This was Bowyer's 600th league appearance (including substitutions) and, for once, he made the headlines, locally at least, for doing so that night...
On 23rd September 1987 Hereford United drew Nottingham Forest in the League Cup and played them over two legs. Bowyer was philosophical about the prospect. Here he is talking about the match, the step into management and the step down from the first to the fourth division...
The 1988-89 season was the last that "Bomber" would play league football in. He made 5 appearances and brought himself on as sub 4 times.
His last start in the first team in the league was away at Peterborough United on 22nd October 1988. Hereford lost 2-1. Bomber last graced a football league match a few weeks later on 7th November 1988 when he cam on as a substitute in the 1-0 defeat at Tranmere Rovers, just nine days shy of exactly 20 years after his debut.
So, Ian Bowyer made 589 league appearances in total. Including 39 substitutions, that takes him to 629 altogether. He scored 102 league goals. If you throw in cup appearances too, the total passes 700, at 715 with 131 goals.
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| The Bowyer Years |
Apart from the season 1979-80, oddly, that is a pretty solid career.
Forest fans should appreciate that "Bomber" was a true Red, as 72% of his time was spent at the club.
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| Bomber's Pie |
With his playing career over, Bowyer continued as a manager at Hereford United for a while and even brought the club some very rare success when they won the Welsh Cup in 1990.
Here are the highlights...
Ian Bowyer played his son Gary Bowyer 14 times for Hereford, but bizarrely refused to get him to sign professional terms so after a bust up with the club's board of directors, he was sacked.
Bowyer had a brief spell with John Robertson (Martin O'Neill had left for Wycombe Wanderers by then) at Grantham Town for the 1990-91 season. Apparently he played 9 games and scored 1 goal. He played alongside former Norwich and Coventry midfielder Mick McGuire for a couple of games. (Thanks to Andy Sutton of the Football Historians Research Group for supplying that information.)
Ian also spent some time as assistant to Peter Shilton at Plymouth in 1994 and with Archie Gemmill at Rotherham United in 1996. He even returned to Forest as a coach in 2002 for a time.
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| Ian Bowyer - Forest Coach |
In 2006 Bowyer joined Paul Hart at Rushden & Diamonds as assistant and his final bit of professional football work seems to have been a spell as a scout at Portsmouth.
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| Thanks for the memories, Ian! |
So, thank you, Ian Bowyer. You never got the accolades you deserved. You were always Mr Dependable and Mr Vesatile, playing in practically every position on the pitch.
I haven't analysed every single team Bowyer played in, but just going from his first spell at Forest, Bowyer played in every position but one. I don't think he ever wore the No 5 shirt.
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| The only missing shirt is no 5 as Bomber did briefly play in goal for Forest at Oxford United |
And, of course, on the occasion of this particular anniversary, let's not forget his impressive goals tally, and that one in particular that was scored at the Müngersdorfer Stadium.
So, let's now get back to 1979 and the run up to the second leg, after that pulsating 3-3 draw at the City Ground.
First Division Since 3-3 1st Leg with 1FC Cologne
As Forest were getting terrified by the pace of Van Gool, two first division games were taking place, including a famous 2-1 win by Bolton Wanderers at Old Trafford.
Saturday, 14th April 1979, Match 324: Division One
Derby County 1 Nottingham Forest 2 (Baseball ground 6, Derby County 9, Nottingham Forest 230)
Three days after the 3-3 draw with the German Champions, we had another massive game - the Derby derby at the Baseball Ground. It was another great day out for Forest fans, although, to be fair, we were a bit lucky to win in the end.Here are the teams. Ian Bowyer made his 157th appearance for the club that day.
Derby County
1 David McKeller, 2 David Langan, 3 Steve Buckley, 4 Vic Moreland, 5 David Webb, 6 Steve Wicks, 7 Steve Carter, 8 Steve Powell, 9 Roy Greenwood, 10 Paul Emson, 11 Andy Crawford.
Goals: David Webb 1.
Nottingham Forest
1 Peter Shilton, 2 Viv Anderson, 3 Frank Clark, 4 Ian Bowyer, 5 David Needham, 6 Kenny Burns, 7 Martin O'Neill, 8 Trevor Francis, 9 Garry Birtles, 10 Tony Woodcock, 11 John Robertson, 12 Frank Clark.
Goals : Martin O'Neill 1, Garry Birtles 1.
Attendance: 30,256
And the match report that lamented the lack of grass on the Derby mud bath.
See for yourself with these great match highlights...
Unfortunately for Forest, Liverpool also won that day to keep themselves well established at the top of the table. West Brom were faltering though and so Forest caught up with them a little.
Monday, 16th April 1979, Match 325: Division One
Nottingham Forest 0 Leeds United 0 (City Ground 163 , Nottingham Forest 231, Leeds United 8)
Two days later, on Easter Monday, there was another big match for Forest. This time the visit of in-form Leeds United. Unfortunately it was the first of a series of frustrating home draws, this one 0-0.
Nottingham Forest
1 Peter Shilton, 2 Viv Anderson, 3 Frank Clark, 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.
Leeds United
1 David Harvey, 2 Kevin Hird, 3 Frank Gray, 4 Brian Flynn, 5 Paul Hart, 6 Trevor Cherry, 7 Carl Harris, 8 Peter Hampton, 9 John Hawley, 10 Paul Madeley, 11 Arthur Graham.
Attendance: 37,395
Here's the match report.
It was a shame as Liverpool slipped up at Villa Park, only their fourth defeat of the season. Unfortunately for Forest, it would be their last. In fact, Liverpool would go on to win six of their last eight games after this.
Chelsea were leaking goals again. This time they conceded five at Highbury. This was their fourth straight defeat and they'd now lost all but two of their last 13 league games, conceding 33 goals. It was the defeat that sent them back to the second division after a two year spell in the top flight. They would stay in the second division for the next five seasons.
Here's the Villa v Liverpool match report.
The point against Leeds did put Forest closer to Liverpool but the gap was still seven points. Everton's win over Bolton meant that they leapfrogged us into third place.
The form (last 3 home/away) teams were Ipswich Town and Middlesbrough but Forest were up there too.
And after these results Forest were back level on points with Liverpool in the 1977-79 composite table.
Wednesday, 18th April 1979, Match 326: Division One
Nottingham Forest 0 Manchester United 0 (City Ground 164 , Nottingham Forest 232, Manchester United 6)
Two nights later, another massive game for Forest and another home tie, this time against Manchester United. Another home draw too. This time is was 1-1 with Trevor Francis getting his fourth goal for the club.
The night before West Brom had failed at Bristol City, losing 1-0, whilst Ipswich and 'Boro continued their impressive form.
Nottingham Forest
1 Peter Shilton, 2 Viv Anderson, 3 Colin Barrett, 4 John McGovern, 5 Larry Lloyd, 6 Kenny Burns, 7 Martin O'Neill, 8 Ian Bowyer, 9 Trevor Francis, 10 Tony Woodcock, 11 John Robertson.
Goals: Trevor Francis 1.
Manchester United
1 Gary Bailey, 2 James Nicholl, 3 Arthur Albiston, 4 Sammy McIlroy, 5 Gordon McQueen, 6 Martin Buchan, 7 Steve Coppell, 8 David McCreery, 9 Joe Jordan, 10 Brian Greenoff, 11 Mickey Thomas.
Goals : Joe Jordan 1.
Substitutions: Ashley Grimes(12) came on for Martin Buchan (6).
Attendance: 33,830
So, another opportunity missed for Forest but they were now level on points with WBA and just six points behind Liverpool.
And after these results Forest regained top spot in the 1977-79 composite table.
Saturday, 21st April 1979, Match 327: Division One
Birmingham City 0 Nottingham Forest 2 (St Andrews 2, Birmingham City 4, Nottingham Forest 233)
Here's a selection of pages from the match day programme...
Ian Bowyer made way for Garry Birtles, well technically, Trevor Francis, as he resumed his position as an attacking midfielder after a few matches playing in the no 9 role. It must have felt sad for Francis to be playing in the side that sent his first club crashing down to the second division. Unlike Chelsea, the Blues would bounce straight back up again next season though.
Birmingham City
1 Jim Montgomery, 2 Jimmy Calderwood, 3 Paul Van den Hauwe, 4 Tony Towers, 5 Joe Gallacher, 6 Alberto Tarantini, 7 Malcom Page, 8 Alan Ainscow, 9 Don Givens, 10 Stewart Barrowclough, 11 Kevin Dillon.
Substitutions: Alan Buckley (12) came on for Paul Van den Hauwe(3).
Nottingham Forest
1 Peter Shilton, 2 Viv Anderson, 3 Frank Clark, 4 John McGovern, 5 Larry Lloyd, 6 Kenny Burns, 7 Martin O'Neill, 8 Trevor Francis, 9 Garry Birtles, 10 Tony Woodcock, 11 John Robertson.
Goals : Garry Birtles 1, John Robertson 1.
Attendance : 22,412
Here are some highlights of the day. Ipswich's impressive 3-2 win at Bolton...
And West Brom dropping another point at home to Wolves in the Black Country derby.
These results meant that Forest climbed to second place in the league for the first time of the season. But six points behind Liverpool with just seven games to go was a gap surely too big.
One bit of good news from Germany that day was that 1FC Köln got hammered 5-1 by Bayern Munich.
I think this was the last time Forest headed the 1977-79 composite table.
Monday, 23rd April 1979, Match 328: Division Three
Mansfield Town 2 Swansea City 2 (Field Mill 56, Mansfield Town 59, Swansea City 3) Attendance 6,400.
The following Monday, I nipped up to Field Mill to watch a top v bottom clash in the Third Division as the Stags fought out a 2-2 draw with Swansea City.
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| Swansea heading for the Second Division, Mansfield battling against the drop to the Fourth. |
The following night Liverpool had a potential slip when they dropped a point at Southampton. West Brom drew another local derby - their fifth game without a win.
So, as Forest's thoughts returned to Europe, this was (according to my calculations - so probably not 100% accurate) the state of the first division's top scorers chart. Forest certainly now had five players who were regularly scoring goals. What a team!
Auswärtentag in Deutschland
It was in the middle of all this football drama that i embarked on only my sixth trip abroad, the relatively short (500 or so mile) trip to West Germany.
I am pretty sure I went on a bus from Kirkby - Butler's probably - but it could have been Barton's from Nottingham.
I am pretty sure I went on a bus from Kirkby - Butler's probably - but it could have been Barton's from Nottingham.
We arrived a few hours before the kick off, time enough to do a bit of sight seeing and in Köln, of course, that meant a trip to the famous old Gothic Cathedral.
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| The view of the Cathedral as you approach Köln |
This is the only photo I have from that trip, looking out across the city from one of the spires. It feels criminal to me that I was so neglectful of this aspect of life. These days i take a few photos at every game I go to, no matter how insignificant it is.
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| Me in my cool "collegial" Forest scarf and beige jacket |
The Müngersdorfer stadium was very impressive, even if it did include a running track around the pitch.
Here's my ticket, with our section marked in red on the back. The TV cameras were opposite us.
Wednesday, 25th April 1979, Match 329: European cup Semi-Finals (Second Leg)
Here's my ticket, with our section marked in red on the back. The TV cameras were opposite us.
Das Spielprogramm: The Billy Goat Echo...
1FC Köln were one of those clubs that had a match day rag, as opposed to a proper programme but it's kept rather well as a souvenir. I wish my German was better as I've never read it.
Wednesday, 25th April 1979, Match 329: European cup Semi-Finals (Second Leg)
1 F.C. Köln 0 Nottingham Forest 1 (Mungersdorfer Stadium 1, 1 F.C. Köln 2, Nottingham Forest 234)
And so to the big match. You won't be surprised to hear that I have few memories of the experience itself except that the atmosphere made by the 5,000 or so travelling Forest fans was great and that we got a pretty decent view of the game, although we were a long way from the pitch. We stood in line with the goal line at the opposite end of the pitch to where Bowyer scored that most fateful of goals.
The Teams
This was the last European match that Trevor Francis was barred from playing in and it wasn't lost on us that his first match in Europe for Forest, would be the final, if only we could somehow win this one.
So, back into the starting eleven was good old "Bomber" Bowyer.
IFC Köln
1 Harald Schumacher, 2 Harald Konopka, 3 Herbert Zimmermann, 4 Gerd Strack, 5 Bernd Schuster, 6 Bernhard Cullmann, 7 Roger Van Gool, 8 Jurgen Glowacz, 9 Dieter Muller, 10 Herbert Neumann, 11 Dieter Prestin,
Substitutions: Yasuhiko Okudera (12) came on for Jurgen Glowacz (8); 13 Heinz Flohe came on for Dieter Muller(9).
Nottingham Forest
1 Peter Shilton, 2 Viv Anderson, 3 Frank Clark, 4 John McGovern, 5 Larry Lloyd, 6 Kenny Burns, 7 Martin O'Neill, 8 Ian Bowyer, 9 Garry Birtles, 10 Tony Woodcock, 11 John Robertson.
Goals : Ian Bowyer 65m.
1 Harald Schumacher, 2 Harald Konopka, 3 Herbert Zimmermann, 4 Gerd Strack, 5 Bernd Schuster, 6 Bernhard Cullmann, 7 Roger Van Gool, 8 Jurgen Glowacz, 9 Dieter Muller, 10 Herbert Neumann, 11 Dieter Prestin,
Substitutions: Yasuhiko Okudera (12) came on for Jurgen Glowacz (8); 13 Heinz Flohe came on for Dieter Muller(9).
Nottingham Forest
1 Peter Shilton, 2 Viv Anderson, 3 Frank Clark, 4 John McGovern, 5 Larry Lloyd, 6 Kenny Burns, 7 Martin O'Neill, 8 Ian Bowyer, 9 Garry Birtles, 10 Tony Woodcock, 11 John Robertson.
Goals : Ian Bowyer 65m.
Attendance: 60,000
The Match
There's nothing for me to add here, so just sit back and enjoy these highlights of the match, with commentator Barry Davies.
It's great that Bowyer made the headlines the next day for a change.
The Report
Das Tor
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| The key moment of the night |
I love this photo too...
As with the trip to Grasshopper Club Zurich, after the match the coach headed straight back to Nottinghamshire. I am sure a few beers were sunk on the ferry crossing over the Channel but it was all very civilized and... dull. These days, I'd have gone for a week!
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| On the way back home - not looking very happy! |
My memory mate Boro tells me that when I arrived back at Nottingham University, I was waving an 1.F.C. Koln flag. I headed straight for Sherwood Hall bar with the typically ridiculous "from now on" claim: "From now on, whenever anyone orders a drink, I'm going to wave flag and sing 'FC Kolnio, La La La LaLa!" Needless to say, the flag's gone, and so has the memory!
So that was it, Cloughie's arrogant sneer had proved more than just bravado and once again Forest's critics had been confounded and more success was on the way.
After the match Brain Clough was understandably very proud of what they had achieved. He said "Tonight we practiced everything we have ever preached in the game. There was no dissent from the players, no shady tackling. We worked tremendously hard and gave a performance that everyone connected with the club can be proud of."
The new most popular song in the Tent End was, of course...
To Munich, To Munich... tra-laaa laa la-la-la-la-la, tra-laaa la-la-la-la!!!
Who would we be playing there?
Auf Wiedersehen Österreich
In the other semi final were two other unfashionable teams, Malmo from Sweden (all about them for the final blog) and Austria Vienna, the biggest and most famous club in Austria.
Austria Vienna are another of that small band of clubs, world wide, that choose to play in purple. The most important one for me, of course, is my local club Perth Glory, who recently won the A-League.
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| We're Purple and White! - Perth Glory, A League Premiers 2018-2019 |
Much older than Glory, is the Austrian team, Fußballklub Austria Wien, that was founded in 1911, as emblazoned onto their badge. It's always seemed odd to me that the club is called "Austria" not "Österreich". Imagine an English team being called Angleterre Londres. Clearly, this is a club with English origins, and the club indeed was started, it seems, by a bunch of cricketers.
The club had perhaps it's greatest era in the 1930s when they won the Mitropa Cup (the forerunner to the European Cup) twice. They won it for the second time in 1936. Clubs from Italy, Switzerland, Czechoslovakia and Switzerland also took part that year.
The star of the side in those days was Matthais Sindelar who was voted the greatest Austrian footballer ever in 1998.
The club had perhaps it's greatest era in the 1930s when they won the Mitropa Cup (the forerunner to the European Cup) twice. They won it for the second time in 1936. Clubs from Italy, Switzerland, Czechoslovakia and Switzerland also took part that year.
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| Austria Wein beat Slavia Prague in the Mitropa Cup Final in 1936 |
The star of the side in those days was Matthais Sindelar who was voted the greatest Austrian footballer ever in 1998.
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| Matthais Sindelar |
Two years later, of course, Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany and the Austrian league was suspended. Instead the clubs were organised into one of the German Gauligen. Austria Vienna were taunted as "Judenklub" as they had string of Jewish links. Many Jewish players and staff of the club were either killed or fled the country.
After the "Anschluss" the top Austrian footballers were expected to play for the German national team. Sindelar refused, citing old age (he was 35) and injury as his reasons but on 23 January 1939 he was found dead in his apartment in Vienna along with his girlfriend. The official verdict was carbon monoxide poisoning. You can draw your own conclusions about what happened there.
After the war, the Austrian League resumed and Austria Vienna won their first title. The first of many.
The club won the Austrian league comfortably in the 1977-78 season, qualifying them for the European Cup.
Austria Vienna's passage to the semi finals was relatively comfortable, as they beat Albanian champions Vllaznia and Norwegian champions, Lillestrom to get to the quarteer finals. Dynamo Dresden, of the DDR, provided a stiffer challenge in the quarter finals but the Austrians prevailed.
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| Austria Wien - have the best record in Austria |
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| Two stars - Two Mitropa Cup wins |
The club won the Austrian league comfortably in the 1977-78 season, qualifying them for the European Cup.
Austria Vienna's passage to the semi finals was relatively comfortable, as they beat Albanian champions Vllaznia and Norwegian champions, Lillestrom to get to the quarteer finals. Dynamo Dresden, of the DDR, provided a stiffer challenge in the quarter finals but the Austrians prevailed.
The first leg in Austria had ended 0-0 so it was all to play for in Malmo. Robert Houghton's side edged through with a single goal to seal their place against Forest in the final.
Here are some match highlights...
So, it's time to say goodbye to Austria and add them to the "EurOpen" league - remember the league table that ranks how "open' each European League is.
From its beginnings in 1914, until Austria Vienna's 10th title win in 1978, there had been 48 "editions" of the Austrian league. 15 clubs had won the title - so about 0.32 teams per season - a pretty decent average - and more "open" than most. To get the idea, just contrast it with Portugal where only four different clubs had won the league in pretty much the same period of time.
The other measure is that it's not just one club that has dominated the title wins either. The five most title winning sides still only accounted for just over 70% of all wins, leaving a decent 30% for the other ten clubs.
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| Austria 9th in the "EurOpen" League |
England, of course, before 1979, was even more open with 24 clubs sharing the 80 titles. That was about to change though - because the league was about to be completely dominated by one club - Liverpool and then when their reign finally ended, one other club - Manchester United.
But that's getting a little ahead of ourselves. Back in 1979, the English League was still pretty open and Forest had just shown that even a pretty mediocre second division club could, with the right management, aspire to winning the league within a few years. Ah, them wo't days, lad!
Saturday, 28th April 1979, Match 330: Division One
Nottingham Forest 0 Liverpool 0 (City Ground 165 , Nottingham Forest 235, Liverpool 9) Attendance 41,989.
Talking of Liverpool. Guess who Forest had lined up next after their European triumph? and again, just three days later.
It isn't over until it's over, as they say, so this was Forest's last chance to cause Liverpool a bit of a panic in their run in to the title. A win against the Merseysiders would have narrowed the gap to four points with six to play and if that happened, you never know...
Here's the match day programme...
John Robertson made his 140th consecutive appearance for the reds that day and once again, Ian Bowyer had to get his feet back on the ground after taking Forest to their greatest win in their history so far, and get back on the bench.
It isn't over until it's over, as they say, so this was Forest's last chance to cause Liverpool a bit of a panic in their run in to the title. A win against the Merseysiders would have narrowed the gap to four points with six to play and if that happened, you never know...
Here's the match day programme...
John Robertson made his 140th consecutive appearance for the reds that day and once again, Ian Bowyer had to get his feet back on the ground after taking Forest to their greatest win in their history so far, and get back on the bench.
Nottingham Forest
1 Peter Shilton, 2 Viv Anderson, 3 Frank Clark, 4 John McGovern, 5 Larry Lloyd, 6 Kenny Burns, 7 Martin O'Neill, 8 Trevor Francis, 9 Garry Birtles, 10 Tony Woodcock, 11 John Robertson.
Liverpool
1 Ray Clemence, 2 Phil Neal, 3 Alan Kennedy, 4 Phil Thompson, 5 Ray Kennedy, 6 Alan Hanson, 7 Kenny Dalglish, 8 Jimmy Case, 9 David Johnson, 10 Terry McDermott, 11 Sammy Lee.
Attendance: 41,989
If only I could go back in time and re-live that match. I have no memory of it all. There's not even any video clips of it on the interweb. I'm scuppered!
All I have is a couple of photos from the Forest programme a few weeks later and the report in the Guardian.
The report in the Guardian was more a commentary on the state of the English game than the match itself.
West Brom, at least failed to win for the sixth consecutive match, but they did escape Ayresome Park with a point. Not easy as Boro were one of the in-form sides.
There was a remarkable win for QPR at Loftus Road. Facing relegation if they lost, they hammered mid-table Coventry 5-1 to keep their survival hopes alive for a bit longer. Unfortunately for them, both Wolves and Derby both got points so Wolves were safe and Derby almost.
All I have is a couple of photos from the Forest programme a few weeks later and the report in the Guardian.
The report in the Guardian was more a commentary on the state of the English game than the match itself.
West Brom, at least failed to win for the sixth consecutive match, but they did escape Ayresome Park with a point. Not easy as Boro were one of the in-form sides.
There was a remarkable win for QPR at Loftus Road. Facing relegation if they lost, they hammered mid-table Coventry 5-1 to keep their survival hopes alive for a bit longer. Unfortunately for them, both Wolves and Derby both got points so Wolves were safe and Derby almost.
So, West Brom stayed above us on goal difference and Liverpool's seven point lead was maintained too.
So, Liverpool continued to edge Forest at the top of the composite 1977-79 table on goal difference...
This was Forest's 56th game of the season. After a rather dull start, they had sprung to life with a truly amazing run of results. Only three defeats in 56 games is incredible and much better than than Liverpool who had lost seven times in all competitions.
We never realised it at the time, of course, but that packed house at the City Ground of almost 42,000 would be the last time over 40,000 would ever watch a game on Trentside.
Forest were about to replace the old East Stand with a brand new, flash but awkwardly named "Executive Stand' - later to be renamed the "Brain Clough Stand' of course, and the capacity of the City Ground would drop dramatically as those vast terraces were replaced with seats.
So, here's a (surely incomplete) list of the biggest attendances at the city Ground that I have been able to gather. The ones in bold are matches I was fortunate enough to attend myself.
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| 40,000+ crowds at the City Ground. |
As the years went on, the capacity was further reduced to its current 28,000 but we recently had the great news that owner Evangelos Marinakis is planning to redevelop the ground - exactly as I had always dreamed it would be - staying on the banks of the Trent but with a brand new Main Stand (aka Peter Taylor Stand) to bring the capacity up to 38,000, the biggest in the East Midlands.
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| Surely one of the most iconic and historical football gorunds in the world |
German and Austrian Football 1979-2000
Right, time to update the EurOpen league with what happened in Germany and Austria up to the end of the century.
1 F.C. Köln would never win the Bundelsiga again but they did win the German Cup in 1983. Amazingly the final was most appropriately held at the Mungersdorfer Stadium because 1 F.C. Köln played against their local rivals Fortuna Köln, the first time a German Cup final was also a local derby.
Fortuna Köln, who had pretty much always been a second tier team, had an amazing cup run beating three Bundesliga sides in a row to get to the final, including Borussia Moenchengladbach and Borussia Dortmund 5-0 in the semi finals.
Here are the highlights of the final...
1 F.C. Köln have gradually dropped from their heights of 1978 and are currently in the second tier themselves.
So, how "open" was the Bundesliga in the final years of the last century?
Answer: Unsurprisingly, not very.
In the 22 seasons after this (1978-79) one Bayern Munich would win half of the titles and we all know what would happen later. I'll do the research for this in time for the European cup Final blog and include it there. I'm sure, like me, you simply can't wait to find out the story there!
Answer: Unsurprisingly, not very.
In the 22 seasons after this (1978-79) one Bayern Munich would win half of the titles and we all know what would happen later. I'll do the research for this in time for the European cup Final blog and include it there. I'm sure, like me, you simply can't wait to find out the story there!
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| Wer hat die Hälfte gegessen? |
And what about Austria? Same story there?
Austria Vienna continued to dominate the Austrian league in the years up to 2000.
And there are definitely fewer slices of the Austrian pie too.
So, we see that the German Bundesliga slipped 13 places in the EurOpen league and Austria 10 in the period 1979-2000.
Studying 40 years ago
Time for a break from "studying'. Here's the top 20 in England in the week we won the European Cup Semi-Finals. See if you'd pick the same songs I did to play.
Squeeze and Cool for Cats...
Supertramp and The Logical Song...
Dire Straits - Sultans of Swing
Ami Stewart's version of "Knock on Wood"
Paul McCartney & Wings - Goodnight Tonight
A bit of DISCO, with Sister Sledge - He's the Greatest Dancer...
Catchy and unforgettable, Bony M's Hooray Hooray, it's a Holi-Holiday...
And, who could ever forget? (even though they tried!) - The Village People's "In the Navy"
The Resurrection of Martin O'Neill
Finally, time to get right up to date and the latest from the City Ground.
I must admit, these last few weeks have been among the most traumatic times for me from a football perspective. When Martin O'Neill was appointed on 15th January, I was ecstatic. Martin's always been a big hero of mine and I was over the moon that, at last, the club and Martin had decided to give it a go together.
I quickly became aware, however, that not everyone shared my joy. In fact there were an alarming number of "supporters" who expressed their dismay at the selection, most of whom seemed to be under the impression that this was a step backwards from the brave new world of Aitor Karanka.
To me Martin and Roy were an obvious upgrade. This wasn't based on any emotion, although I must admit I do love them! It was based on Martin's excellent record (see above). I maintain that he has the best record or any current manager from the UK.
Look...
Now the Karanka hankerers will, no doubt, argue that most of his success was a long time ago. They point you to disgruntled (and ungrateful) Irish fans that say O'Neill's last few years there were painful to watch - conveniently forgetting their wins over Germany and Italy that took them to the Round of 16 at Euro 2016 with a squad half made up of players from the Championship.
"Dinosaur" football, they sneer.
Well, it all started well enough as Martin and Roy quickly filled a gaping hole at the back with a few great signings (Pele, Milosovic and Benaloune) and the introduction of young Ryan Yates into the "Roy Keane" "cover every blade" role seemed to steady the ship after an alarming run of bad form before Aitor sulked off.
After a spirited win against a sparkling Brentford, Forest were definitely cheated out of three points at West Brom and probably at Preston too before a great local derby win. Now if thosetwo away games had been fairly refereed, and if Forest could have still beaten Derby, that would have been four wins on the trot and we'd be still in the running now.
Instead a disappointing 2-0 reversal at Stoke City continued our poor away form and despite an impressive 3-0 win over Hull City, with Joao Carvalho coming on early in the second half to inspire the victory with a great goal, the wheels started to come off at home to Villa.
When another capacity crowd saw Jack Colback score a flukey opening goal it really started to look like this could be going our way. Forest, it seemed, were heading for the play offs as i had convinced myself they would and with Martin and Roy in charge, and our very good record against the top sides, we'd surely get to Wembley and win. I had bet a few hundred dollars, at what I thought were very good odds, on this dream and I was starting to think about how I'd spend my $28,000 winnings.
Of course, it wasn't to be. Villa came back immediately and bossed the game. Super Joao Carvalho was bullied out of the game, as he often is and instead Jack Grealish turned on the style to see Villa win easily in the end.
Three days later, at Portman Road, things got worse. Alex Milosovic was replaced by Molla Wague and the new man seemed to be sleeping as Ipswich burst through to score an early goal from which Forest seemed incapable of recovering. Daryl Murphy had what appeared to be a perfectly legitimate goal ruled out for off side just before half time and although Forest did equalise, they couldn't go on and win it.
It was a poor display and the frustration of being outclassed by Villa and then not beating relegation certainties Ipswich seemed to flip a switch in the Karanka hankerers. The vitriol on the social media Forest forums against the Forest legend was shocking and I am sure some of it filtered back to the the players.
Things only got worse after that. Despite beating Swansea 2-1 with two late goals from set pieces, Forest's form seemed to be getting worse and it started a run of four straight defeats.
The defeat at Rotherham United was particularly disappointing. Although there were some good signs in the first half away at the two Sheffield clubs and Forest did creat plenty of chances against Blackburn before again falling to two sucker punches, the bottom seemed to have fallen out - not just of Forest's play off chances and their season, but perhaps on Martin O'Neill and Roy Keane's managerial reign.
The hostility on the Forest "Supporters" Facebook groups was so bad I had to leave them both.
Two weeks ago (on Friday 12th April) I balled my eyes out like an eight year old boy to my wife (after sinking a very nice bottle of Shiraz) about it all and I was convinced that Martin O'Neill would be sacked at the end of the season. How could I have got this sooooooo wrong?
I had a big Martin O'Neill face shaped egg on my face. Maybe, I'd been wrong to think this could ever work. Maybe all those young X-Box thumb-twiddling experts had been right. Maybe Martin was a dinosaur.
Anyway, the reports of the footballing death of Martin O'Neill turned out to be premature and on Easter Monday (three days ago as I write this) another near sell out at the City Ground seemed to witness a miracle...
The resurrection of Martin O'Neill? I hope so.
Key to his potential rehabilitation among the boo boys seems to be their insistence that he plays Joao Carvalho every week from the start - no matter what the match, no matter who the opposition, no matter what the conditions.
I'm not sure about this myself, and more importantly, neither seems to be Martin O'Neill.
But still, on this occasion, with Boro chasing the game having gone a goal down a lot of space opened up for our young Portuguese maestro and he absolutely exploited it brilliantly, creating two more goals which might have easily been five more.
But let's not get carried away here. Forest's performance was probably their best in years but it wasn't a one man show. The way Forest snuffled out pretty much every Boro attack through excellent covering and chasing and tackling from Yates, Pele, Milosovic and Wague was every bit as much the reason we won as Joao's flair.
Let's see how long these highlights stay available...
Looking at the table now, one can only think "if only". If only the ref at WBA had not been duped by Gayle's dive. If only the goals at Preston and Ipswich had not been wrongly disallowed. If only we'd have got a point or three at Rotherham...
We'd certainly be up in the top six right now and the dream of Premier League football would still be on.
If that sounds crazy, just note that in Forest's games against the sides in the top seven, we actually have the third best record...
As it is, Martin and Roy's record in the All-time Forest managers table has slipped - but people should notice that in their first 17 games they still have a better record, not only than Aitor Karanka, but also Brian Clough!
I must admit, these last few weeks have been among the most traumatic times for me from a football perspective. When Martin O'Neill was appointed on 15th January, I was ecstatic. Martin's always been a big hero of mine and I was over the moon that, at last, the club and Martin had decided to give it a go together.
I quickly became aware, however, that not everyone shared my joy. In fact there were an alarming number of "supporters" who expressed their dismay at the selection, most of whom seemed to be under the impression that this was a step backwards from the brave new world of Aitor Karanka.
To me Martin and Roy were an obvious upgrade. This wasn't based on any emotion, although I must admit I do love them! It was based on Martin's excellent record (see above). I maintain that he has the best record or any current manager from the UK.
Look...
Now the Karanka hankerers will, no doubt, argue that most of his success was a long time ago. They point you to disgruntled (and ungrateful) Irish fans that say O'Neill's last few years there were painful to watch - conveniently forgetting their wins over Germany and Italy that took them to the Round of 16 at Euro 2016 with a squad half made up of players from the Championship.
"Dinosaur" football, they sneer.
Well, it all started well enough as Martin and Roy quickly filled a gaping hole at the back with a few great signings (Pele, Milosovic and Benaloune) and the introduction of young Ryan Yates into the "Roy Keane" "cover every blade" role seemed to steady the ship after an alarming run of bad form before Aitor sulked off.
After a spirited win against a sparkling Brentford, Forest were definitely cheated out of three points at West Brom and probably at Preston too before a great local derby win. Now if thosetwo away games had been fairly refereed, and if Forest could have still beaten Derby, that would have been four wins on the trot and we'd be still in the running now.
Instead a disappointing 2-0 reversal at Stoke City continued our poor away form and despite an impressive 3-0 win over Hull City, with Joao Carvalho coming on early in the second half to inspire the victory with a great goal, the wheels started to come off at home to Villa.
When another capacity crowd saw Jack Colback score a flukey opening goal it really started to look like this could be going our way. Forest, it seemed, were heading for the play offs as i had convinced myself they would and with Martin and Roy in charge, and our very good record against the top sides, we'd surely get to Wembley and win. I had bet a few hundred dollars, at what I thought were very good odds, on this dream and I was starting to think about how I'd spend my $28,000 winnings.
Of course, it wasn't to be. Villa came back immediately and bossed the game. Super Joao Carvalho was bullied out of the game, as he often is and instead Jack Grealish turned on the style to see Villa win easily in the end.
Three days later, at Portman Road, things got worse. Alex Milosovic was replaced by Molla Wague and the new man seemed to be sleeping as Ipswich burst through to score an early goal from which Forest seemed incapable of recovering. Daryl Murphy had what appeared to be a perfectly legitimate goal ruled out for off side just before half time and although Forest did equalise, they couldn't go on and win it.
It was a poor display and the frustration of being outclassed by Villa and then not beating relegation certainties Ipswich seemed to flip a switch in the Karanka hankerers. The vitriol on the social media Forest forums against the Forest legend was shocking and I am sure some of it filtered back to the the players.
Things only got worse after that. Despite beating Swansea 2-1 with two late goals from set pieces, Forest's form seemed to be getting worse and it started a run of four straight defeats.
The defeat at Rotherham United was particularly disappointing. Although there were some good signs in the first half away at the two Sheffield clubs and Forest did creat plenty of chances against Blackburn before again falling to two sucker punches, the bottom seemed to have fallen out - not just of Forest's play off chances and their season, but perhaps on Martin O'Neill and Roy Keane's managerial reign.
The hostility on the Forest "Supporters" Facebook groups was so bad I had to leave them both.
Two weeks ago (on Friday 12th April) I balled my eyes out like an eight year old boy to my wife (after sinking a very nice bottle of Shiraz) about it all and I was convinced that Martin O'Neill would be sacked at the end of the season. How could I have got this sooooooo wrong?
I had a big Martin O'Neill face shaped egg on my face. Maybe, I'd been wrong to think this could ever work. Maybe all those young X-Box thumb-twiddling experts had been right. Maybe Martin was a dinosaur.
Anyway, the reports of the footballing death of Martin O'Neill turned out to be premature and on Easter Monday (three days ago as I write this) another near sell out at the City Ground seemed to witness a miracle...
The resurrection of Martin O'Neill? I hope so.
Key to his potential rehabilitation among the boo boys seems to be their insistence that he plays Joao Carvalho every week from the start - no matter what the match, no matter who the opposition, no matter what the conditions.
I'm not sure about this myself, and more importantly, neither seems to be Martin O'Neill.
But still, on this occasion, with Boro chasing the game having gone a goal down a lot of space opened up for our young Portuguese maestro and he absolutely exploited it brilliantly, creating two more goals which might have easily been five more.
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| Joao Carvalho - fabulous performance... at last! |
But let's not get carried away here. Forest's performance was probably their best in years but it wasn't a one man show. The way Forest snuffled out pretty much every Boro attack through excellent covering and chasing and tackling from Yates, Pele, Milosovic and Wague was every bit as much the reason we won as Joao's flair.
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| Alex Milosovic after his fantastic goal in the Trent End |
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| They said it'd be "El Jurassico" - hoyever... |
Let's see how long these highlights stay available...
Looking at the table now, one can only think "if only". If only the ref at WBA had not been duped by Gayle's dive. If only the goals at Preston and Ipswich had not been wrongly disallowed. If only we'd have got a point or three at Rotherham...
We'd certainly be up in the top six right now and the dream of Premier League football would still be on.
If that sounds crazy, just note that in Forest's games against the sides in the top seven, we actually have the third best record...
As it is, Martin and Roy's record in the All-time Forest managers table has slipped - but people should notice that in their first 17 games they still have a better record, not only than Aitor Karanka, but also Brian Clough!
Right now, I'm just hoping that the brilliant form against Middlesbrough is continued into the last two games and that this shuts up some of the Martin O'Neill haters. Most of all, I hope Marinakis can see his appointment was the right one and that he allows Martin and Roy to make a few additions in the close season.
Everyone's got an opinion on which players that might involve. Personally, I'd like to see Forest buy a really good goalkeeper. Costel Pantilimon makes some great saves but he's just not consistent enough for me. I'd like to see Milosovic, Wague and Pele stay but I hope they can add some more quality to the midfield. Most of all, I think we really need a goalscorer. Lewis Grabban is our top scorer but he's missed a hat full, and his form's not been great for weeks.
At the end of the day, with Martin and Roy in charge, we can't help but make some great signings and be challenging for promotion next season. Please, Forest fans, give them time and get behind them. If that happens, you never know, maybe Forest could be about enter a new era of glory once more.
Everyone's got an opinion on which players that might involve. Personally, I'd like to see Forest buy a really good goalkeeper. Costel Pantilimon makes some great saves but he's just not consistent enough for me. I'd like to see Milosovic, Wague and Pele stay but I hope they can add some more quality to the midfield. Most of all, I think we really need a goalscorer. Lewis Grabban is our top scorer but he's missed a hat full, and his form's not been great for weeks.
At the end of the day, with Martin and Roy in charge, we can't help but make some great signings and be challenging for promotion next season. Please, Forest fans, give them time and get behind them. If that happens, you never know, maybe Forest could be about enter a new era of glory once more.
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