40 years ago, the Brian Clough Stand was nearing completion and, despite not yet having a roof, people started sitting in the vast array of seats of its upper tier. It wasn't called "The Brian Clough Stand" then, of course. Someone, bizarrely, thought "The Executive Stand" was appropriate. It would seem a perverse name, even in today's billionaire infused world of football, never mind in those dark days at the end of the 1970s, as Britain was only just throwing off its last flirtation with socialism.
Filling the seats was something we had never really questioned, as Clough and Taylor had brought so much success to Nottingham in the last two years. The City Ground had attracted several 40,000+ attendances during this era, so getting 32,000 or so once the City Ground capacity was reduced, would surely be no problem. However, Forest's league form seemed to suddenly become very fragile as the construction of the stand neared its completion. Most alarmingly, the Reds' away form - based on a solid defensive foundation that was surely most responsible for winning the title in 1977-78 - had become terrible and Forest had now lost their last four away games. Worse still, fortress City Ground had finally been breached. After going 50 home league games without defeat, Brighton & Hove Albion had broken the seal of invincibility at home too. In the middle of November, to add to the feeling that "all good things must come to an end", star striker Tony Woodcock had left Forest to join 1FC Köln.
We needed a lift and a bit of sparkle and, it seems, to that end, Clough & Taylor persuaded the talented, ever-popular, effervescent skills of Stan Bowles to come to the City Ground. His star quality certainly added a few bums on seats, as did Forest overcoming West Ham United in the Quarter Finals of the League Cup.
I'll cover Stan and all that here, and pay a small tribute to another of the oft unsung "miracle men", John O'Hare, playing his last "full" season for the club. It was O'Hare's very last goal for the club that helped beat West Ham United to send Forest to their third consecutive League Cup semi-final place - and a tie against the mighty, mighty Liverpool.
Other than that bit of success, it was largely a matter of grinding out the run up to Christmas in relegation form before a couple of back-to-back wins just before the dawn of the 80s gave us a bit of a lift.
After a bit of a Christmas musical interval I'll return to 2019 as I end my self-imposed suspension of supporting Forest, 164 days after Martin O'Neill was sacked (unjustly in my opinion - but it seems, no-one else's.) As Forest had no European adventures in December, I'll skip from adding to my EurOpen league.
Previously: October, Cup success and a 50-match unbeaten home league run comes to an end.
Match 370: Saturday, 1st December 1979, Division One.
Forest entered December in dreadful form. With such a controversial management pair, it attracted a lot of media attention, to which Brian Clough, characteristically did not shy away from.
"What has gone wrong is my responsibility" he said. "The buck stops at me. I pick up enough bouquets when we are winning so I will collect the wreaths when we are not. I will put it right."
The first match of the month was against Arsenal at the City Ground which was, as far as I can tell, the first time the upper tier of the new stand was opened. The lower tier had been opened from day one, but everyone was waiting for the capacity to get restored to it's new 32,000 level. I can't actually remember doing so, but I must have sat in the upper tier that day as I was one of the early adopters and bought a season ticket in the new stand.
Kenny Burns returned at the back, replacing David Needham, and John O'Hare replaced Gary Mills in midfield. For Arsenal, Steve Walford came in for Willie Young.
Nottingham Forest
1 Peter Shilton, 2 Viv Anderson, 3 Frank Gray, 4 John McGovern, 5 Larry Lloyd, 6 Kenny Burns, 7 Martin O'Neill, 8 John O'Hare, 9 Garry Birtles, 10 Trevor Francis, 11 John Robertson.
Goals: Garry Birtles 1.
Arsenal
1 Pat Jennings, 2 John Devine, 3 Sammy Nelson, 4 Brian Talbot, 5 David O'Leary, 6 Steve Walford, 7 Steve Gatting, 8 Alan Sunderland, 9 Frank Stapleton, 10 David Price, 11 Graham Rix.
Goals : Frank Stapleton 1.
Attendance: 27,953
For most of the match it looked like it would be a fourth straight league defeat for Forest, as they went 1-0 down to a Frank Stapleton goal in the 3rd minute and trailed almost to the last kick. Garry Birtles saved them with a last minute equaliser, though.
The game made the headlines for the wrong reasons as a dart was thrown at at Pat Jennings. Shame on the 17 year old angry lad in the Trent End who did that - he was banned for life.
Here are the highlights of the biggest clash of the day, Manchester United's 2-1 win at White Hart Lane...
And here are the goals in Liverpool's 4-0 win against Middlesbrough...
And here's the 1-1 draw between West Bromwich Albion and Everton at the Hawthorns.
Forest were now dropping like a stone out of the title race. Still, 5th place and only 5 points behind the leaders sounds like a dream in today's world.
On current form (last 3 home/away) Forest were having their worst spell since returning to the first division and their worst spell since January 1976.
Forest needed a break from their league form and it came in the form of a tricky League Cup quarter final away at Upton Park. West Ham, relegated last season, were still coming to terms with life in the second division.
The hammers had started terribly and were 19th in September. They had started to string a few wins together since then, though, and after two successive league wins they found themselves in 7th place in the table just in time for a big test at home to the League Cup holders.
4th December League Cup Quarter Final
West Ham United
1 Phil Parkes, 2 Ray Stewart, 3 Frank Lampard, 4 Billy Bonds, 5 Alvin Martin, 6 Pat Holland, 7 Paul Allen, 8 Stuart Pearson, 9 David Cross, 10 Trevor Brooking, 11 Alan Devonshire.
Nottingham Forest
1 Peter Shilton, 2 Viv Anderson, 3 Frank Gray, 4 Ian Bowyer, 5 Larry Lloyd, 6 Kenny Burns, 7 Martin O'Neill, 8 John O'Hare, 9 Garry Birtles, 10 Trevor Francis, 11 John Robertson.
Attendance: 35,386
In other matches, Arsenal were held at Highbury by Swindon, who famously beat them at Wembley in the 1969 final.
Third Division Grimsby Town also played out a 0-0 draw against top tier Wolverhampton Wanderers at Blundell Park.
The one result, gained the following night, was Liverpool's 3-1 win at Carrow Road.
So, at least Forest didn't lose again and instead made their way into the "hat" (not that such a thing has existed for years - if ever) for the semi-final draw. Oh Great! Forest drew the mighty, mighty Liverpool.
Match 371: Saturday, 8th December 1979, Division Two.
The next Saturday, I went to Meadow Lane to watch Notts County and Birmingham City, without Archie Gemmill) play out a 1-1 draw. I'm not sure why I didn't make the journey to watch Forest play at Crystal Palace but I suspect money was a big part of it.
It's just as well, really, as Forest lost again - their 5th successive away defeat.
Crystal Palace
1 John Burridge, 2 Paul Hinshelwood, 3 Kenny Samson, 4 Peter Nicholas, 5 Jim Cannon, 6 Billy Gilbert, 7 Jerry Murphy, 8 Gerry Francis, 9 Ian Walsh, 10 David Swindlehurst, 11 Vince Hillaire.
Goals: Ian Walsh 1.
Substitutions: Terry Fenwick (12) came on for Jerry Murphy(7).
Nottingham Forest
1 Peter Shilton, 2 Viv Anderson, 3 Frank Gray, 4 Ian Bowyer, 5 Larry Lloyd, 6 Kenny Burns, 7 Martin O'Neill, 8 John O'Hare, 9 Garry Birtles, 10 Trevor Francis, 11 John Robertson.
Attendance: 34,782
Here are the highlights of the first half...
... and the second...
In other results that day Liverpool won again, their eighth in eleven league games, to take them to the top of the table, as Manchester United were held at home to Leeds.
The league table at the end of the evening with Forest slipping to 7th place...
Forest, after this, stayed in the "relegation zone" in the current form (last 3 home/away) table
Things clearly needed brightening up and it couldn't have been a coincidence that two days later Forest made the signing of the sparkling Stan Bowles from Queen's Park Rangers for a quarter of a million pounds. So, to take our minds off the relative gloom going on 40 years ago, and now (funny how you never know how good things are, until they're gone), here's a little bit on Stan the man...
I always thought Stan Bowles was a cockney. Maybe it's his happy-go-lucky demeanor or just the fact that he's spent most of his career playing for London clubs, but it surprised my when I learned that he was born in Manchester, just a couple of kilometers north east of the city center in a place called Collyhurst. Another surprising thing is he's bloody old. Born on Christmas Eve in 1948, Stan is now into his 70s. Again, he's always seemed so young, personality-wise.
So, bearing this in mind, it shouldn't be so surprising that Bowles made his debut for Manchester City in 1967, as an eighteen year old. And what a debut... He came on as sub for Neil Young (the footballer, not the singer) in a League Cup tie at home to Leicester City and immediately scored two goals.
Stan made five full appearances (three in the league) and one more as a substitute that season, scoring two more goals as Manchester City went on to win the League, the last time they would do so for 34 years.
After such an explosive start, Bowles must have been disappointed his career did not carry on in this manner the next season. City finished mid-table and Bowles only made one appearance.
There are strange parallels here between another Forest legend, Ian Bowyer, who also started brightly as a young protege for Manchester City around the same time. (Read my tribute to him here.)
They seemed to rarely play alongside each other during this spell, though, and this is the only team sheet I could find with both "Bow"s in the starting line-up, a League Cup tie in 1968. Bowyer is about three years younger than Bowles and also made a great start to his career at Maine Road, winning the League Cup and the European Cup Winners cup in his first season.
At the start of the 1970-71 season, Bowles was palmed off to Bury, the local third division side (about to get relegated.)
Here he is in the team photo, even though, I think he was only there on loan at the time.
Bowles only played five games for Bury, without scoring, before being scuttled off to even less salubrious surroundings - Crewe Alexandra - and a step down to the fourth division.
As with so often seems to happen with maverick-like talents, it seems that this step down gave Stan Bowles the kick (or confidence boost) he needed. Like Duncan McKenzie after stepping down to Mansfield, or Tony Woodcock at Doncaster, Bowles started to get noticed and scored 18 goals in 51 appearances in all competitions for Crewe.
Early in the 1971-72 season, after starting again with Crewe, Bowles was on the move again, this time to Carlisle United of the second division.
Bowles made the headlines early in the season scoring a goal for Carlisle at White Hart Lane as they held Spurs to a 1-1 draw in the League Cup. It wasn't a great season for them in the league however.
Stan Bowles continued the next season for the Cumbrian team and played in another big League Cup tie for them, at home to Liverpool. It would be his last game for the club. (Carlisle got beat in the replay 5-1 at Anfield.)
So, for the third season running, Bowles left a club quickly, early in the season, and moved on. This time, however, it was to be a much more permanent move... to Queen's Park Rangers.
On 8th September 1972, QPR manager Gordon Jago signed Bowles for £110,000.
His debut for the Rs was against Nottingham Forest (as was his last league game for Carlisle) on 16th September in the Second Division. QPR won 3-0 in front 12,528 and, of course, Bowles scored.
Stan Bowles helped Rangers get promotion in his first season at Loftus Road, missing only two league games from his debut and scoring 17 league goals.
Bowles quickly established himself as a favourite with the fans and the owner of the No 10 shirt.
Stan was the top scorer in 1973-74 with 22 goals in all competitions.
Bowles was capped for England for the first time on 3rd April 1974. The game, played in Lisbon, ended up as a 0-0 draw and was the last time Sir Alf Ramsey managed the side. He also played in two Home Championship games, a 2-0 win against Wales in Cardiff, in which he scored, and a 1-0 win against Northern Ireland at Wembley. These two sides were picked by Joe Mercer.
Rangers consolidated their new lofty position in the league for a couple of years before having their best season in 1975-76 when they challenged Liverpool for much of the season, sadly ending up runners-up.
These were great days for Queen's Park rangers and Stan Bowles. In the 1976-77 UEFA Cup Rangers reached the quarter finals, beating Bran Bergen, Slovan Bratislava and 1 FC Koln on the way.
Bowles scored hat-tricks both home and away against Bergen and one against Koln. He also scored against AEK Athens in their 3-0 home win in the quarter finals.
Unfortunately, even this wasn't enough as the Greeks won 3-0 too in Athens to take the game to penalties. AEK won through to the semi finals where they would lose to eventual winners, Juventus.
The next season, of course, QPR were joined in the first division by Forest and Bowles played against us five times, including the titanic F.A. Cup 5th Round tie that went to two replays.
Bowles made a return to the England side at the end of 1976 when he was picked by Don Revie to play in Rome against Italy. They lost 2-0. His fifth and last cap was the next game at home to Holland. Again England lost 0-2.
Bowles remained at Queen's Park Rangers for seven years, making some 315 league appearances and scoring 97 goals.
Here's a fans tribute to him.
So, when he signed for Forest, Bowles was well past his best. At the age of almost 31 he was 75% of the way through his career.
As we'll see his stay at the club was short but not sweet. His debut, at Manchester United, didn't go well but he scored on his first game at the City Ground and then again away at Coventry.
He'd only make 19 appearances for the club before he fell out with Brian Clough and was sold on to Leyton Orient for £110,000. Apparently Bowles was refused permission to play in John Roberston's testimonial and that was it. Bowles was off, missing out on the chance to play in the European Cup final later in the season.
This is how he put it, years later... "I just got the hump. I do things on instinct. I walked out on the European Cup with Brian Clough as well. I woulda got a medal. Woulda got twenty grand for that now ... John Robertson, he was my best friend at Forest, Clough left me out of his testimonial. It sounds stupid, but to me it wasn't."
Bowles recently said that the biggest regret of his career was leaving QPR for Forest. (His next club was Orient.)
He had a full season at Orient in 1980-81 and started the next there before moving across London to Griffin Park where he had two spells. In the first he played one game for Brentford at the City Ground in the League Cup. Forest won 2-0 in front of 16,479 with goals from Ian Wallace and John Robertson.
Stan Bowles finally hung up his boots on February 4th 1984 after a 2-3 home defeat to Gillingham at the age of 35 years, one month and eleven days. He was just 14 games short of 600 appearances.
Here's a full break down of Stan Bowles' playing career...
Stan received a touching welcome back to Loftus Road a few years ago..
In June 2015, Stan Bowles was reported to be suffering from Alzheimer's disease. Here's wishing you all the best Stan.
Anyway, back to the plot - 40 years ago.
Nottingham Forest
1 Peter Shilton, 2 Viv Anderson, 3 Frank Gray, 4 Ian Bowyer, 5 Larry Lloyd, 6 Kenny Burns, 7 Martin O'Neill, 8 John O'Hare, 9 Garry Birtles, 10 Trevor Francis, 11 John Robertson.
Goals: Martin O'Neill 1, John O'Hare 1, Garry Birtles 1.
West Ham United
1 Phil Parkes, 2 Ray Stewart, 3 Frank Lampard, 4 Billy Bonds, 5 Alvin Martin, 6 Geoff Pike, 7 Paul Allen, 8 Stuart Pearson, 9 David Cross, 10 Trevor Brooking, 11 Alan Devonshire.
Attendance: 25,500
The game was tied at 0-0 after 90 minutes forcing the game to go to extra time.
It was good old John O'Hare that finally broke the deadlock with a characteristically unspectacular tap in. Garry Birtles got the second and Martin O'Neill grabbed a third.
In the other replays, Swindon caused a sensation by knocking out Arsenal, repeating their famous League Cup final win at Wembley in 1969 and Grimsby Town almost did the same thing to Wolves. That game having to go to a second replay.
Here are Swindon's four goals that night.
The following Saturday, Forest's game at home to Middlesbrough called off. Apparently the League Cup replay had taken too much out of the ground and a deluge of rain made the surface unplayable.
In the games that were played both Manchester United and Liverpool won to increasingly make it a two-horse race for the title as Arsenal drew at West Brom.
Forest slipped to 10th place, their lowest since their return to the first division.
Here are the highlights of Liverpool's impressive 3-0 win against Crystal Palace at Anfield.
And here's how Manchester United won at Coventry City...
The only crumb of comfort for Forest was they rose one place in the current (last 3 home/away) table as Bristol City lost and so slipped below us in the table. (A very, very small crumb!)
The FA Cup 3rd Round draw was made and it didn't do us any favours with a tough away game at Leeds United.
The following Tuesday, we made the short trip to the ram shackled old mud heap that was called the Baseball Ground to watch the second replay between Wolverhampton Wanderers and Grimsby Town.
It's the only time I've ever watch a game at the Baseball Ground as a neural venue and it was the last time I'd see Grimsby Town.
So that sealed the semi-final places.
Typically, we got the tougher match Forest had to face in-form Liverpool seeking revenge for an ever increasing list of defeats whilst Wolves were tasked with overcoming third division Swindon Town.
So, here's my brief tribute to the man.
John "Solly" O'Hare (don't ask!) was born in the town of Renton, just north of Dumbarton on the north banks of the Clyde on 24th September 1946. So he's slightly more than two years older than Stan Bowles. He is one the best footballers to come from the Vale of Leven. He attended St Martins School where his football prowess was spotted and went onto St Patrick's High School in Dumbarton.
O'Hare joined Sunderland as a centre-forward in October 1963, when he had just turned 17, and stayed there for 4 years until August 1967. Brian Clough's career had ended there the Boxing Day before but I expect Cloughie would have still been hanging around the club in some kind of coaching role at the time the young lad joined.
While at Sunderland, O'Hare was the first of a trio of players who came from his neck of the woods. Bobby Kerr, who is a year younger than John, joined in 1964 was probably the most famous of the three.
O'Hare made his league debut at Stamford Bridge early in the 1964-65 season. He was not yet 18 years old. Chelsea won 3-1. Another John, Hollins, also made his debut that day for Chelsea. O'Hare was at Roker Park for almost four years, making 51 appearances and scoring 14 goals, all in the first division.
Brian Clough bought O'Hare from Sunderland for a snip of £22,000 at the start of the 1967-68 season when he was not even 21. He made his debut in the opening game at home to Charlton Athletic, scoring a goal in the process.
It would prove a great signing as John would make 248 league appearances for the club and score 65 goals, helping them to Derby's most glorious period in the history.
Here's the earliest footage I could find of John O'Hare scoring a goal.This is for Derby County at Blackpool on their way to winning the Second Division title.
Of course, what happened next is well known as Derby County, under Clough & Taylor, went from strength to strength, finishing 4th in the first season back in the top flight and winning the league in their third.
Derby County won their first ever league title under Brian Clough and Peter Taylor in 1972 with John O'Hare and Kevin Hector forming a lethal partnership. Alan Hinton was the top scorer that season with 15 goals but 8 were from the penalty spot. The top scorer from open play was John O'Hare with 13 goals. Keven Hector got 12.
Whilst at Derby, John O'Hare made all his 13 appearances for Scotland, scoring five goals in the process.
Here are John O'Hare's surprisingly good international career stats for Scotland. A scoring rate of 38% is good in anyone's book.
Here are his international stats, thanks to Wikipedia.
There can't be many players who have scored in five or more games for their country and won all of them whilst doing so.
Later, when Cloughie parted company with Taylor for the first time, leaving him at Brighton, and went to join Leeds United, John O'Hare soon joined him, along with another Cloughie stalwart, John McGovern. The pair cost Leeds about £120,000. O'Hare would only ever make six appearances for Leeds but still managed to score a goal in a rare 3-0 win at Coventry City.
Cloughie's time at Elland Road was, as we all know, a miserable one and so it must have been for John O'Hare and his other protege, John McGovern.
It must have been the least surprising pair of signings ever, then, when the two Johns rejoined Brian once he'd been appointed Forest manager early in 1975. It took Brian just 44 days to secure the pair on 19th February 1975, the fee, apparently was just £60,000 this time. A bargain for Forest.
John O'Hare made his Forest debut away at Oxford United on 28th February 1975, a 1-1 draw, and he scored his first goal for the club in the next match, at home to Aston Villa, although they lost 2-3. John made 10 appearances that season, missing just two games after joining.
In the 1975-76 season, John O'Hare started in 39 of 42 league games and came on as sub once. He was second top scorer (to Barry Butlin) scoring 9 goals to Butlin's 13.
In Forest's promotion winning season, O'Hare made only 19 starts with 3 appearances as sub and scored only three goals.
The next couple of years are shrouded in some mystery for me. O'Hare did make ten league appearances for Forest in their title winning season although he didn't score. Apart from one game at No. 9, he played mostly in a midfield role. He also made two starts and one sub in their amazing run to win the League Cup. It was John O'Hare who was embroiled in controversy being brought down just inside (or was it?) the box by Phil Thompson to concede a penalty that John Robertson put away to win Forest the trophy in the replay at Old Trafford. (See my blog post on that incident here.)
But, strangely, the stats also record that John O'Hare played in the USA for Dallas Tornado around the same time (1977-78) making 40 appearances and scoring 14 goals. This 35% strike rate was his best ever. I have no memory of O'Hare going to the USA at the time, hence the mystery.
It's not really a mystery of course, it's just yet more evidence of faded memories in a sad old man.
He was back with Forest in 1978-79 and made another 9 starts and 3 subs appearances, all in midfield. He didn't score.
So, to the season I'm reviewing here, 1979-80 and John O'Hare, by the time of this post in December 1979, had made just six league appearances - and was set to make just one more before the season's end.
In the League Cup, he'd started in Forest's 3-1 win at 'Boro in the third round and Forest's 1-1 draw at Ashton Gate in the fourth, where he'd scored. He'd also started at Upton Park against West Ham United in the quarter finals and, as we've just seen, started and scored the crucial first goal against them in the replay.
Alas, that would be his last goal for Forest, hence the timing of this small tribute to him.
John O'Hare stayed with us for one more season after this one. His last competitive match for Forest was at home to Peterborough United in the League Cup 2nd Round, First Leg, on 27th August 1980. John was not quite 34 years old. Forest won the match 3-0 in front of 16,117 with goals from Robbo (pen), Birtles and Frank Gray. John didn't play in the second leg, or indeed any other matches that season as far as I can tell.
This is a song some of us in the Trent End used to sing about him.
We all agree Nottingham Forest are Magic
McGovern is better than Eusabio and
O'Hare's got a fat belly
Sorry, John!
We appreciated you, really. (Well some of us!) Forest fans can be a cruel lot and, to be honest, I don't think they ever gave John O'Hare the warmth he deserved. He was at the club almost as long as he was at Derby and although he didn't make as many appearances for us as he did them, his contribution was still a significant one.
In any case, thanks for the memories, John, from one fan, at least.
Here are John O'Hare's career statistics...
Anyway... let's back to 1979 and Forest's dismal league form...
Saturday, 22nd December 1979 First Division
So, after a fortnight away from league action, Forest resumed their attempt to regain their league form at title chasers, Manchester United at Old Trafford. It would be Stan Bowles' debut for the club but that's about the only good thing that happened.
Manchester United
1 Gary Bailey, 2 James Nicholl, 3 Stewart Houston, 4 Sammy McIlroy, 5 Gordon McQueen, 6 Martin Buchan, 7 Steve Coppell, 7 Steve Coppell, 8 Ray Wilkins, 9 Joe Jordan, 10 Lou Macari, 11 Mickey Thomas.
Goals: Gordon McQueen 1, Joe Jordan 2.
Nottingham Forest
1 Peter Shilton, 2 Viv Anderson, 3 Frank Gray, 4 John McGovern, 5 Larry Lloyd, 6 Kenny Burns, 7 Martin O'Neill, 8 Stan Bowles, 9 Garry Birtles, 10 Trevor Francis, 11 John Robertson.
Attendance :54,522
3-0 down after just 23 minutes, Forest never threatened and, as the headline in the Guardian put it, were "eaten alive."
The pre-Christmas programme was played over three days that year. Villa beat Coventry 3-0 on the Wednesday and the rest of the fixtures were played on Friday and Saturday.
The attendance for the Forest game was more than twice the next biggest of the set. Liverpool also got an easy win at the Baseball Ground to keep them at the top of the table.
Forest slipped into the bottom half of the table for the first time since their promotion.
This was Forest's sixth successive away league defeat and their form continued to be that of a side heading for relegation.
Stan Bowles made his home debut for Forest, continuing replacing Gary Mills. Martin O'Neill made way for Ian Bowyer.
For Villa, their regular goalkeeper, Jimmy Rimmer, made way for a young Nigel Spink, then just 21 years old. It was his only league appearance that season but he would go on to make 361 appearances for the club by the time he left them in 1996. His next appearance for the club after this would be his most famous one. Playing in the European Cup final against Bayern Munich, Jimmy Rimmer got badly injured after just ten minutes and had to be replaced by Spink.
Dennis Mortimer came back into the side Eamonn Deacy.
Nottingham Forest
1 Peter Shilton, 2 Viv Anderson, 3 Frank Gray, 4 Ian Bowyer, 5 Larry Lloyd, 6 Kenny Burns, 7 Ian Bowyer, 8 Stan Bowles, 9 Garry Birtles, 10 Trevor Francis, 11 John Robertson.
Goals: Stan Bowles 1, John Robertson 1 (pen.).
Aston Villa
1 Nigel Spink, 2 Ken Swain, 3 Colin Gibson, 4 Brendan Ormsby, 5 Kenneth McNaught, 6 Dennis Mortimer, 7 Des Bremner, 8 Brian Little, 9 Terry Donovan, 10 Gordan Cowans, 11 Gary Shaw.
Goals : Gary Shaw 1.
Elsewhere, in the in match of the day, Liverpool beat Manchester United 2-0 in the epic top-of-the-table clash at Anfield, taking them two points clear at the top with a game in hand.
These were the good old Boxing Days when the fixtures were really designed to pitch local rivals against each other to save the fans a big commute. Arsenal won the North London derby 1-0 and the "Old Farm" derby between Norwich and Ipswich ended in a classic 3-3 draw.
Liverpool started to stretch their lead at the top. Derby started looking doomed.
Despite the win, Forest stayed in the bottom three on current form.
Three days later, Forest played their last game of the 1970s at Highfield Road, the place where Forest clinched their only league title back in 1978.
Coventry made two changes to the team that had won at the Baseball Ground on Boxing Day. Mick Coop came in for Ray Gooding and Steve Hunt replaced Ian Wallace.
Forest fielded the same team that beat Aston Villa, the only change was that Ian Bowyer and Trevor Francis swapped shirts. This was also John Robertson's 180th consecutive performance for Forest.
Coventry City
1 Les Sealey, 2 Brian Roberts, 3 Bobby McDonald, 4 Mick Coop, 5 Jim Holton, 6 Gary Gillespie, 7 Tommy Hutchison, 8 Tom English, 9 Mick Ferguson, 10 Andy Blair, 11 Steve Hunt.
Substitutions: Steve Whitton (12) came on for Steve Hunt(11).
Nottingham Forest
1 Peter Shilton, 2 Viv Anderson, 3 Frank Gray, 4 Ian Bowyer, 5 Larry Lloyd, 6 Kenny Burns, 7 Trevor Francis, 8 Stan Bowles, 9 Garry Birtles, 10 Ian Bowyer, 11 John Robertson.
Goals : Stan Bowles 1, John Robertson 2 (1 pen.).
Liverpool and Manchester United both won impressively again, stretching their lead at the top over third placed Arsenal to four points.
Forest's win saw them climb back into the top eight. Middlesbrough's 2-1 win a Crystal Palace put them up to 6th place.
The last two wins took Forest out of relegation form in the current form table. Liverpool's perfect current form was an ominous sign of things to come.
So ended the 70s in the football world.
Here are my picks...
Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall"
ABBA's "I Have a Dream"
Paul McCartney's "Wonderful Christmas Time"
This isn't a "pick" as such, but I include it just to show what sometimes ended up in the charts back in the 1970s. I can't imagine that happening again today!
I am not going to go over all those arguments again (see earlier posts for that) and, by ending my suspension, I aim to put it all behind me. I don't think I will ever "forgive and forget" but it's time to move on. I think I will always be a Forest fan, no matter what happens and, as several Forest fan mates have reminded me, "no-one is bigger than the club."
So, after 164 days when I stopped watching them, I'm back. And in true Mr Jinxer style, their form seems to have gone to pot.
Never mind. I am still hopeful that Forest, under Sabri Lamouchi or not, will still be there or thereabouts at the end of the season. Great! Then Forest can take their place in the cluster of clubs providing cannon-fodder for the big six oligarchs.
Exciting,eh?
Filling the seats was something we had never really questioned, as Clough and Taylor had brought so much success to Nottingham in the last two years. The City Ground had attracted several 40,000+ attendances during this era, so getting 32,000 or so once the City Ground capacity was reduced, would surely be no problem. However, Forest's league form seemed to suddenly become very fragile as the construction of the stand neared its completion. Most alarmingly, the Reds' away form - based on a solid defensive foundation that was surely most responsible for winning the title in 1977-78 - had become terrible and Forest had now lost their last four away games. Worse still, fortress City Ground had finally been breached. After going 50 home league games without defeat, Brighton & Hove Albion had broken the seal of invincibility at home too. In the middle of November, to add to the feeling that "all good things must come to an end", star striker Tony Woodcock had left Forest to join 1FC Köln.
We needed a lift and a bit of sparkle and, it seems, to that end, Clough & Taylor persuaded the talented, ever-popular, effervescent skills of Stan Bowles to come to the City Ground. His star quality certainly added a few bums on seats, as did Forest overcoming West Ham United in the Quarter Finals of the League Cup.
I'll cover Stan and all that here, and pay a small tribute to another of the oft unsung "miracle men", John O'Hare, playing his last "full" season for the club. It was O'Hare's very last goal for the club that helped beat West Ham United to send Forest to their third consecutive League Cup semi-final place - and a tie against the mighty, mighty Liverpool.
Other than that bit of success, it was largely a matter of grinding out the run up to Christmas in relegation form before a couple of back-to-back wins just before the dawn of the 80s gave us a bit of a lift.
After a bit of a Christmas musical interval I'll return to 2019 as I end my self-imposed suspension of supporting Forest, 164 days after Martin O'Neill was sacked (unjustly in my opinion - but it seems, no-one else's.) As Forest had no European adventures in December, I'll skip from adding to my EurOpen league.
Previously: October, Cup success and a 50-match unbeaten home league run comes to an end.
Match 370: Saturday, 1st December 1979, Division One.
Nottingham Forest 1 Arsenal 1 (City Ground 181, Nottingham Forest 261, Arsenal 6) Attendance 27,953.
Forest entered December in dreadful form. With such a controversial management pair, it attracted a lot of media attention, to which Brian Clough, characteristically did not shy away from."What has gone wrong is my responsibility" he said. "The buck stops at me. I pick up enough bouquets when we are winning so I will collect the wreaths when we are not. I will put it right."
The first match of the month was against Arsenal at the City Ground which was, as far as I can tell, the first time the upper tier of the new stand was opened. The lower tier had been opened from day one, but everyone was waiting for the capacity to get restored to it's new 32,000 level. I can't actually remember doing so, but I must have sat in the upper tier that day as I was one of the early adopters and bought a season ticket in the new stand.
Kenny Burns returned at the back, replacing David Needham, and John O'Hare replaced Gary Mills in midfield. For Arsenal, Steve Walford came in for Willie Young.
Nottingham Forest
1 Peter Shilton, 2 Viv Anderson, 3 Frank Gray, 4 John McGovern, 5 Larry Lloyd, 6 Kenny Burns, 7 Martin O'Neill, 8 John O'Hare, 9 Garry Birtles, 10 Trevor Francis, 11 John Robertson.
Goals: Garry Birtles 1.
Arsenal
1 Pat Jennings, 2 John Devine, 3 Sammy Nelson, 4 Brian Talbot, 5 David O'Leary, 6 Steve Walford, 7 Steve Gatting, 8 Alan Sunderland, 9 Frank Stapleton, 10 David Price, 11 Graham Rix.
Goals : Frank Stapleton 1.
Attendance: 27,953
For most of the match it looked like it would be a fourth straight league defeat for Forest, as they went 1-0 down to a Frank Stapleton goal in the 3rd minute and trailed almost to the last kick. Garry Birtles saved them with a last minute equaliser, though.
The game made the headlines for the wrong reasons as a dart was thrown at at Pat Jennings. Shame on the 17 year old angry lad in the Trent End who did that - he was banned for life.
Here are the highlights of the biggest clash of the day, Manchester United's 2-1 win at White Hart Lane...
And here are the goals in Liverpool's 4-0 win against Middlesbrough...
And here's the 1-1 draw between West Bromwich Albion and Everton at the Hawthorns.
Forest were now dropping like a stone out of the title race. Still, 5th place and only 5 points behind the leaders sounds like a dream in today's world.
On current form (last 3 home/away) Forest were having their worst spell since returning to the first division and their worst spell since January 1976.
Forest needed a break from their league form and it came in the form of a tricky League Cup quarter final away at Upton Park. West Ham, relegated last season, were still coming to terms with life in the second division.
The hammers had started terribly and were 19th in September. They had started to string a few wins together since then, though, and after two successive league wins they found themselves in 7th place in the table just in time for a big test at home to the League Cup holders.
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| Division Two Table as Forest headed for Upton Park |
4th December League Cup Quarter Final
West Ham United 0 Nottingham Forest 0
Attendance 35,386
The match attracted West Ham's biggest crowd of the season and, at the time, their record receipts - at almost £70,000.
Apparently it was a good game but I couldn't find any video clips, or even a match report to check. Needless to say, as it was a Tuesday night at the home of a significant minority of cockney yobs, I didn't go. Forest held on to a 0-0 draw and a replay back at the City Ground.
West Ham United
1 Phil Parkes, 2 Ray Stewart, 3 Frank Lampard, 4 Billy Bonds, 5 Alvin Martin, 6 Pat Holland, 7 Paul Allen, 8 Stuart Pearson, 9 David Cross, 10 Trevor Brooking, 11 Alan Devonshire.
Nottingham Forest
1 Peter Shilton, 2 Viv Anderson, 3 Frank Gray, 4 Ian Bowyer, 5 Larry Lloyd, 6 Kenny Burns, 7 Martin O'Neill, 8 John O'Hare, 9 Garry Birtles, 10 Trevor Francis, 11 John Robertson.
Attendance: 35,386
In other matches, Arsenal were held at Highbury by Swindon, who famously beat them at Wembley in the 1969 final.
Third Division Grimsby Town also played out a 0-0 draw against top tier Wolverhampton Wanderers at Blundell Park.
The one result, gained the following night, was Liverpool's 3-1 win at Carrow Road.
So, at least Forest didn't lose again and instead made their way into the "hat" (not that such a thing has existed for years - if ever) for the semi-final draw. Oh Great! Forest drew the mighty, mighty Liverpool.
Match 371: Saturday, 8th December 1979, Division Two.
Notts County 1 Birmingham City 1 (Meadow Lane 23, Notts County 39, Birmingham 5) Attendance 11,381.
The next Saturday, I went to Meadow Lane to watch Notts County and Birmingham City, without Archie Gemmill) play out a 1-1 draw. I'm not sure why I didn't make the journey to watch Forest play at Crystal Palace but I suspect money was a big part of it.It's just as well, really, as Forest lost again - their 5th successive away defeat.
Crystal Palace
1 John Burridge, 2 Paul Hinshelwood, 3 Kenny Samson, 4 Peter Nicholas, 5 Jim Cannon, 6 Billy Gilbert, 7 Jerry Murphy, 8 Gerry Francis, 9 Ian Walsh, 10 David Swindlehurst, 11 Vince Hillaire.
Goals: Ian Walsh 1.
Substitutions: Terry Fenwick (12) came on for Jerry Murphy(7).
Nottingham Forest
1 Peter Shilton, 2 Viv Anderson, 3 Frank Gray, 4 Ian Bowyer, 5 Larry Lloyd, 6 Kenny Burns, 7 Martin O'Neill, 8 John O'Hare, 9 Garry Birtles, 10 Trevor Francis, 11 John Robertson.
Attendance: 34,782
Here are the highlights of the first half...
... and the second...
In other results that day Liverpool won again, their eighth in eleven league games, to take them to the top of the table, as Manchester United were held at home to Leeds.
The league table at the end of the evening with Forest slipping to 7th place...
Forest, after this, stayed in the "relegation zone" in the current form (last 3 home/away) table
10th December - Stan Bowles joins Forest for £250,000
Clearly, things were getting serious. There seemed to even be a rift between Cloughie and Taylor as Peter contradicted Brian's after-match assertion that Forest were short of nothing "except perhaps a little more effort on the part of the management". Taylor basically told him to speak for himself.Things clearly needed brightening up and it couldn't have been a coincidence that two days later Forest made the signing of the sparkling Stan Bowles from Queen's Park Rangers for a quarter of a million pounds. So, to take our minds off the relative gloom going on 40 years ago, and now (funny how you never know how good things are, until they're gone), here's a little bit on Stan the man...
I always thought Stan Bowles was a cockney. Maybe it's his happy-go-lucky demeanor or just the fact that he's spent most of his career playing for London clubs, but it surprised my when I learned that he was born in Manchester, just a couple of kilometers north east of the city center in a place called Collyhurst. Another surprising thing is he's bloody old. Born on Christmas Eve in 1948, Stan is now into his 70s. Again, he's always seemed so young, personality-wise.
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| "Auwight, mate?" Stan Bowles - always seemed like a young cockney to me |
Stan made five full appearances (three in the league) and one more as a substitute that season, scoring two more goals as Manchester City went on to win the League, the last time they would do so for 34 years.
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| Manchester City Champions - with a little help from Stanley |
After such an explosive start, Bowles must have been disappointed his career did not carry on in this manner the next season. City finished mid-table and Bowles only made one appearance.
There are strange parallels here between another Forest legend, Ian Bowyer, who also started brightly as a young protege for Manchester City around the same time. (Read my tribute to him here.)
They seemed to rarely play alongside each other during this spell, though, and this is the only team sheet I could find with both "Bow"s in the starting line-up, a League Cup tie in 1968. Bowyer is about three years younger than Bowles and also made a great start to his career at Maine Road, winning the League Cup and the European Cup Winners cup in his first season.
At the start of the 1970-71 season, Bowles was palmed off to Bury, the local third division side (about to get relegated.)
Here he is in the team photo, even though, I think he was only there on loan at the time.
Bowles only played five games for Bury, without scoring, before being scuttled off to even less salubrious surroundings - Crewe Alexandra - and a step down to the fourth division.
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| Sad Stan at Crewe |
Early in the 1971-72 season, after starting again with Crewe, Bowles was on the move again, this time to Carlisle United of the second division.
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| Bowles at Brunton |
Stan Bowles continued the next season for the Cumbrian team and played in another big League Cup tie for them, at home to Liverpool. It would be his last game for the club. (Carlisle got beat in the replay 5-1 at Anfield.)
So, for the third season running, Bowles left a club quickly, early in the season, and moved on. This time, however, it was to be a much more permanent move... to Queen's Park Rangers.
On 8th September 1972, QPR manager Gordon Jago signed Bowles for £110,000.
His debut for the Rs was against Nottingham Forest (as was his last league game for Carlisle) on 16th September in the Second Division. QPR won 3-0 in front 12,528 and, of course, Bowles scored.
Stan Bowles helped Rangers get promotion in his first season at Loftus Road, missing only two league games from his debut and scoring 17 league goals.
Bowles quickly established himself as a favourite with the fans and the owner of the No 10 shirt.
Stan was the top scorer in 1973-74 with 22 goals in all competitions.
Bowles was capped for England for the first time on 3rd April 1974. The game, played in Lisbon, ended up as a 0-0 draw and was the last time Sir Alf Ramsey managed the side. He also played in two Home Championship games, a 2-0 win against Wales in Cardiff, in which he scored, and a 1-0 win against Northern Ireland at Wembley. These two sides were picked by Joe Mercer.
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| Bowles celebrates his only goal for England at Cardiff in a 2-0 win against Wales |
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| Highest QPR league position of all time |
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| Best QPR side ever |
Bowles scored hat-tricks both home and away against Bergen and one against Koln. He also scored against AEK Athens in their 3-0 home win in the quarter finals.
Unfortunately, even this wasn't enough as the Greeks won 3-0 too in Athens to take the game to penalties. AEK won through to the semi finals where they would lose to eventual winners, Juventus.
The next season, of course, QPR were joined in the first division by Forest and Bowles played against us five times, including the titanic F.A. Cup 5th Round tie that went to two replays.
Bowles made a return to the England side at the end of 1976 when he was picked by Don Revie to play in Rome against Italy. They lost 2-0. His fifth and last cap was the next game at home to Holland. Again England lost 0-2.
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| Bowles - 5 caps for England and 1 goal |
Here's a fans tribute to him.
So, when he signed for Forest, Bowles was well past his best. At the age of almost 31 he was 75% of the way through his career.
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| Bowles at Forest |
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| Stan, Stan the Forest Man |
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| Robbo's pal, Stan, left after being refused permission to play in his testimonial. |
He'd only make 19 appearances for the club before he fell out with Brian Clough and was sold on to Leyton Orient for £110,000. Apparently Bowles was refused permission to play in John Roberston's testimonial and that was it. Bowles was off, missing out on the chance to play in the European Cup final later in the season.
This is how he put it, years later... "I just got the hump. I do things on instinct. I walked out on the European Cup with Brian Clough as well. I woulda got a medal. Woulda got twenty grand for that now ... John Robertson, he was my best friend at Forest, Clough left me out of his testimonial. It sounds stupid, but to me it wasn't."
Bowles recently said that the biggest regret of his career was leaving QPR for Forest. (His next club was Orient.)
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| Bowles at Brisbane Road |
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| Bowles of Brentford |
Here's a full break down of Stan Bowles' playing career...
Stan received a touching welcome back to Loftus Road a few years ago..
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| The Stan Bowles Journey |
In June 2015, Stan Bowles was reported to be suffering from Alzheimer's disease. Here's wishing you all the best Stan.
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| Stan Bowles - universally loved by football fans |
Anyway, back to the plot - 40 years ago.
Match 372: Wednesday, 12th December 1979, League Cup 5th Round Replay.Nottingham Forest 3 West Ham United 0 (City Ground 182, Nottingham Forest 262, West Ham United 5) Attendance 25,500.
Fortunately, Forest's woeful league form did not seem to be effecting their performances in the Cup and on Wednesday night, the City Ground witnessed them play West Ham United in the League Cup quarter finals, with a semi-final fixture against the mighty, mighty Liverpool awaiting them.
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| Just look at the young Steve Hodge! |
Nottingham Forest
1 Peter Shilton, 2 Viv Anderson, 3 Frank Gray, 4 Ian Bowyer, 5 Larry Lloyd, 6 Kenny Burns, 7 Martin O'Neill, 8 John O'Hare, 9 Garry Birtles, 10 Trevor Francis, 11 John Robertson.
Goals: Martin O'Neill 1, John O'Hare 1, Garry Birtles 1.
West Ham United
1 Phil Parkes, 2 Ray Stewart, 3 Frank Lampard, 4 Billy Bonds, 5 Alvin Martin, 6 Geoff Pike, 7 Paul Allen, 8 Stuart Pearson, 9 David Cross, 10 Trevor Brooking, 11 Alan Devonshire.
Attendance: 25,500
The game was tied at 0-0 after 90 minutes forcing the game to go to extra time.
It was good old John O'Hare that finally broke the deadlock with a characteristically unspectacular tap in. Garry Birtles got the second and Martin O'Neill grabbed a third.
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| O'Neill scores the third to knock the Hammers out |
In the other replays, Swindon caused a sensation by knocking out Arsenal, repeating their famous League Cup final win at Wembley in 1969 and Grimsby Town almost did the same thing to Wolves. That game having to go to a second replay.
Here are Swindon's four goals that night.
The following Saturday, Forest's game at home to Middlesbrough called off. Apparently the League Cup replay had taken too much out of the ground and a deluge of rain made the surface unplayable.
In the games that were played both Manchester United and Liverpool won to increasingly make it a two-horse race for the title as Arsenal drew at West Brom.
Forest slipped to 10th place, their lowest since their return to the first division.
Here are the highlights of Liverpool's impressive 3-0 win against Crystal Palace at Anfield.
And here's how Manchester United won at Coventry City...
The only crumb of comfort for Forest was they rose one place in the current (last 3 home/away) table as Bristol City lost and so slipped below us in the table. (A very, very small crumb!)
The FA Cup 3rd Round draw was made and it didn't do us any favours with a tough away game at Leeds United.
The following Tuesday, we made the short trip to the ram shackled old mud heap that was called the Baseball Ground to watch the second replay between Wolverhampton Wanderers and Grimsby Town.
Match 373: Tuesday, 18th December 1979, League Cup 5th Round Second Replay.
Grimsby Town 0 Wolverhampton Wanderers 2 (Baseball Ground 8, Grimsby Town 4, Wolverhampton Wanderers 8) Attendance 16,600.
I remember it being a very atmospheric occasion and finding it amusing to hear the Wolves fans taunting Grimsby with "You only sing while you're fishing!" Ah the wit of the folk from the Black Country.It's the only time I've ever watch a game at the Baseball Ground as a neural venue and it was the last time I'd see Grimsby Town.
So that sealed the semi-final places.
Typically, we got the tougher match Forest had to face in-form Liverpool seeking revenge for an ever increasing list of defeats whilst Wolves were tasked with overcoming third division Swindon Town.
Tribute to John O'Hare
John O'Hare's crucial first goal in extra time provides me with an excuse to"do one" on John. Another unsung hero of the "miracle men" - perhaps the most unsung - and, let's be honest, never the most popular Cloughie signing, John O'Hare was, nevertheless a key member of the best Forest squad ever.So, here's my brief tribute to the man.
John "Solly" O'Hare (don't ask!) was born in the town of Renton, just north of Dumbarton on the north banks of the Clyde on 24th September 1946. So he's slightly more than two years older than Stan Bowles. He is one the best footballers to come from the Vale of Leven. He attended St Martins School where his football prowess was spotted and went onto St Patrick's High School in Dumbarton.
O'Hare joined Sunderland as a centre-forward in October 1963, when he had just turned 17, and stayed there for 4 years until August 1967. Brian Clough's career had ended there the Boxing Day before but I expect Cloughie would have still been hanging around the club in some kind of coaching role at the time the young lad joined.
While at Sunderland, O'Hare was the first of a trio of players who came from his neck of the woods. Bobby Kerr, who is a year younger than John, joined in 1964 was probably the most famous of the three.
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| Young John O'Hare at Sunderland |
Brian Clough bought O'Hare from Sunderland for a snip of £22,000 at the start of the 1967-68 season when he was not even 21. He made his debut in the opening game at home to Charlton Athletic, scoring a goal in the process.
Here's the earliest footage I could find of John O'Hare scoring a goal.This is for Derby County at Blackpool on their way to winning the Second Division title.
Of course, what happened next is well known as Derby County, under Clough & Taylor, went from strength to strength, finishing 4th in the first season back in the top flight and winning the league in their third.
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| O'Hare was Derby's top scorer (in open play) in their league title winning side. |
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| Happier returns to Stamford Bridge for O'Hare, Derby always seemed to draw there in those days. |
Whilst at Derby, John O'Hare made all his 13 appearances for Scotland, scoring five goals in the process.
Here are John O'Hare's surprisingly good international career stats for Scotland. A scoring rate of 38% is good in anyone's book.
Here are his international stats, thanks to Wikipedia.
There can't be many players who have scored in five or more games for their country and won all of them whilst doing so.
Later, when Cloughie parted company with Taylor for the first time, leaving him at Brighton, and went to join Leeds United, John O'Hare soon joined him, along with another Cloughie stalwart, John McGovern. The pair cost Leeds about £120,000. O'Hare would only ever make six appearances for Leeds but still managed to score a goal in a rare 3-0 win at Coventry City.
Cloughie's time at Elland Road was, as we all know, a miserable one and so it must have been for John O'Hare and his other protege, John McGovern.
It must have been the least surprising pair of signings ever, then, when the two Johns rejoined Brian once he'd been appointed Forest manager early in 1975. It took Brian just 44 days to secure the pair on 19th February 1975, the fee, apparently was just £60,000 this time. A bargain for Forest.
John O'Hare made his Forest debut away at Oxford United on 28th February 1975, a 1-1 draw, and he scored his first goal for the club in the next match, at home to Aston Villa, although they lost 2-3. John made 10 appearances that season, missing just two games after joining.
In the 1975-76 season, John O'Hare started in 39 of 42 league games and came on as sub once. He was second top scorer (to Barry Butlin) scoring 9 goals to Butlin's 13.
In Forest's promotion winning season, O'Hare made only 19 starts with 3 appearances as sub and scored only three goals.
The next couple of years are shrouded in some mystery for me. O'Hare did make ten league appearances for Forest in their title winning season although he didn't score. Apart from one game at No. 9, he played mostly in a midfield role. He also made two starts and one sub in their amazing run to win the League Cup. It was John O'Hare who was embroiled in controversy being brought down just inside (or was it?) the box by Phil Thompson to concede a penalty that John Robertson put away to win Forest the trophy in the replay at Old Trafford. (See my blog post on that incident here.)
But, strangely, the stats also record that John O'Hare played in the USA for Dallas Tornado around the same time (1977-78) making 40 appearances and scoring 14 goals. This 35% strike rate was his best ever. I have no memory of O'Hare going to the USA at the time, hence the mystery.
It's not really a mystery of course, it's just yet more evidence of faded memories in a sad old man.
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| O'Hare made 40 appearances for Dallas Tornado in 1977-78 |
So, to the season I'm reviewing here, 1979-80 and John O'Hare, by the time of this post in December 1979, had made just six league appearances - and was set to make just one more before the season's end.
In the League Cup, he'd started in Forest's 3-1 win at 'Boro in the third round and Forest's 1-1 draw at Ashton Gate in the fourth, where he'd scored. He'd also started at Upton Park against West Ham United in the quarter finals and, as we've just seen, started and scored the crucial first goal against them in the replay.
Alas, that would be his last goal for Forest, hence the timing of this small tribute to him.
John O'Hare stayed with us for one more season after this one. His last competitive match for Forest was at home to Peterborough United in the League Cup 2nd Round, First Leg, on 27th August 1980. John was not quite 34 years old. Forest won the match 3-0 in front of 16,117 with goals from Robbo (pen), Birtles and Frank Gray. John didn't play in the second leg, or indeed any other matches that season as far as I can tell.
This is a song some of us in the Trent End used to sing about him.
We all agree Nottingham Forest are Magic
McGovern is better than Eusabio and
O'Hare's got a fat belly
Sorry, John!
We appreciated you, really. (Well some of us!) Forest fans can be a cruel lot and, to be honest, I don't think they ever gave John O'Hare the warmth he deserved. He was at the club almost as long as he was at Derby and although he didn't make as many appearances for us as he did them, his contribution was still a significant one.
In any case, thanks for the memories, John, from one fan, at least.
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| Thanks John! |
Here are John O'Hare's career statistics...
Anyway... let's back to 1979 and Forest's dismal league form...
Saturday, 22nd December 1979 First Division
Manchester United 3 Nottingham Forest 0
So, after a fortnight away from league action, Forest resumed their attempt to regain their league form at title chasers, Manchester United at Old Trafford. It would be Stan Bowles' debut for the club but that's about the only good thing that happened.
Manchester United
1 Gary Bailey, 2 James Nicholl, 3 Stewart Houston, 4 Sammy McIlroy, 5 Gordon McQueen, 6 Martin Buchan, 7 Steve Coppell, 7 Steve Coppell, 8 Ray Wilkins, 9 Joe Jordan, 10 Lou Macari, 11 Mickey Thomas.
Goals: Gordon McQueen 1, Joe Jordan 2.
Nottingham Forest
1 Peter Shilton, 2 Viv Anderson, 3 Frank Gray, 4 John McGovern, 5 Larry Lloyd, 6 Kenny Burns, 7 Martin O'Neill, 8 Stan Bowles, 9 Garry Birtles, 10 Trevor Francis, 11 John Robertson.
Attendance :54,522
3-0 down after just 23 minutes, Forest never threatened and, as the headline in the Guardian put it, were "eaten alive."
The pre-Christmas programme was played over three days that year. Villa beat Coventry 3-0 on the Wednesday and the rest of the fixtures were played on Friday and Saturday.
The attendance for the Forest game was more than twice the next biggest of the set. Liverpool also got an easy win at the Baseball Ground to keep them at the top of the table.
Forest slipped into the bottom half of the table for the first time since their promotion.
This was Forest's sixth successive away league defeat and their form continued to be that of a side heading for relegation.
Match 374: Wednesday, 26th December 1979, Division One.
Nottingham Forest 2 Aston Villa 1 (City Ground 183, Nottingham Forest 263 Aston Villa 12) Attendance 30,979.
I don't remember much about the last Christmas in the 1970s. It was probably the usual affair of going home from Nottingham University to Greenacres, Kirkby-in-Ashfield and spending far too much time and money on ale in the Waggon & Horses and wasting far to much emotion trying, and failing, to find myself a girlfriend.
The Boxing Day fixture that year was a home fixture against the brummies, Aston Villa. The biggest crowd of the season came along to watch as the new "Executive Stand" was pretty much filled.
Stan Bowles made his home debut for Forest, continuing replacing Gary Mills. Martin O'Neill made way for Ian Bowyer.
For Villa, their regular goalkeeper, Jimmy Rimmer, made way for a young Nigel Spink, then just 21 years old. It was his only league appearance that season but he would go on to make 361 appearances for the club by the time he left them in 1996. His next appearance for the club after this would be his most famous one. Playing in the European Cup final against Bayern Munich, Jimmy Rimmer got badly injured after just ten minutes and had to be replaced by Spink.
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| Peter Withe and Nigel Spink with the European Cup in 1982 |
Nottingham Forest
1 Peter Shilton, 2 Viv Anderson, 3 Frank Gray, 4 Ian Bowyer, 5 Larry Lloyd, 6 Kenny Burns, 7 Ian Bowyer, 8 Stan Bowles, 9 Garry Birtles, 10 Trevor Francis, 11 John Robertson.
Goals: Stan Bowles 1, John Robertson 1 (pen.).
Aston Villa
1 Nigel Spink, 2 Ken Swain, 3 Colin Gibson, 4 Brendan Ormsby, 5 Kenneth McNaught, 6 Dennis Mortimer, 7 Des Bremner, 8 Brian Little, 9 Terry Donovan, 10 Gordan Cowans, 11 Gary Shaw.
Goals : Gary Shaw 1.
Attendance: 30,979
At last, Forest returned to form and a second half penalty by John Roberston, after Francis was judged to have been fouled in the box set them on their way to their first league win in seven games. The icing was added to the cake when, seven minutes later, Stan Bowles scored his first goal for the club with a glancing header. Gary Shaw got a consolation for Villa but the two points were deserved.
At last, Forest returned to form and a second half penalty by John Roberston, after Francis was judged to have been fouled in the box set them on their way to their first league win in seven games. The icing was added to the cake when, seven minutes later, Stan Bowles scored his first goal for the club with a glancing header. Gary Shaw got a consolation for Villa but the two points were deserved.
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| Garry Birtles, in front of a full but still not complete Executive Stand, almost scores in the first half |
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| John Robertson beats Nigel Spink from the spot to make it 1-0 |
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| Stan Bowles glances in his first goal for Forest |
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| Spink saves from Lloyd |
Elsewhere, in the in match of the day, Liverpool beat Manchester United 2-0 in the epic top-of-the-table clash at Anfield, taking them two points clear at the top with a game in hand.
These were the good old Boxing Days when the fixtures were really designed to pitch local rivals against each other to save the fans a big commute. Arsenal won the North London derby 1-0 and the "Old Farm" derby between Norwich and Ipswich ended in a classic 3-3 draw.
Liverpool started to stretch their lead at the top. Derby started looking doomed.
Despite the win, Forest stayed in the bottom three on current form.
Three days later, Forest played their last game of the 1970s at Highfield Road, the place where Forest clinched their only league title back in 1978.
Match 375: Saturday, 29th December 1979, Division One.
Coventry City 0 Nottingham Forest 3 (Highfield Road 3, Coventry City 9 Nottingham Forest 264) Attendance 24,743.
Once again, I have no memory of this whatsoever but it's recorded in my little black folder, so it must be true that I went, probably driven there by the lovely Ian White.
Coventry made two changes to the team that had won at the Baseball Ground on Boxing Day. Mick Coop came in for Ray Gooding and Steve Hunt replaced Ian Wallace.
Forest fielded the same team that beat Aston Villa, the only change was that Ian Bowyer and Trevor Francis swapped shirts. This was also John Robertson's 180th consecutive performance for Forest.
Coventry City
1 Les Sealey, 2 Brian Roberts, 3 Bobby McDonald, 4 Mick Coop, 5 Jim Holton, 6 Gary Gillespie, 7 Tommy Hutchison, 8 Tom English, 9 Mick Ferguson, 10 Andy Blair, 11 Steve Hunt.
Substitutions: Steve Whitton (12) came on for Steve Hunt(11).
Nottingham Forest
1 Peter Shilton, 2 Viv Anderson, 3 Frank Gray, 4 Ian Bowyer, 5 Larry Lloyd, 6 Kenny Burns, 7 Trevor Francis, 8 Stan Bowles, 9 Garry Birtles, 10 Ian Bowyer, 11 John Robertson.
Goals : Stan Bowles 1, John Robertson 2 (1 pen.).
Attendance: 24,743
Again, I am amazed that John Robertson's amazing run seems to have passed right under the noses of all and sundry without anyone noticing. Cyril Chapman, the Guardian reporter, like everyone else at the time, it seems, failed to note his 180th consecutive game even though it was Robbo who really grabbed the points for Forest. He scored two goals, one a penalty, to put Forest in a winning position before Bowles scores his second in two games to seal the points.
This was Forest's first away win in the league since beating West Brom 5-1 at the Hawthorns at the start of September, ending a run of nine away league games without a win.
Again, I am amazed that John Robertson's amazing run seems to have passed right under the noses of all and sundry without anyone noticing. Cyril Chapman, the Guardian reporter, like everyone else at the time, it seems, failed to note his 180th consecutive game even though it was Robbo who really grabbed the points for Forest. He scored two goals, one a penalty, to put Forest in a winning position before Bowles scores his second in two games to seal the points.
This was Forest's first away win in the league since beating West Brom 5-1 at the Hawthorns at the start of September, ending a run of nine away league games without a win.
Liverpool and Manchester United both won impressively again, stretching their lead at the top over third placed Arsenal to four points.
Forest's win saw them climb back into the top eight. Middlesbrough's 2-1 win a Crystal Palace put them up to 6th place.
The last two wins took Forest out of relegation form in the current form table. Liverpool's perfect current form was an ominous sign of things to come.
So ended the 70s in the football world.
End of the 1970s Music Interlude
So as the decade ended, what were the songs on our lips?
Here's the top 20 at the end of the year....
Here are my picks...
Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall"
ABBA's "I Have a Dream"
Paul McCartney's "Wonderful Christmas Time"
This isn't a "pick" as such, but I include it just to show what sometimes ended up in the charts back in the 1970s. I can't imagine that happening again today!
Back to the Future... Forest "strike" over.
Ok, so to end off with, I want to switch from 40 years ago to right now and report that I have ended my personal protest against Forest for their (in my opinion) totally unjust sacking of my football hero, Martin O'Neill.I am not going to go over all those arguments again (see earlier posts for that) and, by ending my suspension, I aim to put it all behind me. I don't think I will ever "forgive and forget" but it's time to move on. I think I will always be a Forest fan, no matter what happens and, as several Forest fan mates have reminded me, "no-one is bigger than the club."
So, after 164 days when I stopped watching them, I'm back. And in true Mr Jinxer style, their form seems to have gone to pot.
Never mind. I am still hopeful that Forest, under Sabri Lamouchi or not, will still be there or thereabouts at the end of the season. Great! Then Forest can take their place in the cluster of clubs providing cannon-fodder for the big six oligarchs.
Exciting,eh?
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