40 years ago (well almost - sorry this was posted a bit late but I have the best excuse - my daughter's wedding) Forest played in the Camp Nou, the magnificent stadium of FC Barcelona, in front of 80,000 fans. The Catalans were there, presumably expecting to see the overturning of the 1-0 lead Forest had gained in the first leg at the City Ground the week before. Charlie George had put Forest ahead in the European Super Cup (a contrived clash between the winners of the European Cup winners and the Cup Winners Cup).
It almost seemed mundane at the time but looking back from today, it's truly amazing to note that a Kenny Burns header just before half time, equalising on the night, and putting them 2-1 up overall, would bring further glory to Nottingham Forest at the expense of the mighty Barcelona. So excuse me for dwelling on that event a little here. I'll do a little potted history of the Catalan giants as well as "doing one" on Kenny Burns' career which included a spell playing with a mate of mine from Kirkby-in-Ashfield.
Even 40 years ago, Barca were a massive club and their players were apparently offered a £1,750 bonus to win the tie. I'll try to put this figure into some kind of context with the crazier than ever money that is flooding into the game today. I don't know what bonus Forest players were on but Peter Shilton was on £1,200 a week and he was allegedly the best-paid player in England at the time. So, "Burns denies Barcelona's bonus in February" is the title of this blog - in Catalan, of course.
Another outstanding achievement for Forest 40 years ago was another victory over the increasingly Forest-frustrated Liverpudlians in the semi-final of the League Cup. Mirroring the Barca win, Forest, had won 1-0 at home in the first leg and drew 1-1 at Anfield to secure their third successive League Cup Final appearance at Wembley. Robbo scored crucial penalties in both games and, missed by everyone, it seems, played his 190th consecutive game for the club that night.
Amazing, Amazing, Robbo.
Apart from these highlights, it was a pretty mediocre month for Forest, Charlie George was let go after just four appearances and the Reds' league form drifted back to average with a couple of frustrating home draws although it ended on a high with a 4-0 win over Manchester City with a hattrick from Trevor Francis.
As always, I'll pick a few songs that topped the charts in February 1980 to evoke the atmosphere of the times.
Previously into the 80s with Charlie George.
Forest were due to play Norwich City on the first Saturday of the month but the game was called off along with 29 others that day. So, I headed up to Hillsborough to watch Sheffield Wednesday beat Colchester United in a Division Three fixture. In those days, under-soil heating was very rare.
This was the first of only four games I attended that month.
In the first division games that did get played, Manchester United won at Derby to keep themselves in the title race.
So United were joint top with Liverpool, although Liverpool had a game in hand. Forest lagged seven points behind them.
Forest's current form had improved in January and so it was not inconceivable, at this point in the season, that Forest might still challenge for the title themselves.
Forest set off for Barcelona the next day with Stuart Dryden, bizarrely not allowed on plane after getting into trouble with the post office.
On February 4th the squad for England's game v Eire was announced with ex-Forest player Tony Woodcock in squad along with Kevin Keegan and Laurie Cunningham - three players making their living abroad.
So... to Barcelona and the Nou Camp stadium. (I wish)
Money was tight as a student at Nottingham University and it was never really an option for me to go to this game. But with the benefit of nostalgic hindsight and Googly research I can make a virtual trip there now.
I can't help but note, here, that whilst Barcelona was just starting up, Nottingham Forest had already been established for 34 years and had already won their first major trophy, the F.A. Cup in 1898.
Barcelona took part in the inaugural "Campionat de Catalunya" (Catalonian Football Championship) in 1900-01, the first football league in Spain, winning it the next season, 1901-02.
Gamper was club president for most of the early period of the club's history. He committed suicide at the age of 52 in 1930 after a period of depression.
Barcelona's first ground was the 6,000 capacity Camp de la Indústria where they played until 1922.
Barca won their first national title, the Copa del Rey in 1910 and their first La Liga title in 1929.
The club, by now, were playing at their second home, Camp de Les Corts.
It was another 16 years before they added their second League title though (by which time they had won the Copa del Rey another eight times) ...
In 1957, Barcelona moved again to their current stadium, Camp Nou.
Of course, the rest of Barcelona's history is pretty much a never ending catalog of success, at least whenever the even bigger giants, Real Madrid, were not dominating things themselves.
It's surprising, looking back from today that by 1980 Barcelona had won only 18% of all La Liga titles, compared to 40% by Real Madrid and that they hadn't won the Spanish league for six years at the time of their clash with Forest.
Still, they were a huge club and 80,000 packed into the Nou Camp to watch the second leg against Clough & Taylor's miracle men.
Barcelona
1 Pedro Artola, 2 Juan Jose Estalla, 3 Bernardo Bianquetti Migueli, 4 Antonio Olmo, 5 Joan Manuel Serrat, 6 Jose Vicente Sanchez, 7 Juan Manuel Asensi, 8 Julian Rubio, 8 Jesus Landaburu, 9 Allan Simonsen, 10 Rebrto Fernandez Bonillo, 11 Francisco Jose Carrasco.
Substitutions: Esteban Vigo (12) came on for Joan Manuel Serrat(5).
Nottingham Forest
1 Peter Shilton, 2 Viv Anderson, 3 Frank Gray, 4 John McGovern, 5 Larry Lloyd, 6 Kenny Burns, 7 Stan Bowles, 8 Trevor Francis, 9 Garry Birtles, 10 Charlie George, 11 John Robertson.
Goals : Kenny Burns 1.
Substitutions: Martin O'Neill(12) came on for Trevor Francis (8).
Attendance: 80,000
I couldn't find any clips of the match at all on You Tube but here's a match report from the Guardian.
It's all got very silly.
In 1980 Peter Shilton was, allegedly, England's best paid player on around £1,200 a week (about £3,800 in today's money.) Lewis Grabban, Forest's best paid player today is apparently on about £25,000, almost seven times as much.
I don't know what Barca's players were on at the time, but it was almost certainly far more than Shilton. Assuming some of them were earning the equivalent of the win bonus, that would have been the equivalent of around £5,500 per week. As most people know and just accept as normal these days, the top players at clubs like Barcelona earn obscene amounts these days that make even those figures look like peanuts.
It would take Leonel Messi about 75 minutes to earn what Peter Shilton earned in a week, in real terms.
It's ridiculous, isn't it? Forest were European Champions forty years ago. Today they're one of a pack of teams trying to gain promotion and yet their players' wages are far, far higher today than then, even taking into account inflation.
I don't know the annual expenditure on Forest's wages then or now but just comparing the reported figure for the highest paid player into account, it's nearly seven times higher today than then. I expect it's much more though because Forest currently have a squad of over 40 professionals. In 1980 it was about half that number. I wonder how much John Roberston and Martin O'Neill were on in those days. Anyone know? I'd love to find out.
Of course, I expect it's even worse for clubs like Barcelona with the riches of the Champions League and TV money flooding in these days.
I don't know about you but I'm sick of it. In 1980, according to grandma Google, a GP in the UK could expect almost £50,000 a year, in today's money. The latest figures, apparently, are over £65,000. So, about a 30% increase - not too bad, I suppose.
These figures were dwarfed by the top footballers even in 1980, but today it's become just obscene. Messi earns more in a day, for kicking a ball around a football pitch, than a typical doctor in the UK earns in a year.
Clough and Taylor famously bought Kenny Burns as their first signing after getting promotion back to the first division and, to everyone's surprise, he was switched back to being a defender again by the dynamic duo.
It was a controversial signing as Burns had developed a "bad boy" image at Birmingham and early in his Forest career we got to see a nasty glimpse of it when he head butted Frank Stapleton at Highbury. Burns got away with a yellow card but clearly should have been sent off.
Burns was fined by Clough and Taylor after the incident and that kind of behavior was never repeated.
Once again, the switch impressed everyone and Burns won the Player of the Year award that season.
Burns made one appearance for Scotland at Birmingham and added a further 19 whilst at Forest.
Burns had a brief spell in Sweden with IF Elfsborg before finishing his career with a series of non-league clubs. I can't think of any other player who won the European Cup who loved the game so much they carried on playing competitively, effectively, until they could no longer do so. But that's probably just my ignorance.
Among his six English non-league clubs were Sutton Town, who played in my home town of Kirkby-in-Ashfield on Low Moor Road, at the time. My old school mate, Gary Kelly, had the surreal experience of playing alongside him up front, for a spell in 1986. Burns, at 33 was coming to the end of his career, but Gary, at 27 was about at his peak. They scored a lot of goals together apparently.
Later, Kenny joined Martin O'Neill at Grantham to help him in his first season in management.
Burns finally hung his boots up at the age of 40 whilst at Oakham United.
These days, he often makes appearances in the local media commenting on the latest Forest news and has earned a reputation for being a bit outspoken.
Kenny was always a formidable opponent whether you were a defender trying to stop him scoring or a striker trying to evade his brutal challenges. He doesn't look very cuddly, even today.
The night after Forest's triumph, England beat the Irish Republic 2-0 at Wembley in a European Championship qualifier.
The following Saturday, I strolled across Trent Bridge to watch Forest grind out a dull 0-0 draw with struggling Bristol City.
Nottingham Forest
1 Peter Shilton, 2 Viv Anderson, 3 Bryn Gunn, 4 John McGovern, 5 Larry Lloyd, 6 Kenny Burns, 7 Martin O'Neill, 8 Stan Bowles, 9 Garry Birtles, 10 Charlie George, 11 John Robertson.
Bristol City
1 Ray Cashley, 2 Gerry Sweeney, 3 Clive Whitehead, 4 Trevor Tainton, 5 David Rogers, 6 Geoff Merrick, 7 Tony Fitzpatrick, 8 Andy Ritchie, 9 Joe Royle, 10 Howard Pritchard, 11 Ian Doyle.
Attendance: 23,421
In other games, Liverpool powered to a 5-3 win at Carrow Road in one of the iconic games of the early 80s. United lost at home to Wolves, so Liverpool now had a two point lead with a game in hand.
Forest's current form was still good at this time though...
One of the classic games ever was played this weekend including the goal of the season from Justin Fashanu, his equaliser to make it 3-3.
Here are the highlights of the south coast derby, Southampton v Brighton.
The same day, Clough announced that Charlie George would be leaving the club after playing only four games. "He'll be a Southampton player tomorrow" said our Brian.
Again, no highlights could be found. Just some photos...
And here's the report in the Guardian...
The following Saturday was the 5th Round of the F.A. Cup, which Forest had been knocked out of in the last round at home to Liverpool. Ironically, the fixtures had paired us up to play at Anfield that day, so we had a reprieve from that ordeal.
Instead Forest played a rearranged home tie against Middlesbrough that had been postponed back in December,
Here's the original program, as printed for the December fixture...
And here's the extra supplement, printed for the rearranged game...
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.
Goals: Martin O'Neill 1, John Robertson 1 (pen.).
Substitutions: Ian Bowyer (12) came on for Stan Bowles(8).
Middlesbrough
1 Jim Platt, 2 John Craggs, 3 Craig Johnston, 4 Graeme Hedley, 5 Billy Ashcroft, 6 Tony McAndrew, 7 Terry Cochrane, 8 Mark Proctor, 9 David Hodgson, 10 Micky Burns, 11 Dave Armstrong.
Goals : Micky Burns 2.
The eight F.A. Cup ties that day went as follows with the shock of the round being Watford's 3-0 win at Moleneaux.
To no-one's great surprise, Liverpool ran out comfortable winners to strengthen their increasing grip on the title.
Liverpool
1 Ray Clemence, 2 Phil Neal, 3 Alan Kennedy, 4 Phil Thompson, 5 Ray Kennedy, 6 Alan Hansen, 7 Kenny Dalglish, 8 Jimmy Case, 9 David Fairclough, 10 Terry McDermott, 11 Graeme Souness.
Goals: Ray Kennedy 1, Terry McDermott 1.
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 Ian Bowyer, 9 Garry Birtles, 10 Trevor Francis, 11 John Robertson.
Attendance: 45,093
Liverpool's win took them three points clear of Manchester United with a game in hand.
The defeat meant Forest's current league form slipped to below average again.
As the month came to a close, we were in need of a boost and it came in the form of a comfortable home win against struggling Manchester City.
This was the 3rd home league game on a Saturday on the trot for Forest
Nottingham Forest
1 Peter Shilton, 2 Viv Anderson, 3 Bryn Gunn, 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.
Goals: Kenny Burns 1, Trevor Francis 3.
Manchester City
1 Joe Corrigan, 2 Ray Ranson, 3 Willie Donnachie, 4 Peter Reid, 5 Tom Caton, 6 Tommy Booth, 7 Tony Henry, 8 Mick Robinson, 9 Roger Palmer, 10 Paul Power, 11 Dave Bennett.
Attendance: 27,756
Again, no highlights, but here's the report in the Guardian of Forest's return to form with a hattrick from Trevor Francis.
Elsewhere, Liverpool slipped up at home to Ipswich whilst Manchester United demolished Bristol City to keep the title race alive.
Ipswich town were the form team of the moment.
On 26th February Louis Edwards, owner of Manchester United, died of a heart attack and the night after the club beat Bolton 2-0 to keep their challenge for their first title since 1967 (already 23 years ago) alive. Liverpool impressively won at Wolves, though, to keep the gap at two points.
No 20 was The Beat with "Hands off She's Mine"
No 19 - The Police "So Lonely"
No 17 - Peter Gabriel's "Games Without Frontiers"
No 8 - the Tourists (with Annie Lennox) "So Good to Back Home Again"
No 7 - Michael Jackson's "Rock with You"
No 5 - Elvis Costello's "I can't stand up for falling down"
No 1 - Blondie and Atomic...
That's it. Just three more to go and this project will be complete. I hope it was of some interest to someone out there.
It almost seemed mundane at the time but looking back from today, it's truly amazing to note that a Kenny Burns header just before half time, equalising on the night, and putting them 2-1 up overall, would bring further glory to Nottingham Forest at the expense of the mighty Barcelona. So excuse me for dwelling on that event a little here. I'll do a little potted history of the Catalan giants as well as "doing one" on Kenny Burns' career which included a spell playing with a mate of mine from Kirkby-in-Ashfield.
Even 40 years ago, Barca were a massive club and their players were apparently offered a £1,750 bonus to win the tie. I'll try to put this figure into some kind of context with the crazier than ever money that is flooding into the game today. I don't know what bonus Forest players were on but Peter Shilton was on £1,200 a week and he was allegedly the best-paid player in England at the time. So, "Burns denies Barcelona's bonus in February" is the title of this blog - in Catalan, of course.
Another outstanding achievement for Forest 40 years ago was another victory over the increasingly Forest-frustrated Liverpudlians in the semi-final of the League Cup. Mirroring the Barca win, Forest, had won 1-0 at home in the first leg and drew 1-1 at Anfield to secure their third successive League Cup Final appearance at Wembley. Robbo scored crucial penalties in both games and, missed by everyone, it seems, played his 190th consecutive game for the club that night.
Amazing, Amazing, Robbo.
Apart from these highlights, it was a pretty mediocre month for Forest, Charlie George was let go after just four appearances and the Reds' league form drifted back to average with a couple of frustrating home draws although it ended on a high with a 4-0 win over Manchester City with a hattrick from Trevor Francis.
As always, I'll pick a few songs that topped the charts in February 1980 to evoke the atmosphere of the times.
Previously into the 80s with Charlie George.
Forest were due to play Norwich City on the first Saturday of the month but the game was called off along with 29 others that day. So, I headed up to Hillsborough to watch Sheffield Wednesday beat Colchester United in a Division Three fixture. In those days, under-soil heating was very rare.
Match 382: Saturday, 2nd February 1980, Division Three.
Sheffield Wednesday 3 Colchester United 0 (Hillsborough 3, Sheffield Wednesday 5, Colchester United 2) Attendance 11,958.
In the first division games that did get played, Manchester United won at Derby to keep themselves in the title race.
So United were joint top with Liverpool, although Liverpool had a game in hand. Forest lagged seven points behind them.
Forest's current form had improved in January and so it was not inconceivable, at this point in the season, that Forest might still challenge for the title themselves.
Forest set off for Barcelona the next day with Stuart Dryden, bizarrely not allowed on plane after getting into trouble with the post office.
On February 4th the squad for England's game v Eire was announced with ex-Forest player Tony Woodcock in squad along with Kevin Keegan and Laurie Cunningham - three players making their living abroad.
So... to Barcelona and the Nou Camp stadium. (I wish)
Money was tight as a student at Nottingham University and it was never really an option for me to go to this game. But with the benefit of nostalgic hindsight and Googly research I can make a virtual trip there now.
FC Barcelona 1899-1980
FC Barcelona are obviously one of the biggest, most famous, and most popular clubs in the world.
The club was formed before the end of the 19th century. It resulted from an advert placed in a local newspaper called "Los Deportes" (Sports) by a Swiss man called Hans Gramper calling for anyone with a love of the game of football to meet up. Eleven players attended the first meeting, on 29th November, and the club was formed.
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| Original Advert which led to the formation of Barcelona |
Gamper was only in Barcelona as a stop off on his way to Africa to start "some sugar trading companies" - as you do - but he fell in love with the city and decided to stay. He was only 22 at the time and must have been a decent footballer as he played 48 times for the club over the next three or so years and scored over 100 goals.
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| Barca - relative new kids on the block, compared to the Original Reds |
Barcelona took part in the inaugural "Campionat de Catalunya" (Catalonian Football Championship) in 1900-01, the first football league in Spain, winning it the next season, 1901-02.
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| Barca ca 1903 |
Barcelona's first ground was the 6,000 capacity Camp de la Indústria where they played until 1922.
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| Barca playing at their first ground |
Barca won their first national title, the Copa del Rey in 1910 and their first La Liga title in 1929.
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| La Liga 1929 |
The club, by now, were playing at their second home, Camp de Les Corts.
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| The capacity of Camp de Les Corts went from 20,000 to 60,000 |
It was another 16 years before they added their second League title though (by which time they had won the Copa del Rey another eight times) ...
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| La Liga 1944-45 |
In 1957, Barcelona moved again to their current stadium, Camp Nou.
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| Camp Nou in 1957 just before it opened |
Of course, the rest of Barcelona's history is pretty much a never ending catalog of success, at least whenever the even bigger giants, Real Madrid, were not dominating things themselves.
It's surprising, looking back from today that by 1980 Barcelona had won only 18% of all La Liga titles, compared to 40% by Real Madrid and that they hadn't won the Spanish league for six years at the time of their clash with Forest.
Still, they were a huge club and 80,000 packed into the Nou Camp to watch the second leg against Clough & Taylor's miracle men.
February 5th, 1980. European Super Cup: FC Barcelona 1 Nottingham Forest 1
Barcelona
1 Pedro Artola, 2 Juan Jose Estalla, 3 Bernardo Bianquetti Migueli, 4 Antonio Olmo, 5 Joan Manuel Serrat, 6 Jose Vicente Sanchez, 7 Juan Manuel Asensi, 8 Julian Rubio, 8 Jesus Landaburu, 9 Allan Simonsen, 10 Rebrto Fernandez Bonillo, 11 Francisco Jose Carrasco.
Substitutions: Esteban Vigo (12) came on for Joan Manuel Serrat(5).
Nottingham Forest
1 Peter Shilton, 2 Viv Anderson, 3 Frank Gray, 4 John McGovern, 5 Larry Lloyd, 6 Kenny Burns, 7 Stan Bowles, 8 Trevor Francis, 9 Garry Birtles, 10 Charlie George, 11 John Robertson.
Goals : Kenny Burns 1.
Substitutions: Martin O'Neill(12) came on for Trevor Francis (8).
Attendance: 80,000
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| Larry Lloyd in action |
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| John McGovern v Allan Simonsen |
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| Kenny Burns gets the decisive equaliser just before half time |
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| Super Cup - Super Reds |
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| Another trophy to lift for John McGovern |
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| Super Cup Shield won by Forest in 1980. Not as glamorous as it is today. |
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| The Trophy Today - much more "Super" |
I couldn't find any clips of the match at all on You Tube but here's a match report from the Guardian.
Barmy Bonuses then and Now
One of the stories surrounding the match was the £1,750 bonus the Barcelona players were alleged to be on that night. Such a figure wouldn't get Barcelona players out of bed these days.It's all got very silly.
In 1980 Peter Shilton was, allegedly, England's best paid player on around £1,200 a week (about £3,800 in today's money.) Lewis Grabban, Forest's best paid player today is apparently on about £25,000, almost seven times as much.
I don't know what Barca's players were on at the time, but it was almost certainly far more than Shilton. Assuming some of them were earning the equivalent of the win bonus, that would have been the equivalent of around £5,500 per week. As most people know and just accept as normal these days, the top players at clubs like Barcelona earn obscene amounts these days that make even those figures look like peanuts.
It would take Leonel Messi about 75 minutes to earn what Peter Shilton earned in a week, in real terms.
It's ridiculous, isn't it? Forest were European Champions forty years ago. Today they're one of a pack of teams trying to gain promotion and yet their players' wages are far, far higher today than then, even taking into account inflation.
I don't know the annual expenditure on Forest's wages then or now but just comparing the reported figure for the highest paid player into account, it's nearly seven times higher today than then. I expect it's much more though because Forest currently have a squad of over 40 professionals. In 1980 it was about half that number. I wonder how much John Roberston and Martin O'Neill were on in those days. Anyone know? I'd love to find out.
Of course, I expect it's even worse for clubs like Barcelona with the riches of the Champions League and TV money flooding in these days.
I don't know about you but I'm sick of it. In 1980, according to grandma Google, a GP in the UK could expect almost £50,000 a year, in today's money. The latest figures, apparently, are over £65,000. So, about a 30% increase - not too bad, I suppose.
These figures were dwarfed by the top footballers even in 1980, but today it's become just obscene. Messi earns more in a day, for kicking a ball around a football pitch, than a typical doctor in the UK earns in a year.
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| Forest, Barca and GPs salaries kind of compared in 1980 and today - note it's a LOGARITHMIC scale! |
Please can we have our football back!?
Kenny Burns Career
Anyway, so it was Kenny Burns who got the famous goal that night and so I have to take this opportunity to "do one" on Kenny. A quick one.
Kenny was born in Glasgow on 23rd September 1953 and joined Rangers as an apprentice but never played for the club and was released in 1971. Burns came south and joined Birmingham City at the age of 17.
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| Young Burns |
Kenny joined the Blues as a defender but was converted to a striker when Bob Latchford left to join Everton in 1974. He was quite a prolific striker from that time and won Birmingham City's player of the year award that season.
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| Burnsy's on fire, your defence is petrified |
Clough and Taylor famously bought Kenny Burns as their first signing after getting promotion back to the first division and, to everyone's surprise, he was switched back to being a defender again by the dynamic duo.
It was a controversial signing as Burns had developed a "bad boy" image at Birmingham and early in his Forest career we got to see a nasty glimpse of it when he head butted Frank Stapleton at Highbury. Burns got away with a yellow card but clearly should have been sent off.
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| Stitch that, Tommy! |
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| Only a Yellow for Burns but John McGovern and everyone knew what he'd done. |
Once again, the switch impressed everyone and Burns won the Player of the Year award that season.
Burns made one appearance for Scotland at Birmingham and added a further 19 whilst at Forest.
Burns had a remarkably long career. After he left Forest at the age of 28, he'd go on to play for another eleven clubs, although only four of them were in the English league.
The first was Leeds United where he made 56 league appearances in about three years.
The first was Leeds United where he made 56 league appearances in about three years.
Burns then sold his soul to the devil and joined Derby County, then under Arthur Cox, where he made 38 league appearances in the 1984-85 season.
After a two game loan spell at Notts County, Barnsley were next. He played under Allan Clark there for just one season, his last in the English Football League.
Among his six English non-league clubs were Sutton Town, who played in my home town of Kirkby-in-Ashfield on Low Moor Road, at the time. My old school mate, Gary Kelly, had the surreal experience of playing alongside him up front, for a spell in 1986. Burns, at 33 was coming to the end of his career, but Gary, at 27 was about at his peak. They scored a lot of goals together apparently.
Later, Kenny joined Martin O'Neill at Grantham to help him in his first season in management.
Burns finally hung his boots up at the age of 40 whilst at Oakham United.
These days, he often makes appearances in the local media commenting on the latest Forest news and has earned a reputation for being a bit outspoken.
Kenny was always a formidable opponent whether you were a defender trying to stop him scoring or a striker trying to evade his brutal challenges. He doesn't look very cuddly, even today.
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| Burns - not the handsomest but kept better than Larry Lloyd. |
The following Saturday, I strolled across Trent Bridge to watch Forest grind out a dull 0-0 draw with struggling Bristol City.
Match 383: Saturday, 9th February 1980, Division One.
Nottingham Forest 0 Bristol City 0 (City Ground 188, Nottingham Forest 270 Bristol City 11) Attendance 23,421.
Nottingham Forest
1 Peter Shilton, 2 Viv Anderson, 3 Bryn Gunn, 4 John McGovern, 5 Larry Lloyd, 6 Kenny Burns, 7 Martin O'Neill, 8 Stan Bowles, 9 Garry Birtles, 10 Charlie George, 11 John Robertson.
Bristol City
1 Ray Cashley, 2 Gerry Sweeney, 3 Clive Whitehead, 4 Trevor Tainton, 5 David Rogers, 6 Geoff Merrick, 7 Tony Fitzpatrick, 8 Andy Ritchie, 9 Joe Royle, 10 Howard Pritchard, 11 Ian Doyle.
Attendance: 23,421
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| Viv Anderson against Bristol City |
Forest's current form was still good at this time though...
One of the classic games ever was played this weekend including the goal of the season from Justin Fashanu, his equaliser to make it 3-3.
Here are the highlights of the south coast derby, Southampton v Brighton.
The same day, Clough announced that Charlie George would be leaving the club after playing only four games. "He'll be a Southampton player tomorrow" said our Brian.
League Cup Semi-Final 1979-80
In the following week, Forest had to return to Anfield to cling onto their 1-0 lead gained at the City Ground earlier.
Liverpool
1 Ray Clemence, 2 Phil Neal, 3 Alan Kennedy, 4 Phil Thompson, 5 Ray Kennedy, 6 Alan Hansen, 7 Kenny Dalglish, 8 Jimmy Case, 9 David Johnson, 10 Terry McDermott, 11 Graeme Souness.
Goals: David Fairclough 1.
Substitutions: David Fairclough (12) came on for Alan Kennedy (3).
Nottingham Forest
1 Peter Shilton, 2 Viv Anderson, 3 Frank Gray, 4 John McGovern, 5 Larry Lloyd, 6 Kenny Burns, 7 Gary Mills, 8 Stan Bowles, 9 Garry Birtles, 10 Ian Bowyer, 11 John Robertson.
Goals : John Robertson 1 (pen.).
Attendance: 50,880
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| Shilton keeps Liverpool out again |
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| Martin O'Neill is brought down by Ray Clemence - PENALTY! |
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| Robbo scores!! We're going to Wembley AGAIN. |
And here's the report in the Guardian...
Again, passing completely under the radar - both then and (more amazingly for me) now, was another landmark in John Robertson's amazing 239 run of consecutive games at the very top of the game.
This was his 190th consecutive appearance and, as befits the occasion, he scored the vital penalty to send Forest to their third successive League Cup final. (Read my tribute to Robbo here.)
Robbo's 190th consecutive appearance.
In the other semi-final, Wolves beat Swindon - so we were set for a Forest v Wolves final.
The following Saturday was the 5th Round of the F.A. Cup, which Forest had been knocked out of in the last round at home to Liverpool. Ironically, the fixtures had paired us up to play at Anfield that day, so we had a reprieve from that ordeal.
Instead Forest played a rearranged home tie against Middlesbrough that had been postponed back in December,
Match 384: Saturday, 16th February 1980, Division One.
Nottingham Forest 2 Middlesbrough 2 (City Ground 189, Nottingham Forest 271 Middlesbrough 9) Attendance 23,889.
And here's the extra supplement, printed for the rearranged game...
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.
Goals: Martin O'Neill 1, John Robertson 1 (pen.).
Substitutions: Ian Bowyer (12) came on for Stan Bowles(8).
Middlesbrough
1 Jim Platt, 2 John Craggs, 3 Craig Johnston, 4 Graeme Hedley, 5 Billy Ashcroft, 6 Tony McAndrew, 7 Terry Cochrane, 8 Mark Proctor, 9 David Hodgson, 10 Micky Burns, 11 Dave Armstrong.
Goals : Micky Burns 2.
Attendance: 23,889
No highlights or match report this time. From what I can remember Boro took the lead twice and Forest equalised twice with goals from my two biggest heroes.
Elsewhere in the league Manchester United failed to close the gap with Liverpool as they could only draw at Stoke.
Current form table...
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| Robbo penalty against Boro |
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| Martin O'Neill equalises with a volley from the edge of the box |
No highlights or match report this time. From what I can remember Boro took the lead twice and Forest equalised twice with goals from my two biggest heroes.
Elsewhere in the league Manchester United failed to close the gap with Liverpool as they could only draw at Stoke.
Current form table...
F.A. Cup 5th Round 1979-80
February 19th Liverpool 2 Forest 0
Forest didn't avoid Liverpool for long and the match was rearranged for the following Wednesday.To no-one's great surprise, Liverpool ran out comfortable winners to strengthen their increasing grip on the title.
Liverpool
1 Ray Clemence, 2 Phil Neal, 3 Alan Kennedy, 4 Phil Thompson, 5 Ray Kennedy, 6 Alan Hansen, 7 Kenny Dalglish, 8 Jimmy Case, 9 David Fairclough, 10 Terry McDermott, 11 Graeme Souness.
Goals: Ray Kennedy 1, Terry McDermott 1.
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 Ian Bowyer, 9 Garry Birtles, 10 Trevor Francis, 11 John Robertson.
Attendance: 45,093
Liverpool's win took them three points clear of Manchester United with a game in hand.
The defeat meant Forest's current league form slipped to below average again.
As the month came to a close, we were in need of a boost and it came in the form of a comfortable home win against struggling Manchester City.
Match 385: Saturday, 23rd February 1980, Division One.
Nottingham Forest 4 Manchester City 0 (City Ground 190, Nottingham Forest 272 Manchester City 7) Attendance 27,756.
Nottingham Forest
1 Peter Shilton, 2 Viv Anderson, 3 Bryn Gunn, 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.
Goals: Kenny Burns 1, Trevor Francis 3.
Manchester City
1 Joe Corrigan, 2 Ray Ranson, 3 Willie Donnachie, 4 Peter Reid, 5 Tom Caton, 6 Tommy Booth, 7 Tony Henry, 8 Mick Robinson, 9 Roger Palmer, 10 Paul Power, 11 Dave Bennett.
Attendance: 27,756
Again, no highlights, but here's the report in the Guardian of Forest's return to form with a hattrick from Trevor Francis.
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| Trevor Francis makes it 1-0 |
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| Kenny Burns makes it 2-0 |
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| Francis... 3-0! |
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| Francis completes his hat trick and it's 4-0 to Forest |
Ipswich town were the form team of the moment.
On 26th February Louis Edwards, owner of Manchester United, died of a heart attack and the night after the club beat Bolton 2-0 to keep their challenge for their first title since 1967 (already 23 years ago) alive. Liverpool impressively won at Wolves, though, to keep the gap at two points.
Top 20 in February 1980
As usual, I'll end with a look at the UK top 20 and reminisce a few of the tunes that I loved at the time.No 20 was The Beat with "Hands off She's Mine"
No 19 - The Police "So Lonely"
No 17 - Peter Gabriel's "Games Without Frontiers"
No 8 - the Tourists (with Annie Lennox) "So Good to Back Home Again"
No 7 - Michael Jackson's "Rock with You"
No 5 - Elvis Costello's "I can't stand up for falling down"
No 1 - Blondie and Atomic...
That's it. Just three more to go and this project will be complete. I hope it was of some interest to someone out there.
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