Forest 40 years ago

Winning the League Cup on Wednesday night 40 years ago against Liverpool at Old Trafford was a special, never-to-be-forgotten, night of course. But everybody knew, even then, in the romantic days when cup football was still really important, that winning the league counted for a lot more. So, now it was time for Forest to get their feet firmly back on the ground in preparation for what looked on paper a relatively straight-forward league match against struggling Newcastle United. I was so carried away with winning our first trophy in 19 years in midweek I'd completely forgotten that seven first division games took place. So I'll start with a quick review of those and look at the table as it was before the Newcastle game. Newcastle were looking doomed so I'll dip back into their history to see when they had been relegated from the first division before. Finally, I'll take a trip up the A60 to pay a visit to my original football stomping ground, Field Mill, and do wh...

We won the cup! We won the cup! Eee aye addio, We won the Cup! I never thought I'd sing that but I must have, forty years ago today, in Manchester, on Wednesday night, 22nd March 1978. It's an old English football song to the tune of the "farmer's in his den" with the middle line changed from "Hi ho, the derry-o". But who cares about folk song history? This was it . Forest's first silverware in 19 years and proof, if any were needed, that under Brian Clough and Peter Taylor, Nottingham Forest had been transformed from a mediocre second tier outfit to one that could compete with, and often out-compete, the best. And Liverpool in 1978 were certainly that. They were still the current league champions, having won the title two years running and three times out of the last six. Liverpool had now won ten league titles, more than anyone else. They were also European Cup champions and on their way to winning it for the second time this season, hav...