In the second of my guest blog series, work colleague and part-time television star Tom Bolton has taken the baton, raised the bar, and done numerous other cliched things as well as blogging about what it's like supporting a team who were twice champions of Europe, and more recently gracing the third tier of English football. Read on...
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Well making my first football column since the Forest
Forever fanzine disappeared, Thommy Cooper is back. Video killed the radio star
& in my case the blog killed the fanzine... or did it (await link here for
future blog from Nelson Columns no doubt). Thanks to NC I can again feel
that my team haven't been forgotten and lost to the lower echelons of
the football league and can bore you all with my view of what its like to
support former European champions with their recent struggles.
NC asked me a question that I often get from Arsenal or
Chelsea fans, 'What is it like to have won the European Cup?' However the
question never ends there, like a double barrelled last name it is quickly
followed by 'and be where you are now?' Even now my only reply
is that I am proud. Although it will never happen again I am proud of what my
club achieved, to this date only another twenty clubs have reached these giddy
heights and only eight teams have bettered us. When I was growing up everybody seemed
to know Forest because of Brian Clough, nobody seemed to care about Europe or
the early format of the Champions League, probably due to the ban and lack of English interest, the emphasis was on our two FA Cup victories, League title and proud
history stemming from being one of the oldest clubs in the world.
Clough was later to perform a cameo in Glee
Forest boast
a proud claim to 'firsts' the first team to use floodlights, the first team to
have a referee use a whistle, the first & only English team to play an FA
Cup semi outside of England, first team to wear shin guards (Leeds were a dirty
team even before they existed), first team on a televised Sunday match, first
team to have shirt sponsors displayed on TV, which reminds me even to this
day my purchases are still affected by Forests shirt sponsors, my electronics
are by Panasonic, I wear Wrangler jeans, my beers have usually incorporated
Skol, Home Ales or Labatt’s. I'm still paying off my Capital One credit card
and am relying on my Victor Chandler betting account to help me pay it, as for
Pinnacle our best sponsors ever that’s a blog in it's self. We also had a part
to play in the current existence of AC Milan & Arsenal - we are the reason
they play in red.
The next word I use is relieved. I’m relieved that Forest
were fortunate enough to have had a manager that paired with the club. I always
believe that a club and a manager are a finely matched pair like some sort of
destiny where everybody excels it only seems to happen in the lower leagues now
such as Sturrock with Plymouth (well his first spell anyway) Holloway with Blackpool
(granted Blackpool were a huge club in the 50's but in the new era Holloway has
pushed them beyond all expectations) and looking back to earlier days Revie at
Leeds, Chapman at Arsenal, Shankly at Liverpool.
After starting in January 1975 Cloughie soon accumulated an
impressive trophy haul;
Football League champions - Division One 1978
FA Charity Shield winners 1978
Football League Cup winners 1978
European Cup winners 1979
Football League Cup winners 1979
Football League Division One runners up 1979
European Cup winners 1980
European Super Cup winners 1980
Football League Cup runners up 1980
Yet again, setting records and firsts along the way. Forty-two
League games unbeaten, smashing the previous record, the first English team to
win at the Bernabeu and at the Mestalla. I am just so relieved that we have achieved these honours,
in some ways it doesn’t matter if we never do it again because we’ve had the
fortune to have been there. 99% of clubs would surely swap with us.
Third word – Disappointment. As time goes on I watch the records disappear. Of course
records are there to be broken but what gets me the most is that we are not there
to defend them. In nearly fifty games we were not present to try and stop Arsenal
smashing our unbeaten run. When we held the record for the largest away win
in the Premiership (7-1 v Sheffield Wednesday), we gifted it on a plate to
Manchester United and eleven minutes against super-sub Ole Gunnar Solskjaer (nearly
as good a super-sub as Jason Lee – he’s got a pineapple on his head).
His other wig is a grapefruit
The other disappointing factor is that our achievements are
often overlooked. My other East Midland supporting friends all say that the
midlands teams are often overlooked and do not get the recognition of the
London and big clubs and in some ways I agree. I often see commentators with
their facts and figures when they completely miss out Forest.
Sadly Forest are now where they were at the turn of the last
century, living an ineffective existence and struggling to pay the bills
despite still pulling good crowds. A few years ago we dipped to an all-time low
with two seasons in division three (League One if your younger than 25) getting knocked
out of cups by Accrington ‘who are they’ Stanley and Woking. Being a Forest fan
I can't forget the past, we have been lucky to have been spoilt. So I have to
think sensibly, as a neutral. In the club's 150 year history was this a lucky
fluke, a positive blip? Taking the Brian Clough era out of our history the norm
seems to be mid-table mediocrity in the second tier along with the other Midlands
clubs (yes that includes – Coventry, Lesta, The Sheep, Birmingham, West Brom
and Wolves).
It doesn’t matter how bad we get or how much we flirt with life in
the conference (A Sheep fan once gloated that FOREST stood for Fighting Off Relegation
Every Sunday Teatime) we have done it, that trophy will always be in our
cabinet and the history books will always display our achievements. In recent
years with the growing focus on the Champions League that people seem to
recognise our achievement and how good that team were. Whenever I go on holiday
people have recognised the Forest logo all over the world. That is why
more than any of the other feeling Pride is the one that I feel the most
(however after a few beers and a defeat my answer might be somewhat different).
I
can sit back and be proud that we have twice won the most
sought after club trophy in the world. John
McGovern as a captain is up there with; Jose Maria Zarraga, Paulo
Maldini, Miguel Munoz, Franco Baresi, Jose Aguas Armando Pichhi, Emlyn
Hughes, and Clarence Seedorf (who was not captain of
his teams). Only Beckanbauer and Carlos Puyol have bettered McGovern’s
achievements
of a European Cup winning captain.
Nottingham's other famous export
As I finish this blog I glance up to the Chelsea v Barcelona
game, I think Forest would have had no problems against these Messi would have
taken one sandwich from Burns & Lloyd, Drogba would have been no match for
Viv Anderson and neither defence would have coped with Robertson. But we will
have to make do with having embarrassed Keegan and Hamburg in 1980.
As I said it's just the not being there that hurts and those
that forget what we achieved. Prior to Man U beating Bayern in 1999 we had won
the cup twice more than United and Barcelona, now not a lot of clubs can say
that.
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