Nottingham Forest FC (NFFC) was formed after a meeting in Nottingham, at the Clinton Arms, in 1865 by some gentlemen who, until that time, had met regularly to play shinny (probably the game I knew as Shinty in my youth) on the Forest Recreation Ground. The new game of football was making it's mark and these young men decided that football was more fun than shinny and organised themselves into a club. At that time Giuseppe Garibaldi was admired and highly regarded as a leading figure in the struggle leading to the unification of Italy. In his honour the Forest team decided to play in red, a reference to the followers of Garibaldi being known as 'redshirts', though it was red caps that were used in football in those days. Hence, Forest still play in the Garibaldi and have the nickname the Reds.
NFFC have not changed their name or played in any other colour since that time, nearly 150 years ago. Their early tendency was towards amateurism, which is probably why they were one of the small number of provincial clubs to play in the early days of FA Cup competition. Though not the first provincial club to enter the competition, in 1878 they were the first of the "Northern clubs" (as the 'Official History of the FA Cup' puts it) to make their presence felt by reaching the semi-final of the competition, falling to the Old Etonians (the eventual winners that year)2-1.
In 1888 Forest were one of the 15 clubs who applied to join the inaugural season of the Football League but were rejected on this occasion, only 12 clubs being selected. It is possible that the amateur stance of the club mitigated against them during the selection process. However, they were elected straight into the First Division when the League was expanded in 1892.
After playing at several other grounds, Forest settled at the City Ground, on the banks of the River Trent, in 1898 and have been there ever since. Close by (in fact, just across the road), is Trent Bridge Cricket Ground and across the River Trent, but only three hundred yards away, is Notts County ground, Meadow Lane. 1898 was a good year, because Forest won the FA Cup for the first time, beating Derby County 3-1 at Crystal Palace in front of 62,000 people.Amongst many notable early members of the club, the wonderfully named Sam Weller Widdowson was a fine all-round sportsman who gave rise to several innovations in the game. It is said he devised the 2-3-5 formation almost universally used until the 50s, he was the first to use shin pads, he was instrumental in the use of the whistle by referees and he experimented with floodlighting.
The enterprising and pioneering spirit at Forest has no better illustration than the gift to Dial Square, a team formed by a couple of former Forest players at the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, of a set of shirts and a ball. Which is why, to this day, Arsenal play in red shirts.
The City Ground is formed of four stands. The Main Stand was rebuilt in the late 1960s after the fire which completely destroyed the previous stand. This was on 24 August 1968 v. Leeds. No one was hurt, but the fire knocked the stuffing out of an already slow start and soon a fine manager, Johnny Carey, was sacked. Another consequence of the fire was the loss of most of Forest's records, trophies and memorabilia.
The Brian Clough Stand was built in place of the old East Stand with the proceeds of the victorious European ventures and was originally called the Executive Stand. It has two tiers and a line of executive boxes which were extensively refurbished during last summer.
The Bridgford End is joined to the BC Stand and replaced the old Bridgford Terrace in 1992/3. It has a curious roof line which dips down at the Main Stand end due to the demands of planners regarding light reaching the houses on Colwick Road, notwithstanding the fact that Forest actually owned some of the properties affected which were used for housing apprentices. The Bridgford Stand contains the police control room and a small section of the Lower Bridgford houses the away fans.
The Trent End, once a relatively small shed housing the most vociferous Forest supporters is now a grand Stand on a wonderful setting on the banks of the River Trent. Despite the proximity to the river, the pitch has no problems with drainage, due in no small part to the fact that an early member of the club owned a nursery business and laid great foundations to the pitch and, latterly, possibly due to the fact that the grounds staff consistently win plaudits for the quality of their work. The stand was rebuilt in time for Euro 96. The Trent End houses the Pitch diner and also a glassed-in area extending right across the centre of the stand for the patrons of that hospitality area to watch matches in comfort.
There have been mutterings over recent times (mainly coinciding with announcements of World Cup bids) of moving the club to new sites within the area, but these have, so far, come to nought.After the Johnny Carey departure, Matt Gillies led Forest down to Division 2. He left, replaced by Dave Mackay. He soon left, after just a year in charge, not sacked, but to replace Brian Clough and Peter Taylor at Derby!! Alan Brown came in, tried his best, but with players like Duncan McKenzie being sold, could not effect a challenge in Division 2 and he soon went, too, to be replaced by the man who took McKenzie away from the CG, Brian Clough. Full circle, so to speak.
The whole history at NFFC soon dramatically changed. Peter Taylor came to join Brian and they took us to new heights, a summit which fans of a middling provincial club can only dream of attaining. First Division champions at the first attempt, European success two years in a row and a World Club Championship match and League Cup success. An acrimonious split in the partnership took Taylor away from the CG, but Brian re-built the team and recorded more successes (it felt at one time that I had a regular seat at Wembley!) before his excessive drinking caused his health to deteriorate to the extent that he had to leave the CG and retire at the end of the 1992/3 season, which also coincided with relegation from the new Premier League. Despite this ignominious departure, his place in the pantheon of Forest folklore is assured. Not only our finest manager, but one of the best ever in the domestic game.Since their original formation, Forest had persisted with a unique committee structure which gave no safeguards, financially, to the men who ran the club. Great success on the field meant that things would have to change and during the Clough reign the club became a limited company. The structure decided upon came back to bite the club, for during the wrangling which followed the retirement of Brian Clough, with separate groups vying for control of the club, a small group of shareholders were persuaded to part with their shares for a financial inducement which gave control to the group led by Irving Scholar. His group eventually broke up and the turmoil induced by this financial dispute finally put paid to any revival on the field.
Forest yo-yo'd between the Premier League and Division 1 for a few seasons, but since 2000 we have been in either the second or third tier of English football, despite owners and managers wasting considerable sums of money. Playoffs have come and gone, but promotion has (with one honourable exception; the automatic promotion from third to second tier) eluded us.
And so it has proved again this season. Brighton and Hove Albion arrived with the possibility of gaining the final place in the playoffs if they could achieve a good result. It was between them and Reading, with the other contenders, including Forest, having fallen away during the last couple of games.
It really looked like the last game of a disastrous and injury ravaged season. The Forest team that took the field was a patched up affair. Lascelles and Halford were both missing from the team that played against Bournemouth and Lee Peltier, playing possibly his last game for NFFC, was drafted as a stand-in centre back with Jamie Mackie, a winger, playing at right back. Also given a game were Tudgay, for his second start of the season, McLaughlin, for his CG debut, and Majewski . On the bench, Under-21s Josh Rees and Jack Blake were handed a seat. Of the team that started the first game of the season, only Collins, Mackie and Derbyshire survived to play in this last match and during that first game, Mackie and Derbyshire were substituted.
Brighton took the field in their bright yellow and black (dark blue?) away strip although their regular colours of blue and white stripes would hardly have clashed with our Garibaldi red. Perhaps the memory of their comprehensive defeat at our hands at the Amex, 3-1, caused them to hope that a change of fortune would accompany a change of colours. Whatever, they started well, with a fine ball through to Ulloa completely removing Collins from the equation, but the tall striker missed the one-on-one, putting the ball wide of the far post.
Forest then took command with several good chances. All were missed, but on 22 minutes Derbyshire stooped at the near post to head a Vaughan centre towards goal. The Brighton goalie gave a good impression of a very complicated semaphore signal, but completely missed the ball which bounced off him into the goal. A blow to the Seagulls hopes and their vociferous support was momentarily stunned into silence. Brighton had their chances, but Forest were easily on top during the first half.
The news that Reading were trailing 2-1 at half time must have revitalised Brighton, because within ten minutes they had gained an equaliser. If our goal was a bit soft, this one was equally so, but they all count. A corner from the left was delivered into the heart of the area, Ulloa completely missed his kick at goal (a classic air shot), the ball was cleared, but straight at a Brighton player with a clear view of goal. He did not miss the simple conversion.
Brighton back in it. Sort of, but news came through that Reading had got a goal back, 2-2 at the Madejski, so Brighton had to score again. The game now swung back and forth, both sides having chances, As usual, Forest mucked up their efforts and Brighton's chances consisted mainly of sub Lua Lua shooting over from 30 yards. The fourth official signalled added time (I remember about 5 minutes) and it seemed that Brighton had shot their bolt. Then a most incredible gift from Collins. A harmless ball was floated into the penalty area, the ball heading straight for Danny Collins. However, he stood back indicating the goalie should come for it. Poor de Vries was rooted to his line with no chance to reach the ball and Ulloa nipped in to score the vital goal for Brighton. So for the second season in a row, the away side win the last game of the season at the CG and go through to the playoffs.
Brighton players and fans went daft, Forest fans just went home, despite the announcement that the players and staff and the usual array of children with "Daddy" on the back of their shirts would do the end of season parade around the pitch. As it was a thin sprinkling of fans applauded in a half-hearted way as the players ambled round the pitch, eager to get off and away on their holidays.
A disappointing end to a disappointing season. Such hopes in August, dashed by February. At this time there was still hope, but with our manager determined to self-destruct and a huge catalogue of injuries, the season slowly started to unravel. The small Scot went, sacked, after a thrashing by Derby, taking most of the backroom staff with him. Few were left behind, because, to Billy the tag "Unfinished Business" had meant, in reality, settling old scores wherever they might be. The naive amongst us, definitely including me, thought the unfinished business was on the pitch, but it extended to sifting out members of the backroom staff at the club, refusal to talk to certain members of the media, problems with setting up a new broadcasting contract with Radio Nottingham and bringing in unsuitable members of his own entourage, all gradually reducing the club to a laughing stock amongst the football establishment.
Finally, when he left, the playing staff had to be managed by Gary Brazil, Steve Sutton and Jimmy Gilligan all from the academy. We were threadbare, both on and off the field.
Stuart Pearce, a bastion of common sense and decency (and a genuine legend amongst Forest fans), is to be our new manager and he seems to be bringing in a good bunch of people to help him. Fawaz has promised not only not to interfere with day to day management of the playing staff, but also to find a CEO to run the administrative side of the club. Things are on the up. With fixtures being revealed on 18 June, we once again start to dream and hope for success. Perhaps our 150th Anniversary celebrations can be coupled with a return to the top division after all these years.
Come on you Reds.
The season, personally, has been a tremendous success, better than I could have hoped. My pre-season planning paid off and only a few changes were necessary to my original itinerary, mostly because games had to be postponed for the various cup tournaments or timings altered because of the demands of TV. One of the reasons I didn't mind doing this season in the Championship was because most games took place at 3pm on a Saturday and not dotted about the weekend (any day from Friday evening to Monday evening at the whim of a Sky planner) at random times. I can't remember a match being lost to the weather, which was another unknown factor in my early season preparation. As it turned out, the ice and snow I had been worried about did not occur, but we had some fearsome winter storms to contend with.
In all, I visited 93 grounds (I was persuaded to include Wrexham as an international venue) covering 18,075 miles. I stayed at 25 hotels (all Premier Inns, which I found to be cheap, clean and comfortable) and spent a total of £5640.86 (all my savings, but it was once in a lifetime). The whole distance was covered in my somewhat old, but comfortable Honda CR-V which never missed a beat. I managed to get into a great proportion of the grounds I visited. Some, of course, because I had a ticket to see Forest play, but mostly I just turned up at reception and asked the receptionist if it was possible to pop into their ground for a few moments to look around and take some pictures. They were unfailing polite and tried their best to get me in. Only a few failed, but even then I managed somehow to take pictures of the interior (I sneaked into Leyton Orient ground beside a van from Barry Hearn's snooker empire, for instance). At other times, because our matches were mostly on Saturday and I turned up on a Sunday, the grounds were locked up, but again it was nearly always possible to view the playing surface somehow (I got into Burton Albion's Pirelli Stadium by going in with the cleaners, then searching out the kit man).
Only a few were negative and unhelpful. And only one was downright rude, but he still let me have a quick peek inside his ground! To all those who love their team and showed me so much courtesy, I salute you and hope your team achieves their dreams. And, closer to home, I know they take a bit of a bashing on the various forums at times, but the NFFC Ticket Office looked after me superbly during the season, with a constant supply of tickets only interrupted when I forgot to tell them about my new debit card. I sat with some great Forest supporters during the away games, not forgetting that they do it every season and not, like me, just on a whim for one season.
Simply, the best time I could have hoped for.
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