Fifty eight years ago today – July 30th 1966 – England’s men’s football team won the World Cup. Despite the best efforts of Gareth Southgate and those before him, it remains the only trophy they’ve ever lifted. And it was on home territory. Goodison Park, Villa Park, Ayresome Park (Middlesborough) – and possibly your local…
Cycling to John O’Groats whilst some of the drama of the Euros unfolds! Off the train at Wigan station on Monday morning, July 8th, (where the three of us finished last year’s cycle ride from Land’s End) and it’s out of town along the canal towpath. A watery start is set to be a theme…
Many in the game felt this season’s teams promoted to the Premiership would soon find themselves back in the Championship. And, much to the relief of Forest fans, so it proved to be. Sheffield United, Burnley and Luton Town have sat in the basement all year, emphasising – as if it were needed – the…
Between Alexandria in Egypt and Dubai, Forest put in a decent performance against the might of Manchester City at the City Ground. Cruising at 550mph and an altitude of 36,000 feet, flying over parched land and through blue skies, I don’t know this at the time. When we land in Perth, Western Australia, it’s a…
Players from far and wide – from different continents, not just countries – have strutted their stuff in Garibaldi red on the City Ground’s evergreen turf, none more so than now. The current Forest squad is collected from Ireland to the Ivory Coast, Nigeria to New Zealand, from South America’s Brazil and Argentina to Senegal…
‘Discombobulating’ takes a while to say and even longer to write but it’s a perfect word to describe the current ‘Points Docking In The Premiership’ saga. How long is that set to continue? How many new characters (ie clubs) will be sucked into its story? If Forest and Everton have been taking a leading role,…
Easter time is always a packed programme of events, rituals and fixtures, all loaded with significance. As millions head for airport escapes and delays or domestic breaks and traffic jams, the long bank-holiday weekend unfolds. Easter bonnet parades still colour corners of the nation and families make efforts to spend time together. And there are…
There’s never a dull moment being a Forest supporter is there? Just as the Premiership and Championship leagues take a two-week breather for international fixtures, the City Ground is febrile with frustration at the outcome of the most recent match: Nottingham Forest FC v The Premiership. The venue for this clash between lawyers representing the…
We all know the old adage about things happening in threes for better or (more usually) for worse. Forest supporters will be smarting for some time after three defeats in a week, culminating in that latest loss to Liverpool. Sometimes the manner of defeat hurts more than the loss itself. My mum could have earned…
Five seconds into the video clip and I had a lump in my throat. Ten seconds and I had a tear in my eye. Come the end, after forty seconds, I was wiping both eyes. As we hear Forest fans sing ‘Mull of Kintyre’, the camera focuses on the face of one supporter. 92 year-old…
Ask a bunch of fans for their best Forest goals ever and they’ll be recollecting out-loud before you’ve finished the question. The same reaction would follow with any group of supporters, whatever their team. Reading this opening, your mind is probably already sorting a personal top goals sequence! There need be no time limit on…
‘Provided You Don’t Kiss Me’ has to be one of the quirkiest book titles in the library of football. Then again, its subject is one of the most colourful and charismatic characters in the game: Brian Clough. Written by a – then – rookie Nottingham Post reporter, Duncan Hamilton, it traces the local media-manager relationship…
Only Half A Yard. Furious. Incandescent. Fulminating. Gobsmacked. Foaming at the mouth. Ah, that’s it! Brentford’s first – and equalising – goal against Forest on Saturday evening was something special for several reasons, leaving me, figuratively, foaming at the mouth. It was the worst example by the Reds of making a defensive wall against a…
A few weeks back, Blackpool Tower was reported to be on fire. When emergency services responded, they realised it was a case of mistaken identity. What had been taken to be flames fanning around the structure turned out to be orange netting caught up in it, blowing around in the wind. Perhaps it was an…
As a child, when you’re born into a family of football fanatics, Christmas – especially – can be a confusing time. Carols get mixed with Santa songs and Forest chants and Father Christmas is dressed in red! Candlelight turns to floodlight and minced-pies at home alternate with meat-pies on the terraces. Sleighs laden with presents…
Squint a little, use your imagination, and Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis might be mistaken for Santa Claus. Bushy beard, full face and rotund body seal a physical resemblance. Giver of gifts could be another similarity. The present that we – the supporters – have received wasn’t on a Christmas ‘wish-list’. That would simply have read:…
Forest’s festive goodwill has come far too early this season. Gifting goals to opponents does not sit well with the prime objective in a football match: to win. Such generosity will also lose you more than games; namely, loss of confidence at an individual and team level. That makes Saturday’s 1-1 draw at Wolves a…
Historical documents record, over hundreds of years, regular invasions by armies from Scotland into England, ‘The Auld Enemy’. The 17th century was particularly busy until The Acts Of Union brought the two nations together in 1707. That didn’t stop Bonny Prince Charlie laying claim to the throne. Gathering support, as part of the Jacobite rebellion…
My brother pinged a photo my way soon after he’d watched Forest’s 2-0 win over Aston Villa last week. Post-match social-media traffic is always busy but, on the back of an inspired performance by the Reds, it was buzzing. It was an ‘old mates together’ image of two blokes sharing a word at the City…
Aside from colour, what significantly distinguished Forest’s shirt-front from every other team in the Premiership until September? That’s right: no advertising emblazoned across the front. And the most frequently promoted type of business? Gambling of course! Now nine of twenty clubs in the league currently thrust out their collective chests with betting brands. Since concluding…
