![\"Stephen-Parker](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nottinghamsport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Stephen-Parker.png?resize=150%2C150\" "\\"\\"")
<\/p>\nWhen Dad plants the programme on our kitchen table, he gives me a Cheshire-cat grin. \u2018Here you are. Luton Town versus Nottingham Forest. FA Cup final at Wembley. May 2nd 1959.\u2019 Over a Sunday breakfast fry-up, he picks out pages, names and photos. I can\u2019t read (I\u2019m five) and I don\u2019t know what a football programme is but I soon will. For the moment, he reminds me that, the previous day, Forest won, that Granddad and him laughed all the way home on the train and that he\u2019ll keep the programme in the \u2018special cupboard\u2019 (full important stuff like bills and bank books) until I\u2019m old enough to appreciate it.<\/p>\n
Fast forward a few seasons and that programme is in my possession in my cupboard in my bedroom and it\u2019s been joined by a growing collection from my visits to the City Ground. Granddad buys the match-day programme when he\u2019s with us. He likes me to read out bits before the game as the Bridgford kop fills up. I tell him facts about the visitors, who\u2019s top scorer for the Reds and what fixtures will be on the half-time scoreboard. These are indicated by the letters in alphabetical order and the scores will be hung on hooks by a bloke in the score-box high behind us.<\/p>\n
Now flick forward decades and I\u2019m sat with a dusty box in my lap. The clocks have just shunted us into British Summer Time 2023 though you wouldn\u2019t know it from the outside temperature. In the middle of a Spring-clean, de-cluttering mission, I rediscover some memorabilia. A couple of Football Monthly magazines, some newspaper cuttings, a Radio Times feature on the 1966 World Cup and more booklets from that famous victory. Then a mixed bunch of football programmes. I look through the City Ground publications.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s the programme – price, four old pence – for January 1959 and Forest\u2019s FA Cup Third Round Replay against Tooting & Mitcham. (That was a close shave of a shock knockout!) Some from those I\u2019ve saved cover the Reds\u2019 1965 Centenary Year, including one for the visit of Everton in December with a page-long Christmas message from the chairman, Mr GF Sisson. In the spirit of the times, that\u2019s followed by five pages of information on the opposition, plus a team photo. Statistics on Forest players, a couple of black and white photos and plenty of adverts for Player\u2019s cigarettes and that\u2019s about it. Another Christmas, 1991, has Stuart Pearce dressed as Santa Claus on the cover, surrounded by Forest merchandise. There\u2019s an impressive array of colour photos and a double-page Des Walker image. Price \u00a31. But I can no longer find a particular programme I thought I\u2019d kept.<\/p>\n
August 1966. The world feels good. The country\u2019s still basking in England\u2019s World Cup glory, the weather\u2019s fine and Forest are warming up for what will be a tremendous season, finishing runners-up to Manchester United in the league and reaching the FA Cup semi-final against Tottenham. And I\u2019m off to the City Ground with my dad and granddad with seat tickets – first time ever – to watch Forest play Stoke City in the opening game (which they\u2019ll lose!) of the season. Granddad\u2019s just retired and in poor health but determined to come along since he treated us to the tickets.<\/p>\n
Dad drops us off at Trent Bridge and I walk with my Granddad by the river and he buys me a programme. We sit a while in the sun, wait for Dad, and then head for our seats. There\u2019s the click and crank of the turnstiles and we\u2019re in the cool of the stairwell and climbing, Granddad supported between us. He struggles up the first flight of stairs and then sits on a step and tells me to get to our seats, that he\u2019ll be fine with a cup of tea.<\/p>\n
I leave them and head up, catch a shaft of sunlight and a glint of the green pitch and I reach the seats, perched high, giving me an angle of the game I\u2019ve never experienced before. Soon after kick-off, I pop back down to see how they are and find Dad and Granddad sat exactly where I\u2019d left them. \u2018Go and enjoy the game,\u2019 says Dad, \u2018and we\u2019ll see how things are at half-time\u2019. Come the second half, I stay with Granddad. We sit and sup tea, listen out for any cheers to guess the score and I read out sections of the programme to him. He chuckles at our predicament and that\u2019s how it is until Dad reappears for an early exit to avoid the crowds.<\/p>\n
Months later, sat by his coal fire, we\u2019ll share warm words about Forest\u2019s improvement after that Stoke loss. Football-wise, things got better and better. It was the last time Granddad made it to the City Ground, never mind watch a match, but he lived to celebrate Forest\u2019s fine end-of-season achievements.<\/p>\n
To this day, despite its being rendered virtually obsolete by the speed and flexibility of social media and websites and forums, I still regard the humble football programme with affection. If it was once the portal through which we could see the life and culture of our club, it now has purpose in posterity if nothing else.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
*Article provided by Stephen Parker (Nottingham Forest Correspondent).<\/em><\/p>\n *Main image @stephenparker the cover of what was once the primary football resource.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When Dad plants the programme on our kitchen table, he gives me a Cheshire-cat grin. \u2018Here you are. Luton Town versus Nottingham Forest. FA Cup final at Wembley. May 2nd 1959.\u2019 Over a Sunday breakfast fry-up, he picks out pages, names and photos. I can\u2019t read (I\u2019m five) and I don\u2019t know what a football […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18392,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,14],"tags":[449,16,452],"class_list":["post-18391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football","category-nottingham-forest","tag-bygones","tag-nottingham-forest","tag-stephen-parker"],"yoast_head":"\n