The club reached the FA Cup semi-finals of 1878-79, 1879-80 and 1884-85. In 1888-89 they moved across the city and the Trent to West Bridgford where they set up home at the City Ground. Forest entered the Football Alliance and in 1890 they became the first ever club to use goal nets before joining the Football League in 1892 after winning the Alliance title.
They were promoted as champions two seasons later and then reached Division One in 1957. Two years later they lifted their second FA Cup in a dramatic final. Forest beat Luton Town 2-1 in the 1958-59 final after playing with ten men for much of the game after Roy Dwight, the uncle of Elton John, was stretchered off with a broken leg in the days before substitutes were permitted.
January 6th, 1975 turned out to be a pivotal day in the history of the club as Brian Clough was appointed as manager, with Peter Taylor as his assistant. Clough nurtured talent already at the club such as John Robertson and Martin O'Neill and brought through youngsters like Tony Woodcock and Viv Anderson.
He added experienced players from his former clubs in the shape of John O'Hare, Archie Gemmell and John McGovern as well as signing men who were considered past their best like Larry Lloyd and Kenny Burns. The side won promotion back to the topflight in 1976-77.
Clough added goalkeeper Peter Shilton to the team as they took the First Division by storm. Forest were crowned League champions at their first attempt in 1977-78 as well as defeating Liverpool to lift the League Cup after a replay at Old Trafford.
In the following 1978-79 season they incredibly went all the way to win the European Cup with the first ever million-pound signing Trevor Francis scoring the only goal against Malmo FF in Munich. Forest also retained the League Cup following a 3-2 win against Southampton.
In 1979-80 Forest lifted the European Cup for the second time, after defeating Kevin Keegan's Hamburger SV in the Bernabeau showdown thanks to a John Robertson goal and along with an exceptional performance from Shilton between the sticks.
In 1983-84 Forest controversially lost to Anderlecht in the semi-finals of the UEFA Cup after having a goal disallowed. It was later found that the Belgian club had bribed the referee. Forest were awarded financial compensation.
In 1988-89 Forest lifted the League Cup for the third time after defeating Luton Town. They also lost out to Liverpool in an emotional FA Cup semi-final after the first game had been abandoned after the loss of ninety-six fans at the Hillsborough disaster.
They went on to retain the League Cup in 1989-90 with a win against Oldham Athletic as Garry Parker helped pull the strings in midfield, Stuart Pearce and Des Walker controlling the defence and Nigel Clough banging in the goals. In 1990-91 Forest went down in extra time to Tottenham Hotspur in the FA Cup Final.
Gradually the team broke up and despite the introduction of Roy Keane, the side struggled. In May 1993 in Clough's last season at the helm the team was relegated.
Former player Frank Clark took over and although it was never going to be easy to follow in the great man's footsteps, Clark did an excellent job for three years with Pearce, Stan Collymore and Brian Roy showing the way after they qualified for Europe the season after their return to the Premier League in 1993-94.
Sadly, players were sold to help abate the struggling finances with Clark being replaced by Dave Bassett following an interim speall under Stuart Pearce which saw Forest relegated once more at the conclusion of the 1996-97 campaign.
David Platt was appointed as Player-Manager, but his spell was very disappointing as big money signings funded by new owner Nigel Doughty failed to perform. He was replaced after two years by Paul Hart who brought talented youngsters such as Michael Dawson through. His side lost in the play-offs of 2002-03 in the semi-final to Sheffield United.
His reign lasted three years and then after brief spells in charge from Joe Kinnear, Gary Megson, who took the team down to the third tier in 2004-05, and Frank Barlow before Colin Calderwood was appointed in May 2006.
Colin Calderwood took the Reds to the third-tier play-offs in 2006-07 which ended in semi-final defeat to Yeovil Town. However, the Scotsman took the side back up in 2007-08 before he also fell victim to poor results back in The Championship.
He was replaced by former England boss, Steve McClaren. McClaren's reign was not a happy one and he was soon replaced as manager d aby Steve Cotterill with assistance from Sean O'Driscoll. They managed to help Forest survive a tense relegation battle. It had been a difficult season for the club as owner Doughty died suddenly in February 2012 after ploughing in an estimated one hundred million pounds into the club during his tenure.
The Al-Hasawi family, from Kuwait, purchased the club and became the new owners of Nottingham Forest in July of 2012. Their first action was to sack Cotterill and bring back O'Driscoll as team manager from the same role that he just taken up at Crawley Town.
However, O'Driscoll's spell was not deemed a success and he was sacked on Boxing Day 2012 despite just seeing his side beat Leeds United 4-2. His replacement Alex McLeish proved a disaster as backroom staff were dismissed before the Scotsman leaving after just forty days at the helm.
Nottingham Forest will play in the Premier League in the 2023-24 season.
Just a few weeks later I had travelled on a Friday evening to watch Scarborough play away at Torquay United, only for the game to be postponed because of a waterlogged pitch after we had booked into our hotel! Our carload wanted to see a game on our way back, so a vote was taken.
The lads, Johnno, Laingy, Andy T and Terry F'wit, wanted to go to Forest against Aston Villa. So I once again took my position in the Trent End. I would have preferred Port Vale v Bristol Rovers so that I could tick off a new venue.
Thursday June 5th 2008
I saw an open gate in the corner between the Trent End and Main Stands. I saw a club worker and they told me I was fine to have a look inside if I didn't step over the pitch perimeter fence. I was left to have a wander at my own free will.
The City Ground was an impressive venue. There were plans unveiled in 2007 for a new stadium south of the city near Clifton to hold 50,000 fans and to be served by the Nottingham Express Transit tram service. The question is, is it really needed?
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