Rams to the Slaughter

After the relatively low-key second game against Bristol City (1-0 win through a Peter Withe goal) the next up was one of the big ones of the season - one Forest fans had been looking forward to since the fixtures came out... Derby County at home.

So, on Saturday, 27th August, it was the "original" local "derby" match. A series of matches with a long history stretching back to the first league encounter on 1st October 1892, a 3-2 win for Forest at Derby.

This was to be 52nd league or cup tie between the clubs and at the time, the win tally was even:

Played Forest Won Drawn Derby Won
51 21 9 21

It has to be admitted that, historically, up to this point in time, Derby had been the most successful of the two clubs. Of the 79 seasons since either team joined the league, Derby had finished higher than Forest on 49 occasions. Forest had been top dogs on only 38% of seasons. Derby's most dominant season over us was in 1948-49 when The Rams finished 3rd in the top flight whilst we finished 40 places lower, 21st in the second tier, getting relegated to Division 3 South. The most dominant season for us, before this point was 1966-67 when Forest finished 37 places above Derby. We were runners up in the top flight whereas Derby finished 17th in the second tier.

At the start of the 1977-78 season, Derby could boast two First division championships, three runners-up slots, one F. A. Cup win, three runners-ups and one European Cup semi-final appearance.
Forest, in contrast, had just one first division runners-up place, two F. A. Cup wins and (don't laugh) an Anglo-Scottish Cup triumph. Derby's average league position was 7 places better than our's at this point.

Things were about to change though. The reason for Derby's recent dominance (and their two league championships) was, of course, the management of a certain Brain Clough and Peter Taylor. Now they had moved down the A52 to Nottingham, there would soon be a role reversal.

Teams

Forest's starting line up was the same for the 3rd consecutive match. Derby, in contrast, had their 3rd different starting line up, although to be fair nine players played in all three.

Nottingham Forest

1 John Middleton, 2 Viv Anderson, 3 Frank Clark, 4 John McGovern, 5 Larry Lloyd, 6 Kenny Burns, 7 Martin O'Neill, 8 Ian Bowyer, 9 Peter Withe, 10 Tony Woodcock, 11 John Robertson.

Goals: Peter Withe (2), John Roberston.

Derby County
1 Colin Boulton, 2 David Langan, 3 David Nish, 4 Gerry Daly, 5 Roy McFarland, 6 Colin Todd, 7 Steve Powell, 8 Archie Gemill, 9 Derek Hales, 10 Kevin Hector, 11 Billy Hughes.

The match was a stormer and Forest ran out deserved 3-0 winners...

Needless to say, historic things were happening on Trentside and Forest were about to take over from Derby as the East Midland's top side - a position they would hold for almost the next 20 years. Forest eclipsed Derby's domination record against us in 1984-85 when they finished 42 league placed above them as Derby got promoted back from the 3rd tier.

It has to be admitted though, in the interests of objectivity, that Derby today still have an average league position almost 3 higher than Forest.

Other Matches that day

Manchester United could only draw at home to Ipswich Town that day, so Forest ended up on top of the league for the first time in years. Liverpool joined United and Manchester City in the early chasing pack.

Early league table on 27th August 1977

In the second division, Notts County were playing Spurs, newly relegated to Division Two for the first time in front of 25,839 at White Hart Lane. County lost 2-1, a win that put Spurs into the top 3 - where they would ultimately finish. Mansfield, meanwhile, were playing their only ever season in the second tier and played at The Dell, Southampton, where they lost 1-0.

So, after a perfect start to their league campaign, Forest had earned themselves a break with a cup tie - at home to West Ham in the League Cup 2nd Round.