Brian Clough and Peter Taylor had been building a team of world beaters for about two and a half years. Incredibly, half the team were taken from the pool of (what had seemed to many of us) fairly average second division players that were already at the club. John Robertson, Tony Woodcock, Viv Anderson and Martin O'Neill had come through the club's ranks whilst Ian Bowyer had been bought by the previous management. On top of this foundation, Clough brought in a number of players at very low cost to the club: Frank Clark, a free transfer from Newcastle United. Colin Barrett a snip of £30,000 from Manchester City. Larry Lloyd £60,000 from Coventry City. Peter Withe from Birmingham City for £44,000. John McGovern and John O'Hare from Leeds (for about £100,000 for both). With the arrival of Peter Taylor, things continued. Kenny Burns was added before the start of the season for £150,000. This team had already started the season incredibly well, winning their first three league games to go to the top of the league, but Peter Taylor, a goalkeeper himself, wanted to improve the team in the best way he knew - to get the best goalkeeper in England, and perhaps the world.
Shilton already had played 286 times for Leicester City and 110 times for Stoke, and won over 20 caps for England and yet wasn't even half way through his playing career. He made his debut for Leicester City in 1966 at the age of just 16 and would continue playing until he was 47. That's a career spanning almost 31 years. He finally hung up his boots on 21st January 1997, at Brisbane Road, having just played for Leyton Orient against 4th tier champions Wigan Athletic. Shilton conceded twice in their defeat that day.
Peter Shilton's record is incredible.
He made over 1,000 league appearances, 1,005 to be precise. This is 74 more than Tony Ford (of several, but most well known at Grimsby Town) the next highest UK player. He even scored a goal - direct from a goalkeeper's clearance - for Leicester in May 1967 at The Dell, Southampton, a club he would later join.
Peter Shilton played most games for his first club, Leicester City, but in second place was Nottingham Forest, making 202 appearances for us. He also made over 100 appearances each for Southampton, Derby County and Stoke City.
It should be noted that apart from one Charity Shield win at Leicester, the only club where Shilton won medals at club level was while he was at Forest: One League Championship, one League Cup, one Charity Shield and 2 (yes that's TWO) European Cups. He also won the PFA Player's Player of the year in 1977-78 (this was the only time he did so, again whilst at Forest.)
To play lots of games for professional clubs is impressive enough but to do so at the very highest level is exceptional and Shilton's most impressive statistics are surely those for his country.
His first cap for England was against East Germany on 25th November 1970, having just turned 21. He had 23 caps by the time he joined Forest, most of them whilst at Leicester. He only gained another 19 whilst at Forest because the England manager at the time also fancied Ray Clemence. By the time he joined Derby County, in 1987, he'd gained 91 caps. He overtook Bobby Moore's previous record of 108 on 3rd June 1989 against Denmark and went on to reach his final, and 125th, in the World Cup finals for 3rd/4th play off v Italy on 7th July 1990.
As I write this, Shilton has already been England's most capped player for over 28 years, longer than anyone else in the past and it looks like that number's going to keep on growing. Right now, it looks like Wayne Rooney's England career is over and the nearest established player is Joe Hart on 73, so Peter Shilton will surely remain England's true No 1 for a long long time to come.
Despite these amazing stats, they really should have been much better. Whilst Shilton was winning silverware at Nottingham Forest the England manager at the time, Ron Greenwood, just couldn't make his mind up about him. He kept alternating between Shilton and Liverpool's Ray Clemence. Consequently, only 19 of his 125 caps were won whilst playing for Forest. Under Bobby Robson, things changed and he was picked practically every match. Consequently, he won most of his caps, 49, whilst at his next club Southampton and even won 34 at Derby County. These, on top of the 20 he was awarded whilst at Leicester City.
Next up for Forest, Peter Shilton's first club, Leicester City away.
Peter Shilton
On Tuesday, 13th September 1977, just five days before his 28th birthday, Forest bought Peter Shilton, breaking their transfer record again, spending £250,000. His former club, Stoke City had been relegated the season before and so Shilton was looking for a step back to the top flight. Manchester United almost signed him in the close season but couldn't agree personal terms. There's an irony from today's perspective: Forest (well, Clough and Taylor) were very happy to pay Shilton what he wanted whereas Manchester United weren't. To say it was money well spent would be an understatement.
Shilton already had played 286 times for Leicester City and 110 times for Stoke, and won over 20 caps for England and yet wasn't even half way through his playing career. He made his debut for Leicester City in 1966 at the age of just 16 and would continue playing until he was 47. That's a career spanning almost 31 years. He finally hung up his boots on 21st January 1997, at Brisbane Road, having just played for Leyton Orient against 4th tier champions Wigan Athletic. Shilton conceded twice in their defeat that day.
Peter Shilton's record is incredible.
He made over 1,000 league appearances, 1,005 to be precise. This is 74 more than Tony Ford (of several, but most well known at Grimsby Town) the next highest UK player. He even scored a goal - direct from a goalkeeper's clearance - for Leicester in May 1967 at The Dell, Southampton, a club he would later join.
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| All time top appearances for clubs in the UK |
Peter Shilton played most games for his first club, Leicester City, but in second place was Nottingham Forest, making 202 appearances for us. He also made over 100 appearances each for Southampton, Derby County and Stoke City.
It should be noted that apart from one Charity Shield win at Leicester, the only club where Shilton won medals at club level was while he was at Forest: One League Championship, one League Cup, one Charity Shield and 2 (yes that's TWO) European Cups. He also won the PFA Player's Player of the year in 1977-78 (this was the only time he did so, again whilst at Forest.)
To play lots of games for professional clubs is impressive enough but to do so at the very highest level is exceptional and Shilton's most impressive statistics are surely those for his country.
His first cap for England was against East Germany on 25th November 1970, having just turned 21. He had 23 caps by the time he joined Forest, most of them whilst at Leicester. He only gained another 19 whilst at Forest because the England manager at the time also fancied Ray Clemence. By the time he joined Derby County, in 1987, he'd gained 91 caps. He overtook Bobby Moore's previous record of 108 on 3rd June 1989 against Denmark and went on to reach his final, and 125th, in the World Cup finals for 3rd/4th play off v Italy on 7th July 1990.
His peak was probably the quarter final v Argentina in the 1986 World Cup where he was victim to the infamous Diego Maradona "Hand of God" cheat goal.
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| Yo anotaré más allá de usted por el gancho o por el ladrón |
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| England's most capped players |
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| England's England's No 1... England's No 1 |
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| We all agree, Shilton is better than Clemence! |
Aston Villa the opponents that day
So, who did Peter Shilton make his debut against? It was Aston Villa, like the last team we'd played, Wolves, it was another famous old club from the west midlands, another of the original 12, who had that privilege.
Aston Villa had been the best English team for the first third of football league history - that's the first 43 seasons or so up to the mid 1930s, however they last won the league (until their recent success in 1980-81) in 1909-10.
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| Aston Villa First Division Champions 1909-1910 |
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| Aston Villa - the best English Club for the first 43 seasons |
Villa had won the league 6 times, finishing runners-up 8 times. When they came to the City Ground in 1977 they had won the F.A. Cup more than any other club, 7 times. They held the same distinction for the League Cup too, having won it three times.
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| All time record Aston Villa v Nottingham Forest |
Of the 79 seasons before this, Aston Villa had finished above Forest 64 times. Forest only 15. But the truth is that much of this domination had been in the earliest period of league history. Since the late 1950s, and 1960s things had actually turned bad for Villa and they even slumped to division three in 1970 when Forest finished 32 places above them. I actually saw them play three times at that level, my 20th match was at Notts County's Meadow Lane, where Villa won 3-0 in front of a packed 34,208 and twice at Mansfield's Field Mill - a 2-0 win to the Stags in front of 9,666 and a 1-1 draw in front of 12,454.
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| Bruce Rioch, Ray Graydon and Andy Lochhead all played when I watched Villa in Division Three |
According to 11v11 Villa have played Forest 124 times. This match was the 80th between the two clubs, with Villa dominating. Forest hadn't won against them since 15th April 1967 when the great Forest side beat them 3-0 at the City Ground. Villa had only just been promoted back to the top flight themselves two seasons before so their aura of invincibility had long gone.
Nottingham Forest 2 Aston Villa 0
So, onto the match itself. Sadly, I have very little memory of it. All I remember is going in the Trent End and enjoying the best atmosphere and crowd (31,016) of the season so far. Everyone was, of course, excited about the signing of Peter Shilton. Things were certainly looking up.
The Teams
Peter Shilton had to face a couple of decent strikers on the Villa side. Andy Gray and Brian Little.
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| Could Andy Gray score? |
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| Could Brian Little score? |
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| No - You'll never score past Shilton |
Nottingham Forest
1 Peter Shilton, 2 Viv Anderson, 3 Colin Barrett, 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: Tony Woodcock 1, John Robertson 1.
Aston Villa
1 Jimmy Rimmer, 2 John Gidman, 3 John Robson, 4 Leighton Phillips, 5 Kenneth McNaught, 6 Dennis Mortimer, 7 John Deehan, 8 Brian Little, 9 Gordan Cowans, 10 Alex Cropley, 11 Frank Carrodus.
Attendance 31,016.
The other matches that day
Chelsea surprisingly won at Old Trafford where, apparently, there was a lot of trouble after the match. Derby sacked Colin Murphy and appointed Tommy Docherty as their new manager. Man City and Liverpool both drew away from home so Forest now were joint top on points and 3rd only on goal difference.
Next up for Forest, Peter Shilton's first club, Leicester City away.
Match Program
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