After the violent trauma of Upton Park, it was good to return to the relative safety of Nottingham for a home game the week after - and what a match to look forward to!: A top of the league clash against Forest's closest rivals, Manchester City, a team just one point behind with a slightly inferior goal difference.A 116 season-long joint history
Manchester City and Nottingham Forest both joined the football league the same season, 1892-93, when the league was expanded from one division to two. The season before, Forest had won the Football Alliance, a league set up by Harry Radford who ran Forest in their early years to rival the football league. It had started three years earlier, just one season after the Football League - it was time for the two nascent leagues to merge.As a consequence the number of teams in the league doubled from 14 to 28. The first division (the only one before the expansion) went from 14 to 16 teams, and a new Second Division was formed with a further 12.
As Alliance champions, Forest went straight into the First Division along with runners up Newton Heath (renamed Manchester United 9 years later) and The Wednesday (Sheffield Wednesday), whereas all but three of the other Alliance teams, including Ardwick (to be renamed Manchester City two years later) made up the new division two along with relegated Northwich Victoria.
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| The Last Alliance League 1891-92 |
In their first season in the league, Forest managed to survive in the top flight, whereas Manchester City faired reasonable well in the second division.
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| 1892-93 Season - All teams named their modern way here |
In the 75 years of league history before this match, Forest had finished above City only 19 times, and 12 of those were in the years up to 1910. Forest's most dominant season over City was in 1964-65 when we finished 5th and they ended up 28 places below us, 11th in Division Two. City had bettered that differential 13 times, most emphatically in 1936-37 when City won the league for their first time and Forest ended up 39 places below them in 17th place in Division Two.
Forest and City had met 60 times before in competitive games and, not surprisingly, Forest's record didn't look too good.
Still, at least I had that cherished memory of the most fantastic match the last time we played Man City at home - that brilliant 4-1 win in the F.A. Cup 4th Round in front of over 42,000 when a fantastic Duncan McKenzie solo display destroyed City.
Although Man City had won the league twice, the F.A. Cup 4 times, the League Cup twice and the European Cup Winners Cup once, they had never dominated the league for more than a season. The closest they came to doing that was the three seasons between 1903-04 and 1905-06 when they had the same points as Newcastle but couldn't achieve top spot only on goal average. They were second best for the four seasons between 1974 and the season being reported on here, though. So, Forest were up against one of the best teams in England on 15th October 1977.
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| Manchester City's League "Glory Years" |
Here are some of their greatest teams...
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| F.A. Cup winners 1903-04 (beat Bolton Wanderers 1-0 at Crystal Palace in front of 61,374) |
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| F.A. Cup Winners 1933-34 (beat Portsmouth 2-1 at Wembley in front of 93,258) |
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| League Champions 1936-37 |
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| F.A. Cup winners 1956 (Notice Don Revie?) |
In the 1955-56 final Manchester City beat Birmingham City 3-1 at Wembley in front of 100,000 fans.
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| League Champions 1967-68 - How did they keep the trophy for this photo withe FA Cup which they won the year after? |
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| Manchester City v Gornik Zabrze (Poland) |
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| Cup Winners Cup Winners 1970 |
Man City won their only European silverware at the Prater Stadium, in Vienna when they beat the Polish cup winners, Gornik Zabrze 2-1 in front of less than 8,000 fans.
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| League Cup Winners at Wembley 1970 (beat West Bromwich Albion 2-1 at Wembley) |
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| ...and again in 1976 when they beat Newcastle United 2-1, again at Wembley |
Manchester City Stars
They had a team of stars with eleven internationals in the squad including Joe Corrigan, Willie Donachie, Mike Doyle, Asa Hartford, Peter Barnes, Mike Channon, Brian Kidd and Dennis Tueart.
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| Asa Hartford |
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| Brian Kidd |
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| Joe Corrigan |
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| Mick Channon on the day |
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| Peter Barnes |
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| Wille Donnachie |
Teams
Nottingham Forest
1 Peter Shilton, 2 Viv Anderson, 3 Colin Barrett, 4 Mike McGiven, 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 1, Tony Woodcock 1.
Substitutions: Archie Gemill (12) came on for Martin O'Neill(7).
Manchester City
1 Joe Corrigan, 2 Paul Power, 3 Willie Donnachie, 4 Gary Owen, 5 Mike Doyle, 6 Tommy Booth, 7 Peter Barnes, 8 Mike Channon, 9 Brian Kidd, 10 Asa Hartford, 11 Dennis Tueart.
Goals : Brian Kidd 1.
Substitutions: Kenny Clemments(12) came on for Dennis Tueart (11).
Attendance : 35,572
The Game
I watched this pulsating top of the table clash from the Trent End among Forest's biggest home crowd of the season so far. Brian Kidd gave Man City the lead in the 21st minute. After a couple of near misses at both ends, Man City contrived to give the ball away and John Robertson picked it up and darted into the box, and as he did, supplied the perfect cross to make it easy for Tony Woodcock to tap in the equaliser right in front of us before half time.
The second half was end-to-end stuff and anyone could have won it to be honest. But in the end it was Peter Withe that struck a scrappy goal to grab the points and allow Forest to maintain their lead at the top.
Other Matches that Day
Even though Forest beat their nearest challengers, they were immediately replaced in that role by Liverpool, who won to stay just a point behind the "tricky trees". Everton moved into 3rd place with another win.
Peter Withe's goal increased his lead at the head of the First Division's top scorer's chart.
Next up for Forest - another trip to London to face QPR.
The Match Day Programme
Post No 15
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