Pegged back by the Baggies... but the 1st of 42 unbeaten

After losing at Leeds, Forest were hoping to get back to winning ways in their match at home to West Bromwich Albion the Saturday after. I was one of 31,908 (2nd highest attendance of the season so far) at the City Ground that day to watch Albion deny us the two points we craved. Forest remained top despite this wobble of dropping 5 points now, in 5 games.

More on that later, but first I must pay tribute to the history of West Bromwich Albion one of the original 12 members of the football league.

Historical Albion

West Bromwich Albion were one of the 12 original members of the league. They finished in the top half and this middle-of-the-road start pretty much typifies their history.

Forest joined the league four years later, even though our club was formed 23 years before it started. West Brom were formed in 1878 as "West Bromwich Strollers". They had became "Albion", a district of West Bromwich, after a couple of years.

Earliest Albion team photo taken 1883

WBA actually won the F. A. Cup just months before the league started, beating fancied Preston North End in the final - the team that would win the first two league titles. The trophy was the original design, the "little tin idol" which was used from 1872 until it was stolen in 1895. An exact replica was made and would continue to be used until 1910, so the first F.A. Cup trophy was effectively used for 38 years.

Albion - F. A. Cup winners 1888

As with many clubs I've compared Forest with, West Brom were the early underdogs but this soon changed. Of Forest's first 19 years in the league, Albion only finished above us three times. But from 1911 on, it all changed. For the next 41 seasons, West Brom finished above us every year but one. Forest finished our most dominant, 17 places above West Brom in 1909-10 but just ten years later they finished 39 places above us.

Overall, in the 75 seasons both teams have competed in the league, Forest have finished above Albion 23 times (but only six times since the war) 52 times it was the other way around.

Albion won the cup for the second time in 1892. Again it was the original trophy.

Cup winners 1892

West Brom famously lost to Barnsley in the first replayed F.A. Cup final in 1911-12 and the first to compete for the new trophy.

Albion reached their peak around the time of the first world war. Their one and only league title came in the first season afterwards.

West Brom with the League Championship Trophy after the end of World War I

Albion won the league by a massive nine points. It was enough to make them the best team in England for a three seasons period, including the two before that - so from 1913 to 1919, because that period also included the war years.

Albion's only league title - the first with 22 teams in the division

West Brom - best team in England 1913-1920

West Brom won the F.A. Cup for the 3rd time in 1930-31 beating Birmingham City 2-1 at Wembley. WE. G. Richardson scored for Albion in the 25th minute. Bradford equalised for Birmingham in the second half but just a minute later West Brom were back in front with Richardson completing his brace.

Albion won the F.A. Cup for the 4th time in 1954, beating Preston 3-2 in the final, again at Wembley. This was a topsy-turvy final with Albion going into a 21st minute lead through Allen, only for Preston to equalise through Morison. Just after half time North End went into the lead through Wayman but a penalty from Allen made it 2-2. Albion grabbed a dramatic winner with just a few minutes remaining through Griffin.

WBA won the last League Cup to be played over two legs, in 1966, beating West Ham United 5-3 on aggregate, having been 2-1 down from the first leg at Upton Park.

Their last trophy was the F.A. Cup in 1967-68 beating Everton 1-0 at Wembley with a classic Jeff Astle goal.

Astle is probably, baggies' fans' greatest hero, scoring 137 goals for them in almost 300 appearances from 1964 to 1974. Astle was actually a Notts boy, born in Eastwood near the border with Derbyshire. He made over 100 appearances for Notts County before Albion bought him. Astle was the First Division's leading scorer in 1969-70 with 25 goals bringing him to the attention of Sir Alf Ramsey, the England manager. He won five caps for England including an infamous debut against Brazil in the Mexico 1970 World Cup when he missed a good chance late on to equalise.

Jeff Astle, tragically died at 59 years old, probably because of heading the ball

After retirement, Astle became well known via that other Albion icon, Frank Skinner and the TV show "Fantasy Football". Every week, he'd come on the show and end it with a humorous rendition of a song, often dressed up in ridiculous outfits.

Sadly, Astle died far too young of "degenerative brain disease" a condition thought to have been caused by repeatedly heading the ball. How many other footballers have been damaged by this?

Albion's last trophy

So, Albion had won a few major honours by the time they faced Forest 40 years ago. They've won the league title, F. A. Cup 5 times and the League Cup. Seven honours in 70 years was a fair return for a medium sized club, but no silverware has been won since then.

In recent years West Brom, like Forest, had been relegated and then returned back to the top flight.

I'd seen West Brom play at Forest twice before, both in the second division. The first time was in 1975 towards the end of the season. Forest won 2-1 and the second time was during their return to the first division, a few months later on Boxing Day. Albion won that 2-0.

I have always liked West Brom but Forest fans had their own anti-Albion song, a variation of "I do like to be beside the sea side"....

Oh! I do like to be beside the seaside!

Oh I do like to be beside the sea!
I do like to stroll along the Prom, Prom, Prom!

Where the brass bands play, "F&%# OFF, West Brom!"

Well, "Brom" does rhyme with "prom"!

The Teams

Albion included a few memorable players including Derek Statham, Laurie Cunningham, Bryan Robson and Wille Johnstone.

Laurie Cunningham

Bryan Robson

For Forest, Martin O'Neill was selected instead of Ian Bowyer.

Nottingham Forest

1 Peter Shilton, 2 Viv Anderson, 3 Colin Barrett, 4 John McGovern, 5 Larry Lloyd, 6 Kenny Burns, 7 Archie Gemmill, 8 Martin O'Neill, 9 Peter Withe, 10 Tony Woodcock, 11 John Robertson.

West Bromwich Albion

1 Tony Godden, 2 Paddy Mulligan, 3 Derek Statham, 4 Tony Bown, 5 John Wile, 6 Alistair Robertson, 7 Mick Martin, 8 Laurie Cunningham, 9 David Cross, 10 Bryan Robson, 11 Willie Johnston.

The Game

This was the 98th competitive match between the clubs. Despite West Brom's more impressive history, their record against Forest wasn't too depressing for us.

The biggest win and defeat in previous Forest home games against West Brom was 6-1. They beat us 6-1 in 1930, Forest beat them in 1899.

I admit to having no memory of this game whatsoever but according to the account in John Shipley's book "1977/78 Champions Nottingham Forest", it was a pulsating game. Albion's defence basically held sway and Tony Godden made a couple of great saves to stop Gemmill and Woodcock scoring.

Other Matches That Day

This was not a good day to drop points for Forest. The team on our heels, Everton, beat the in-form, Coventry City, team 6-0 at home with Bob Latchford getting a hattrick and the other half of Merseyside was happy too as Liverpool ended their bad run with a 4-0 win at Leicester City. Manchester City also put 6 past Chelsea to reawaken their challenge. It was a high scoring day with a giddy 3.3 goals per game (The average for the season so far was just 2.57.)

There was no international break in those days but it would appear that Newcastle and Villa skipped their match that day due to European commitments.

So, the gap now closed to just one point at the top of the table and after Everton's massive win, they had a superior goal difference to us too.

The gap was closing

In the scoring charts, Latchford's hat trick took him away from the pack. Peter Withe, the early leading scorer, now hadn't scored in six league games - a run that would continue for some time yet.

Slipping Withe Forest

Forest had now dropped 5 points in their last six games, signalling a slip to 6th place in the current form table.

Forest slipping

So, things were not looking so good for Forest at this moment. As we walked away from the City Ground listening to the familiar tune of sports report coming from radios held tightly to our ears, anticipating reading the fresh pages of the Football Post on the streets by the time we got to slab square, news that Everton had thrashed Coventry 6-0 gave us a sense of foreboding. I can't actually remember if it was Stuart Hall reporting from Goodison Park that day, but I bet it was. I can just imagine his wit and eloquence describing their win."So, watch out, Mr Clough!" he might have bellowed at the end.

Little did we know. That day, back in November 1977, Forest were about to set off on an incredible unbeaten run of 42 league games that most of us would never be beaten but, alas, was by Arsene Wenger's "invincibles" - the Arsenal team of 2003-2004.

After this "wobble" in the league, Forest could do with a little distraction and that would follow the next Tuesday night in the form of an exciting 4th Round League Cup tie at home to Aston Villa. Could Forest win and make it to the quarter finals for the first time? You know the answer!