Defeat at Stamford Bridge

Next up for Forest 40 years ago was Chelsea away and so another trip to "the smoke". After thrashing 'Boro the week before we were confident of victory but I didn't go to this one. I think it was the scary time I had at Upton Park a few weeks earlier that put me off going to this match in addition to the fact that I'd been to Stamford Bridge for the same fixture the season before. So this was the second of seven games I'd miss in this championship winning season.

The triple-decker stand at Stamford Bridge - after Chelsea's promotion with Forest in 1977

Chelsea History

It's tempting to think of Chelsea, these days, merely as a mega rich club built out of nothing from the vast wealth of Roman Abramovich but the sad truth, from a Forest perspective, is that they've pretty much always been a bigger and more successful club than us. In the 62 years Forest and Chelsea had competed in the league before this match, we'd only ended up higher placed than them on 13 occasions.

In the 1962-63 season, Forest finished 10th in the First Division whereas Chelsea, just relegated the season before, were winning promotion back to the top tier with Stoke, 14 places below us. That's as good as it got for Forest, apart from the 13 years start Forest had over them. Chelsea were elected into the League (Second Division) in 1905-06 and in their 4th season they finished higher than Forest for the first time. In 1919-20 Chelsea finished 3rd finishing 37 places higher than Forest and when Chelsea won their only (at the time of this game) English Championship, in 1954-55 they were 36 places higher, as Forest languished in the second division at the time.

Even before the age of the Greediership - Chelsea were dominant over Forest

Their first team to really challenge for the title was the one in the first season after the first world war, when Chelsea finished in 3rd spot.

Chelsea 1919-20

Chelsea won their first major honour, though, in the 1954-55 season when they won the league. The title has been largely accredited to the management of Ted Drake. A successful player with Arsenal, Ted brought in sweeping changes including getting rid of the old Chelsea Pensioners crest.

Rather than relying on big name signings, he used his knowledge of the lower leagues (he'd previously managed Reading) to get reliable but relatively unknown players in. Within three years he'd built a team that would win the league.

Ted Drake - Love the Center Parting!

Chelsea Champions for the First Time

Just watch those boys go!

Championship Winning Squad 1955

After this success, Chelsea's team broke up and they struggled to repeat anything like that for years, and even got relegated for one season, as described above. But every cloud has a silver lining and the appointment of Tommy Docherty signalled a new era for the club. Upon their return to the top flight, Chelsea enjoyed their best (at this time) spell in the league, finishing 3rd in 1964-65 and again in 1970-71.

Tommy Docherty's Chelsea 1963-66 - 3rd best in England

For the next 10 years, Chelsea would only be bettered by Liverpool, Manchester United and Leeds. Their team included such famous names as Peter Bonetti, Ron Harris, Eddie McCreadie, Marvin Hinton, John Hollins, George Graham, Terry Venables, Bobby Tambing and Peter Houseman.

Chelsea won their second major trophy in 1965 when they won the League Cup, beating Leicester City in the days when it was contested over two legs.

Tommy Docherty

My First Game

Chelsea have a special place in my football fanaticism because it was the F. A. Cup Final between them and Leeds United in 1970 which was the first match that I watched live, (on tely, of course!)

The first game I watched live (on tely)

It will always stick in my throat that as England were winning the World Cup and Forest were chasing the double in 1966-67, I was not the slightest bit interested. My German uncle Joseph even came over from Nuremberg to watch a few games (including the final I think) but I was an unmoved 7 year old - just too young to get it, I suppose.

Anyway, I'm not sure who or what first directed my attention towards football but I expect it was probably friends at school, like Anthony Cobb but by the late 1960s I was starting to take interest in football on the tely where my dad and me started following the fortunes of Don Revie's Leeds United.

Dad was never much of a football fan. The only match he attended was Barnsley v Newcastle United when he used to work in the pits up in Yorkshire. But I suppose it was some kind of nostalgia for those days, drinking and gambling with his Lithuanian friends, that made him warm towards Yorkshire's greatest, at the time, Leeds. So, my dad and me did the nearest thing we had done to "bonding" whilst watching Don Revie's successful team whenever they were on Match of the Day.

I followed the F.A. Cup pretty closely that season and it really sparked my passion for football. So, for that season's Cup Final day, I got up early and watched the atmosphere and excitement at Wembley building up on Football Focus and then watched the game, live, for the first time.

Of course I wanted Leeds to win, and was devastated when Ian Hutchinson got a late equaliser after a pulsating match in which Leeds hit the woodwork three times to send the game to a replay. When Chelsea won that in extra time, I was so emotionally drained I cried. So it also signalled my first experience of bitter defeat - a feeling you soon get used to!

Here are some pages from the programme...

Liking Don Revie's Leeds, I guess, makes me rather odd - especially for a Forest fan considering Brain Clough's opinion of Revie's teams. But I must admit I have never really understood why they were quite so reviled. In those days every team had a few dirty players. Chelsea's "Chopper" Harris was hardly an angel. And were Billy Bremner's niggling fouls really any worse than those of Tommy Smith? And let's not forget some of the brilliant Leeds players like Eddie Gray and Johnny Giles and the shot on Peter Lorimer. Their 7-0 demolition of Southampton 0 in March 1972 has to be one of the most impressive performances of football ever seen in the English League.

Anyway, back to Chelsea...

Cup Winners Cup Winners

After winning the F. A. Cup, in those days, you got to represent England in Europe in the Cup Winners Cup. I still think that the original format - the European Cup for the League Champions, the Cup Winners Cup for the Cup Winners and the UEFA Cup for a few teams that were placed highest in each league - was the most logical system and it still grates me that to qualify for the "Champions" League, you only have to finish 4th.

Chelsea represented England next season (1970-71) and won it, beating Real Madrid, no less, in the final in Piraeus, Greece.

Chelsea on a lap of honour with the Cup Winners Cup

Chelsea's Demise

After reaching the peak of European success, Chelsea hit bad times, induced by financial difficulties following on from the building of their very flash, and expensive, triple decker East stand. They were relegated in 1975-76 and stayed in the Second Division for two years, the second, getting promoted just ahead of Forest.

I went to the Chelsea v Forest game, towards the end of that promotion season. Unfortunately it ended in a 2-1 defeat. So as I'd already been to Stamford Bridge and, frankly, didn't fancy another scary day practising cockney accents to keep me from getting beaten up, I didn't go to the match covered here.

So, overall, Forest's record compared to Chelsea's was never good before Cloughie and Taylor came. We actually did the double over them the first two seasons they came into the league. This included a 6-0 home win and 4-0 away in 1907-08 but in the 36 games between the clubs from that time until 1977, Forest would only win 7. So going into this match the Blues were 18-11 in front with 11 draws.

The Match

So, to the match itself. Forest were on red hot form and Chelsea were struggling, so this really did look like another two points in the bag. Forest were not only top of the league by 4 points but also top of the current form table (last 3 home and last 3 away games) by 4 points too.

But football is football and so it was bound to happen that Forest's London jinx would be reinstated after temporary relief at QPR.

The game, according to the account in John Shipley's book "Nottingham Forest 1977-78 Champions" was a bit of an end-to-end battle with both teams relentlessly attacking and Peter Bonetti and Peter Shilton competing for who would make the best saves. In the end, a 55th minute goal from 19 year old Trevor Aylott was all that divided the sides.

The Teams

Chelsea

1 Peter Bonetti, 2 Graham Wilkins, 3 John Sparrow, 4 Ian Britton, 5 Micky Droy, 6 Steve Wicks, 7 Trevor Aylott, 8 Ray Wilkins, 9 Tommy Langley, 10 Ken Swain, 11 Charlie Cooke.

Goals: Trevor Aylott 1.

Nottingham Forest

1 Peter Shilton, 2 Viv Anderson, 3 Colin Barrett, 4 John McGovern, 5 Larry Lloyd, 6 Kenny Burns, 7 Archie Gemill, 8 Ian Bowyer, 9 Peter Withe, 10 Tony Woodcock, 11 John Robertson.

Substitutions: Martin O'Neill(12) came on for Ian Bowyer (8).

Other Games That Day

With Forest slipping up at last, it gave an opportunity to the chasing pack to catch up. That was Liverpool, and four teams one point behind them (Everton, Manchester City, West Brom and Coventry). In the end three out of the five did win but Liverpool surprising lost at home to Villa so the gap at the top only closed to three points with Everton now in second place. Leicester failed to score again making their record 1/3 of the way through the season an abysmal 4 goals scored in 14 games.

Division One on Bonfire Night 1977

There were no great changes in the top scorer's chart but Tony Brown, Trevor Francis and Ian Wallace all grabbed goals to get closer to the leaders Mick Ferguson and our own Peter Withe.