Putting one over on Man United

40 years ago, Nottingham Forest entertained Manchester United in a First Division game at the City Ground, Nottingham. To many fans under 35-years old, the use of the word "entertain" there might seem a bit sarcastic, or even cruel. It might be interpreted as though Forest's only role in playing was to provide something for their more illustrious opponents to feed upon, like a hungry lion might be thrown a piece of meat to be "entertained." It's true that the last time these teams met in the league in Nottingham, Man U won 8-1 and it's true that for much of the history between these clubs, the tie would not have been a fair match. After losing at Chelsea the week before, this kind of view might seem all the more realistic. But let's not forget that in 1977 we had the best football management team in the World and so Man U held no fear for us.

Gemmill ends off a beautiful move to win the game for Forest and score his first goal for the Reds

Who the Hell are Man United?

Like Manchester City, Manchester United joined the league the same season as Forest in 1892-93 and like their rivals, they started with a different name. Forest's first four games against "Manchester United" were against a team called Newton Heath.

As is usually the case in these comparisons, Forest, as the older club, dominated in the early years. For the first 13 seasons when both clubs competed in the league, Forest were top dogs. Then, Man U got promoted back to Division One whilst winning their first major trophy - the F. A. Cup - and a season later they won the first division title.

From then on, as usual, Forest became the underdogs. For just seven out of the next 59 seasons Forest finished above them in the league. In the previous 37 seasons to this one, Forest had finished higher in the league just once.

In 1977, whereas Forest had won the F.A. Cup twice and the Anglo-Scottish Cup, Man United had already won the league seven times, the F. A. Cup 4 times and the European Cup. And this was even before the premier league era.

So, even though this has been covered ad nauseum elsewhere a million times, just to be fair to them, here's a brief roll call of their trophy winning teams.

Man U fans (only living in Manchester in those days) celebrate their first trophy - The F. A. Cup in 1909

Followed by their first League title one year later

And again four years later

F. A. Cup Winners again 1948

League Champions for the first time after the war

Champions 1955-56

And again 1956-57

The three years between 1954-55 to 1956-57 were probably Manchester United's greatest in the days before Sir Alex Ferguson. There have been several three year periods where they were the best club in England but this was the first.

The first three year slot when Man U were the best in England

Bobby Charlton et al win the Cup in '63

On their way to the league title in 1965 Manchester United played out a 2-2 draw at the City Ground.

Man Utd pip Forest for the title again in 1966-67

Forest could have won the double that season...

The last time Man Utd won the league, it could have been Forest

Manchester United - the first English team to win the European Cup in 1968

9 years later - another Cup win

"Ponas" Busby

There are so many famous names that have represented Manchester United over the years I could go on about here but I'll pick just one... Sir Matt Busby, the manager that really made them great in the 1950s and 60s. He was manager for almost 24 years. He built the famous "Busby's Babes" great side that won back-to-back championships 1955-56 and 1956-57 before being tragically decimated by the Munich air disaster. Amazingly, he rebuilt the side again and went on to win the title twice more and reached the pinnacle of winning the European Cup - the first English side to do so.

Sir Matt Busby - Twice as Lithuanian as I am

Matt Busby was born in Bellshill, near Glasgow, and both of his parents (Alexander and Nellie) were of Lithuanian origin. His dad fought for Britain in the First World War and was killed when Matt was just eight years old.

Manchester United's Relegation

Of course, it's not been Glory, Glory Man United all the time. In 1973-74 they suffered the ignominy of relegation to the Second Division.

Down with the Norwich, you're going down with the Norwich!

The "Red Devils" did bounce straight back up, winning the second division in a very tough year with Aston Villa, Norwich City, Sunderland, Bristol City and West Bromwich Albion all battling for promotion with them. That was a division dominated by Man Utd fan violence as they went on tour to smaller clubs than they had been used to, basically running amok.

I went to the match at Forest that season and it was pretty scary. Manchester United were allocated the Trent End of the ground by the police to try to make the situation safer for everyone. Man Utd won 1-0 that day in front of 21,893.

I also watched Manchester United at the City Ground in the First Division towards the end of the 1971-72 season, the one that Forest got relegated themselves. That game ended 0-0 in front of 35,063, pretty much sealing Forest's relegation. Bizarrely, I also went to Old Trafford to watch Man Utd beat Oxford United in the F.A. Cup 3rd round on a very cold January day in 1976. So this would be the 4th time I'd seen Manchester United.

Forest top dogs now

So, as the two teams lined up for their 60th competitive meeting Man U were, obviously ahead on number of wins, historically. Forest had won 18 whilst Man U had won 27 before this match.

Despite all this great history and the fact that Manchester United were the cup holders, United must have come into this match fearing the worst. Although Forest had lost at Chelsea the week before, they remained 3 points clear at the top of the league and were strong favourites on current form as Man U had lost their last three games.

Forest still riding high on current form (last 3 home/away) Man U almost relegation form

Another interesting fact, that none of us noticed at the time was that the day before this game, a certain new record was released: "Mull of Kintyre" by Paul McCartney and Wings. More about that in the weeks to come.

The Teams

It's interesting, from today's perspective, to note that of the 22 (and only 22, as no subs were used) players who played that day, none were what would be called "foreign". Paddy Roche, the Man U keeper was from the Republic of Ireland and the Man U team included four others from Northern Ireland. Forest had 4 Scots, Man U had 2 but the others (7 Forest. Man U 4) were English.

Nottingham Forest

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

Goals: Kenny Burns 1, Archie Gemmill 1.

Manchester United

1 Paddy Roche, 2 James Nicholl, 3 Stewart Houston, 4 Sammy McIlroy, 5 Brian Greenoff, 6 Martin Buchan, 7 Chris McGrath, 8 Steve Coppell, 9 Stuart Pearson, 10 David McCreery, 11 Gordon Hill.

Goals : Stuart Pearson 1.

Attendance: 30,183.

The Game

I watched this from the Trent End, safely under cover as there was torrential rain pouring down.

Man U took an early lead and seemed to be on their way to victory having several good chances to go 2 up before half time. Whatever Cloughie and Taylor said at half time though, did the trick and Forest came out and dominated the second half.

A McGovern free kick, was layed off to Gemmill whose shot was deflected to Burns and despite Man U protests for off-side he cooly slotted in the equaliser.

Gemmill shoots, deflected, Burns fires in the rebound. 1-1

The winner from Gemmill, his first for the club, was classic Forest under Cloughie. Quick, decisive, positive passing from defence to attack in seconds. Anderson picked up the ball, passed it forward to Bowyer who battled to keep possession and lay it off to McGovern in space in the middle. A quick one-two with Peter Withe, who then turned to get back into the attack while McGovern had already anticipated his next, beautiful, pass to Robbo, as always, on the left. John Robertson quickly struck a long ball for Peter Withe to run onto. He chested it down, into space on the left and the released a perfect first time cross from his left foot to the edge of the box where little Archie Gemmill rose above the United defenders to place a perfect header beyond Roche.

Robertson even missed a penalty - a very rare event - so it could have been 3-1.

Since posting this, Keith Belshaw (of the Nottingham Forest Supporters Group on FB) has reminded me of how windy it was that day. Windy enough for one or two goal kicks to be stopped in mid air and blown back towards the goal from which they came! Forest went in 0-1 with that wind in their backs but came back in the second half to win 2-1 facing it!

Other Games That Day

Things went quite well for Forest that day as Liverpool lost for the third match running and Manchester City lost for the second game in succession at home to Leeds. None of the other chasing teams won apart from Everton who kept the gap to three points with Bob Latchford scoring a couple against his old club to go clear first place in the top scorer's chart.

Wins for Bristol City and Leicester shook up the relegation zone a little and Newcastle dropped to last place whilst Bristol City pulled themselves out of the bottom three.

First Division Top Scorers

After this result, Man Utd fell even further in the current form table with Liverpool and Man City also struggling at the moment.

Current Form 40 years ago

With this win under our belt, I was looking forward to next week's game at Leeds and a chance to meet up with some of my old mates from school who had gone to university there.