Now then,

I hate to disillusion young un’s, I don’t feel comfortable with it. It’s too easy to be superior, based on the number of years you have spent on the planet. But when I was with grandsons of a friend on the Red Rec earlier this week and I heard a conversation amongst a group of ten-year-olds about David Beckham becoming the highest England cap-earning player ever, I had to put them right. Never mind Bobby Moore and forget Bobby Charlton. The player with the highest number of England caps of all time was a Forest player.

The player with the highest number of football league appearances of all time was a Forest player. He was a player who made a profound impact both on Forest and on the England team. Clough always talked about building a team from the back. What more could you wish for at the back than Peter Leslie Shilton?

His career was outstanding by any yardstick that you might select as a measure. He made 1005 competitive appearances. My hand did not slip there, I am talking about more than a thousand appearances, between 1967 and 1997, aged 16 to 47. In 1967 the 16-year-old Shilton was understudy to Gordon Banks at Leicester. Banks was the keeper that had given England the World Cup in 1966. Leicester were so confident in the ability of this young lad that they sold Banks to Stoke City. They sold the best keeper in the world and replaced him with a 16-year-old.

Shilts was an amazing, brilliant, larger than life, goalkeeping sensation.

Forest were promoted by a some sort of fluke at the end of the 1976/77 season, like some kind of after-thought. Everyone expected us to go straight back down. No one had heard of our youngsters then – Viv Anderson, Martin O’Neill, John Robertson – and we were not buying in great players, just picking up old has-beens from elsewhere – Frank Clarke, John O’Hare, Larry Lloyd.

We played the first few games of 1977/78 with John Middleton in goal. We still managed somehow to make our way towards the top of the table. Peter Taylor – who had also played in goal – said that he had been obsessed with signing Shilton since the 1960′s. Shilton was at Stoke City and they had been relegated the previous season. After several transfer attempts, Shilton joined Forest for £275,000, a record for a goalkeeper. At the end of the season, Clough said he would have paid twice that price. Taylor said that the signing of Shilton was the highlight of his football career. When Shilts joined us that season, winning the First Division seemed an unlikely fluke – by the end of that season it was inevitable.

Clough only brought in four players to strengthen the unlikely promotion winners, but what players. He bought Burns, the troubled centre forward from Birmingham City and turned him into a defender so reliable and so solid, when not suspended, that he was made the Football Writers Player of the Season. Shilts was the Player’s Player of the season and in a hat-trick repeated only once – by Liverpool in 1992 – Tony Woodcock was the Young Player of the season. Archie Gemmill was brought in to strengthen the midfield and later, when Larry Lloyd was injured David Needham became Burns’ partner in defence. Needham also scored some important goals for us.

I think I am right in saying that three of the four signings were ineligible for the League Cup as they were cup tied, but that did not stop us winning that particular trophy for the first of many times under Clough’s leadership. Deputising for Shilts that day was Chris Woods who at 18 years and 125 days was the youngest player ever to play in a League Cup Final. He went on to play for England and was Shilton’s understudy there for much of the 1980′s before making the shirt his own. The influence on Woods of Shilton cannot be denied. Woods kept two clean sheets for Forest in the Cup final and subsequent replay against Liverpool. We had two other keepers in that historic season. Gary Birtles played in goal twice and Archie Gemmill once; Middleton was allowed to join Derby County as a makeweight in the Archie Gemmill deal.

In his first twenty two league games for Forest, Shilts conceded only nine goals. In his first ten away games he kept seven clean sheets. He was admired for his communication with the defence and playing in front of him must have given the defeders a swaggering confidence. In training he would push himself to the limit and have shooting sessions that would have brought other players to their knees.

Shilton kept a clean sheet when Forest beat Manchester United 4-0 at Old Trafford. The result did not flatter us, we could have had seven. In 42 games that season in the league, Forest only conceded 24 goals. At that time this equalled the previous record set by Liverpool. It is hard not to drift off into a string of superlatives to describe Shilts and his impact on our side. He was a legendary shot-stopper. The term is overused these days, but Shilts was probably the best goalkeeper in the world at the time he played for us.

One particular save stands out that season. It was the save that gave us the League Championship. In the game against Coventry we just needed a point to become Champions. Shilts had already produced a string of fine saves when he pulled off the most amazing stop of the entire season. Future Forest million pound buy, Ian Wallace crossed from the right and Mick Ferguson headed back across goal from about six yards out. Somehow arching his body back as his momentum carried him the other way Shilts managed to paw the ball over the crossbar. The final score was 0-0 and the City Ground erupted. We were Champions of the Football League for the first and only time in our history.

The following season Shilts had the joint highest appearances with 65. The season after that Shilts had the most appearances with 63. The season after that, Shilts had the most appearances with 55. In 1981/82 he had the most appearances with 47. Then he was allowed to move on. To say he was an ever-present influence in the Forest side that won two European Cups is an underestimate. He was the heart and soul of that team.

He strained his body into incredible shapes to stop the ball going into the goal. If I had to sum up how I saw Shilton at that time, it would be quite simple. He had the ability to make the goal seem smaller.

The man was also a personality, a true character. His gambling habits were well known and there was a scandal just before he left the club. There was a young married woman who was discovered with Shilts in the back of his car late at night. My memory dims and this has caused several family arguments. I thought the young lady worked in the chip shop on Trent Boulevard whilst the wife remains certain it was Ron Reeve’s greengrocers.

It doesn’t matter now. Shilts was sold when the greatest Forest team of all time was broken up. To a man they would say to this day that it was allowed to happen too early. We actually made a profit on him of £50,000. He went on to reach 125 England Caps, making him the highest capped player of all time.

I’m not sure I’ll ever write about a Forest player as perfect as he was.

I’ll see thee.