By Alex Ottway, Thursday, March 11, 2010, 1:49 pm
Read more: History
Aaah…Celtic…UEFA Cup, November 1983.
First up, I was 13 at the time, and had to change buses to get to school, having to cross the Old Market Square every morning.
A bitterly cold November Monday morning sees me crossing what would normally be a deserted Square…except that this Monday morning it was largely populated with scantily-clad Scottish blokes, who stood, dwarfed by stacks of alcoholic 6-packs that they’d procured.
Disappointment at the end of the 1967 season gives way to a new school for Gary, but more importantly a new season and a new experience – watching the Forest away…
Still in second place we beat Villa 3-0 and I thought it was our God-given right to score three goals at home games. Unfortunately Manchester United were winning their matches as well. We came down with a bump at Roker Park where we lost 1-0 to Sunderland in a midweek match. A draw at Arsenal and then it was semi-final day.
In the 1966/67 season Forest are challenging for the league and a good cup run sees the young Gary Roe start dreaming of the double…
In November we went 13 matches without defeat. I saw this as no great thing, it was what I expected with the players we had. I remember waiting for the football results to come up on the telly at Martin Carey’s (my pal’s house) and we beat Everton 1-0 twice in three days over Christmas.
The young Gary Roe is star-struck, but Forest are emerging as potential title challengers…
1966. The year we won the World Cup and, although a staunch Forest supporter, I couldn’t help admiring players in the England team. I also saw the likes of Pele, Eusabio and Torres, Riva and Rivera of Italy, and Lev Yashin of Russia.
I was in full support of England but I couldn’t take the players to my heart like Forest men. Ball, Hurst, Stiles and the Charltons would never take the place of the Forest players and it was back to the football season. By this time I had got my dad interested in it and he made the mistake of taking me down. It was better now as we didn’t have to catch two buses any more because we went in the car. I had also got a red and white woollen hat as well as the scarf, now I was fully kitted out.
Why is being a goalkeeper much like being a soldier in a war? There are long periods of dull inactivity punctuated by heart stopping moments of action when it seems the fate of the world depends just on you.
Gary Roe’s granddad took him to his first Forest games when he was a nipper. Now he’s hooked and learning more about the game by the day, which could stand him to make a profit…
It was the following season when I got to go down to the City Ground again and by now I was learning about league tables, points and goal averages. My granddad was full of information on football. He used to spot me with my football and give me tips on passing and shooting. He showed me how to head a ball properly and I was thankful for that. Have you ever mis-headed a caseball? If you have then you’ll know how Custer felt.
The eight-year-old Gary Roe has just watched his first Forest match and now he’s hooked. His granddad is taking him to the City Ground once again with the promise of seeing the greatest player of the era in action…
The journey home seemed a long one, we had to catch two buses; how did Granddad know which ones? There were so many at the bus station called Huntingdon Street. I had been here before a time or two with my mam when we went to my other Granddads in Martin Street, St Annes, but there were never this many people about.
The first steps I took to being a Forest fan came in a strange surrounding, Meadow Lane the home of Notts County FC. I was about 7 or 8 years old and getting interested in football, I must have been influenced by my granddad for a start, and he was football mad. He used to play a bit himself and his brothers also played quite a lot. The best of his brothers, Arthur played for Luton town. They used to say one played for Derby County. But this was all before, during and just after the Great War. Our family always referred to the footballers on the Roe side.
By Alex Walker, Friday, October 16, 2009, 1:34 pm
Read more: Forest on Film, History
Nottingham is being swamped by Geordies this weekend and while many are looking forward to a lively atmosphere, some Forest fans still hold a grudge against Newcastle. If you’ve ever wondered why such bitterness exists between the two clubs, this video from 1974 might explain a few things.
Forest were looking set to go into the FA Cup semi-finals with a 3-2 lead at St James Park when home fans invaded the pitch, turning the course of the tie:
I see victory over Peru keeps Argentina’s World Cup hopes alive. They just need a result against Uruguay on Wednesday. The newspaper said that ‘Anything less than Palermo’s ninety third minute winner would probably have seen an end to Maradona’s pioneering style of International management’.
The word pioneering has come to mind this last few days. Forest truly have been a pioneering club. It means the first to do something and is not always a good thing.
I have just sat through the movie based on The Damned Utd by David Peace and I can honestly say the film made Brian look a wimp. Almost like a Yorkshireman I waited until someone lent me a copy before witnessing a deception of the scale of fairies, leprechauns, bigfoot and the moon landing.
By Me Owd Duck, Wednesday, August 5, 2009, 7:32 am
Read more: History, Me Owd Duck
Now then,
This is a story and it’s a very old story. I’ll tell it to you as it was told to me and this might just be the first time it was written down.
It was a very long time ago when football was a different sport entirely. It was played by hard men as the leather ball hurt when it hit you and the shirts had buttons on them. The goalkeeper wore the same colours as the team and was allowed to handle the ball anywhere in his own half. It was a different game then.
By Me Owd Duck, Friday, July 24, 2009, 2:36 pm
Read more: History, Me Owd Duck
Now then,
I imagine it would be like this:
I’ve lost the best friend I ever had. He’s gone. The thing that gets me is that he played such an important role in my life. For a while, it was as if we were almost like a married couple. He made me smile when things looked bleak. He always made me laugh. He balanced me, he kept my feet on the ground and together we achieved so much. We made so many miracles.
By James Ottway (Flagman's Dad), Thursday, June 4, 2009, 10:25 am
Read more: History
Younger readers may not be aware that Forest, like Bradford, also had a stand burn down during a game, but thankfully without loss of life.
The game was against Leeds on August 24, 1968, the time when Forest were in the old First Division, hardly ripping up trees, but playing delightful football, and winning nothing, under the stewardship of Johnny Carey.
The saga comes to an end as the Annesley Reds hope to be celebrating in Munich, thirty years ago tonight…
By now a good contingent from Nottingham would be set for the game after parking up motor bikes, caravettes and even the odd pushbike if Tony Delaney hadn’t sold it for beer money. We entered the ground and I took particular care to fold my ticket stub and save it for posterity. We got our first look at the stadium on a match day. The Olympic Stadium could hold 80,000. We knew it wasn’t going to be full, but the Forest end was pretty near to capacity, a great sight of flags and banners waving, bringing colour to the place apart from the lush green playing surface. To our right were the seats and then I panned around the rest of the ground and the Malmo presence wasn’t anywhere near ours. We made our way down the terracing to a good vantage point, as near middle as was comfortable.
After all the build-up, the big day has arrived for the Annesley Reds. How will they pass the last day in Munich before the European Cup Final? We’ll give you one guess…
Wednesday morning we awoke and planned the day. Teada and Stuart were off to the station to meet Bronc (Roy Lane), his brother and Dad and some others from Annesley, and then we planned to go to the Englishcer Gardens for a leisurely pint before the match. Bronc’s dad Alan was a staunch Forest fan and made the trip with his sons Bronc (our leader on the domestic front) and young Steven who was soon to be a staunch fan like the elders. Mick Haskard and Bob Topliss, who also made the trip, had been supporters from the 1960s and their claim to fame was to be pictured in the crowd during the ‘Gillies Out’ campaign.
Two days’ traveling sees the intrepid Annesley Reds arrive in Munich where they are about to experience some local culture.
I think it was pot luck finding our digs. We parked up and soon found the small hotel; nothing pretty, nothing luxurious, but at a fiver a night, that was for us.
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Aaah…Celtic…UEFA Cup, November 1983.
Younger readers may not be aware that Forest, like Bradford, also had a stand burn down during a game, but thankfully without loss of life.
