Forest Chronicles

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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