There are certain dates that stick in a person’s mind whether it is for family reasons or where they were when major world events happened such as the Shooting of JFK, Man walking on the Moon, Princess Diana’s Car Crash and 9/11 but for me one of the date of Saturday 15 March 1980 is one that is permanently engraved on my brain.

This was the day of the 1980 League Cup Final where holders Nottingham Forest were hoping to make history by winning the trophy for a third successive year. To achieve this feat they needed to beat fellow Division One team Wolverhampton Wanderers. The Black Country side who were managed by former Forest forward John Barnwell had made history earlier in the season when firstly selling midfielder Steve Daley to Manchester City for £1.4 million which became the record transfer replacing the Trevor Francis move to Forest, then a few days later used these funds to sign Scottish striker Andy Gray from local rivals Aston Villa for a new record £1.5 million to provide a new partner up front for their legendary striker John Richards.

Forest went in the game as hot favourites as reigning European Champions and in the middle of the successful defence of the trophy, having also beaten Liverpool in the semi-final of the League Cup and never having lost at Wembley in the clubs history all of the experts were expecting the trophy to return Trentside after the game.

To my Grandad’s disappointment I had decided to become a Nottingham Forest supporter as a youngster instead of his desire for me to follow his beloved Wolves, at the time of the final he was working as a caretaker at a local Police Station at the time he managed to obtain some tickets (albeit in the Wolves end) for me and my Mom and Dad as I could witness Wembley for the first time.

Even though Forest had to make a couple of changes to their usual team at the time as Stan Bowles was cup tied and Larry Lloyd was suspended the replacements Ian Bowyer and David Needham had proved more that able deputies in the past so nothing could curb my excitement as I headed down to Wembley for the first time to hopefully see Forest record a victory.

Upon arrival at Wembley we managed to exchange the tickets with someone who had Forest tickets and wanted to move to the Wolves end so I was hopefully going to enjoy all the glory from the Wembley terraces at the Forest end.

Trainer Jimmy Gordon lead the team out as a thankyou by Clough and Taylor for his valued loyalty after Brian Clough who had led the team out in 1978 and Peter Taylor in 1979.

Forest started the game very well but could not find any way past Wolves keeper Paul Bradshaw who seemed to be having one of them days where nothing would pass him and seemed to be using as many parts of the body to stop the ball as he could find. At one stage he managed to stop a goal bound shot by sitting on the ball. After a goal-less first half where Forest had been the better team the second half saw Wolves show more attacking intent with them having a goal disallowed after a scramble following a corner.

Then on 67 minutes the incident that has given me recurring nightmares and will probably haunt me forever happened. A long ball up field from Peter Daniel seemed to be heading straight to Forest keeper Peter Shilton but Shilton’s call had not been heard and stand in defender Dave Needham went for the ball as well. Both Forest players collided with each other giving Wolves striker Andy Gray the easiest of opportunities to put the ball in the empty net. In spite of Forest desperately trying to get a goal back they could find no way through the Wolves defence. So when the referee blew for full time the trophy instead of heading back to Nottingham was heading to Wolverhampton.

As an 8 year old I found this very hard to take and there were a few tears at the end of the game. At least when I got home I thought it couldn’t get any worse but how wrong I was. The amount of stick I got in the school playground on Monday morning still grinds me up inside today and is almost certainly where my dislike for Wolverhampton Wanderers started.

Even though the following Wednesday Forest achieved one of their greatest ever victories when they won 3-1 in Dynamo Berlin the damage had been done. Every time I hear Andy Gray or any mention of Wolverhampton Wanderers my bad memories keep flooding back of 15 March 1980.

Saturday 15 March 1980

LEAGUE CUP FINAL (at Wembley Stadium)

NOTTINGHAM FOREST (0) 0 v WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS (0) 1

0-1       67 mins       Andy Gray (Wolves)

NFFC

Peter Shilton, Viv Anderson, Frank Gray, John McGovern, David Needham, Kenny Burns, Martin O’Neill, Ian Bowyer, Garry Birtles, Trevor Francis, John Robertson

Sub not used : John O’Hare

WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS

Paul Bradshaw, Geoff Palmer, Derek Parkin, Peter Daniel, Emlyn Hughes, George Berry, Kenny Hibbitt, Willie Carr, Andy Gray, John Richards, Mel Eves

Sub not used : Colin Brazier

Referee :           D.Richardson

Attendance :      96,527