My first season of attending Forest games was 1979/80 initially watching the Mighty Reds (and they were mighty then) at local West Midlands venues such as the Hawthorns and Villa Park but April 19^th 1980 saw my first visit to the City Ground. Not being fully aware of local rivalry my Mom and Dad decided to mark my City Ground debut with a game against Derby County.

Whilst the season would end with the glory with the European Cup success against Madrid the domestic season was a bit frustrating. Starting off the season well they led the league in October but a poor run of form in November and December where they lost 5 out of 6 games saw them slip nearer to mid table than the top.

Meanwhile Derby arrived at the City Ground in desperate trouble after being in trouble all season with games rapidly running out defeat would almost confirm relegation.

Standing on the old Bridgford End I stood there enjoying my first taste of football in Nottingham. Being young (yes even I was young) I cannot remember a great deal about the game as I was still in awe of seeing my heroes of the time such as Peter Shilton, Trevor Francis and John Robertson except in the first half Forest would have a free kick just outside the penalty area and up stepped up the left back whose shot put Forest 1-0 up. The left back that day was Scottish international Frank Gray. The idea of a left back taking free kicks might catch on a few years later.

It did not confirm relegation but even though they won their next game it was in avail as other results went against them and meant they were relegated (shame). So all in all my first visit to the City Ground could not have gone better a win over Derby with as good as confirmed relegation and a few weeks later the European Cup was retained. I thought it would be like that every season.

Saturday 19 April 1980

LEAGUE DIVISION ONE

NOTTINGHAM FOREST (1) 1 v DERBY COUNTY (0) 0

1-0          Frank Gray (NFFC)

NFFC

Peter Shilton, Viv Anderson, Frank Gray, John McGovern, Larry Lloyd, Dave Needham, Martin O’Neill, Stan Bowles, Garry Birtles, Trevor Francis, John Robertson

sub not used : Ian Bowyer

DERBY

David McKellar, David Langan, Steve Buckley, Aidan McCaffery, Roy McFarland, Keith Osgood, Steve Powell, Jonathan Clark, Alan Biley, David Swindlehurst, Kevin Wilson (Paul Emson)

Attendance :       32,366

Referee :               Pat Partridge (Cockfield, Co.Durham)

The 2002/03 season for Forest was considered a successful one even though it did not have the happy ending desired. The success came as fairly unexpected but the double fact of the ITV Digital fiasco that hurt a lot of other divisional rivals and also the progress made by a number of highly skilled potential youth team players saw Forest make a strong attempt to return riches of the Premiership.

Throughout the season there were a number of memorable matches none more so that a visit to Portman Road. It was a massively important game as Ipswich were one position outside the play offs only one point out of the top six and Forest who had been in the top 6 most of the season were only four points ahead of their hosts.

Things did not start well for Forest as they suffered an early setback when Tommy Miller gave the home side an early lead after 14 minutes. This was then followed with losing key player Riccy Scimeca through injury who was replaced by another youth product John Thompson. Then on 26 minutes all hell broke out as Andy Reid was harshly adjudged to have fouled Pablo Counago and the referee awarded a penalty. Justice seemed to be done when Darren Ward saved Miller’s shot however to Forest’s dismay the linesman said that Ward had moved too early and Miller made no mistake from the second chance to double Ipswich’s lead.

Usually 2-0 down away from home would not be the greatest position to be in but all the controversy over the penalty incident seemed to galvanize Forest as only 8 minutes later they had turned a two goal deficit into a 3-2 lead.

Firstly substitute John Thompson shot home from just outside the penalty area followed by a couple of slices of luck. Firstly a mishit Marlon Harewood shot fooled the Ipswich defence to make it 2-2, then after good work from Harewood a shot from Thompson from deflected into his own goal by Richard Naylor. That was the end of the scoring for the first half but not the drama as deep into six minutes injury time Pablo Counago and Jon-Olav Hjelde squared up to each other and as both had already been booked were lucky to stay on the pitch.

Ipswich scored first in the second half when Marcus Bent converted after being sent clean through by current Ipswich manager Jim Magilton to make the scoreline 3-3. After this both teams pressed forward in search of an all important winner and fortunately for Forest it went their way when Marlon Harewood headed home from an Andy Reid free kick after former Ipswich hero David Johnson had been fouled. Ipswich pressed forward after another equaliser but Forest managed to hold out with Michael Dawson having another immense game in defence.

Saturday 05 April 2003

NATIONWIDE LEAGUE DIVISION ONE

IPSWICH TOWN (2) 3 v NOTTINGHAM FOREST (3) 4

1-0          14 mins         Tommy Miller (Ipswich)

2-0          26 mins         Tommy Miller – penalty (Ipswich)

2-1          27 mins         John Thompson (NFFC)

2-2          29 mins         Marlon Harewood (NFFC)

2-3          34 mins         Richard Naylor own goal (NFFC)

3-3          59 mins         Marcus Bent (Ipswich)

3-4          75 mins         Marlon Harewood (NFFC)

NFFC

Darren Ward; Mathieu Louis-Jean, Michael Dawson, Jon-Olav Hjelde, Jim Brennan; Ricardo Scimeca (John Thompson), Gareth Williams, Andy Reid; Darren Huckerby, David Johnson (Jack Lester), Marlon Harewood

subs not used : Des Walker, Eoin Jess, Barry Roche

Booked : Hjelde 11 mins, Harewood 25, Huckerby 27, Dawson 66

IPSWICH

Andy Marshall; Fabian Wilnis (Alun Armstrong), Chris Makin, Richard Naylor, Matt Richards (Martijn Reuser); Jermaine Wright, Matt Holland, Jim Magilton; Tommy Miller, Marcus Bent, Pablo Counago

subs not used : Nabil Abidallah, Ian Westlake, James Pullen

Booked : Counago 24 mins

Referee :                       H.M.Webb (South Yorkshire)

Attendance :               29,503