Peterborough United - David Pleat - Nottingham Forest Webjam

David Pleat might not be the most popular person amongst Nottingham Forest fans due to his membership on the “Acquisitions Committee” but what is not as well known is that he played for the club in the past as well.

As a player he was more than a promising winger and as a schoolboy and youth represented England. Born in Nottingham he joined his local team Nottingham Forest signing professional forms in 1962. He made a memorable debut as a 17 year old in February 1962 scoring the winner against Cardiff.but his only other appearances that season were at the end of the season in the County Cup.

Pleat would not play again for Forest in the league until 1963 when he had a run of 5 games in the side but that would be the total of his Forest as by the end of the season the club had decided he was not going to reach the heights of his youth career and Pleat left the City Ground for Luton Town.

Pleat would finally get the opportunity to play regular first team football but this would be brought to a halt when he broke his leg during his first season. With hindsight he came back too quickly from his injury causing him back problems. This caused him to lose some of his natural speed which was important in his role of winger. He would however play 70 games for the Hatters in three seasons before moving to Shrewsbury. He would only have one season at the club before going on the move again this time to Exeter City. He would become a regular at Exeter in his two seasons at the club before moving to Peterborough United.

He would play one season at Peterborough and it would be his final season as a league player when at the age of 26 he took his first coaching role as player/manager at non-league Nuneaton Borough. He would have a year at Nuneaton before rejoining his former club Luton Town as part of their coaching team.

By December 1978 Pleat had been promoted to chief coach and when manager Harry Haslam moved to Sheffield United Pleat became manager. After surviving a relegation scrap in his first season he began improving the clubs fortunes and in 1981/82 he led the club to the Second Division title and promotion to the First Division.

It would be a hard first season with the club heading into the final game of the season deep in relegation trouble as they sat in one of the relegation places. But their destiny was in their own hands as they had a winner takes all game at Manchester City where the loser would be relegated. With a draw good enough for Manchester City things looked in their favour when it was still 0-0 late in the game when a late Raddy Antic goal saw Luton survive. The end of the game saw Pleat famously run across the Maine Road pitch in celebration.

After this he established Luton as a First Division club with a number of players going on to gain international honours such as Ricky Hill, Brian Stein, Paul Walsh and Mick Harford. During this time he came close to leading the club to cup success but they lost in the F,A,Cup semi-final to Everton in 1985 and to Everton again in the 1985/86 League Cup Quarter Finals.

At the end of the 1985/86 season Pleat was offered the managers job at Tottenham and he moved to White Hart Lane. Blessed with the talents of Glenn Hoddle, Chris Waddle, Osvaldo Ardiles, Richard Gough, Ray Clemence and Clive Allen he led Tottenham to the F.A.Cup Final in 1987 but they lost for the first time in a F.A.Cup Final in their history in an exciting game against Coventry City.

In spite of losing Hoddle and Gough in the summer Tottenham were now expected to be challengers in the forthcoming season and this potential helped Plear to persuade Johnny Metgod and Chris Fairclough to leave Nottingham Forest to replace the departed stars. However in October 1987 Pleat was forced to resign as manager after disclosures about his personal life appeared in the newspapers.

After a couple of months out of work he joined Second Division Leicester City. After a slow start an encouraging end to the season gave the club hope of better times ahead for the following season but these hopes turned to nothing and when the club found itself in relegation trouble in January 1991 he was sacked.

In the Summer of 1991 Pleat returned to familiar surroundings as he rejoined Luton Town in the hope to capture former glories. But he found a club a shadow of its former self who were now struggling financially to survive in the First Division. He soon lost Lars Elstrup, Tim Breacker, Iain Dowie and also young star Kingsley Black (to Forest) and in spite of former heroes Mick Harford and Brian Stein returning the club were relegated.

Luton would remain a selling club and would continue to struggle in the league though a F.A.Cup run in the 1993/94 F.A.Cup where they reached the Semi-Finals at Wembley gave hope that brighter times lay ahead. Then in the following season the club at one point sat in 5^th position before the decision to sell star striker John Hartson put paid to any promotion hopes and the season tailed away and they ended up in 16^th place.

At the end of the season Pleat returned to the top division after being named to replace Trevor Francis at Sheffield Wednesday. He would have a mixed spell at Wednesday with good periods such as August 1996 where he won Manager of the Month with other less successful periods. When in November 1997 the club found itself struggling Pleat was sacked.

In 1998 he returned to Tottenham Hotspur as Director of Football and would fill the role of caretaker manager in three different spells following the sackings of Christian Gross, George Graham and Glenn Hoddle. The latter spell saw him in charge for most of the season after Hoddle departed in September 2003.

He left the club at the end of the 2003/04 season and concentrated on his media work where he had become one of ITV’s main summarizers as well as a number of newspaper articles.

In 2006, being a close friend of Nottingham Forest chairman Nigel Doughty his career had gone full circle as he rejoined his home town club where his career had began all those years ago. After advising the chairman on a number of football issues he took the role of Foorball Consultant which included membership on the “Acquisitions Panel” to advise on potential transfers.

ITV dropped Pleat in the summer of 2009 and he his encyclopaedic knowledge of the game can now be heard on 5Live commentaries.

Perhaps he will be more remembered for the lows in his career such as his personal problems at Tottenham and being on the Acquistions Committee at Forest but many have forgotten the success he created at Luton and the exciting team he began to create in his first spell at Tottenham.

CAREER STATS

PLAYING CAREER

NOTTINGHAM FOREST 1961/62 to 1963/64 6 (1)

Luton Town 1964/65 to 1966/67 70 (9)

Shrewsbury Town 1967/68 12 (1)

Exeter City 1968/69 to 1969/70 68 (14)

Peterborough United 1970/71 28 (2)

NFFC SEASON BY SEASON

1961/62 League 1 (1)

County Cup 2 (0)

TOTAL 3 (1)

1963/64 League 5 (0)

TOTAL League 6 (1)

County Cup 2 (0)

TOTAL 8 (1)

MANAGERIAL CAREER

Nuneaton Borough 1971/72

Luton Town 25/01/1978 to 16/05/1986

Tottenham Hotspur 16/05/1986 to 23/10/1987

Leicester City 24/12/1987 to 29/01/1991

Luton Town 06/06/1991 to 14/06/1995

Sheffield Wednesday 14/06/1995 to 03/11/1997

Tottenham Hotspur 07/09/1998 to 01/10/1998 (Caretaker)

Tottenham Hotspur 16/03/2001 to 02/04/2001 (Caretaker)

Tottenham Hotspur 21/09/2003 to 03/06/2004 (Caretaker)

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