Founded 1865

Billy Davies

Billy Davies came to the City Ground in January 2009 as Colin Calderwood's side were struggling in the 2008-2009 season of the Championship and looking real relegation material, it had become a universal feeling all over the club that a change was needed. When the appointment of Davies became known there were mixed feelings among the fans as Billy had got Derby County promotion to the Premier League two tears previously, although the last Derby manager to take over at the City Ground was Cloughie which the older fans make sure to remind the young.

But as was to be expected Billy found it hard to be accepted by the more judgemental of the City Ground faithful. He watched the side that beat Manchester City in the FA Cup from the stands and must have been rubbing his hands together at the beautiful Forest were playing under the temporary management of John Pemberton as they sweeped aside the Premier League team 0-3 at the Eastlands Stadium.

Forest were hovering just outside the bottom three when Davies took the first game and almost instantly the change to the Reds was miracoulous, the way the team expressed theirselves was full of creativity and looked full of attacking intent, despite a heavy 5-0 defeat at Burnley and a 1-3 City Ground loss to Derby County. The tone that Davies portrayed during post match interviews was one of how young the side was and that they were not ready to be promoted to the Premier League, but that didn't stop the fans getting carried away, as by the end of the 2008-2009 season Forest had gone undefeated in their last 7 league games. All the Forest fans wanted was the next season to arrive so they could continue where they had left off and that's what exactly happened.

It was clear from the start of the 2009-2010 campaign that something special was happening when the arrival of Raddy Majewski and Paul Mckenna added even more skill to the Forest midfield and the Reds went up and down the country sweeping nearly all aside. The main concern Davies faced was with the transfer acquisition committee who failed to bring any players in during the January transfer window despite Billy giving a list of wanted talent. It was bad luck for Forest that in that particular season the two automatic promoted teams Newcastle United and West Bromich Albion were both just down from the Premier League and the bad luck continued into the play offs when Blackpool played Forest off the park over two legs to progress to the final against Cardiff City where they found promotion to the highest league in England.