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 Founded 1865 |
The History of Forest |
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Nottingham Forest were founded in 1865 by a group of shinney players as Nottingham Forest Football and Bandy Club, Shinney was an early form of hockey. The first ever captain was Walter Roe Lymbery. The first recorded match was against Notts County on March 22 1866. In 1874 the Forest player Sam Widdowson was the first player to introduce shinguards to the game which he originally wore on the outside of his socks for which he was firstly mocked for but then copied. In 1879 Forest entered the FA Cup for the first time losing 1-2 in the semi-final to Old Etonians at the Kennington Oval. In 1880 E. Luntley became Forests first international player representing England. Forest were founder members of the Football Alliance in 1888, winning the competition in 1892. They then were allowed entry to the Football League in 1890. Forest played in the first ever match to use goal nets.
Nottingham Forest have worn red since the club's foundation. At the meeting in the Clinton Arms which established Nottingham Forest as a football club, the committee also passed a resolution that the teams colours should be 'garibaldi red'. This decision was made in honour of Giuseppe Garibaldi, the Italian patriot who was the leader of the redshirts party. At this time, clubs identified themselves more by their headgear than their shirts and a dozen red caps with tassels were duly purchased, making Forest the first club to 'officially' wear red, a colour that has since been adopted by a significant number of others. Forest are the reason behind Arsenal's choice of red, having donated a full set of red kits following Arsenal's foundation in 1886. Forest originally played at the Forest recreation ground where they remained until 1879 when they relocated to the Meadows. Following this move, Forest began playing their more important matches at Trent Bridge due to its larger capacity. By 1880, all of Forest's matches were taking place at Trent Bridge but the club secured a site of its own in Lenton in 1882, naming it Parkside. The inadequate facilities necessitated the building of an improved ground in the next field in 1885 at a cost of £500. In 1884 Forest were the first ever club to adopt a formation of 2 full backs, 3 half backs and 5 forwards a formation attributed to Sam Widdowson which became the standard for clubs all over the world until the 1960's. In 1886 two ex Forest players were presented with a set of kit to assist them with the founding of Woolwich Arsenal football club, this being the reason why Arsenal still play in red and white to this day. The gift was repaid by Arsenal in 1965 on the night of Forest's centenary celebration match. In 1890, Forest relocated once more, this time with the intention of drawing larger crowds in a location closer to the centre of Nottingham. The Town Ground, on the banks of the River Trent, was built in 1890 at a cost of £1,000 ,this is now the Nottingham City Transport repair works today. Growing success led to a final move across the Trent to the current City Ground site in 1898. Since that date the ground has undergone extensive redevelopment resulting in the 30,602-seater Euro 96 venue we know today. The City Ground is the tenth largest football stdium outside the Premier League, behind Newcastle United, Middlesbrough, Sheffield United, Leicester City, Leeds United, Southampton, Coventry City, Derby County and Sheffield Wednesday. |
