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 Founded 1865 |
The History of Forest |
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The name of Nottingham Forest had become known worldwide by that time as a real force in the world of football thanks to the extraordinary squad that Brian Clough and Peter Taylor assembled. 
It is a time of real magic that one cannot see happening again, as it was a moment of everything being right at the exact time and history cannot be ignored. Besides Shilton, key players of that era included right back Viv Anderson (the first black player to play for the England national team), midfielder Martin O' Neill, striker Trevor Francis and a trio of Scottish internationals: winger John Robertson, midfielder Archie Gemmill and defender Kenny Burns. 
The club reached the semi-finals of the UEFA Cup in 1983-1984 but were knocked out by Anderlecht in dishonest circumstances in which a Forest goal by Paul Hart was controversially disallowed as well as Anderlecht being awarded a penalty kick which clearly should never have been. It later emerged that in the second leg, the Belgian club had bribed the referee but the referee in question had since died in a car accident and was hence not able to be held accountable. The next significant trophy came in 1989 when they beat Luton Town 3-1 in the League Cup final. For most of the season they had been hopeful of completing a unique domestic treble, but were beaten into third place in the League by Arsenal and Liverpool. The same year they also lost to Liverpool in the replay of the FA Cup semi-final, originally held at Hillsborough, where 96 Liverpool fans were crushed to death on terracing, the match was abandoned after 6 minutes. Liverpool overcame Forest in the replay 2-1 a few weeks later. Although The Red's captured the Full Members Cup with a 4-3 victory over Everton. Clough's side retained the League Cup in 1990 when they beat Oldham Athletic 1-0. 
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There was chance for more success in 1991 when Forest reached their only FA Cup final under Brian Clough and went ahead after scoring an early goal (