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Local Rivals and Derbies
While Notts County is the closest professional football club geographically, Forest have remained at least one division higher since the 1994-1995 season and the club's fiercest rivalry is with the sheep shaggers Derby County. The two clubs contest the East Midlands derby, a fixture that has taken on even greater significance since the inception of the Brian Clough trophy in 2007. The atmosphere that surrounds Nottingham and Derby in the week before the local derby has to be experienced as the tension builds up as to who will have local bragging rights and which club will grab the Brian Clough Trophy
Leicester City are Forest's other major rival. A Football League Cup tie in September 2007 took on an extra dimension after Leicester defender Clive Clarke collapsed due to heart failure. After the match was abandoned, Leicester demonstrated sportmanship in the replay and allowed Forest keeper Paul Smith to score at the beginning of the match. This was in acknowledgement that Forest were leading 1-0 when the original tie was abandoned.
During the 2009-2010 season both League games involving Derby and Nottingham Forest were tainted by both sets of players having to be restrained, both clubs recieved hefty fines for failure to control their players. It was a relief for the Police though that the majority of both sets of fans behaved.
It is hard for any player who leaves Derby to become a Forest player yet lately Lee Camp and Robert Earnshaw have proved that their alliances are with the Reds. Some legendary Forest players have arrived at Forest after playing on the wrong side of the A52 including John Mcgovern and Archie Gemmill. Of course the rivalry between Forest and Derby was intensified when Brian Clough became the Reds boss after a spell at Derby bringing Forest too much success for the Sheeps liking. The Derby fans are hoping that Nigel Clough can bring some Clough magic back to Pride Park in this century, whilst the Forest fans hope he learns his trade a little more then returns to the City Ground just like his Father and brings the good old days back home.
The majority of fans understand the rivalry between Forest and Derby and people who would be workmates, drinking buddies or in some cases marital partners can spend the Derby week at constant loggerheads, mostly with good banter, although in recent years there have been cases of real violence involving the local derby matches. Just before the start of the 2009 season a dead sheeps head was thrown through a pub window in Derby reminding everybody that after a spell where the clubs had not met competetively the match would be more than just a football game
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