Forest's Promotion Season 1976 -77 Quiz

Answer: Peter Taylor from Brighton & Hove Albion

Peter Taylor was recruited to renew their management partnership. They were last together in 1974 at Brighton & Hove Albion. When Clough moved on to his ill-fated 44 day stay as Leeds manager Taylor remained with the Sussex team. He built the foundations of a side that Alan Mullery eventually led into the top division. Peter Taylor stayed at Forest for six years and was a overwhelming influence on their success during this time. Duncan Mckenzie signed for Anderlecht in July 1976.

He has commented since that if this transfer had not occured he would almost certainly have rejoined his old club Forest. John McGovern and John O'Hare were already at the club; they had signed on 15th February 1975. John McGovern eventually captained the side in two European Cup victories and much more.

Answer: Steve Daley (Wolves)

Steve Daley was unable to get out of the way of Carr's clearance and an own goal was the result. Strangely, Forest bookended their home goals with a similar effort in the last game of the season.
In 1979 Steve Daley was sold on by Wolves to Manchester City. His time at City was generally regarded as a failure. Unfortunately an Observer newspaper article in 2001 labelled the transfer "The biggest waste of money in football history".
Terry Curran missed a penalty awarded to Forest during this match and they were soundly defeated. Wolves went on to win the league this season.

Answer: John Robertson

John Robertson took over as penalty taker and showed the accuracy and nerve for task. He converted a high percentage of penalties, some of the very pressured.
This game saw the debut of Peter Withe, a centre forward signed from Birmingham City a few days before. He scored a goal and rapidly became an integral part of the team.

Answer: Sheffield United

Forest's previous two home league games had both brought wins; 4-3 against Hereford United and then 5-1 versus Carlisle United. Prior to this match Brian Clough intimated to the media that, as they'd scored four and five in the previous games, it would be nice to keep the sequence going with six goals!
Viv Anderson was one of the goalscorers, his first for the club.

Answer: Forest had a player sent off.

Forest didn't have a player sent off all season.
This was the tricky trees first away win at the seventh attempt. Their good home form was ensuring they stayed in the promotion race. The attendance of 5,921 was lowest by far during the season, the next nearest being 7,503 when visiting Hereford United.
Ealier in the campaign Tony Woodcock had been loaned out to Doncaster Rovers and was close to signing for them on a permanent basis. On his return he was put straight into the first team and began developing an excellent striking partnership with Peter Withe.

Answer: Anglo-Scottish Cup

The Anglo-Scottish Cup- the first leg at Orient was drawn 1-1, with a penalty by John Robertson. The home leg, two days later, led to a 4-0 win; the goalscorers being Sammy Chapman, Ian Bowyer and Colin Barrett with two.
This cup evolved from the defunct Texaco Cup and, as the title might suggest, involved English and Scottish clubs. The competition only lasted for six years and was usually won by English club. St Mirren bucking that trend in the 1979-80 season.
Despite the minor nature of this trophy Brian Clough regarded this a meaningful achievement. He considered it got the team into the habit of winning trophies. He also took the view that in any competion "they were in it to win it".
Forest won both the Simod Cup and the Zenith Data Systems Cup in future years. They were in essence the same competition, but with different sponsors. And, despite being a lesser competition, both finals were played at Wembley.

Answer: Sammy Chapman

Robert "Sammy" Chapman made his Forest debut in 1964 aged 17 years and 5 months, one of the club's youngest ever players. Originally a midfielder he developed into to a central defender. He was very much the tough defender of that era, the type that home supporters loved and opposition fans hated.

At the end of the season he was released having made a total of 422 senior appearances. He moved on to near neighbours Notts County. The Forest progress in the cup ended in the next round, losing to the holders Southampton.

Answer: John Aston

John Aston had been in the Manchester United European Cup winning team of 1968.
The goal he scored for Luton even drew applause from the home fans. My descriptive powers can't really do it justice but he received the ball on the left wing, dribbled past three or four opponents then accurately side-footed the ball into the far corner of the goal from the wide edge of the penalty box. There was no television coverage of the match, so the moment came and went.
This was Forest's first home defeat since the opening home game of the season.
Jimmy Johnstone was in the Sheffield United squad this year, George Best was playing for Fulham. Bobby Murdoch had retired from football the previous summer.

Answer: Peter Osgood

It transpired there was an emnity dating back to when Lloyd was a Liverpool player and Osgood was at Chelsea. Lloyd felt that Osgood was always trying to injure him in matches. Osgood had also been runnings rings round Larry this particular evening; using the cover of the fog to even up what he considered an old score. Shortly after this the match was abandoned. One person in the ground who hadn`t missed the incident was Brian Clough. The manager fined Lloyd a week's wages and warned him against any repetition.
The City Ground is right beside the River Trent . It was immediately noticeable on leaving the stadium that the fog was confined to the ground itself and the section of river adjacent to ground. Everywhere outside was clear. Being an evening match floodlighting was used. It seemed like the moist atmosphere combined with the heat of the lighting had created a localised fog.
This proved to immensely fortunate as Forest won the re-arranged match, after it seemed very likely they would lose the original macth that night. Especially as they eventually won promotion by a single point.

Answer: Derby County

Clough and Taylor had been in charge of Derby County from 1967-1973. They had taken the club to the league championship in the 1971-72 season. Disputes with chairman Sam Longson in 1973 led to them resigning. Their replacement, Dave MacKay, had been in charge of Forest at the time of his recruitment.

Despite leading them to the First Division title in 1974-75 he was sacked early on in the 1976-77 season. His replacement, Colin Murphy, was viewed as a stop-gap appointment. At the time of their eventual rejection of a return to Derby it was assumed that Peter Taylor was the more unwilling to go back.

In later years it transpired Taylor was the more keen to move. Brian Clough backed off, seemingly having doubts concerning working with Sam Longson, who was still a director, and club secretary Stuart Webb.

Answer: Tony Woodcock

At the time of voting Woodcock had played 17 of 29 league games. In these he had scored 6 goals. The vote reflected the impact he had made since his first game of the season in November.
All the four players mentioned went on to play for their respective countries.

Answer: Jon Moore

Millwall full-back Jon Moore scored the winning goal. He attempted to head a John Robertson cross for a corner, only to send it into his own net. Thus Forest's first and last home goals of this term were both scored by opposition players.
This left Nottingham Forest behind both Wolves and Chelsea with a final total of 52 points. Although both Notts County and Blackpool could equal this points tally, both had inferior goal differences. Notts County lost both of their remaining matches. Blackpool took five points from three matches and ended on 51 points.
Bolton Wanderes were the biggest threat to promotion, needing five points from three games to go above Forest. After beating Cardiff 2-1 they lost 1-0 against Wolves. Their last game was drawn and they finished a point behind Forest.

Answer: Peter Withe

Peter Withe topscored, despite signing partway into the season. He joined Aston Villa from Newcastle United. He scored the only goal of Villa's 1-0 victory against Bayern Munich in the 1982 European Cup Final. During his time at Villa he won eleven caps for England.
Withe played his best football when at Villa. Brian Clough commented at the time "I was right to sell him, where I went wrong was not buying him back!"

Answer: Frank Clark

In 1975 Frank Clark was released on a free transfer by Newcastle. With little interest being shown in him he was due to join Doncaster Rovers, a Fourth Division team. Brian Clough was unaware of his availability until tipped off by Doug Weatherall, a North-East of England sports journalist. The Forest manager quickly pounced and signed the 31 year old left back.
Clark eventually retired from playing in 1979 at the age of 35. He played 117 games for Forest, the last being Forest's 1-0 defeat of Malmo in the 1979 European Cup Final.
He did return to manage the club in the years 1993-96. He also had a short period as chairman, from October 2011 till the following close season.
John Robertson only missed one match that season. Forest was the first football club for all three players listed as alternatives.

Answer: Kenny Burns

There was no doubting the ability of this player but, while at Birmingham, Kenny often used to be in the midst of any flare-ups during matches, sometimes sprinting half the pitch to get involved. Clough and Taylor saw this as a misdirected willingness to 'battle for the team'. Something of a positive that they could channel in more constructive avenues.
Before moving in to sign him, Taylor detailed scout Maurice Edwards to trail him at Perry Bar dog track and a pub. He reported back that, contrary to his fictional reputation, Burns gambled little and drank sparingly. Although he was considered more of a centre-forward at Birmingham City he was immediately given the role of centre-half, alongside Larry Lloyd. A pairing which endured for three and half seasons.
All the other players listed signed for Forest after the commencement of the 1977-78 season.