NOTTINGHAM FOREST THE 1970's

the newspapers. Cormack, as he would,
denied the accusations, claiming he was
a marked man and vowed to clean up his
image. Unfortunately the signing wasn’t
completed before the transfer deadline
and he could only play if the opposition
agreed.
Cormack was a skillful player,
neither midfielder or forward he certainly
wouldn’t fill the troubled centre forward
position, but his slight frame belied
a very competitive nature and his
peculiar tippy toed way of running
made him further stand out. The
Scottish FA then announced that they
still intended to pursue charges against
him and this resulted in an eight week
ban that meant Peter only made one
appearance for the Reds that season
and also ruled him out of playing for
Scotland in the Home International
Championships.
Peter was introduced to the crowd
before the bank holiday Monday game
against Manchester United which drew
almost 40,000 to the City Ground but
ended in another defeat, 2-1 although
Forest were unlucky to have a couple
of good penalty shouts turned down.
The Thursday edition of the
Evening Post reported that Forest fans
had travelled in numbers to the reserve
fixture at the Baseball Ground. Derby
County and the police were caught out
and extensive damage was caused, leading
the Rams to demand that Forest should
pay the bill for the repairs.
The League season was drawing to a
slow and excruciating end, Peter Cormacks
one and only seasons appearance came at
the Hawthorns where the Reds shipped
another four goals in a heavy defeat, before
a further embarrassing 4-1 home defeat to
Coventry three days later. This game saw
Henry Newton substituted for the only
time in his Forest career, the weight of
carrying the team finally caught up with
him.
The curtain on the campaign couldn’t
come down quickly enough for supporters,
but at least the team finally gave those long
suffering fans something to cheer about,
with a 1-0 victory over Ipswich, played out
before a seasons low crowd of only 10,589
on a Friday evening. Alex Ingram, who
could never be faulted for his work rate
scored the only goal.
The season had finished in total anti
climax, never in danger of relegation,
fifteenth place and 38 points, but things
had been allowed to drift and only four
points from a possible twenty four on
offer to finish the season was no way
to encourage fans to return to the City
Ground and though the average gate had
increased slightly, this was more due to the
fact that the Derby game resulted in a far
higher attendance than a run of the mill
fixture.
There was of course still the County Cup to
sort out, an easy two nil victory over Notts
that saw a belated debut for Eric Hulme,
who had watched from the sidelines as
the more experienced Dave Hollins had
endured a torrid end to the season.
There were also a couple of home and
away friendlies against ADO of the
Hague from Holland, another 4-2 defeat
at home, where worryingly the Reds were
outclassed by the middle ranking Dutch
side, a game that also the last appearance
of John Barnwell as he came on as a
second half substitute. 201 outings with
25 goals doesn’t do true justice to
the impact John had. Gradually
every player from the successful 67
side was being moved on. The final
fixture saw them lose 3-2 to ADO
in the away encounter.
In Nottingham, Raleigh workers
were out on strike and the jobless
figures were the highest since
the end of the war and as for the
football, Forests fortunes were
falling and the team was lacking in
so many areas, the team appeared
to be slipping back, but would the
committee have the nerve to take
action and invest the necessary
money to strengthen or hope for
the best, only time would tell.
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NOTTINGHAM FOREST IN THE 1970s 167