NOTTINGHAM FOREST THE 1970's

fences or segregation at the City
Ground and it was common to see
groups of fans charging around
and unsettling regular supporters.
Unlike today, away fans had to
organize themselves quickly into a
group to avoid being picked off or
try and mingle in with home fans.
Even when Derby or
Man Utd visited, there were
no special arrangements and
this made Nottingham a hostile
environment for away supporters.
The club announced that due
to rising prices, there would be
an across the board rise of 1/- on
admission prices (decimalisation
was still being phased in) and also
that the team would be entering
the new Texaco Cup competition,
contested by a variety of mid ranking
English and Scottish teams. Anything to
bring in more revenue.
Pre season results were encouraging,
unbeaten on a short tour of Sweden with
Cormack and Moore immediately among
the goals, before a 1-0 win over Hamburg
back at the City Ground. Peter Cormack
making an immediate impression with
the winner. Alex Ingram after an intensive
training program was given another chance
to show that he could adjust to the demands
of the English game.
The opening day of the season, Saturday
15th August was an absolute scorcher, with
Coventry City providing the opposition. A
strike by Nottingham Bus Corporation was
expected to keep the attendance down, but
many fans formed groups and made their
way on foot and in the end it was a healthy
25,000 that turned up.
Some City fans had arrived early
and attempted to take up a position in the
Trent End, this lead to fighting as they
were removed and chased onto the East
Stand terraces where sporadic skirmishes
continued throughout the afternoon. It was
reported that an ammonia gun was fired
at supporters but this was denied by Club
officials.
On the pitch, things couldn’t have gone
much better, goals from Barry Lyons and
Ian Moore plus a good team performance
all round, meant optimism remained high.
The early fixtures looked kind to the Reds,
the first seven games were all against teams
not expected to challenge for honours.
For years now, Reds supporters
had complained about lack of PR or fan
involvement from the club. So in an attempt
to rectify, this the club announced a new
service where you could write in and request
a record or perhaps a message to be played
out over the tannoy as part of the pre match
entertainment. To this end, Forest engaged
the services of top DJ Laurie Coppersmith
to bring his professional expertise to the
position. Unfortunately he was forced to
apologise a few weeks later when he had to
admit he had forgotten to bring along his
tape recorder cable, so couldn’t present his
normal show.
Just four days after the Coventry game,
the Reds were given a great opportunity to
build on that opening day victory, when they
had another home game against West Brom.
Things looked to be going according to
plan when Forest raced into a 3-1 lead with
only three minutes left, after another great
performance and goals from Rees, Cormack
and Lyons. Unfortunately Rees and Cormack
both received minor knocks but had to stay
on because Chapman had already gone off,
replaced by Richardson.
Albion took full advantage scoring
two late goals to grab a scarcely deserved
point. The Evening Post reported that ‘classy
Cormack inspires Forest’
Sammy Chapman and Liam O’Kane
were now seen as the regular centre
back partnership. Sammy seemed
to have finally won the fans over,
he was often underrated, usually
because of a lack of concentration
or the uncanny ability to find
trouble. He was well regarded by
his team mates, but at a cost as
Henry Newton explains. ‘Sammy
was a good player, hard as nails, but
he lacked pace, though he could
read the game well. The trouble
was that he was always being fined
or suspended. In those days the
club didn’t pay your wages if you
were out suspended, so it was up to
the other players to chip in to cover
them. It was so bad, I had to put
him on my tax form as a claimable
allowance’
The unbeaten start continued
with creditable away draws at Ipswich
and Newcastle before another midlands
derby with Wolves and a 4-1 victory, the
biggest since December against the same
opposition. The newspaper headlines were
predictable, ‘Forest maul the Wolves’ but it
was another dominant performance, even
coming from a goal down after Barron had
been beaten by a long range effort. What was
particularly pleasing that there had already
been six different goalscorers, perhaps the
other players would now share some of
the burden placed on the shoulders of Ian
Moore. Inexplicably though, the goals dried
up, seven league games followed without
anyone hitting the back of the net, although
this run was punctuated by progress in
the League Cup against Huddersfield and
Texaco Cup action against Airdrie.
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Rumours began to circulate that Henry
Newton was unsettled, although the club
denied it. Henry gives his side of the story
‘I was concerned about the direction the
club was going, but in those days as a player,
you were expected to keep quiet and just
get on with your job. I only wanted some
assurances that the club was still ambitious,
my own form was suffering and after getting
close to an England cap, I seemed further
away than ever. I really expected and wanted
to see out my whole career out at Forest, they
were my club, I didn’t want to leave’.
As the teams form declined, fans as
usual were quick to voice their opinions
on what was wrong and who was to blame.
Alex Ingram typically bore the brunt of their
frustration as he was clearly out of his depth
and unable to deal with the physicality of
20 NOTTINGHAM FOREST IN THE 1970s
NOTTINGHAM FOREST IN THE 1970s 21