NOTTINGHAM FOREST THE 1970's

stir the interest of supporters, but it was not
until late summer and the signing of George
Lyall from Preston for a fee of £40,000, that
there was any movement in. George was
well regarded in the game, a real bundle of
energy and Forest hoped he would emulate
the success of Archie Gemmill, whom Derby
had signed from the same team, but he
was to be the only signing and unlikely to
make a big difference on his own. George
remembers the transfer, ’ I didn’t want to
move to be honest, I was settled in Preston
with a new family, but the chairman came
and insisted, he said that the club was
desperate for money and it would be doing
him a favour if I went. When I arrived for
training in Nottingham, they seemed a
decent bunch of lads, but it was noticeable
that the atmosphere was very down and
there were cliques within the dressing room’.
Jim Wilmer had now taken on the role of
chairman and his first task was to inform
the Forest fans that there was another price
increase for admission, coming on the back
of relegation this didn’t go down well, but it
wasn’t the clubs fault, the Football League
had imposed a minimum entrance price of
40p at every club.
The club unveiled their new kit for the
season, the first change in six years. The new
design would be all red, with a collar and
insert V, the badge would be embroidered
directly onto the shirt and not on a patch.
Also at the Leagues AGM there was a
resolution to extend the half time break to
fifteen minutes, but this failed to get the
required number of votes, whilst a change to
the disciplinary system was passed. Under
the new regulations, each various offence
that earnt a booking or sending off would be
given a points value according to its severity
and under a totting up system, once a player
had reached twelve points, it meant an
immediate two game ban.
Nottingham Council announced it
was setting up a task force to investigate
the potential for a super stadium to be built
in Colwick, for use by both senior clubs.
Notts County chairman, Jack Dunnett was
enthusiastic but Forest, who already had a
decent stadium opposed the idea.
As the new seasons fixtures were released,
the reality of the clubs situation sank in,
opening opponents such as Portsmouth,
Oxford, Carlisle and Brighton hardly set the
pulses racing.
Tommy Gemmell had been handed
the captains role after Peter Hindley
declined it and immediately launched into
a ‘we can get promotion’ rallying speech. In
truth his performances hadn’t lived up to
expectations.
The usual opening day sunshine
greeted the teams as Pompey provided the
first chance for fans to gauge the quality
of the league. There was a disappointing
crowd of only 13,000, supporters had clearly
not been impressed by the lack of new
signings. It was a young looking team, Dave
Serella making his debut in place of the still
unfit O’Kane, John Robertson in midfield
alongside George Lyall, Paul Richardson and
Martin O’Neill. Whilst the only goal threat
seemed to come from Duncan McKenzie
as Neil Martin was still out of favour. The
game turned out to be a boring nil nil draw,
Forest quickly running out of ideas, whilst
Norman Piper missed a first half penalty
for Portsmouth. On a more mundane note,
the Football Post broke with tradition and
changed its paper colour from pink to white.
After a second goal less draw at Hull,
Mike Beesley the Reds correspondent,
writing in the Post said the club must ‘Spend
now, it’s urgent. The sooner the Committee,
the management and the players accept
joint responsibility for what happened, the
quicker they might work out how to put it
right’.
The first win of the season came at
home to Oxford in front of the ATV cameras
and less than 10,000 spectators. The sight of
wide open terraces and a barely populated
Trent End providing graphic evidence of
how far the club had fallen. George Lyall
had the honour of scoring the first goal of
the season, quickly followed by a second
from Martin O’Neill in a 2-1 victory. One
side effect of the smaller crowds, was that it
was far easier for fans to collect autographs
as opposition players walked down from the
Bridgford Hotel after their pre match lunch.
When they followed this first victory up four
days later, with a 1-0 win against Brighton
and a rare away victory at Carlisle, you might
have thought that the relegation blues had
been banished, but the season was to rapidly
deteriorate and the second place achieved in
September was to be as good as it got. In
fact the match report for the Brighton game
claimed that the visitors ‘queued up to miss
chances and the pathetic efforts of Forest
were laughable at times’. No sugar coating
from the local press on this occasion.
Aston Villa, newly promoted from the
Third Division, were to at least give a veneer
of the big time when they came to the City
Ground as the opponents in the First round
of the League Cup. A respectable crowd
of over 17,000, including a large brummie
contingent created a decent atmosphere
and they were to go home happy after a 1-0
win. There was trouble in the East Stand,
where the police tried to maintain order by
stretching a rope down the terraces to keep
fighting fans apart.
The team lost their second game in
succession, again by 1-0 to Luton, in what
was a disjointed lacklustre performance
that again had the fans grumbling. Jimmy
McIntosh was singled out for jeers and
would lose his place after failing to build
on some positive performances from the
previous season. This match saw the Trent
End divided into four sections after the
installation of metal railings. It was too late,
supporters had already moved over to the
East Stand terraces where there was nothing
to stop them roaming around.
Martin O’Neill comments on what the
atmosphere was like at the ground during
this period. ‘The criticism of the manager
and the players affected us all, it seemed at
times as if the fans weren’t watching what
was happening on the pitch, but just venting
their anger on everything, things could have
been so much better if they had got behind
us’.
The manager had by now decided to
replace Sammy Chapman with John Cottam,
72 NOTTINGHAM FOREST IN THE 1970s
NOTTINGHAM FOREST IN THE 1970s 73