NOTTINGHAM FOREST THE 1970's

AGAINST
THE ODDS!
Goodbye Peter!
that season, I thought that if I could just
get back for the last few games, but I was
nowhere near. I never got near an England
squad after that’
Matt Gillies had now completed
more than twelve months in the job. He
had done what was asked of him, kept
the club up, steadied the team and even
balanced the books, but in truth the fans
had never taken to him. It didn’t help that
he was largely thought of as a Leicester
man, both as player and manager and also
he presented an old fashioned image out
of step with present day football. Henry
Newtons opinion was that ‘He should
never have been appointed, he wasn’t in
the best of health and it looked as if he had
lost his spark, his passion for the game. I
am not saying that he was a bad person
or manager just that he was the wrong
manager at the wrong club’.
In Gillies defence he could point
to the fact that Forest were third bottom
when he took over and they were now
eleventh place and over the two seasons
had amassed 47 points from 46 games. He
also promised new signings were on the
way.
After the injury to Ian Moore, the season
began to fizzle out. Without Ians attacking
flair, the team just wasn’t the same, they
relied on him totally. Also a defence that
up until then had looked solid, suddenly
shipped five goals at Burnley and the bad
luck continued when Alan Hill received
the arm injury that was to finish his
career against Everton, a rough match
that was also to see Alex Ingram sport a
bloodstained bandage for much of the
second half after a heavy clash of heads.
The injury to Hill forced the Reds to use
the loan market for the first time, bringing
in Dave Hollins from Mansfield reserves
to cover.
The gentlemanly side of Matt Gillies
was shown in the next game against
Chelsea. The volatile centre forward Peter
Osgood had kicked the ball away causing
the referee to caution him. Gillies attended
a disciplinary hearing the next week to
speak on the players behalf and helped
Osgood get off with only a warning.
The letter pages of the Football Post
continued to provide controversy and
amusement.
AW Dicken (housemaster) from West
Bridgford felt compelled to write, ‘Forest
fans should take a look at themselves.
homosexuality, violence and a fanatical
interest in sport preceded the fall of the
Roman Empire, the same ingredients can
be seen today, get some perspective’
March the 14th saw the long
awaited rematch with Derby. Forest were
weakened by the absence of Alan Hill and
Ian Moore. Terry Hennessey was making
a quick return to the City Ground along
with other ex Reds Frank Wignall and
Alan Hinton for the Rams.
A massive crowd of 42,000 were in
attendance and despite the best efforts
of the police, there were outbreaks of
violence on the terraces .On the pitch,
Derby were to get their revenge, although
the match was in the balance up until
the 87th minute when the Rams third
goal clinched a 3-1 victory. Liam O’Kane
hadn’t enjoyed the best of starts scoring a
fifth minute own goal to send the visitors
8 NOTTINGHAM FOREST IN THE 1970s
NOTTINGHAM FOREST IN THE 1970s 9