TRAILBLAZERS: Chapter Four – A Quest for Silver
Owing to their stylish football and their role in developing and enhancing the game across the country, the Foresters swiftly earned a reputation as an influential and respected football club. What they lacked, however, was the ability to test themselves in actual competition and further push their credentials. It would take many years for Forest to gain an opportunity to pursue silverware, but the quest for cup glory would offer new avenues for the Garibaldi Reds to further lead the way.
It was on 20 July 1871 that the secretary of the Football Association, Charles Alcock, proposed the formation of a new association cup competition. In the minutes from the meeting held at The Sportsman newspaper offices in London it was noted: ‘It is desirable that a Challenge Cup should be established in connection with the association for which all clubs belonging to the association should be invited to compete.’
Fifteen clubs entered the maiden competition out of a total of 50 association members but only twelve eventually featured. Wanderers triumphed over Royal Engineers 1-0 in the final played at the Kennington Oval. Those dozen clubs didn’t feature Nottingham Forest; the competition was initially dominated by London and southern teams. It was not until the 1878/79 season that the Reds made their maiden appearance, a tie against Notts County already addressed in the previous chapters. Following the victory over Notts, Forest overcame Sheffield and Old Harrovians both by the same 2-0 scoreline. Forest made history against Old Harrovians by becoming the first of the ‘provincial’ sides to play a tie in London. It was an impressive first showing and the success of the Reds, along with a band of other Midlands and Northern clubs, began to break the southern stranglehold on the cup.
Oxford University were the opponents, again at the Oval, in the quarter-final. This game is noteworthy as being the very first to utilise dedicated trains to carry football fans to a match, in this case Forest supporters bound for London. An advert in the Nottinghamshire Guardian promoted a ‘Day Trip to London on Shrove Tuesday’ with stops at Ilkeston, Kimberley, and Basford before departing from Nottingham at 8:45am. A return service, it was stated, would leave Kings Cross at midnight. It was a memorable occasion for the Forest supporters who did make their way down to the capital as their team triumphed 2-1 to reach the last four.
It was possible that Forest would progress directly to the final as only three teams featured in the semi-final line up due to a withdrawal. It was, however, Clapham Rovers that had the good fortune of receiving a bye and Forest made a further journey to the Oval to compete for a place in the final against four-time finalists Old Etonians. Sadly, Forest succumbed to a 2-1 defeat against the eventual cup winners. It was a disappointing end, but Forest had written their place in history – no team since the very first tournament had progressed as far as the semi-final on their very first appearance. In doing so they had been able to ‘open up the name of Midlands football to the Old Boy dominant FA Cup.’
On their second appearance a year on, Forest once again began against Notts County in the opening round. This was the start of a rampant march to the quarter-final with a 4-0 victory followed by successive 6-0 demolitions of Turton (away) and Blackburn Rovers (home). Sam Widdowson scored a brace in each of the three games, demonstrating his worth to not only various technical advancements in the game but also Forest’s cup ambitions. In the last eight Forest featured in what must remain one of the most controversial FA Cup ties in history against Sheffield at Trent Bridge. Forest trailed 2-1 as the game entered the final throes of the match. Widdowson, as described in the Sheffield Daily Telegraph report, began a run that was ‘the most brilliant one ever seen on the Trent Bridge ground,’ and fired into the Sheffield net to claim an equaliser. The same article added that ‘the cheering which followed were long continued.’
Where the scores were level, the rules had previously called for a replay but a recent amendment via the Football Association’s Rule 14 allowed for an additional period of extra time to be played. This match proved to be a first meaningful test for it. Forest requested the additional period but the Sheffield players, perhaps frustrated by the late equaliser or maybe ignorant of the rule change, left the ground refusing to play on. Undeterred, Sam Widdowson continued without opposition and scored into an empty net. In Forest’s view the tie had been won in accordance with the rule book.
The referee that day was Charles Alcock who had first proposed the formation of the cup in 1871. It was reported in certain newspapers that Alcock had left the ground at the same time as Sheffield; the Nottingham Evening Post correspondent questioning how the 3-2 result could stand in his absence and suggested that a replay was therefore likely. This prompted a stern letter from Alcock that was printed in the Nottinghamshire Guardian the following week. Alcock denied leaving the ground and suggested that Forest had sought to play on, citing the new rule, but that he wanted to refer to the rules which were in the dressing room. ‘This I did in the presence of Mr. Spencer, the Forest umpire, Mr. Matthews, the secretary of the Sheffield club, and most of his team,’ Alcock began, ‘and after advising Mr. Matthews to play the extra half-hour I saw Mr. Sorby, the Sheffield captain, receiving from him, in answer to my request, his final decision not to continue the game as suggested.’
Alcock concluded that there was little more that he could do at the time to complete the tie. In a comment which reflects the present-day influence of players and fans alike he stated, ‘I may add that for the last quarter of an hour both the players and spectators were very much excited, and to argue any question of such a kind in the middle of a ground with every member of both elevens appealing, and hundreds of spectators undertaking the office of adviser to umpires and referee was not only absurd but impossible. The Foresters have now claimed the match under the provisions of Rule 14, and the committee of the Association will have to decide the question.’
The FA awarded the tie to Forest due to Sheffield refusing to complete the fixture. Sheffield were incensed with the verdict, Mr. Matthews stating: ‘We can only say that we heartily regret that the (FA) committee should have come to any such decision, and we wish the Foresters joy of their easily, but not fairly obtained victory.’ Sheffield became the first ever team to be disqualified from the FA Cup and the Sheffield Daily Telegraph rather melodramatically labelled the decision ‘a most unsatisfactory decision to all true lovers of football.’ Some weeks later another Sheffield reporter held onto the view that Sheffield’s long unbeaten run remained unbroken: ‘Of course, there is the Nottingham Forest tie to be considered, but if even that high and mighty club can call a walk-over a victory, they are quite welcome to dub it with that name.’
At the semi-final stage Oxford University earned revenge for the previous season’s loss as Forest fell just short once again; the Reds falling to a 1-0 defeat. Despite missing out on another cup final, Forest’s progress in the competition had disturbed the established order. The exploits of both the Reds and Aston Villa were recognised in Association Football & The Men Who Made It, a seminal 1906 book which chartered the formative years of football, for the influence they had on the FA Cup. The success of both teams was ‘strongly impressed on the Southerners who must have watched the growth of these North and Midland rivals with deep interest,’ it was noted.
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While Forest have frequently demonstrated their abilities in the FA Cup, they have also regularly found themselves at the centre of controversy, as with the incident against Sheffield. Almost a century after that strange tie of 1878, Forest found themselves in another unprecedented situation while competing for the cup. In 1974 Forest were drawn away at Newcastle for a quarter-final tie. Early in the second half at St James’ Park Forest were awarded a penalty which George Lyall scored to give them a 3-1 lead. Newcastle’s Pat Howard was also sent off for remonstrating with the referee after the penalty decision and Forest’s passage to the semi-final looked secure. That was until hordes of angry Newcastle supporters invaded the pitch and forced a stoppage of the game for seventeen minutes.
After the game resumed a shell-shocked Forest capitulated and lost 4-3 to a late Bobby Moncur goal. The inquest began immediately after full time and, once again, Forest found themselves in unchartered waters. The Daily Mirror’s Frank McGhee described it as a ‘unique solution for a unique situation’ after the FA eventually decided to replay the game at Everton’s Goodison Park. Ken Smales, the Forest secretary, ridiculed this judgement and when a draw in the replay led to a further game at Everton, he used his programme notes to point out the injustice of the situation. ‘We seem to have added a few ‘firsts’ to our lengthy list,’ wrote Smales. ‘As far as I can ascertain we are the first club to have played three matches in a round and never played at home.’
Newcastle finally won the tie, but the resentment continued from Forest and their supporters. Another consequence was a taskforce being initiated to finally try and eradicate the stain of hooliganism from the game. Novel solutions were also suggested such as former England captain Billy Wright calling for the ends behind goals to be converted into all seater areas. It is also fathomable to draw a partial link between this game and the wider introduction of the perimeter fences that were erected in English football stadia in the years that followed. While these methods are questionable as an overall solution, this new wave of combating unruly behaviour can, bizarrely, be traced back to Forest scoring a penalty at St James’ Park.
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Forest reached a third semi-final in 1885 but faced a daunting tie against Queens Park of Edinburgh on 14 March. 10,000 spectators were in attendance at Derby to witness a game that finished 1-1, despite the Scottish side being strong favourites. Forest requested extra time, but Queens Park were unwilling to continue. This was something that they were permitted to do at this stage of the competition under Rule 15 of the laws which stated: ‘In the semi-final and final ties no club shall be compelled to play for more than one hour and a half on one day.’ The partisan Forest crowd were aggrieved at the decision hoping to see their side make the final for the first time in their history. The venue for the replay was in the hands of the Football Association and they opted to hold it on the Merchiston Castle Grounds just outside of Edinburgh on 28 March. Never had a semi-final of the English cup been held in Scotland and this remains the only occasion when it has occurred. It was suspected that Queens Park would have opted to withdraw from the competition had they not been able to play in Scotland or at an English venue close to the border due to the travel costs involved.
Considering the novelty of this tie and with a place in the final at stake, a strong following was anticipated from Nottingham. The Midland Railway Company organised a weekend excursion which cost fans 10 shillings for a third class return fare. The letters pages in the Nottingham Evening Post contained tips and suggestions for how visiting supporters could enjoy their trip, demonstrating the anticipation that was building up for such a unique cup match. This was not the first appearance in Scotland for Forest who had been frequent visitors for games against Glasgow Rangers, Edinburgh University and Dunbarton in the years previous, but this was their first visit for a competitive match.
On the day of the game one Forest player was convinced that his side’s chances would be improved if he were to witness a funeral before kick-off: a peculiar Victorian era superstition. The unnamed player travelled around Edinburgh, only spotting one a short while before the match began and arriving at the ground with little time to spare. Unfortunately, the plan failed. Forest lost 3-0 in front of another 10,000 crowd. In his report, the Athletic News correspondent noted the hostile reception from the home fans who produced ‘more bad language in the cubic foot of atmosphere than ever I heard.’ The Queens Park defeat ended Forest’s cup hopes and marked a third semi-final defeat from three attempts. A first final remained elusive, even if Forest’s reputation was again enhanced by their progress to the later stages.
The following year, Forest fell at the third-round stage to Derbyshire based Staveley. Following the 2-1 away defeat the Reds lodged a complaint due to the state of the pitch and the home side resorting to ‘all kinds of tricks’ to hold their lead. Staveley were accused of wasting time excessively by repeatedly kicking the ball out of play, sometimes out of the ground entirely, with 103 throw-ins recorded for Forest. The complaint was eventually rejected by the Football Association. Worse followed at the Reds’ next attempt in 1886 when they suffered what has been described as the first major FA Cup upset. The team responsible for this unwanted footnote was Lockwood Brothers, a lowly ranked Sheffield club. For a period, Forest struggled to maintain their impressive exploits in the cup, but they nevertheless continued to make history in the competition.
In 1889 Forest were drawn against Irish side Linfield in the first round. Linfield had progressed through multiple qualifying rounds to reach that stage and travelled to Nottingham on the overnight steamer, cheered off by an ‘immense crowd’ of well-wishers. Against the odds Linfield secured a 2-2 draw at Forest’s Gregory Ground and forced a replay in Belfast. The Reds set off on the Wednesday ahead of the game on Saturday 9 February but on the Friday were alerted by a whistle-blower to Linfield having fielded an ineligible player in the first match. Forest’s vice-president Sam Widdowson offered Linfield a proposal to hand Forest the tie but to not publicise the ineligible player, keeping Linfield’s reputation intact and avoiding any FA sanctions. Widdowson’s ultimatum included a deadline of 3:30pm that same day. Linfield accepted Widdowson’s terms on the basis that the players from both sides were not informed and the game could go ahead. This match was a big moment for Linfield; the local Northern Whig newspaper described it beforehand as a game that ‘should be one of the most exciting struggles ever witnessed in Belfast’ and they wanted to keep their showpiece event in place, even if it was a charade.
It was this decision that led to what was later described by one irate Linfield supporter as a ‘gigantic swindle.’ In proceeding with the match Linfield withheld the most vital piece of information from not just their players but also their paying fans. Nearly 7,000 spectators squeezed into the Ulster Ground believing their team had the opportunity for a huge cup shock. Typically, the game did live up to the billing and the hosts overcame a 1-0 deficit to triumph 3-1 over the Reds. Later in the evening the Linfield delight was soured as news spread that the famous cup victory had only been an exhibition match. The Nottingham Evening Post in their post-match write-up, no doubt with a great deal of relief for Forest fans, noted at the very end, ‘We understand authoritatively that Linfield Athletic yesterday scratched to the Forest.’ The consequences for Linfield were unpleasant. The backlash from their own supporters was fierce and the deception created great disharmony. The fall-out was so severe that the club was even threatened with legal action by its own fans. The gate receipts from the game were eventually donated to charity, a gesture that probably did not suit either the club, its players, or its fans, but it headed off the more extreme action. Forest faced Chatham in the next round but lost after two replays.
While the Linfield match was ultimately not an official fixture, Forest had travelled to Ireland (the whole of the country was still part of the United Kingdom at this time) with the intention of participating in a FA Cup match. By doing so they became the only team to appear in three of the home nations for cup ties, and in 1922 they finally completed the set having been handed a fifth-round draw against Cardiff City. The Welsh club did not even exist when Forest played their games in Scotland and Ireland, having been formed in 1899, but were at this point a top division side while Forest sat in the Second Division. A huge crowd of 50,470 were undeterred by a rise in admission to 7s 6d for the most expensive ticket and packed into Ninian Park as the visitors earned the unique distinction of featuring in England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland for a cup match. Nottingham Forest remain the only club to have ever done so.
There was no official away following from Nottingham due to the distance and cost making organised rail excursions prohibitive, but among the crowd there was at least two Forest supporters. T. Swift and H. Newsand decided to walk from Nottingham to South Wales for the match. They set off on the Sunday before the game the following Saturday but followed separate routes after Long Eaton to see who could arrive first. Swift wrote to the Forest secretary Bob Marsters to advise he was ‘very stiff’ but was on target to arrive in Cardiff by Thursday evening. Both men arrived soaking wet and, in their own words, unable to walk another mile, but were otherwise safe and well having completed the 140-mile journey. Unfortunately, Forest could not provide the reward that Swift and Newsand’s efforts deserved and were defeated 4-1 by Cardiff to end their cup hopes once again. In recognition of their dedication, however, the Forest team arranged for the pair to travel home with them on the train back to Nottingham.
Another record owned by the Reds is the biggest away win in the history of the FA Cup beyond the qualifying rounds. In 1891 they defeated Clapton 14-0 in the first round of the competition. The Nottingham Evening Post declared that ‘Clapton were sorely puzzled by the tactics of the Forest forwards’ in the opening 45 minutes as the away side raced into a 5-0 lead before the interval. Presumably due to newspaper deadlines or some technical issues the same report did not have opportunity to fully cover the second half. After a first half report full of detail and opinion, amusingly the second half write-up simply reads: ‘After crossing over the game was one-sided in the extreme. The Clapton defence was weak, and the Reds adding nine goals the result was 14-0.’ While Victorian era newspapers are not known for their hyperbole this seems to be something of a tepid description of nine second half goals to set a competition record. Incidentally Notts County also recorded a 9-1 win in the cup on the same day at home to Sheffield United. Surely this date marks the biggest haul of goals in Nottingham’s competitive football history.
A follow-up report on the defeat of Clapton hinted that the scoreline could have been even greater. ‘Seeing that they had won the match in the first ten minutes the Forest, despite the record score they made, did not overexert themselves,’ noted the Nottingham Evening Post. Today, Forest’s (and Clapton’s) name still stands in the FA Cup record books due to this result, and it remains the biggest victory in Forest’s history.
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After two decades of trying Forest finally made it to the final of the cup in 1898. Rather fittingly given what has been addressed already, the path was mired in yet further unprecedented controversy as Forest overcame Southampton in the semi-final. The initial game was drawn 1-1 at Sheffield with a replay at the Crystal Palace on 24 March. The conditions were ‘all against football’ according to the Nottingham Journal and the referee stopped play temporarily when a blizzard made it difficult to carry on during the second half. After the resumption of play the game drew towards a close with the tie scoreless. More snow descended in the final minutes and severely hampered both sides, but the match continued allowing Forest to score two goals and secure their place in the final.
The Saints were furious, and an appeal was lodged with the Football Association which demanded a replay on the basis that Forest’s goals were scored in almost zero visibility and therefore almost impossible to prevent. The media were torn over the result and debated the merits of a replay with no small amount of geographical bias. The Morning Leader concluded that ‘a cup tie was never won under more extraordinary conditions,’ and it’s a verdict that is likely to still stand today. It’s very possible that a cup final spot has never been open to so much scrutiny before or since 1898. An emergency FA committee spent several days reviewing the circumstances and the report of the referee, Mr J. Lewis. The following week they finally rejected the Southampton case and Forest’s first ever cup final appearance was belatedly confirmed. They were to face Derby County at Crystal Palace on 16 April.
Amongst the near 17,000 crowd at Crystal Palace for the semi-final was a group of Derby players undertaking an impromptu scouting mission against their would-be opponents. Stories surfaced that the Rams in attendance were not impressed by their East Midlands rivals and confidently predicted a Derby victory by ‘half a dozen goals to nothing.’ Those players deserve some credit, their prediction was almost spot-on, but they got the wrong game. Five days prior to the final Derby thrashed a much-changed Forest side 5-0. Maybe it was an off day for the Reds or perhaps they were lulling the opposition into a false sense of security. It could even have been an early example of a team resting players ahead of an important match. Whatever the answer there would be no repeat on cup final day.
A likely first for a cup final was the instruction for Forest to change out of their shirts and put on Derby’s white jerseys before kick-off. Camera technology could not adequately capture the Garibaldi Red on film and so the brief swap was proposed. This was done prior to the game with each team posing with the trophy to act as the official victory shot. This explains the glum faces on Forest’s victorious team photo.
As is so finely stated in artwork produced to mark the day, ‘The good old Reds took down Derby’ by three goals to one in the final. The silver trophy was Forest’s at last. The cup pioneers were also now cup holders, and Nottingham rejoiced. The Nottingham Journal suggested that ‘probably no football success anywhere has been hailed with a more remarkable demonstration of enthusiasm’ as the Nottingham public welcomed home the cup victors. The team embarked on a parade from Nottingham Station to their main headquarters on Maypole Yard aboard a coach decorated with red rosettes. The coach was pulled by four horses who must have wondered what all the fuss was about as Nottingham’s residents spilled onto the streets to catch a glimpse of their heroes. Present at the celebration was Sam Widdowson who was celebrating his 47th birthday. As the cup arrived at Maypole Yard, Widdowson was said to have burst into a joyous jig.
In the build-up to the final a cartoon had been circulated in Derby which showed the Rams as a motor car carrying the cup. In the illustration Forest were unfairly visualised as a donkey pulling a carriage. Upon the Forest team’s departure from Nottingham Station on their victory parade an entourage joined the procession through the city. Plodding along at the very back was a donkey pulling a carriage driven by a disgruntled looking man in a white shirt and black tie. Emblazoned across his back was ‘DERBY.’ The tomfoolery of the opposition had well and truly backfired.
Beyond 1898 Forest enjoyed strong cup runs in both 1900 and 1902 but the semi-final curse struck again. By this point it was a record of seven last four appearances but only one had been won. For a club that has contributed to so many positive records and firsts in the competition Forest also have the distinction of being worst performing semi-final team, losing three-quarters of their games at this stage. Of clubs that have featured four times or more at the semi-final point there are none with a poorer statistical return.
Despite a 57 year wait after the 1902 semi-final defeat, Forest would triumph in their next appearance in the last four. A 1-0 win over Aston Villa at Hillsborough in 1959 set up a first Wembley final against Luton Town. The final had looked a long way off at the beginning of the cup run. A huge shock was only just averted at the third-round stage at non-league Tooting & Mitcham who had led 2-0 before being pegged back. A replay was required at the City Ground which opened up another small piece of FA Cup history as, due to scheduling issues, it was finally played on the day of the fourth-round ties. ‘Nottingham Forest have been associated with many milestones in football,’ wrote the Nottingham Football Post. ‘They helped to create more history this afternoon when, for the first time since the Association Cup competition was instituted, teams competed in different rounds of the tourney on the same day – and the Reds were one of them. Blame the weather for the muddle which has occurred. It has revealed flaws in the present set-up. There is an obvious need for closer co-operation between the FA and the League in arranging their affairs.’ Over 42,000 witnessed the Reds overcome their spirited opponents 3-0.
Manager Billy Walker took the unconventional step of hiding his players away in the days prior to the final on 2 May. The team accommodation was so secret that Walker did not even tell his close personal friends and family of their whereabouts, and a £5 wager was placed with each of them challenging them to discover the location. The Daily Mirror did eventually manage to find the destination at Hendon and exposed the Forest ‘hide-out.’ By taking Forest to the final, the Forest manager added his own name into the FA Cup record books, something Walker himself acknowledged prior to the final. ‘There have been football managers who have gone to Wembley on more than the single occasion,’ said Walker, ‘but none – and I am open to correction on this – who have taken two clubs, in my case Sheffield Wednesday in 1935 and Nottingham Forest in 1959.’ A win against Luton would also make Walker the first to manage two different clubs to Wembley glory.
Rather wonderfully, the cup final referee went by the name of Clough. Jack Clough made his own history on this day by becoming the first man to referee the national cup final in both France and England having officiated the French final two years earlier. The team captains, Jack Burkitt of Forest, and Luton’s Syd Owen, met in the middle and exchanged pendants, a first for an English cup final, before Clough got the game underway. Forest dominated from the beginning with expansive football. Jeff Whitefoot, a member of the Forest side that day, remembers the excitement about the occasion rather than any nerves taking hold which may explain the strong start. ‘We were a good team and were confident,’ Whitefoot adds. The final was shown live on the BBC’s Grandstand and viewers were treated to score captions flashing up throughout the game for the first time in a cup final. Forest were, however, unfortunately displayed as ‘Notts Forest.’ Aware of the error, commentator Kenneth Wolstenholme apologised to ‘the Nottingham people,’ adding, ‘If I apologise now, it will save anybody writing.’
After nine minutes Forest took the lead through Roy Dwight, and Tommy Wilson added another soon after. The Reds were in control but an injury to Dwight after 33 minutes threatened to derail their chances. The much discussed ‘Wembley Hoodoo’ won’t have been far away from the minds of Billy Walker and his players as Dwight was stretchered off the field. Prior to 1959 four of the previous seven cup finals had witnessed teams reduced to ten men. None of those teams won the cup; nor had any team ever triumphed in the final with only ten men.
The man advantage buoyed Luton who managed to pull a goal back in the second half, but Forest resisted and were able to hold on to secure their second FA Cup win. If not for the injury to Dwight, it was suggested the score could have been greater. ‘I believe we might have gone on and broken the cup final record,’ explained Jeff Whitefoot. ‘You could sense it the way we were playing. Roy’s injury put an end to that.’ More recently, Whitefoot also points to the masterful style of the Reds’ play that day which flourished on the Wembley turf. Had it not been for Dwight’s withdrawal, Whitefoot still believes it would have been a much more emphatic display: ‘We would have expected to have had a high scoring game on our part, and our style of football was a lot to do with it.’ Instead, the game ended with Forest battling to keep Luton out. ‘I was absolutely exhausted,’ admits Whitefoot. ‘We were on our knees when the whistle blew. Playing and winning, with only ten men and no substitutions, on the Wembley pitch, was physically very demanding. The pitch seemed to get longer and longer, although it was the best pitch I ever played on. It was a huge relief to hear the whistle being blown! It took a while for it to sink in that we had actually won the FA Cup.’
The cup was presented to captain Jack Burkitt by the Queen. Whitefoot remembers Her Majesty admitting that she preferred to root for the underdog in the final, which would have ordinarily been Luton, but that she had suggested her allegiance had swayed during the second half as the brave Reds held onto their lead. Having lifted the cup Burkitt led his team on a lap of honour around Wembley to celebrate with the Forest supporters. Here began a new tradition of cup finals; 1959 being the first time the victorious team paraded the cup in this way. Along with many achievements on this day Forest’s Bill Whare became the first ever Channel Islander to gain a cup winners medal, while Roy Dwight was awarded his medal by four of his team-mates who left the celebration banquet at the Savoy Hotel in London early to join him at his hospital bedside. The ‘Wembley Hoodoo’ had been put to rest by the Reds. ‘It was the greatest soccer triumph Wembley has ever seen,’ exclaimed The People newspaper in their edition the following day. In an echo to the previous cup glory of 1898, the greeting from the Nottingham public stands out for Jeff Whitefoot as the city’s residents again filled the streets to honour the Reds. ‘When we returned to Nottingham, we had a terrific response from the city,’ he says. ‘It was fantastic.’
As cup winners Forest were also scheduled to compete for the Charity Shield against league champions Wolverhampton Wanderers the following season. For the very first time this encounter was shifted from its usual autumn slot, some weeks after the season had begun, to a date ahead of the new campaign. Forest were defeated 3-1 but took their place at the very beginning of another English football tradition. Since 1959 the Charity Shield, later to become known as the Community Shield, has remained the traditional curtain-raiser to the English football calendar.
Forest’s cup defence lasted only until the fourth round following a 3-0 defeat at Sheffield United of the Second Division. It was only the second time the cup holders had lost by three goals or more to lower league opponents. The first time was in 1906 when Aston Villa were beaten 5-1 by Manchester United. Only once more since 1959 has this occurred when in 2022 Forest beat the previous cup winners, Leicester City, 4-1 at the City Ground.
Another offshoot of Forest new status as cup holders in 1959 brought them together with the Scottish cup winners, St Mirren, in a newly devised Anglo-Scottish Cup Winners Challenge. Played over two legs in September 1959, Forest were beaten 5-4 on aggregate. This fixture did not become a regular annual event but was the precursor to the Anglo-Scottish Cup which started life as the Texaco Cup in 1970, and featured a mix of teams from England, Scotland and, for a brief period, Ireland. Forest also participated in that initial competition and eventually returned in the post-Texaco sponsored period in 1976 to win the tournament, the first silverware under Brian Clough. A minor achievement but one heralded as the beginning of a golden era for Nottingham Forest. Clough secured Forest’s third cup final in 1991 but was agonisingly unable to overcome Tottenham Hotspur and land the one major trophy that eluded him in his career.
In each of their three FA Cup final appearances in 1898, 1959 and 1991 Forest required replays to progress. In April 2024 replays from the first-round stage were controversially scrapped, having already been halted for the later rounds of the competition. Two months before this decision, Forest faced Bristol City in a fourth-round replay at the City Ground. The tie was finally settled on penalties after the two sides could not be separated. The Reds won the shoot-out 5-3 but the late finish made this game the final ever FA Cup replay. Incidentally, it also continued a remarkable record in penalty shoot-outs with Forest winning every single one of the eleven they had featured in in major competitions. This sequence was finally ended by a defeat to Newcastle United in the League Cup in 2024.
Overall, Forest’s two FA Cup victories are a modest return given the frequency of Forest’s navigation to the later stages. They cannot match the numerous triumphs of others, but they do possess a rich collection of FA Cup tales and hold a unique and fascinating bond with the world’s oldest football tournament. The next time the phrase ‘The magic of the cup’ is mentioned, it is worth remembering that it was Forest that sprinkled some of that stardust.
April 2025 Addendum: It is fitting that Forest reached the semi-final at Wembley in 2025 by an unchartered path. Never before have a team been victorious in three penalty shoot-outs in a single campaign, but the Reds achieved this feat with penalty wins over Exeter, Ipswich and Brighton & Hove Albion. This also made it five wins out of five in FA Cup shoot-out deciders.
The cup pioneers have the chance to lift their first FA Cup since 1959 and can take a giant leap towards that with victory over Manchester City at Wembley in the semi-final.
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If you enjoyed this sample chapter then please consider purchasing a copy of Trailblazers: The Groundbreaking History of Nottingham Forest. The book covers the entire unique history of the Garibaldi Reds and twenty chapters of their remarkable pioneering achievements. It is available online and in stores (including signed author copies in the Waterstones Nottingham branch) but I have included a link here to a couple of places:
Amazon:
Hive:
Pitch Publishing: