“Buried in their own back yard”

Manchester United 0 Nottingham Forest 4  

(Division 1, Old Trafford, 17th December 1977; 54,374) 

When table-topping Forest visited Old Trafford eight days before Christmas their hosts hadn’t won the League since pipping the Reds to the title in 1967 – after which they would in fact have to wait a quarter of a century to win it again. Although they were not challenging Forest at the top of the table they were a match for anyone on their day and the game was nonetheless viewed as a tough test of Forest’s Championship credentials. United were the best-supported club in the country and had one of the more prominent hooligan contingents, so Old Trafford was never an easy place for a visiting team or its supporters.

As was often the case when the first team was away, I was at the City Ground watching the reserves that day. The line-up against Blackburn Rovers reserves contained the usual mixture of seasoned pros and promising youngsters. The old guard were represented by Frank Clark and John O’Hare. Steve Sutton would go on to keep goal for the first team for much of the decade following Peter Shilton’s eventual departure. Nobody could have imagined that within a year Gary Mills would become the youngest ever player in a European Cup tie and, almost as improbably, the number 6 shirt was worn by one Garry Birtles, who would also taste European glory the following year, but was for now plying his trade in a midfield role.

As usual, the fans getting their weekly Forest fix at the reserve game had to rely for their updates on the senior team’s progress on someone in the vicinity having what was still known at the time as a transistor radio. The scoreboard at the back of the Bridgford End would be updated as goals were scored in the first-team’s match, but the bald scoreline gave no clue as to how the game was going and some fans were not even sure whether the score was given from a Forest point of view or the home team’s. But this was a day when the radios and scoreboard increasingly diverted the spectators’ attention away from the match in front of them, as news of the game at Old Trafford was received with mounting excitement and near disbelief.

The wealth of data available in the information age has not helped jog my memory about the result of that reserve game, but it has enabled me to rediscover the BBC’s Match of the Day coverage of what was to become one of the most famous victories in Forest’s history. So if you haven’t seen it, here’s what you missed.

Whether it’s wishful thinking or respect for Forest’s unexpected rise to the summit of the pre-Christmas League table, the Old Trafford PA system blasts out Queen’s We Are The Champions before the game. The Forest away kit at the time is one of our most fondly remembered because of what the team achieved while wearing it. But the TV footage reminds us that the all-yellow strip was, in fact, a rather amateurish combination of matt pale yellow cotton shirts and shiny, darker yellow nylon shorts. None of which matters in the slightest to anyone with memories of seeing it worn with distinction by John Robertson as he skinned a right-back, Archie Gemmill as he ploughed through the mud, or Larry Lloyd or Kenny Burns as they played whatever combination of man and ball it took to break up an attack.

United start brightly, with Stuart Pearson mis-controlling Gordon Hill’s cross from the left before setting up Sammy McIlroy to shoot wide. Steve Coppell then cuts in from the right wing to drag a tame shot wide. Encouraged, the Stretford End burst into a chant of “United! United! United!”. Predictably for the 1970s, this is met with muted replies of “Shit! Shit! Shit!” from the Reds packed into the Scoreboard End, followed by louder yells of “Forest! Forest! Forest!”

Forest’s new centre back pairing of Burns and David Needham then demonstrate two different aspects of the art of defending. When Pearson flicks Lou Macari’s clearance on to set Coppell free, Burns quickly intercepts and plays the ball safely back to Shilton. Debutant Needham - hastily signed in the wake of Lloyd’s broken toe – then floors Jimmy Greenhoff with a vigorous challenge from behind, for which he receives a yellow card. The home fans faintly, and rather hopefully, chant “Off! Off! Off!”, but these are the days when you have to pretty much commit GBH before a ref will reach for his red card.

The tone of the game changes completely mid-way through the first half. Peter Withe lays Shilton’s drop-kick off to Gemmill. He expertly lifts the ball forward with the outside of his left foot for Tony Woodcock to race onto. Brian Greenhoff misses his kick, Woodcock nips in, rounds Paddy Roche and, from a narrow angle, slides the ball goalwards. It hits the post, but rebounds off the unfortunate Greenhoff and crosses the line. Woodcock celebrates by turning to the Stretford End and making a double clenched fist gesture as if lifting a pair of dumbells.

Pearson limps off to be replaced by Ashley Grimes and the travelling Reds launch into the Forest version of Hey Jude. Shilton saves a stinging shot from Hill from just inside the box, but the home side’s respite is brief and soon Barry Davies is describing Forest as “looking very sprightly and worth their position at the top of the table”.

They prove as much by increasing their lead with one of the finest goals of the season. Left-back Colin Barrett feeds Robertson, who plays a first-time ball inside to Woodcock, who in turn dinks it over Brian Greenhoff and chases it to the corner of the penalty area. He returns the ball to Robertson and heads for the middle of the area while Robertson brings the ball forward to the edge of the box and finds Withe on the six-yard line. He touches it back to Woodcock, who gleefully lashes it into the roof of the net and repeats his gesture to the Stretford End as Withe leaps and punches the air.

With 28 minutes on the clock the game is all but over. The away support is singing the wordless version of the “...we are fucking dynamite” chant that was briefly favoured in the 70s, while the stunned home fans are already resorting to “Man United, we’ll support you ever more”, a chant more usually heard towards the end from fans who realise any flicker of hope of getting anything from the game has finally been extinguished.

A rampant Forest are pressing hard whenever United get the ball and quickly turning defence into attack at every opportunity. The Forest version of Amazing Grace rings around Old Trafford before the Reds waste a golden opportunity to make it 3-0. John McGovern wins a tackle on the edge of the United box and slips the ball to Martin O’Neill, who plays Viv Anderson in on the right hand side of the area. There’s an audible shriek from an alarmed female United fan, but Anderson shoots high across the goal, accompanied by monkey noises from the more hard of thinking of the home support.

As half-time approaches United have possibly their best chance of the game. They are awarded a corner when Shilton smothers the ball and a linesman decides he has taken it over the goal line. In a rare moment of indecision, the Reds’ keeper holds back as he comes for the ball and misses it, but Jimmy Greenhoff, leaping high at the far post, can only head wide.

The second half starts in sleety rain, with an enthusiastic “Come on you yellows” from one end of the ground answered with a half-hearted “Come on you reds” from the other. With the pitch cutting up, the tackles get a bit tastier. O’Neill cuts inside Coppell on the right and as he releases the ball Grimes slides in very late, but no foul is given as O’Neill calmly steps over Grimes’s foot.

Macari typifies United’s lack of confidence by heading weakly straight at Shilton from Jimmy Greenhoff’s cross, then the home fans are audibly frustrated as United inelegantly clear the ball out for a Forest throw-in. Gemmill then wins the ball well in the middle of United’s half and McGovern slides in to play a perfect pass that cuts out Jimmy Nicholl and leaves Robertson clear. He advances and lays the ball past a poorly-positioned Roche towards Woodcock on the six-yard line, but Martin Buchan saves his team with a vital interception.

Forest’s counter-attacking game is again demonstrated to devastating effect after 54 minutes. Burns slides in on Hill outside the Forest area and when Brian Greenhoff shoots straight into the Forest wall Hill chips the ball back towards the penalty area, where Needham rises to head firmly away and set Gemmill free on the right. Not for the first time, Nicholl over-commits himself, allowing Gemmill to run clear. It’s three against one as the yellow shirts burst forward and Gemmill plays the ball to his left to Robertson, who easily rounds Roche and scores in front of the delirious away fans.

This prompts the typical 70s response to a goal conceded, but the Stretford End’s instinctive chorus of “You’re going to get your fucking heads kicked in!” soon peters out and once again it’s the Nottingham voices that are heard, this time announcing “And now you’re gonna believe us, we’re gonna win the league!”

Some neat interplay between Barrett, McGovern and Robertson sees Barrett driving into the United box and his lay-back causes a scramble that ends with McGovern’s shot deflected out for a corner by a combination of Grimes and Roche. A chant of “Four! Four! Four! Four!” rings out from behind the goal, but on this occasion the Reds’ fans’ wish is not fulfilled. They then turn their attention to a burst of the tune from The Vikings (as sung these days by Manchester City’s fans).

It should be four, though, as Robertson easily skins Grimes, his cross is headed out and Anderson breaks forward to meet it. He continues into the box, unchallenged by a static Stewart Houston, before blazing high and wide as Roche comes out to block him.

When McGovern feeds O’Neill on the right, a United defender once again rashly commits himself and the beleagured home side are completely out of shape. O’Neill passes to Gemmill on his left, who in turn finds Robertson, but the winger takes too long trying to round Roche and the relieved keeper is able to smother the ball.

The home fans give up and more and more empty seats appear, while a chant of “We’re Forest, we’re Forest, we are the champions!” resounds from the away end. With two minutes left, Davies begins to sum up the match, purring that “It’s been a very long time since United have looked so inept on their own ground and they’ve been made to look that way by a very good side.”

As he says this, yet another United attack breaks down on the Forest right and McGovern finds Gemmill, who, despite the bobbling of the ball on the rutted pitch,  plays a perfect left-footed pass for Woodcock to run onto down the middle and he confidently slots a left-footed shot past Roche from the edge of the area to finally make it four. Davies continues that this is “no more than they deserve – it could have been many more than four”. When the joyful Reds fans sing “Nottingham Forest are magic, we all agree”, Davies concurs that “it’s a good word for this afternoon’s performance”.

Forest are still chasing and closing down in the final minute (which, as much as the four goals, should have been compulsory viewing for every Reds team of the last twenty years or so). The final action of the game is Grimes mis-hitting a shot well wide from outside the Forest area.

Davies is now free to continue his summary: “Manchester United – buried in their own back yard by a team that has the hallmark of its creator, Brian Clough.  Nottingham Forest have given the best display by a team that I’ve had the privilege of seeing this season.”

This was arguably the best display in Forest’s glory years – and therefore one of the best in the club’s history – and it has become one of those “I was there” games, even if, for me, “there” was the Main Stand, enjoying the amazing news from seventy miles to the north-west with my fellow die-hards at that Central League game. 


Forest: Shilton, Anderson, Barrett, McGovern, Needham, Burns, O'Neill, Gemmill, Withe, Woodcock, Robertson.