WANTED: Your memory's of playing Nottingham Forest in 1989

[Never to the dark side]

Sounds of the City Monday night 6pm on radio Bristol.

[Gert Mare]

First leg at the City Ground was crazy. Nottingham Forest absolutely battered us but we somehow managed to hold out before Brian Laws fell for the Walshy step over the ball came over and Mark Gavin laid it off for Paul Mardon to score his first ever goal for City. Then it was pandemonium in the away end. A City fan ran on the pitch and started having a go at the Forest players for some bizarre reason. Then right near the end John Pender deflected the ball into his own net and it seemed to take forever to crawl over the line. It was painful but 1-1 going into the second leg at Ashton Gate seemed ok at the time.

The second leg was on a very very cold and rainy day. I remember being soaked but the atmosphere before kick off was like the old First Division games. Inflatable Joe Jordan fangs everywhere. There was a really sad moment prior to kick off though. There was a Salvation Army band going round the ground and one bloke collapsed. Fans started singing "Bruno Bruno" as Frank Bruno had been knocked out by Mike Tyson the previous night. Unfortunately the man had suffered a massive heart attack and died. The announcement was made at half time. The game itself was different from the first leg. City were up for it and more than matched Forest during the 90 minutes. Conditions made it a slippery affair but the atmosphere remained superb. Still at 0-0 after 90 minutes and we even had a chance to win it when Alan Walsh hit the post, but it wasn't to be and a break starting with the dangerous Franz Carr ended up with Garry Parker holding off a challenge to score at the open end and our gallant cup run was over. It continued to rain heavily after the match and I felt like I had hyperthermia by the time I got home. Then I watched the game again on "The Match" hosted by Elton Welsby. Brian Clough had been banished to the stands for his big mouth if I remember rightly?! That is my memories anyway!

[ashton_fan]

I went to these games and they were great as they showed we were close to getting back to the 2nd tier. However it's not the first time we got to the semi-final. We also got that far in 1970-71 season under Alan Dicks, this seems largely forgotten. We had to play Spurs in the semi-final and the first leg was at Ashton Gate and finished 1-1, Alan Skirton scored our goal and Gilzean scored for Tottenham. I went to the game, there was a great atmosphere and 30,000 turned up. In the 2nd leg we lost 2-0 at White Hart Lane in extra time. Spurs went on to win the trophy at Wembley.

[BobBobSuperBob]

Wettest and coldest I've ever been at a football match  (2nd leg at AG)

Had a season ticket in Dolman but went in Open End as a mate could only get a ticket in Open End  

Electric atmosphere in both legs 

Awesome - Those atmospheres will never return to football to that level 

 

[lenred]

My dad hated football and everything that went with it in those days so I rarely got to go but he got me tickets for my 11th birthday in the open end. Me and my dad had to hold up my brother who was 8 at the time for the whole match in the wettest conditions I can ever remember being subjected to. Remember being star struck and in awe of their team (what a team it was) but being immensely proud of City.   The game that confirmed my love of all things BCFC. 

[Major Isewater]

It poured with rain at the City ground Nottingham , my treasured semi final programme went all soggy .

When Pender equalized I thought ' here we go again ', always the bridesmaid.

I thought we'd snatch it in the home leg but alas another nearly moment in the club's history.

 

[JamesBCFC]

I was still 'a twinkle in my fathers eye' for those games, but he was at one so maybe if I try really hard I'll remember something.

[bexhill reds]

This was one of the few games I went to with my old man who was a ST holder in the 50's but for whatever reason stopped going. I'd been going to AG for a few years before then by myself as all my mates had ST with their families and I was not allowed to go to football due to my parents being worried about trouble. Having said that, I'd been lying to the old man and getting him to drop me off by the Miners Arms on a Saturday telling him that I was meeting a mate and his Dad and going into the Dolman with them, although I was standing in terracing in front of the then Grandstand.

To get into this part of the ground at the time you had to apply for a membership card which I think was a measure brought in by the Thatcher government in an effort in an attempt to stop trouble in the grounds, anyway I'd got my Dad a membership card and had queued up for tickets in the days before the game.

I can't recall an atmosphere like it (perhaps matched when we played Chelsea in the FA cup around that era), it had been pissing down most of the day and the pitch looked more like Redcatch Park rather than a professional football ground. From what I recall of the game City gave it a right old go (maybe the current batch of players should sit down and watch a re-run!!) and I remember Walshy's shot hitting the bottom of the left post (I think). I do recall going home soaking wet, clutching my A4 size souvenir program, proud to be a City fan, and hoping that I had reignited my dad's love of City sufficiently enough for him to start going again.

Football does not get better than that...

[jimgoeswest]

I remember being stood next to someone with a giant inflatable champagne bottle. 

[Super]

Inflatable bloody bananas!

[Major Isewater]

16 minutes ago, Super said:

Inflatable bloody bananas!

Inflatable 'just like real skin' sex dolls .

Nothing to do with the match just an association.

 I've said too much . 

[winterbournered]

My first game. My old man wouldn't take me to any football, mainly because of crowd trouble and the hooligan element. 

I had just signed schoolboy forms with City and we all had to meet under the Williams stand and some were chosen to be ball boys. I unfortunately was not one of them and with the others made our way round the pitch to the Dolman, stood on the terrace and got a right soaking!

The atmosphere that day was something else. 

 

[Red Army 75]

Remember getting soaked sat on the wall of the enclosure. Directly in line with Gary parkers winner . And walshy hitting the post 

so close

[NOTBLUE]

57 minutes ago, Major Isewater said:

Inflatable 'just like real skin' sex dolls .

Nothing to do with the match just an association.

 I've said too much . 

Have you worn it out yet Major.

[cider head]

The buzz and atmosphere before kick off sticks out as much as the game itself and sadly we will never hear Ashton Gate sound like this again.

 

 

[22A]

ITV had the TV rights for the League Cup semi finals. They decided Forest v City would be too one sided, so showed the other game, West Ham v Luton live. So whilst City were involved in a thrilling 1-1 tussle at Nottingham, embarrassingly for ITV, Luton won 3-0 at West Ham.

['Orns]

Rain, cold, Walsh, gutted

[bs3]

Apart from a visit a few years ago to lego land , it was the wettest I have ever been while outside.

[reddoh]

1 hour ago, NOTBLUE said:

Have you worn it out yet Major.

No he keeps it in the house.

[Curr Avon]

4 hours ago, Cheesleysmate said:

First leg at the City Ground was crazy. Nottingham Forest absolutely battered us but we somehow managed to hold out before Brian Laws fell for the Walshy step over the ball came over and Mark Gavin laid it off for Paul Mardon to score his first ever goal for City. Then it was pandemonium in the away end. A City fan ran on the pitch and started having a go at the Forest players for some bizarre reason. Then right near the end John Pender deflected the ball into his own net and it seemed to take forever to crawl over the line. It was painful but 1-1 going into the second leg at Ashton Gate seemed ok at the time.

The second leg was on a very very cold and rainy day. I remember being soaked but the atmosphere before kick off was like the old First Division games. Inflatable Joe Jordan fangs everywhere. There was a really sad moment prior to kick off though. There was a Salvation Army band going round the ground and one bloke collapsed. Fans started singing "Bruno Bruno" as Frank Bruno had been knocked out by Mike Tyson the previous night. Unfortunately the man had suffered a massive heart attack and died. The announcement was made at half time. The game itself was different from the first leg. City were up for it and more than matched Forest during the 90 minutes. Conditions made it a slippery affair but the atmosphere remained superb. Still at 0-0 after 90 minutes and we even had a chance to win it when Alan Walsh hit the post, but it wasn't to be and a break starting with the dangerous Franz Carr ended up with Garry Parker holding off a challenge to score at the open end and our gallant cup run was over. It continued to rain heavily after the match and I felt like I had hyperthermia by the time I got home. Then I watched the game again on "The Match" hosted by Elton Welsby. Brian Clough had been banished to the stands for his big mouth if I remember rightly?! That is my memories anyway!

That's a fantastic recollection CM. Bless you.

Al I can remember about the second leg is the Walshy chance, John Bailey continually kicking Franz Carr into the advertising hoardings and having my umbrella confiscated before entering the turnstiles.

Happy days!

[Ashtonwurzel]

3 hours ago, BobBobSuperBob said:

Wettest and coldest I've ever been at a football match  (2nd leg at AG)

Had a season ticket in Dolman but went in Open End as a mate could only get a ticket in Open End  

Electric atmosphere in both legs 

Awesome - Those atmospheres will never return to football to that level 

 

That shot hitting the post and spinning on the line in mud will haunt me forever !!

Went to both legs, lost a shoe at the away leg when we scored. Never found it.

[Erithacus]

Was there in the Open End, getting thoroughly drenched in the horizontal lash. Agree with the atmosphere as being one of the best for ages and not repeated much since. The pitch was a bog and the rain did not relent all game - proper old skool football that many older 'uns will have grown up with.

I remember the Glenavon Pipes and Drum Band marching on the sodden pitch with their kilts and tartans in peril before the start and the poor chap collapsing. They got the medics on and stretchered him away, not knowing it was a fatal cardiac. The rest of the band returned at half-time (as was originally planned I imagine, but the news was announced) and played on, with a sad lament from the bagpipes filling the ground.

The game was a really tight and nervy one, level 1-1 from the first leg and no-one wanted to make the mistake in the conditions. Neither side really had the upper hand and it went to full time at 0-0. Extra Time but we couldn't keep it going; Gary Parker cracked us and that was the Wembley glory over. A hugely empty and drowned feeling after.

We had dared to dream, we had dared to take on one of Europe's finest and dared to match them until the very last. Drenched, tired, gutted but going home I was still glowing inside.

[Bedred31]

I remember that my seat at the City Ground was in the back row of the lower tier along one side, immediately in front of the exec. boxes. When City scored we all went berserk, ultimately turning around to taunt the occupants of the boxes. When I turned around, I was confronted with a terribly posh middle aged woman wearing a huge fur coat, who then, from behind the smoked glass, tore up the expected script by clapping politely and giving us the thumbs up.  The lad sat next to me was obviously so overcome by this unexpected show of sportsmanship that he dropped his trousers and pants, pressing his naked buttocks against the glass of the box. At that time I was a young trainee lawyer. I now sit as a Judge at the Royal Courts of Justice ( the High Court) in London. For my sins - and don't tell my wife of  23 years - my only regret thinking about this incident is the worry that she might not have been a Forest fan.

Happy days - just thinking about it banishes (however fleetingly) some of the present gloom. 

[BobBobSuperBob]

2 hours ago, cider head said:

The buzz and atmosphere before kick off sticks out as much as the game itself and sadly we will never hear Ashton Gate sound like this again.

 

 

Fantastic - puts the current plastic stadia and atmospheres firmly into perspective

Sends a shiver down the spine 

[Major Isewater]

2 hours ago, Ashtonwurzel said:

That shot hitting the post and spinning on the line in mud will haunt me forever !!

Went to both legs, lost a shoe at the away leg when we scored. Never found it.

A sign ! 

[havanatopia]

Paul Mardon was it? Always forgot who scored but never forgot ripping a 2 inch tear in my rather new and dashing wide guage olive green corduroys as i went mental and scraped the wall at touchline level up at the City Ground. The Pender OG put a bit of a damper on the cut which was otherwise damage well spent for a young whipper snapper like me.

[NOTBLUE]

10 minutes ago, Major Isewater said:

A sign ! 

Ashtonwurzel's the messiah !

[BS15_RED]

10 years or so ago I guy I worked with gave me a couple of City video tapes, one was the official club video of the 1991 win over the sags (The Donawa winner) and the other was a recording of the ITV coverage this game. I wasn't into football at the time, I was 7 years old but do remember my parents watching it and screaming at the telly Come on City!

[Bazooka Joe]

7 hours ago, Cheesleysmate said:

First leg at the City Ground was crazy. Nottingham Forest absolutely battered us but we somehow managed to hold out before Brian Laws fell for the Walshy step over the ball came over and Mark Gavin laid it off for Paul Mardon to score his first ever goal for City. Then it was pandemonium in the away end. A City fan ran on the pitch and started having a go at the Forest players for some bizarre reason. Then right near the end John Pender deflected the ball into his own net and it seemed to take forever to crawl over the line. It was painful but 1-1 going into the second leg at Ashton Gate seemed ok at the time.

The second leg was on a very very cold and rainy day. I remember being soaked but the atmosphere before kick off was like the old First Division games. Inflatable Joe Jordan fangs everywhere. There was a really sad moment prior to kick off though. There was a Salvation Army band going round the ground and one bloke collapsed. Fans started singing "Bruno Bruno" as Frank Bruno had been knocked out by Mike Tyson the previous night. Unfortunately the man had suffered a massive heart attack and died. The announcement was made at half time. The game itself was different from the first leg. City were up for it and more than matched Forest during the 90 minutes. Conditions made it a slippery affair but the atmosphere remained superb. Still at 0-0 after 90 minutes and we even had a chance to win it when Alan Walsh hit the post, but it wasn't to be and a break starting with the dangerous Franz Carr ended up with Garry Parker holding off a challenge to score at the open end and our gallant cup run was over. It continued to rain heavily after the match and I felt like I had hyperthermia by the time I got home. Then I watched the game again on "The Match" hosted by Elton Welsby. Brian Clough had been banished to the stands for his big mouth if I remember rightly?! That is my memories anyway!

Spot on.

I wish it were the same now,

 

[Kingswood Robin]

I was 15 at the time and playing for Deerswood Youth. I remember our manager saying no football this weekend, we're all going down to watch City. I was sat in G Block of the Dolman. I remember being nervous and excited all game. It absolutely tipped it down and you forget just how bad the pitches could get back then. We had a good view of Walshy hitting the post, we thought it went in. We were still jumping up and down as they were taking the corner that followed.

When they scored, I remember thinking there must have been something wrong, this can't have happened, it was our year. It wasn't to be. What a fantastic atmosphere. One of those great memories of watching City with my dear old Dad.