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

[City exile 79]

On the day of the game at the city ground I was being let out of hospital after being told several months earlier that I wouldn't live this long. I'd had a lung removed & lots of complications. My mum dad and brother turned up all decked out in city colours & said we were going. First time I had sat down at a game. When we scored everyone went mental I forgot my injuries until trying to hug the nearest person at which time it was too late. Ended up having help off of St. John's ambulance staff. Still one of my favourite days as a city fan. Can't remember a lot of the game at Ashton gate other being sat behind lots of blow up bananas.

[robofwells]

driving the mini bus from Wells and getting stopped for speeding near Gloucester.A new ban in the wake of Hillsborough had just came in about alcohol on football trips. Any way the copper said to me how fast were you going and before I could answer he said tell the truth or I will nick you. I said about 80 officer and he said they clocked me at 97 then the back doors of the mini bus opened and 3 got out for a pee on the hard shoulder cans and bottles rolling down the hard shoulder  the copper said pick those up and drive carefull! that was it 45 mph rest of the way got the draw but so close to Wembley yet so far, but a great day out had by all.

[BigAl&Toby]

8 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!

You have a fantastic memory. All I remember was the rain. And then spotting our picture in the Williams Stand in the EP.

As others have said, never see the likes of that again.

******* Lansdown - hey ho, I managed to get it in

[BanburyRed]

One of my fave away games of all time....so many cars and coaches, City fans everywhere, Forest definitely weren't expecting us to sell out and take so many.

Only 19 at the time but had already been all over watching my heroes, this was a proper away game....i don't remember the weather (someone said it was raining? literally can't remember!) but i do remember everyone writing us off before a ball had been kicked, how we revelled in the atmosphere and cheered any passage of play where we kept the ball and anything over the half way line was ecstacy!

Steve Galliers ran his socks off in midfield, he was everywhere....like a modern day Gerry Gow....class!

Throughout the game, massive crowd surging in large & small pockets, check out the video....simply one of the best atmospheres i've been in. EVER. So much noise, passion, the singing.....and yes the bloody inflatables!

The goal....into raptures completely, then attack after attack from Forest, desperately looking for the equaliser (at that point i think they realised we weren't pushovers!), then for it to come so late...that was a sickener!

Totally worn out at the end, no voice, sore sides....would do it all again tomorrow. An away following to be proud of. And a performance full of grit, determination, commitment, desire. A team working for each other. The current squad would do well to watch it & learn.

[Offside]

I remember it well. Biggest crowd I've been in at Ashton Gate. I was about 14 and went with my dad. It was my first time in the East End. We were going to stand directly behind the goal, but that section was rammed (I'm sure there was a dinghy in there along with the other inflatables) so we stood just to the right of the goal on the Dolman side. I thought it had gone in when Walshy hit the post. 

[archie andrews]

massive ding dong in the park prior to game

[edada]

1 hour ago, Offside said:

I remember it well. Biggest crowd I've been in at Ashton Gate. I was about 14 and went with my dad. It was my first time in the East End. We were going to stand directly behind the goal, but that section was rammed (I'm sure there was a dinghy in there along with the other inflatables) so we stood just to the right of the goal on the Dolman side. I thought it had gone in when Walshy hit the post. 

It was my dinghy!

[Redstreet]

11 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!

Did anyone go to The Shef U quarter final at Bramall Lane ? Was working in Widnes and hammered it across Snake Pass arriving just after kick off . Nothing changes . City fans there in their noisy thousands . Fantastic night . And today ? Same fans , same commitment , same willingness to travel everywhere . Up there with best fans in country for sure and  etter than quite a number of premier teams . If LJ gets the  bullet , if we can get the allocation , thousands will go to Wigan . 

[archie andrews]

2 minutes ago, Redstreet said:

Did anyone go to The Shef U quarter final at Bramall Lane ? Was working in Widnes and hammered it across Snake Pass arriving just after kick off . Nothing changes . City fans there in their noisy thousands . Fantastic night . And today ? Same fans , same commitment , same willingness to travel everywhere . Up there with best fans in country for sure and  etter than quite a number of premier teams . If LJ gets the  bullet , if we can get the allocation , thousands will go to Wigan . 

I went to Bradford for the quarter final if that helps RS.......

[Redstreet]

Just now, archie andrews said:

I went to Bradford for the quarter final if that helps RS.......

Oh ! I know I am getting on but was sure the Shef u game set up the forest tie ?

happy to be corrected though . 

[archie andrews]

4 minutes ago, Redstreet said:

Oh ! I know I am getting on but was sure the Shef u game set up the forest tie ?

happy to be corrected though . 

youre thinking season prior....

[glynriley]

4 minutes ago, Redstreet said:

Oh ! I know I am getting on but was sure the Shef u game set up the forest tie ?

happy to be corrected though . 

No, definitely Bradford in the QF. You thinking of Sheffield United in the play offs??

[Tin Soldier]

Away game, 1st leg, night match midweek. Met up at the old BS3 as it is nowadays. Plot up in pub.

Piled into a builders van at 11am (tools of the trade in the back), driven to a meet in Nottingham town centre, Two guys decided to have a row (AMorph for those ITK) on the M5 northbound hard shoulder - as already pissed/unreal) in pub by 3pm. Totally pissed by 4pm. 30 City finally (Taunton's finest) arrive in pub by 5pm/ close knit group in town centre pub. 30 odd Forest turn up outside at 5.30pm'ish, pub empties, massive ruck for 5 minutes in town centre (felt like ages), no OB about. All City got split up. Walked from centre to ground (long walk 3 of us). Watched game in stand down side of the pitch. City score, bedlam. Backs to the wall. Forest score, heartbreak.

After match, walk back to Notts centre to find our van driver hopefully (2 of us). Driver never turned up (got pushed through a shop window and spent night in A+E). But the KW Boogie Bus did pick us up at 11pm/ish (Knowle West). In back of van, chip shop for food to soak up alcohol (watched highlights of match in chip shop), then KWBB took us around Notts Red Light district. Nuff said about that!

Long late drive home. In bed at 5.30'ish am. Up at 7am to go to work - knackered. 

You don't get football days out like that this day in age. Great memories.

 

[Offside]

1 hour ago, edada said:

It was my dinghy!

Were you the person crowd surfing in it as well?

Great memory of one of those unique moments.

[Lanterne Rouge]

Everyone`s done the game so just a couple of bits surrounding it;

First leg, went up on CATS and just as we`re heading up the M32 realised I`d left the lights on in the crappy old Golf I was driving - no breakdown cover so I had to wait from 2am to 6 when I got back to get a jump start off a bloke who lived in Smyth Road who was on his way to work. Still made it to work in Bridgwater though.

Second leg, originally supposed to be on the Saturday and my sister was getting married that day. Thank God for the TV change otherwise I don`t think she`d be speaking to me even now!

Christ did it ever rain at that second leg - if it hadn`t been on TV I doubt the game would have even started.

[Paulton Red]

Got to Nottingham mid afternoon, strolled round looking for the hordes of women we'd heard about. Ended up in the big pub on Trent bridge via a couple of other pubs (kicked out of one when one of our group took the European double winners mirror off the wall) 

got to the ground, packed in, bit of a blur, Mardon scored amazing atmosphere on a par with Bradford in previous round. Left ground walked over Trent bridge, crossed road to avoid glasses thrown from big pub we'd been in earlier, copper grabs me saying 'where do you think you're going?' I tell him going to car and he pushed me away onto the road with bus coming towards me...slept most of the way home.

dont get me started about home leg...still pissed from watching Bruno v Tyson at millionaires club till 6:30am

[edada]

32 minutes ago, Offside said:

Were you the person crowd surfing in it as well?

Great memory of one of those unique moments.

No not me. As you say though, great days

[Rossi the Robin]

7 hours ago, BobBobSuperBob said:

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

Sends a shiver down the spine 

Christ I had goosebumps when city ran out then

28k that day and so proud to say I was there

[BobBobSuperBob]

Agree - though the 9000 At Forest on a weekday night , all along one side and a large bank,of terracing at one end was probably even better !!!!

[Bianconeri]

I injured my ankle on the Saturday, turned out to be broken but I drove up from the south coast to see the match rather than get it x-rayed. Stood in the East End in pain.

The Walsh chance in the last minute of normal time seemed to be in slow motion.

[Beni71]

Amazing away game, I went with my old mate Jason Chandler who sadly passed away 18 months ago. Went Mardon scored I lost a shoe and Jason lost his gloves. How the mighty have fallen since then (Forest)

[Lanterne Rouge]

I`m convinced we would have beaten Luton in the final too. Would have been a bit of a disappointment if we had though as English clubs were still banned from Europe and the League Cup got you a UEFA Cup place back then.

[Jack Dawe]

8 hours ago, Bedred31 said:

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. 

Johnson in or out, m'lud?

[Gert Mare]

1 hour ago, archie andrews said:

I went to Bradford for the quarter final if that helps RS.......

What a match that was n'all mind!

[Gert Mare]

I still have both legs on VHS in the loft. The first leg was on ITV's Midweek Sports Special hosted by Nick Owen (TVAM and Luton Chairman fame) and I remember him saying "Bristol City, a club which plummeted from the First Division in 1980 to the Fouth in 82" it felt like we were a Phoenix rising from the flames but we were completely written off going to Forest and they really did batter us with "Daddy's Boy" as we kept singing (Nigel Clough) and Lee Chapman coming at us with Stuart Pearce in his prime bulldozing his way through like a man possessed but we stayed solid and defended like lions. We were so unlucky to concede in that first leg as Pender's goal was so freakish, but at the time I don't think anyone realised just how costly that mistake would turn out to be. When he scored the own goal Barry Davies who was commentating said "What a tragedy" and he was right because we held them again to 0-0 after 90 minutes at Ashton Gate and the fans were definitely the 12th man that day. That cup run put Bristol City back on the map again and the following season we went up. 

[Jack Dawe]

The ciderheads on RB with Geoff remembering the inflatables and atmosphere v Forest were great, the sense of FUN and ENTHUSIASM and MUCKING ABOUT and MAKING A DIN and HAVING A LAUGH at a big game was obvious from their recollections. And from my own memories.

Not one game in 2014/15 came close to matching that. Nowhere near it. I can live without the violence and the barbarity and the police brutality and the people dying of the 1980s, but boy do I miss the fun and enthusiasm and the making a din and the comradeship that we had back then - not every week, but quite often - I'm glad I was around for all that.

That following at Forest was raucous and the biggest I have been amongst following City, more than we were given at Anfield in 94. The atmosphere in the return was fabulous, singing our hearts out way before kick off (and no wretched music drowning us out). The tie being in the balance for 180 minutes helped but we came out of that 0:1 defeat so proud (yes, prowed!) of ourselves, the team, the club and us as a crowd. We could mix it with the big boys, we were more than a mid-table Div 3 side (or so we thought).

A lot of this has been lost now. I do wish people would try to enjoy matchday a bit more, make a bit of noise, be a bit enthusiastic, get behind the team more, develop a sense of humour; not be so bloody serious and not let the football spoil your day out at the football (although, understandably, this season people have had enough). Even gallows humour. Despite the seats and the (necessary) corporate blandness we could do more.

Rekindle the Spirit of that sodden day in 1989!

[Chivs]

2 hours ago, archie andrews said:

I went to Bradford for the quarter final if that helps RS.......

Me too.  And for my money, the atmosphere at Bradford was much better than Forest!  I seem to recall we scored quite early on then "parked the bus" for the remaining 157 minutes.

[Gert Mare]

10 hours ago, Red Army 75 said:

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

so close

What a noise!!!! Proper support for a team of dedicated players who gave everything they had!!!

[Jack Dawe]

9 minutes ago, Cheesleysmate said:

 a team of dedicated players who gave everything they had!!!

In the cup! Not so much in the league.........

[Irish_Red]

I remember standing in the open end and it being absolutely wedged. It pissed down with rain for pretty much the entire game and was soaked to the skin...

Walshy hit the post and remember having a few other chances.

Brian Clough clipped some guy around the head when they ran onto the pitch (am I mixing it up with another match?) also Keith Waugh pulled off a string of good saves. Big thing is it showed that the good times were coming back... Feel that when Joe left for Hearts it set us back years after the promotion...