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

[Gert Mare]

11 minutes ago, Jack Dawe said:

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

We raised our game for the cup but it instilled a belief that we could compete and the following year we went up!

[ukneil]

Oh how I love these type of threads, reminiscing is about all I have left at the mo what with being several thousand miles away and not having been to a game for far too many years!

I went to both legs, on my own as a 16 year old on Cats to the 'City Ground' - remember arriving very excited - cue the old bill coming on giving it the 'no spitting, no swearing' etc speech but after a couple of seconds of thinking 'what the ....' soon back into hyper excited high spirits.  Into the ground on the terracing, seem to remember being close to the corner under the old-fashioned giant floodlight?  Non-stop singing, amazed we had fans all down the bottom tier of the main stand as well, loved the Daddy's Boy chant at Clough jnr, then total carnage when we scored - suddenly became best friends with the guy in a brown leather jacket standing next to me as we jumped up and down going mental for quite a long time!  Obviously disappointed with the own goal but still amazed at the end we had come away from a draw - back to my Dad's and watching the recorded ITV highlights 3-4 times in a row!

Home leg - went this time with friends from College but for some reason I had bought a ticket for the Dolman while they ended up in the open end next to the Forest fans.  So ready to sing and go mental again after a few tins travelling to the game but ended up sitting on my hands for most of it so as not to disturb the boring old farts around me!  Do remember walking past the Forest fans in the Dolman, couple of girlies against the railing shouting Parker's name, thought I should point out to them something along the lines of 'you are supporting the wrong team there'.  Ultimately disappointing but what the cup run it was, they did us proud didn't they?  One of my mates told me about his 'half-time orange' that didn't make it that far, narrowly missing the big-mouthed Forest fan standing on one of the crush-barriers.  Oh and watching the game again that I had recorded - being very proud of the blow-up dolls being shown off in full view of the temporary TV box, then a mixture of silly youthful pride then somewhat more mature cringe as the coins and stones started raining down on it after the final whistle! 

I have done my fair share of lower-league games and first round Anglo-Italian, Tin-Pot Trophy games etc but we all dream about games like this don't we?  Nothing quite like the atmosphere - and definitely include games against the Rovers in that, although after all the 'gap' years that would seem like a nightmare scenario for all of us I guess!