Tribute to two Newcastle fans

I experienced one of those chance meetings in the city today that give you a warm glow and restore a little faith in this cold and cynical world.

I got stopped at the top of Market Street by two young Newcastle fans wanting directions to the City Ground. I told them the way, where they could get a taxi if they didn’t want to walk and how long it would take. They thanked me profusely, shook my hand and set off, wishing me a nice day as they went. And just as they turned to go, another Nottingham guy appeared and said: “I’m going to the match, I’ll show you the way”.

What a welcome change from stories of soccer violence and rude and ignorant young people.

I doubt that they’ll be reading this but I’d like to say thanks to those two young men and to offer my condolences on having come so far to take nothing from the game to comfort them on the long, cold journey back to the North-east.

I’d also like to say… C’mon you Reds. Brilliant win!!

Magpies set to soar

Notts County getting Sven-Goran Eriksson as their Director of Football is undoubtedly a coup for the Football League’s oldest club.

I can’t help thinking that they deserve some success in the near future after spending so long in the shadow of their bigger and more successful rivals across the River Trent. So I hope that the combination of Eriksson and McParland’s skills and experience and the cash of their new owners will see them climb into League One next year and perhaps even challenge Forest in the Championship the year after (although Forest should be in the Premier by then…).

But Erikkson’s position as Director of Football  is a strange one, considering that Ian McParland will remain as manager. The BBC reports that: “the Swede will be responsible for transfer negotiations and scouting, health, fitness and development of players, training facilities, the youth academy and establishing community and overseas links”. With his assistant, Tord Grip also joining the Magpies as a ‘general adviser’, it seems that McParland will only be responsible for day-to-day running of the club and actually picking the team.

That’s fine but it feels a bit like a situation where Alan Sugar or Richard Branson take over the corner shop and are only reponsible for opening up in the morning and ordering the beans.

I hope it works because Notts County – and their loyal fans – deserve it to but I don’t think all their troubles are over yet.

World Cup coming to Nottingham?

Forest's City Ground

It has been reported that Nottingham is bidding to become one of the cities that will stage World Cup matches if the Football Association is successful in its bid to host the 2018 tournament.

Apparently Nottingham Forest’s City Ground will be used to stage matches,  Notts County’s Meadow Lane ground across the river will be used for training and Field Mill in Mansfield will be a park and ride site.

Nottingham Forest and the Thunderer

Apparently, the first whistle made specifically for football referees, the Acme Thunderer, is celebrating its 125th birthday this year… and it was first used at a Nottingham Forest game. There is some dispute about whether this was in 1874 or 1878 but the Nottingham Forest account book of 1872 records the purchase of an ‘umpire’s whistle’.

In the early days of football in England, players would call their own fouls but, as the game became more competitive and ultimately professional, officials began to use a handkerchief to indicate fouls. Of course these are not easily spotted in the heat of play and so some bright spark hit upon the idea of using a whistle instead.

The famous Acme Thunderer

There still seems to be two stories about how the use of the whistles in Nottingham came about. The first is that Forest bought the whistles after being approached by Joseph Hudson (the founder of the Acme Whistle Company) and then introduced them to their games; starting a trend that quickly spread throughout the country. The other version is that a referee at a Forest game, frustrated at not having the control he needed through waving handkerchiefs or flags, borrowed a whistle from someone in the crowd and thus changed history.

Whichever version you like, Nottingham Forest is still the team credited with being one of the sides in the first ever match where a whistle was used. Congratulations to them and to the Acme Thunderer.

C’mon you Reds!

Audible sighs of relief were heard around the city last night as Norwich’s defeat guaranteed that Nottingham Forest will stay in the Championship for at least one more season.

But the fact that we are only one match away from the end of this year’s nail-biting football league journey and that it was the poor performance of another team (even worse than that of Forest) that brought statistical relief to stressed Reds’ fans, is yet another testament to Nottingham’s ability to so often snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

Although it may seem that it’s the other way round at the moment, this phrase seems a reasonable summary of the long-term journey of Nottingham Forest over the last 40 years or so. After a period of some success in the late 60’s, Forest languished in relative mediocrity until the heady days of the late 70’s when the winning of the League Cup in 1978 signalled a the start of a period of unparalleledsuccess. They claimed the League Championship in the same year and the European Cup twice in 1979 and 1980 (with the Super Cup, the League Cup – again – and even the Charity Shield thrown in for good measure around the same time). And all under the enigmatic and mercurial leadership of Brian Clough.

For many teams these achievements would have been the start of fame, fortune and enduring success… but not for Forest. As Clough lost his touch, they were relegated from the Premier League after 16  years of top flight football and began a period in the football wilderness (despite two more  short stays in the Premier League) that continues to this day.

The sad truth is that Forest are not – and probably never will be - a fashionable, popular or consistently successful club. The people of Nottingham don’t have the passion for football that we see in the North East, in London, in Manchester or Liverpool and this seems to be reflected in the fortunes of the team. Even at the height of their European and domestic success, the crowds at Forest games were meagre by comparison with their big name rivals and it always felt as if the bubble would burst pretty soon. 

It’s almost as if there’s a club motto which says: “Success is very nice and we like it very much, but it’s not the be-all and end-all of life.” So top-class players come and they go, as do the championships and the trophies, and it’s almost as if this is all we can expect. It seems that Forest are a small-time, provincial, not-too-bad-if-you-get-them-on-the-right-day football team that we really shouldn’t expect too much of. So we don’t…. and we’re not disappointed.

But it could be worse. We could live in Derby.