It’s Clough justice for Keegan
THE week leading up to a European Cup Final is no time to worry about football.
Certainly not training. Not if you are Brian Clough, anyway.
This Thursday marks the 40th anniversary of Nottingham Forest’s triumph over Kevin Keegan’s Hamburg on May 28 1980.
The 1-0 victory, courtesy of a John Robertson (below) breakaway strike and Peter Shilton’s heroics in goal, capped what was the greatest fairytale in English football history.
A timeline of greatness that will never be forgotten.
Promoted to the First Division in 1977. Champions the following season. European Cup winners against Malmo 12 months later – then defending their title at Madrid’s Santiago Bernabeu.
But in the run-up to the showpiece in the Spanish capital, Forest players were confined to playing pool and darts in Mallorca.
“We didn’t see any footballs until the day before the game,” said Viv Anderson. “We didn’t train. It was all about rest and being ready.
“But we never thought the manager was wrong because we’d won it the year before. Whatever he said went.”
And it worked for Forest in their 79th game of a gruelling campaign.
“All the build-up was about Kevin Keegan. We had won it the year before but now we were the underdogs,” said Anderson.
“They had a strong team and Kevin was the star of it. He was the best player in Europe and all the questions were about how we would deal with him.”
Clough instructed his players not to speak to Keegan in the warm-up or in the tunnel.
Midfielder Kenny Burns was told to keep tabs on him but Anderson insists it wasn’t left solely to the Scot to keep Keegan quiet.
“We changed our system. Instead of 4-4-2 we went with lone striker Garry Birtles up front and played an extra midfielder.
“One up front is all the rage now but Cloughie spotted it back then.
“He told us to, ‘Give that Keegan a knock early on’. Kevin wasn’t a moaner but Kenny gave him a right dig pretty quickly.”
Robertson produced a neat finish in the 20th minute to give his side a lead they held on to for dear life.
“Shilton made four or five top saves,” added Anderson. “But we had Robbo. Cloughie used to say, ‘Our job is to give the ball to the little fat lad on the wing’. He wasn’t quick and he smoked like a chimney but he had a brilliant football brain and knew how to hurt opponents.”
As he proved on the biggest club stage of all.
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