TOP-FLIGHT CRASH WAS NOT A JOKE
NOTTINGHAM FOREST are looking to end a 23-year absence from the top flight of English football today.
And they will be hoping their next stay in the Premier League will be better than the last one.
It all looked so promising when Dave Bassett engineered a promotion from the Championship but then it all kicked off when star man Pierre van Hooijdonk went on strike.
The season then descended into chaos after a 19-match winless streak.
Bassett was canned in favour of Ron Atkinson – who announced himself to the City Ground faithful by standing in the wrong dug-out in his opening game against Arsenal.
Assistant boss Micky Adams watched on from the sidelines with a mixture of confusion, anger and frustration as Forest dropped into the Championship with barely a whimper.
He said: “I arrived at the club one month after the club had been promoted – but it wasn’t a happy place.
“Van Hooijdonk (below) was causing problems
– he hadn’t completed any pre-season training – but we thought we may have turned a corner when we went to Finland for a camp.
“Dave Bassett didn’t travel back with the team so it was left to assistant boss Mick Kelly and myself to bring them home.
“We were at the back of the plane – the lads were at the front.
“It was in the summer, it was full and they were noisy but not rowdy.
“We were about an hour into the journey when, all of a sudden the intercom went off something like this, ‘Bing bong – brace, brace, we’re going to crash, brace, brace.’ “Everyone started screaming, kids were crying. It was bedlam. The plane was in uproar.
“But I looked up and saw our left-back, Alan Rogers, nipping into he toilet. Mick looked at me and said, ‘That was Rogers.’
“He’d been watching the stewardesses make their announcements and thought he’d have some fun. It wasn’t fun for those on board, let me tell you.
“The cabin crew were livid. I don’t know how charges weren’t brought.
“They would have been these days.
“To make matters worse, the chairman was on board. “He gave us a monstrous dressing down and the club was banned from flying with that company for years afterwards.
“And that little stunt cost Rogers two weeks’ wages.” Eventually, and despite a change of manager – to Atkinson – demotion to the second tier was inevitable.
The schisms had turned into cracks too big to bridge for even the former Manchester United chief. Adams said: “Even though it turned out to be such a disappointment, it’s difficult for me to look back on my time with Forest with anything but fondness.
“It’s got all the ingredients to be successful and if they can return to the Premier League it will be long overdue.
“I’m sure it will turn out better in 2022 than it did when I was there.”
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