EUROPEAN CUP DOUBLE 40 YEARS ON THE VIEWPARK BOY WHO MADE FOREST KINGS OF CONTINENT
Clough mesmerised by Robertson’s wizardry as English side registerd back-to-back European Cup triumphs
“That lad’s a bloody genius,” said legendary football manager Brian Clough.
He was speaking to one of his players, Northern Irishman Martin O’neill, but pointing in the direction of a Scotsman sitting in the team dressing room.
That Scotsman was John Robertson, a left-winger born in Viewpark who Clough recognised as one of the best players in his Nottingham Forest side.
Once describing the North Lanarkshire lad as “the Picasso of our game”, Clough was mesmerised by Robertson’s wizardry on the wing.
But the Forest gaffer didn’t quite realise how big a role Robertson would play as the club made history by lifting the European Cup back-toback in 1979 and 1980.
It was around this time 41 years ago that Clough’s side played the first European final against Swedish champions Malmö.
En route to the final, Forest had dumped two-time champions Liverpool out of the competition and Robertson had become one of the most-feared attackers in Europe.
Just before half-time, Robertson beat two Swedish defenders on the left wing and crossed to the far post for Trevor Francis – football’s first £1 million player – to head the only goal of the game into the net.
Lifting European football’s top trophy was an incredible feat for the relatively-small English club, and to win it again for the second consecutive season seemed unthinkable.
Yet, Clough’s side went on a run and beat Ajax in the semi-finals to set up a final date with West German side Hamburger SV.
Held at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium in Madrid on May 28, 1980, Nottingham Forest fielded a team that included Robertson and four other Scots – Frank Gray, captain
John Mcgovern, Kenny Burns and substitute John O’hare.
Robertson squeezed a shot past Hamburg keeper Rudolf Kargus for the only goal of the game, which also meant that Forest became the first club that had won the European Cup more times than their domestic first division.
For star player Robertson, the match-winning glory didn’t stop there in his career.
He scored the winning goal, a penalty, for Forest in the 1978 Football League Cup final replay against Liverpool.
The winger also amassed 28 caps for the Scotland national team, scoring the winning goal against England in 1981 and also a crucial winner against New Zealand in the 1982 World Cup.
It’s no surprise that Robertson’s captain at Forest, John Mcgovern, later said: “John Robertson was like Ryan Giggs but with two good feet, not one.
“He had more ability than Ryan Giggs, his ratio of creating goals was better and overall he was the superior footballer.”
Becoming close friends with Forest team-mate Martin O’neill, Robertson became his trusted righthand man and moved into coaching alongside him.
It is 20 years last week since he took up the No.2 post at Celtic with O’neill, and his last role was assistant manager at Aston Villa between 2006 and 2010.
O’neill admitted that Brian Clough’s description of Robertson as being a “bloody genius” from their early days at Nottingham Forest was spot on.
“It was the highest compliment by one of football’s greatest-ever managers,” said O’neill.