It went Pierre shaped last time Forest returned to the EPL
Striker on strike was just part of the chaos at the City Ground 23 years ago
Micky Adams can vividly remember Nottingham Forest’s last crazy season in the English top flight.
And the former assistant boss hopes if the club make it back there again next season, it’s a less chaotic experience this time round.
Forest can end their 23-year absence from the Premier League if they win the Championship play- of f against Huddersfield today.
Adams recalls the out- ofcontrol Forest players from his day causing aircraf t emergencies, trashing rooms and going on strike.
And he’s confident it will be a story of success if they get there under innovative boss Steve Cooper.
It all looked so promising at the start for Adams.
Dave Bassett engineered p romot i o n f rom the Championship and had stuffed his Forest side with Scots Andy Gray, Chris Doig, Dougie Freedman, Richard Gough and Nigel Quashie for the top-flight battle.
But trouble ignited when former Celtic striker Pierre Van Hooijdonk went on strike. And it then descended into chaos after a 19-match winless streak.
Bassett was canned for Ron Atkinson – who announced himself to the City Ground faithful by standing in the wrong dugout in his opening game against Arsenal.
Adams watched on from the sidelines with a mixture of confusion, anger and frustration as Forest dropped back into the Championship with barely a whimper.
He said: “I arrived one month after the club had been promoted – but it wasn’t a happy place.
“Van Hooi jdonk wa s causing problems – he hadn’t completed a pre-season – but we thought we may have turned a corner when we went to Finland for a camp.
“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 full and the lads were noisy but not rowdy.
“About an hour into the f light all of a sudden, the intercom went off something like this: ‘ Bing bong. Brace, brace, we’re going to crash.’
“Ev e r y o n e started screaming, kids were crying. The plane was in uproar.
“I looked up and saw our left-back Alan Rogers nipping to the toilet. Mick said: ‘ That was Rogers.’
“He’d been watching the s t ewa rdes s e s make their announcements and thought he’d have some fun.
“The cabin crew were livid. I don’t know how charges weren’t brought.
“The chairman was on board and gave us a monster dressing-down. The club were banned from flying with that company for years. And it cost Rogers two weeks’ pay.”
Despite that, a decision was taken later that season to lift spirits with a warmweather break in Portugal.
It seems someone hadn’t learnt their lesson. Adams said: “We were having dinner at the hotel and I saw Rogers steal my colleague’s room key.
“Clearly, some of the players planned to trash his room but we caught them in the act, bang to rights.
“Rogers, Ian Woan and a few others had turned his bed upside down, tied the arms of his tracksuits, unplugged the television.
“Next day Mick fined them two weeks’ wages and told them, as they’d broken the bed, the hotel wanted £1500.
“After training Rogers sheepishly walked over and handed over the cash.
“Unknown to the players, there was nothing wrong with the bed. They headed up to their rooms and Mick turned to me and started counting out the money: ‘One for you, one for me.’
“It was years before Rogers found out about it.”
Despite Atkinson’s best efforts, relegation was inevitable. But Adams said: “It’s difficult to look back with anything but fondness.
“It’s got all the ingredients to be successful and if they 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.”