Forest ready to end 23 years of hurt
On their first trip to Wembley since 1992, Cooper’s side can rekindle the Clough glory days by returning to the top flight
To get a sense of just how far Nottingham Forest have fallen since their pomp under Brian Clough, consider this: 163 English clubs have played cup and play-off games at Wembley since April 1992 – and Forest are not one of them.
It was not always like this, of course. Trips to the home of English football were almost an annual event under Clough, who took the club there in four successive years between 1989 and 1992, but it is now over three decades since their last visit. In that time, the club have almost given definition to the term “sleeping giant”.
The two-time European Cup winners have been exiled from the top flight for 23 years, with a whole generation of supporters condemned to a litany of desperate disappointments, including four play-off defeats – one to Yeovil, now of the National League.
Fans have become wearily accustomed to turbulence and watching teams without a hero, but tomorrow’s play-off final against Huddersfield could be the moment a club, and a city, finally have lift-off.
“There is a real buzz around Nottingham and as the season has gone on, more and more people are coming together,” says Brennan Johnson, one of the stars of this season and a local lad who has been at Forest since the age of eight.
“When you walk around the city, you get a lot of people wishing you well and that really pushes you on even more. It’s been way too long for a club of this size, but we all want to be that team who gets them into the Premier League. We want to be remembered as the players who did it.”
Forest are certainly ready for a new generation of heroes. While grainy footage of Martin O’neill, Garry Birtles and John Robertson sweeping all before them at home and abroad is seared into the brain of every fan, more recent memories are less happy. There was the relegation to League One in 2005, a home defeat by Birmingham City in 2011 which sparked the end of the Steve
Mcclaren experiment and resignation of chairman Nigel Doughty, plus the five-year regime of Kuwaiti businessman Fawaz Al-hasawi, a bewildering period of wasted millions, late payments, countless sackings and an infamous failed eye test kiboshing the signing of attacking midfielder George Boyd.
Expectation and excitement is swirling around the city and 36,475 supporters will fill Wembley’s west end. Depeche Mode’s Just Can’t Get Enough has become the unofficial soundtrack to the season – it has been played after every victorious home match, the brainchild of the club’s head of football operations Ed Henderson – and fans have taken the song’s message to heart.
At the heart of this revival is Steve Cooper, a 42-year-old from Pontypridd who has captured the moment and now has the opportunity to etch his name into Forest’s rich history.
Cooper is the 20th permanent manager since the club’s relegation from the Premiership (it was such a long time ago, even the league has changed name in the interim), with many of his predecessors seemingly unable to cope with the expectation. Many have been weighed down by the pressures: indeed, Joe Kinnear insisted on the club taking photographs of Clough’s miracle men off the walls.
Fear and paranoia has taken hold of some, with one previous manager so spooked by it all that he used to hold meetings with staff in the middle of the training ground pitch to prevent his conversation from being bugged.
Cooper, however, has delivered a remarkable transformation since his appointment in September, when the club were bottom of the Championship table. He has embraced those halcyon days under Clough, and the stirring European nights when anything seemed possible. He is inspired by it.
Cooper was visibly moved during the pre-match rendition of Mull of Kintyre before the second leg of the semi-final against Sheffield United, and has united the fan base.
Birtles, still a regular presence at the City Ground, tells a story of when he was recently invited to
watch Forest train and was struck by how Cooper’s work with the players evoked memories of Old Big ’Ead in his heyday.
“I’ll never forget my first home game against Millwall, we were bottom of the league and there were nearly 26,000 people there,” says Cooper.
“That just told me instantly the size of this club, and the potential. It’s been a magical place to work on match days this season. We are so lucky to all be a part of it.
“We are just looking forward and are trying to create the next chapter here.”
Huddersfield Town, relegated from the top flight in 2019, stand in Forest’s way on their date with destiny. It has to be remembered that Carlos Corberan’s team finished third, above Forest in the table, and will be formidable opponents, doubtless fuelled by the chance to dash the dreams of the romantics.
Yet if Forest do secure the £195million golden ticket with promotion, there will be a tidal wave of euphoria and relief in the red half of Wembley, and beyond. You imagine that the Premier League’s marketing department, for one, will be hoping for a Forest victory given their reputation and resources.
With the backing of owner Evangelos Marinakis, who took over in May 2017, there could even be better times ahead, but the life of a football fan is encapsulated by moments. After 23 years of drift, Forest finally have theirs tomorrow.