We both scored hat-tricks... but I got to ref first to claim the ball!
Kevin GALLACHeR keeps returning to words such as ‘unbelievable’ and ‘dumbfounded’, and it’s no wonder. He is recalling an extraordinary Coventry City-nottingham Forest League Cup game from 1990 in which he scored a first- half hat-trick for the hosts, only for nigel Clough to score one for Forest — also before half-time.
Gallacher’s hat-trick helped put Coventry 4-0 ahead. Clough’s led to Forest bringing the score back to 4-4.
After that Steve Livingstone scored what was to be the winner for Coventry. There was almost half an hour left but no more goals: presumably everyone was exhausted.
‘it was all a bit of a daze by then,’ Gallacher says of the end. ‘i felt like i’d been slapped around the head.
‘i remember looking up at the old Highfield Road scoreboard and seeing 5-4. And i remember getting to the referee before nigel Clough to get the match ball. i’ve still got it somewhere. But aye, what a game, unbelievable.’
For Forest it was all too believable. it was the first time in 23 League Cup ties dating back three years that they had lost. They had beaten Luton Town at Wembley in the 1988 final and Oldham Athletic in 1989. Forest were on for a hat-trick of cups and given they had beaten Coventry in the previous season’s semi- final, were confident.
But then, no one could have foreseen this. ‘When you look at our team, it was a really attacking line-up,’ Gallacher says. ‘Maybe that’s why we went looking for a winner at 4-4. We could hardly have gone defensive.’
Having met in the two-legged semi-final in February in the 19891990 competition, plus two top division league games, this was the fifth match between the clubs in nine months. Gallacher had only arrived in January from Dundee United. He was getting
used to english football and Midlands life, and repeatedly facing Stuart Pearce was part of the winger’s introduction.
Pearce, who joined Forest from Coventry, ‘caught me in the lower back,’ Gallacher says of their first encounter. ‘i had to get back up and play to get his respect and the respect of our players. So to score a hat-trick with me on the right and him left back, i imagine not many did that.’
Signed for Coventry by John Sillett, Gallacher knew the club mainly through the 1987 FA Cup triumph. Sillett, John Curtis and the chairman John Poynton sold Coventry City to Gallacher as ‘a family club’. That was what he found. ‘ They were genuine men and they didn’t oversell the club. it was a side that was not going to win the league but which could hold its own mid-table and could win cup ties.’
But just a fortnight before this game, Sillett was replaced suddenly by Terry Butcher, signed as player-boss from Rangers. This was Butcher’s third game and came five days after Gallacher’s 24th birthday.
The scoring began on 14 minutes when Gallacher pounced on a goal-line clearance from a David Speedie diving header. One minute later Cyrille Regis sent Gallacher beyond the Forest back four and his cross- shot fooled Forest keeper Mark Crossley.
The third on 28 minutes, from Livingstone, came after a mix-up between Pearce and Des Walker. Six minutes later Gallacher had his hat-trick, swivelling on to a Peter Billing header and volleying in. it was a whirlwind.
Clough, who had already hit the bar, pulled one back immediately. Four minutes before half-time he beat Coventry keeper Steve Ogrizovic again with a belter.
Clough then completed an eight- minute hat- trick after Ogrizovic spilled a Pearce cross. From 4-0 on 35 minutes, it was 4-3 at half-time.
A whole eight minutes of the second half passed before there was another goal. it was a Forest equaliser, scored by Garry Parker. And then, on 62 minutes, came the decider. Livingstone got it, nodding in after a Regis shot had been blocked.
Two minutes from time, nigel Jemson nearly made it 5-5 but Coventry held on. Brian Clough, Forest manager, looked furious.
in the next round, Coventry lost to eventual winners Sheffield Wednesday.
There was a mini pitch-invasion in the tight stadium and Gallacher, who now runs coaching schools near Blackburn, thinks selling Highfield Road was ‘the turning point’ in Coventry’s recent strife. ‘They should never have done it.’ But this was one of the old, gone ground’s best nights. ‘Mad,’ he says.