The odd couple
When Wolves stunned Forest in the 1980 League Cup final, John Barnwell plotted the upset and John McGovern was crestfallen. Now they live in the same block of flats overlooking the Trent!
NEIGHBOURS John McGovern and John Barnwell usually avoid talking about the 1980 League Cup final but they have made an exception with former clubs Nottingham Forest and Wolves meeting again in the quarter-finals tonight.
As the victorious Wolves manager 43 years ago, Barnwell played host in his smart apartment overlooking the River Trent with Brian Clough’s Forest captain McGovern walking the few yards from the same block for a coffee and catch-up.
The final at Wembley is still memorable and not only because it remains Wolves’ last major trophy. Forest went in as hot favourites as European Cup holders and winners of the previous two League Cups but were undone when their England goalkeeper Peter Shilton collided with defender David Needham to gift Britain’s most expensive player, Andy Gray, a tap-in for the only goal. ‘Andy could have been a two-year- old kid and scored that,’ says McGovern, the pain of defeat not completely erased.
‘There was a mix-up. Our two players went for the same ball. Peter blamed David — he blamed everyone else for goals he let in because he was perfect — but I don’t know what the goalkeeper was doing out there. Andy was a lucky b*****d and you can quote me on that!’
Barnwell, now 84, listens intently but does not think the final was won on fortune alone. ‘Forest had the better team and we had to work out a way of stopping their dangerman John Robertson. We doubled up on him,’ he recalls. ‘Peter Daniel was instructed to stay in front of Robertson and cut the supply, and to hit a long ball into Gray when possible. If he had not hit that pass, Forest wouldn’t have made the mistake.’
On Robertson’s importance to Forest’s success, McGovern is in complete agreement. ‘He was the best player in our side. Shilton and Trevor Francis might disagree but they don’t know what they are talking about! The rest of the team would say John Robertson,’ he suggests. ‘Wolves hustled us and we can’t have any complaints. Without that mistake, we’d have gone into extra time, a replay and ended up winning.’
There were plenty of huge characters involved in that final and none bigger than the legendary Clough, who McGovern played for at Hartlepool, Derby, Leeds and Forest.
Barnwell chuckles at the mind games the managers played on each other. ‘I booked a hotel for the final in Southgate ( north London) before Cloughie could get it for his team. On the eve of the game two of his staff, Ronnie Fenton and Alan
Hill, pulled up as well. Brian had booked them in to keep an eye on us.
‘At Wembley, my plan was to annoy Cloughie and keep him waiting in the tunnel so when the organisers knocked on our dressing room door to come out, I shouted back, “When we’re ready”. Unfortunately, the plan didn’t work. By the time we reached the tunnel, Clough and Peter Taylor were already sitting in the dug-out — they had decided to let their trainer Jimmy Gordon lead the team out.’ McGovern (below) remembers the unsung Gordon getting the honour. ‘It was a nice gesture,’ he says. ‘ Jimmy was a sergeantmajor type, T-shirt and shorts on a freezing January morning, shouting, “It’s good to be alive!” ‘He would try to run the socks off us but most of the time Cloughie would tell him to get us in the bath, saying, “They will suffer enough on Saturdays”.
‘One of Clough’s skills was to deliver a short, sharp message that went through you like a bolt of electricity. Once at Derby, we played Wolves, who had a good midfield player called Mike Bailey. The manager told me before the game, “If Mike Bailey gets a kick tonight, I am going to come on the pitch and f***ing kick you”. It was succinct but worked.’ Wolves’ marquee players in 1980 were Gray and skipper Emlyn Hughes. ‘I ran the team off the pitch, they ran it on the pitch,’ says Barnwell admiringly. ‘I signed Gray from Aston Villa because he didn’t get on with manager Ron Saunders. Doug Ellis the chairman liked the fee (£1.5m) and I knew Ron wouldn’t block it.’
Seeing Hughes go up to lift the cup was particularly hard for McGovern. He admits: ‘I was thinking, “Anyone but him”. We’d had history with Emlyn from our European Cup battles with Liverpool. We were beating them 1-0 in the first leg at the City Ground and Emlyn was going round saying, “One won’t be enough when you come to Anfield”.
‘Then Colin Barrett scored a late second. Every one of our players went up to Emlyn at full time to ask him, “Will two be enough?”’
Barnwell remembers relief being the overriding emotion at the final whistle. The previous year, he had been fighting for his life after a car accident that left the rearview mirror embedded in his skull.
His calm demeanour at the final whistle led to Wolves’ greatest manager, Stan Cullis, writing him a letter congratulating him for his decorum and not leaping about.
Barnwell, who had played for Forest in the Sixties, carried the cup to a hotel next to Wembley where the team had agreed to meet post-match and they then headed to Wolverhampton for a reception at the Mount Hotel.
Both men have stayed close to the game. Barnwell was chief executive of the League Managers’ Association for many years and McGovern, 73, is a Forest ambassador who attends their matches, home and away. Often, they travel together as families to matches at the City Ground.
Both teams are competing to stay in the Premier League this season and cannot be compared to the great sides they had in the early Eighties. Nonetheless, McGovern and Barnwell see this cup tie as a big deal.
McGovern says: ‘I don’t think it’s a distraction. It’s exciting to have a cup run and if you ask most fans, their dream is to see their team in a final at Wembley. We didn’t find it a hindrance. We got to five cup finals and won four.’
Barnwell agrees. ‘It’s so long since Wolves won a trophy so this is important,’ he says. ‘It’s a oneoff game that doesn’t have to be put in the context of the league, that’s a different issue. It will be fascinating.’
For McGovern, the defeat by Wolves in 1980 was softened by retaining the European Cup in May when Robertson scored the winner against Hamburg. He recalls: ‘The manager tried to keep the mood light afterwards because we had a big tie against Dynamo Berlin a few days later. We went to East Germany and won 3-1. Trevor Francis had a stormer. Next time I see John, can we talk about that one instead?’