Cloughie said: Give the ball to Robbo.. he’ll do the rest

IT was the moment Brian Clough’s ugly duckling became a fully-fledged swan.

John Robertson, the butt of so many of Clough’s one-liners, was about to stamp his name all over Nottingham Forest folklore.

In first-half stoppage time, Robbo whipped one of his trademark crosses to the far post and Trevor Francis, football’s first £1million player, flew through the air to head it home.

And while Francis justified his massive price tag in one instinctive moment, the Scot had confirmed Clough’s frequently stated observation that he was a footballing genius.

Forest led Malmo 1-0 and it stayed that way, securing Clough and his team’s unlikely place in history.

Robertson was to guarantee his cult status 12 months later with the goal that saw off Hamburg to give Forest backto-back European Cups.

But there’s no doubt it was that night in Munich when Clough’s ‘Tramp’ became a thing of beauty.

Robertson admits that had it not been for the maverick manager’s arrival, he might easily have drifted out of football.

Clough loved him despite all the put-downs about his weight, smoking and questionable dress sense.

“Whenever I felt a bit off-colour, I’d go and sit next to John Robertson – then I looked like Errol Flynn,” said Clough.

And he’d told Francis, hefty price tag or not: “Don’t worry too much about what to do, just give the ball to Robbo and he’ll do the rest.”

And so it proved as Francis raced in at the far post to meet a Robbo cross which had taken out the Swedish club’s packed defence and their goalkeeper.

The stars were aligned. Francis was under pressure to produce in his first European Cup game after Clough made the massive call of putting him straight in ahead of Martin O’Neill, who had been carrying an injury.

Francis admitted even in that split-second he knew the eyes of the world were on him and was desperate to justify his selection.

He heard the net ripple and the elation numbed any sense of pain Francis might have felt from bouncing on to the shot put circle right at the side of the goal. Robertson producing a quality cross had never been in question and that’s why Clough loved him. He revealed: “People ask me if I was his favourite, but it was more a case of I liked him and I think he liked me.

“He rescued my career, there’s no shadow of a doubt in my mind. I was going nowhere. I had let myself go a bit and thought nobody cared about me.

“If he hadn’t come to Forest, I think I’d have quite likely drifted out of the game.

“Whether he was making fun of me being a scruff, my smoking or my weight... looking back I probably quite liked the attention.”

Robertson went on to become O’Neill’s trusted right -hand man in management.

And the Irishman admits Clough’s description from their early days in the City Ground dressing room was spot-on.

“He said ‘that lad’s a bloody genius’,” said O’Neill. “The genius he was referring to was John Robertson.

“It was the highest compliment by one of football’s greatest ever managers.

“There’s no doubt about it, John deserved the accolade.”

‘He rescued my career. I was going nowhere’