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Nottingham Forest
Nottingham Forest’s five seasons in the
Premiership were as extreme as the nature of their
most famous manager Brian Clough. The team either finished in the top
half or were relegated
and you can’t get more extreme than that and they became known as the
‘yo-yo’ team for
their bouncing between Division One and the Premier League.
Forest never really got time to enjoy their top
flight status after being founder members and
getting off to an historic start when Teddy Sheringham scored the first
Premiership goal on
Sky to beat Liverpool. But the season went into almost immediate
terminal decline afterwards
and six successive defeats deposited them bottom of the table. Selling
Teddy Sheringham, to
Spurs, Darren Wassell to Derby and defensive rock Des Walker to
Sampdoria, after three
games, didn’t help, particularly as adequate replacements weren’t
brought in. Moving son Nigel
back to centre half was something only dad Brian knew the reason for and
the team never
moved off the bottom until 30 January, when victory over Oldham, only
the sixth of the
season elevated them to 21st. Three wins and a draw, the best sequence
of the campaign
took Forest to their highest position, 19th but just two wins in the
rest of the season meant
relegation was a certainty well before the last game. Brian Clough’s
reign also ended, after 18
successful years. Relegation was an entry on his CV that still
couldn’t damage the success he
had with the club.
The club bounced back at the first attempt and had
an amazing 1994–95 enjoying an 11
match unbeaten start that had them second for the whole of October.
Record £2.9 million
Brian Roy formed a formidable scoring partnership with Stan Collymore
but after losing
successive games, to Blackburn and Liverpool, a slump set in and Forest
dropped to fifth
before recovering with victories over Ipswich and a shock win at Old
Trafford. Unfortunately
the team struggled for consistency until spring and that prevented any
impact on the title
race but a run of five consecutive wins took Forest to fifth. After
dropping two points to West
Ham the side won their next four and were up to third, where they
finished at the end of a 13
match unbeaten run.
Stan Collymore left for Liverpool in the summer and
the team failed to build on their third place
despite extending their unbeaten run to a Premiership record 25 games
which left the team
fifth by mid-November. But that run was ended in spectacular fashion
with their 7–0 drubbing
by Blackburn Rovers, the club’s heaviest Premiership reverse, until
they shipped eight goals to
Manchester United in 1999. Five more games without a win meant eighth
place by Boxing Day
and in the second half of the campaign inconsistency, never more than
three games unbeaten,
meant a disappointing finish in ninth.
1997–98 was as bad as it could get. After winning
the opening game Forest’s run of 16 games
without a win meant they were bottom by December. Ten points over
December/January
improved things to 17th but Dean Saunders’ winner at White Hart Lane
was the last moment
of joy for the team and 11 games without a win ensured another
relegation.
Again Forest returned at the first time of asking,
but the First Division champions again found
the top flight uncompromising and after two wins in the opening three
games it was a case of
‘dive, dive, dive’ as 19 games passed without a win. After hitting
bottom, following a draw
with Blackburn, they stayed there.
Pierre van Hooijdonk’s goal beat Everton but there
was only one more win before relegation
was confirmed by April. With the pressure off, Forest played with a
freedom that hadn’t been
evident since ‘Cloughie’ and reeled off three consecutive victories
to recover some pride if not
status.
Managers
Brian Clough
1975–1993
Frank Clark
1993–1996
Stuart Pearce
1996–1997
Dave Bassett
1997–1998
Ron Atkinson
1998–1999 |
