Nottingham Forest F.C.

Nottingham Forest F.C.

Full name	Nottingham Forest Football Club
Founded	1865 (1865)[1]
Ground	City Ground
Ground Capacity	30,576
Owner	The Al Hasawi Family
Chairman	Fawaz Al-Hasawi
Manager	Dougie Freedman
League	The Championship
2014–15	The Championship, 14th
Website	Club home page
Home colours Away colours Third colours

Nottingham Forest Football Club is an football club in Nottinghamshire, England, which plays in the Football League Championship, the second tier of English football. The club, often referred to as Forest, have played home matches at the City Ground, West Bridgford, since 1898.

Founded in 1865, Forest were founder members of the Football Alliance in 1889 and joined the Football League in 1892. Forest won the FA Cup in 1898 and 1959. Their most successful period was under the management of Brian Clough between 1975 and 1993, winning the League, back to back European Cups, four League Cups and two Full Members Cups. The club has been outside the Premier League since 1999.

History

Early years (1865–1975)

Nottingham Forest F.C. was founded in 1865 by a group of Bandy and Shinty players,^[2] as Nottingham Forest Football and Bandy Club^[3] shortly after their neighbours Notts County, thought to be the world's oldest surviving professional association football club, in 1862. They joined the Football Alliance in 1889 and won the competition in 1892.^[4] They then entered to The Football League. In 1890, Forest moved to the Town Ground, playing in the first ever match to use goal nets.^[5]

The 1898 FA Cup-winning team

Forest claimed their first major honour when they won the 1898 FA Cup, beating Derby County 3–1 at Crystal Palace.^[6] The club spent most of the first half of the twentieth century in the Second Division. In 1949, they were relegated to the Third Division but were promoted two years later as champions.^[7]

Forest regained First Division status in 1957 and won the FA Cup for a second time in 1959, defeating Luton Town at Wembley.^[8]

After being runners-up in the League and FA Cup semi-finalists in 1967, Forest were relegated from the First Division in 1972 after a 15-year stay.^[9]

Brian Clough (1975–1993)

Brian Clough managed Nottingham Forest for 18 years.

Despite their two FA Cup wins and a runners-up finish in the top flight as recently as 1967, Forest were generally considered an underachieving club by English league standards until the mid-1970s, when Brian Clough and his assistant Peter Taylor took the helm at the club, shortly after Clough's highly colourful, very controversial and ultimately disastrous 44-day tenure as manager of Leeds United. Clough became the most successful manager in the history of Nottingham Forest, taking them to unprecedented heights. He had won the league title with Forest's neighbours Derby County in 1972, and came to Nottingham Forest on 6 January 1975, after a 0–2 home defeat by Notts County, on Boxing Day, prompted the committee (Forest had no board of directors then) to sack the previous manager Allan Brown. Clough's first game in charge was the third round FA Cup replay against Tottenham Hotspur, a 1–0 victory thanks to a goal by Scottish centre-forward Neil Martin.

Nottingham Forest won promotion to the top division at the end of the 1976–77 season after finishing third in the Second Division, but no-one could have predicted how successful Clough's team would be over the next three seasons. Nottingham Forest became one of the few teams (and the most recent team to date) to win the English First Division Championship a year after winning promotion from the English Second Division (1977–78 season).^{[nb 1]} In 1978–79, Forest went on to win the European Cup by beating Malmö 1–0 in Munich's Olympiastadion and retained the trophy in 1979–80, beating Hamburg 1–0 in Madrid, at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, thanks to an outstanding performance by goalkeeper Peter Shilton, signed from Stoke City early in the 1977–78 season. They also won the European Super Cup and two League Cups. Beside Shilton, key players of that era included right-back Viv Anderson (the first black player to play for the England national team), midfielder Martin O'Neill; striker Trevor Francis (English football's first million-pound player on his arrival at Forest in February 1979) and a trio of Scottish internationals: winger John Robertson, midfielder Archie Gemmill and defender Kenny Burns. The club reached the semi-finals of the UEFA Cup in 1983–84 but were knocked out by Anderlecht in controversial circumstances. More than a decade later, it emerged that in the second leg, the Belgian club had bribed the referee but the referee in question had since died in a car accident and was hence not able to be held to account.^[10]

Nottingham Forest's next major trophies came in 1989 when they won the Football League Cup and the Full Members Cup. For most of the season they had been competing for all three English cup competitions available at the time, but their hopes of a unique cup treble ended when they lost to Liverpool in the replay of the FA Cup semi-final, originally held at Hillsborough, where 96 Liverpool fans were crushed to death on terracing, the match was abandoned after six minutes. They also finished third in the league in 1989, and had occupied the same final position a year later, although they had never looked like serious title contenders in either campaign; Liverpool had been runaway leaders for most of the 1987–88 season, and Forest had been table at Christmas the following campaign before climbing into the division's upper reaches with their strong post-Christmas form. By the end of the 1980s, Forest's European Cup winning stars were all long gone, and their new stars included high-scoring midfielder Neil Webb (sold to Manchester United for a million-plus fee in July 1989), left-back Stuart Pearce, central defender Des Walker and striker Nigel Clough (son of Brian Clough).

Clough's side retained the League Cup in 1990 when they beat Oldham Athletic 1–0; the winning goal scored by Nigel Jemson. There was chance for more success in 1991 when Forest reached their only FA Cup final under Brian Clough and went ahead after scoring an early goal against Tottenham Hotspur at Wembley, but ended up losing 2–1 in extra time after an own goal by Des Walker. In Forest's team that day was young Irish midfielder Roy Keane, who had joined the club the previous summer.

In the summer of 1991, Brian Clough broke Forest's transfer record fee by signing the league's top scorer, Millwall striker Teddy Sheringham, for £2.1million.

Forest beat Southampton 3–2 in the Full Members Cup final in 1992, but then lost to Manchester United in the League Cup in the same season, both finals being played by a Forest team much weakened by injuries. This meant that Forest had played in six cup finals in four seasons, winning four of them.

Forest finished eighth in the league that season to take a place in the new FA Premier League, but their prospects of succeeding in the new league were hit by the pre-season loss of players like Des Walker and Darren Wassall, and the sale of Teddy Sheringham a few games into the new season.

Brian Clough's 18-year reign as manager ended in May 1993 after Forest were relegated from the inaugural Premier League after 16 illustrious years of top-flight football which had seen a league title, two European Cups and four League Cups. Relegation from the Premier League was also followed by the departure of midfielder Roy Keane to Manchester United for a British record fee of £3.75million.

Frank Clark (1993–1996)

Frank Clark, who had been a left-back in Nottingham Forest's 1979 European Cup winning team, returned to the club in May 1993 to succeed Brian Clough as manager. His management career had previously seen promotion from the Fourth Division with Leyton Orient in 1989 as his greatest distinction. Making key signings including Stan Collymore, Colin Cooper, Lars Bohinen, and convincing Stuart Pearce to remain at the club, Clark was able to achieve a return to the Premier League when the club finished Division One runners-up at the end of the 1993–94 season.^[11] Forest finished third in 1994–95^[12] and qualified for the UEFA Cup – their first entry to European competition in the post-Heysel era. Despite the pre-season loss of striker Stan Collymore to Liverpool for a national record fee of £8.5million, Forest did reach the quarter-finals, the furthest an English team reached in UEFA competitions that season, although they slipped to ninth position in the league. The 1996–97 season quickly became a relegation battle and Clark left the club in December.^[13]

Stuart Pearce and Dave Bassett (1997–1999)

34-year-old captain Stuart Pearce was installed as player-manager on a temporary basis just before Christmas in 1996 and he inspired a brief upturn in the club's fortunes. However, in March 1997 he was replaced on a permanent basis by Dave Bassett and left the club that summer after 12 years.^[14] Forest were unable to avoid relegation and finished the season in bottom place.^[15] They won promotion back to the Premier League at the first attempt, being crowned Division One champions in 1997–98.^[16] Bassett was sacked in January 1999, with Ron Atkinson replacing him.^[17]

Into the 21st century (1999–2012)

Ron Atkinson was unable to prevent Forest from once again slipping back into Division One, and announced his retirement from football management when Forest's relegation was confirmed on 24 April 1999, with three weeks of the Premier League seasons still to play.

Former England captain David Platt succeeded Atkinson and spent approximately £12 million on players in the space of two seasons, including the Italian veterans Moreno Mannini, Salvatore Matrecano and Gianluca Petrachi.^[18] However, Forest could only finish 14th in Platt's first season and 10th in his second. He departed in July 2001 to manage the England U-21 side and was succeeded by youth team manager Paul Hart.

Chart of yearly table positions of Forest since joining the Football League.

^[19]Now faced with huge debts, which reduced Forest's ability to sign new players, they finished 16th in Hart's first season in charge.^[20] By December 2001, Forest were reported as losing over £100,000 every week,^[21] and their financial outlook was worsened by the collapse of ITV Digital, which left Forest and many other Football League clubs in severe financial difficulties.^[22] Despite the off-field difficulties, Forest finished 2002–03 in sixth place^[23] and qualified for the play-offs, where they lost to Sheffield United in the semi-finals. A poor league run the following season, following the loss of several key players, led to the sacking of Hart in February 2004 with Forest in danger of relegation.^[24] The decision was unpopular with certain quarters of the fanbase and Hart was described as a 'scapegoat'.^[25]

Joe Kinnear was subsequently appointed and led the club to a secure 14th place in the final league table.^[26] The 2004–05 season saw Forest drop into the relegation zone once more, leading to Kinnear's resignation in December 2004.^[27]Mick Harford took temporary charge of Forest over Christmas, before Gary Megson was appointed in the new year. Megson had already won two promotions to the Premier League with his previous club West Bromwich Albion, having arrived at the club when they were in danger of going down to Division Two, but failed to stave off relegation as the club ended the season second from bottom in 23rd place,^[28] becoming the first European Cup-winners ever to fall into their domestic third division.^[29]

In Forest's first season in the English third tier in 54 years, a 3–0 defeat at Oldham Athletic^[30] in February 2006 led to the departure of Megson by "mutual consent" leaving the club mid-table only four points above the relegation zone.^[31] Frank Barlow and Ian McParland took temporary charge for the remainder of the 2005–06 season, engineering a six-match winning run and remaining unbeaten in ten games, the most notable result a 7–1 win over Swindon Town.^[32] Forest took 28 points from a possible 39 under the two, narrowly missing out on a play-off place, as they finished in 7th place.^[33]

Colin Calderwood, previously of Northampton Town, was appointed as Forest's new manager in May 2006. He was their 12th new manager to be appointed since the retirement of Brian Clough 13 years earlier, and went onto to become Forest's longest-serving manager since Frank Clark. The Calderwood era was ultimately one of rebuilding, and included the club's first promotion in a decade. In his first season he led the club to the play-offs, having squandered a 7-point lead at the top of League One which had been amassed by November 2006. Forest eventually succumbed to a shock 5–4 aggregate defeat in the semi-finals against Yeovil Town; they had taken a 2–0 lead in the first leg at Huish Park, but were then beaten 5–2 on their own soil by the Somerset club.^[34] Calderwood achieved automatic promotion in his second year at the club, following an impressive run which saw Forest win six out of their last seven games of the season, culminating in a dramatic final 3–2 win against Yeovil at the City Ground. Forest kept a league record of 24 clean sheets out of 46 games, proving to be the foundation for their return to the second tier of English football and leaving them just one more promotion away from a return to the Premier League.

However, Calderwood's side struggled to adapt to life in the Championship in the 2008–09 campaign and having been unable to steer Forest out of the relegation zone, Calderwood was sacked following a Boxing Day 4–2 defeat to the Championship's bottom club Doncaster Rovers.^[35]

Under the temporary stewardship of John Pemberton, Forest finally climbed out of the relegation zone, having beaten Norwich City 3–2.^[36] Billy Davies, who taken Forest's local rivals Derby County into the Premier League two seasons earlier, was confirmed as the new manager on 1 January 2009^[37] and watched Pemberton's side beat Manchester City 3–0 away in the FA Cup,^[38] prior to taking official charge. Under Davies, Forest stretched their unbeaten record in all competitions following Calderwood's sacking to six matches, including five wins. He also helped them avoid relegation as they finished 19th in the Championship,^[39] securing survival with one game to go.

Forest spent most of the 2009–10 campaign in a top-three position, putting together an unbeaten run of 20 league games, winning 12 home league games in a row (a club record for successive home wins in a single season), going unbeaten away from home from the beginning of the season until 30 January 2010 (a run spanning 13 games) whilst also claiming memorable home victories over local rivals Derby County and Leicester City. The club finished third, missing out on automatic promotion, and in the two-legged play-off semi-final were beaten by Blackpool, 2–1 away and 4–3 in the home leg, the club's first defeat at home since losing to the same opposition in September 2009.

The 2010–11 season saw Forest finish in sixth place in the Championship table with 75 points,^[40] putting them into a play-off campaign for the fourth time in the space of eight years. Promotion was yet again to elude Forest, as they were beaten over two legs by eventual play off final winners Swansea City. Having drawn the first leg 0–0 at the City Ground,^[41] they were eventually beaten 3–1 in the second leg.^[42]

In June 2011 Billy Davies's contract was terminated,^[43][44] and he was replaced as manager by Steve McClaren, who signed a three-year contract.^[45][46] Forest started the 2011–12 season with several poor results and after a 5–1 defeat away to Burnley, David Pleat and Bill Beswick left the club's coaching setup.^[47] Less than a week later, following a home defeat to Birmingham City McClaren resigned, and chairman Nigel Doughty announced that he intended to resign at the end of the season.^[47] In October 2011, Nottingham Forest underwent several changes. These changes included the appointment of Frank Clark as new chairman of the club and also that of Steve Cotterill, replacing the recently departed Steve McClaren.^[48]

Nigel Doughty: Nottingham Forest owner 1999–2012

Nigel Doughty, owner and previous chairman of the club, died on 4 February 2012, having been involved with the club since the late 1990s, with many estimating his total contribution as being in the region of £100million.^[49]

The Al-Hasawi reign (2012–present)

The Al-Hasawi family, from Kuwait, purchased the club and became the new owners of Nottingham Forest in July 2012.

The Al-Hasawi family told press that they had a long-term vision for the club based around a 3–5-year plan, and after interviewing several potential new managers, appointed Sean O'Driscoll, formerly manager at Doncaster Rovers and Crawley Town, as the manager on 19 July 2012 after a second round of talks with the then Crawley man. He was known for playing an attractive brand of passing football (which had taken Doncaster Rovers into the league's second tier for the first time since the 1950s) and what football fans would consider the Forest way.^[50] O'Driscoll had spent 5 months at the City Ground as Coach under Steve Cotterill in the 2011–12 season before taking over at Crawley. After taking over at Crawley, O'Driscoll never took charge of a single competitive game.

By 15 December 2012, after the team's 0–0 draw away at Brighton, Forest sat in 9th position with 33 points, just 3 points off the play-off positions. The Al-Hasawi's 3–5-year plan had turned into a push for the play-offs in their first season as the Nottingham Forest owners. On the same weekend, the club announced that Omar Al-Hasawi had stepped down due to personal reasons and Fawaz Al-Hasawi, the majority shareholder with 75% stepped into the position,^[51] with his brother Abdulaziz Al-Hasawi holding a 20% share and his cousin Omar Al-Hasawi holding a 5% share.

On Boxing Day 2012 manager Sean O'Driscoll was sacked following a 4–2 victory over Leeds United with the club stating their intentions of a change ahead of the January transfer window and hopes of appointing a manager with Premiership experience.^[52] The man to replace O'Driscoll was Alex McLeish.^[53] The move was criticised by some members of the Forest fan base.^[54] Chief executive Mark Arthur as well as scout Keith Burt and club ambassador Frank Clark were dismissed in January 2013.^[55] On 5 February 2013 Nottingham Forest and Alex McLeish had parted company by mutual agreement, just 40 days after McLeish took charge of Forest.^[56] Forest supporters and pundits alike registered their concern for the state of the club,^[50] with journalist Pat Murphy describing the situation as a "shambles".^[57]

Two days after McLeish's departure, the club re-appointed Billy Davies as manager, having been sacked as the team's manager twenty months previously.^[58] His first match in charge was a draw,^[59] followed by a run of 10 undefeated games. In March 2014 the club terminated Davies' employment, following a 5–0 defeat by Derby County.^[60] Neil Warnock turned down the job as Forest manager on the day Davies was sacked. After initially rejecting the job in March 2014,^[61] fans favourite Stuart Pearce was named the man to replace Billy Davies, taking over from caretaker manager Gary Brazil. He signed a two-year contract commencing on 1 July 2014. Pearce led Forest to an unbeaten start to the season but failed to keep up the form. He was sacked in February 2015 and replaced by another former Forest player, Dougie Freedman. Another mid table finish means that Forest will begin the 2015–16 season still in the Championship and now in their 17th season away from the Premier League.

Club identity

Crest and colours

Nottingham Forest have worn red since the club’s foundation in 1865. At the meeting in the Clinton Arms which established Nottingham Forest as a football club, the committee also passed a resolution that the team colours should be ‘Garibaldi red’.^[62] This decision was made in honour of Giuseppe Garibaldi, the Italian patriot who was the leader of the redshirts party. At this time, clubs identified themselves more by their headgear than their shirts and a dozen red caps with tassels were duly purchased, making Forest the first club to ‘officially’ wear red, a colour that has since been adopted by a significant number of others. Forest is the reason behind Arsenal's choice of red, having donated a full set of red kits following Arsenal's foundation in 1886. Forest's tour of South America in 1905 inspired Independiente to adopt red as their club colour, after the Argentine club's President Arístides Langone described the tourists as looking like diabolos rojos ("red devils"), which would become Independiente's nickname.^[63]

The first club crest used by Forest was the city arms of Nottingham, which was first used on kits in 1947.^[64] The current club badge was introduced in 1974.^[64] The logo has been reported as being the brainchild of manager Brian Clough.^[65] However, he did not arrive at the club until the year after. Forest have two stars above the club badge to commemorate the European Cup victories in 1979 and 1980.^[66]

Nomenclature

The club has garnered many nicknames over time. Historically, the nickname of "Foresters" was used,^[68] as was "Garibaldis".^[69] "The Forest"^[70] or the simpler "Forest" – as used on the club crest – is commonly used, as is "the Reds". Another, lesser-used, nickname referring to the club is the "Tricky Trees".^[71][72] Nottingham Forest is often incorrectly referred to as Notts Forest. This moniker has been used for a long time, in local, national and international media, much to the intense annoyance of Forest fans.^{[61][70][73][74][75]}

Stadiums

Since 1898 Nottingham Forest have played their home games at the City Ground in West Bridgford, on the banks of the River Trent. Since 1996 the stadium has been all-seater, a preparation that was made in time for the ground to be a venue for Euro 96, and currently has a capacity of 30,602, making it the 24th largest football stadium in England.

The City Ground is 300 yards away from Notts County's Meadow Lane stadium, on the other side of the Trent. The two grounds are the closest professional football stadia in England and the second closest in the United Kingdom after the grounds of Dundee and Dundee United. When built, the ground was within the boundaries of Nottingham, which had been made a city the previous year and gave rise to the name of the stadium. A boundary change in the 1950s meant that the City Ground is now no longer within the city of Nottingham whilst Notts County's ground is.

Prior to moving into the City Ground, Forest played their home games at Forest Recreation Ground, then Trent Bridge, and finally the purpose-built Town Ground.

Nottingham forest were forced to sell the City Ground to Nottingham City Council and now lease the stadium

Local rivals, derbies and supporters

Whilst Notts County is the closest professional football club geographically, Forest have remained at least one division higher since the 1994–95 season and the club's fiercest rivalry is with Derby County, located 14 miles away.^[76] The two clubs contest the East Midlands derby, a fixture which has taken on even greater significance since the inception of the Brian Clough Trophy in 2007. Leicester City are Forest's other East Midlands rival due to the close proximity of the two cities.

Forest's other regional rival is Sheffield United, based in the neighbouring county of South Yorkshire, a rivalry which has roots in the UK miners' strike 1984-85 when the miners of South Yorkshire walked out on long strikes but the Notts Miners, who insisted on holding a ballot, continued to work. The exciting 2003 Football League Championship Play-off semi final between the two clubs, in which Sheffield United finished as 5–4 aggregate winners, also fuelled the rivalry.

Forest's fanbase includes a host of celebrity supporters, including fashion designer Paul Smith,^[77] England international cricketer Stuart Broad,^[78] boxer Carl Froch,^[79][80] golfers Lee Westwood^[81] and Oliver Wilson,^[82] footballers Alex Baptiste^[83] Tom Cairney,^[83] Shaun Barker^[84] and Patrick Bamford,^[85] ice hockey player Miika Wiikman,^[86] Doctor Who actor Matt Smith,^[87] politicians Kenneth Clarke, Dan Jarvis and Michael Dugher,^[88][89][90] Manic Street Preachers singer James Dean Bradfield,^[91][92] actor Jason Statham,^[93] Brazilian football manager Luiz Felipe Scolari,^[94] actor Joe Dempsie,^[95] artist and musician David Shrigley,^[96] comedian Matt Forde,^[97] skater Christopher Dean, TV & radio presenter Richard Bacon,^[98] The Pogues guitarist Phil Chevron,^[99] actress Su Pollard^[100] and actor Arsher Ali.^[101]

Honours

Domestic

League

• First Division^{[nb 2]}

Winners (1): 1977–78

• Second Division^{[nb 3]}

Winners (3): 1906–07, 1921–22, 1997–98

• Third Division

Winners (1): 1950–51

• Football Alliance

Winners (1): 1891–92

Cups

• FA Cup

Winners (2): 1897–98, 1958–59

• Football League Cup

Winners (4): 1977–78, 1978–79, 1988–89, 1989–90

• FA Charity Shield

Winners (1): 1978

• Full Members Cup

Winners (2): 1988–89, 1991–92

European

• European Cup

Winners (2): 1978–79, 1979–80

• UEFA Super Cup

Winners (1): 1979

Worldwide

• Intercontinental Cup^[102]
  • Runners-up (1): 1980

Minor

• Anglo-Scottish Cup

Winners (1): 1977

• Bass Charity Vase

Winners (3): 1899, 2001, 2002

• Brian Clough Trophy

Winners (6): 2009 (29 August), 2010 (29 December), 2011 (22 January), 2013 (28 September), 2015 (17 January), 2015(6 November)

• Dallas Cup

Winners (1): 2002

• Football League Centenary Tournament

Winners (1): 1988

• Nuremberg Tournament

Winners (1): 1982

• Trofeo Colombino Cup

Winners (1): 1982

• Trofeo Villa de Bilbao

Winners (1): 1979^[103]

Managers

#	Manager	From	To	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	Won %	Drawn %	Lost %
1	Harry Radford	1 Aug 1889	31 May 1897	176	69	34	73	39.2%	19.3%	41.5%
2	Harry Haslam	1 Aug 1897	31 May 1909	462	188	104	170	40.7%	22.5%	36.8%
3	Fred Earp	1 Aug 1909	31 May 1912	120	35	26	59	29.2%	21.7%	49.2%
4	Bob Masters	1 Aug 1912	31 May 1925	385	108	97	180	28.1%	25.2%	46.8%
5	John Baynes	1 Aug 1925	31 May 1929	182	69	47	66	37.9%	25.8%	36.3%
6	Stan Hardy	1 Aug 1930	31 May 1931	43	14	9	20	32.6%	20.9%	46.5%
7	Noel Watson	1 Aug 1931	31 May 1936	223	79	57	87	35.4%	25.6%	39.0%
8	Harold Wightman	1 Aug 1936	31 May 1939	119	33	27	59	27.7%	22.7%	49.6%
9	Billy Walker	1 May 1939	1 Jun 1960	650	272	147	231	41.8%	22.6%	35.5%
10	Andy Beattie	1 Sep 1960	1 Jul 1963	140	52	30	58	37.1%	21.4%	41.4%
11	Johnny Carey	1 Jul 1963	31 Dec 1968	267	99	65	93	38.5%	25.3%	36.2%
11	Matt Gillies	1 Jan 1969	20 Oct 1972	177	49	48	80	27.7%	27.1%	45.2%
13	Dave Mackay	2 Nov 1972	23 Oct 1973	44	13	14	17	29.5%	31.8%	38.6%
14	Allan Brown	19 Nov 1973	3 Jan 1975	57	20	17	20	35.1%	29.8%	35.1%
15	Brian Clough	3 Jan 1975	8 May 1993	968	447	258	263	46.2%	26.7%	27.2%
16	Frank Clark	13 May 1993	19 Dec 1996	178	73	58	47	41.0%	32.6%	26.4%
17	Stuart Pearce	20 Dec 1996	8 May 1997	23	7	9	7	30.4%	39.1%	30.4%
18	Dave Bassett	8 May 1997	5 Jan 1999	77	30	20	24	42.9%	26.0%	31.2%
19	Micky Adams	5 Jan 1999	11 Jan 1999	1	0	0	1	0.0%	0.0%	100.0%
20	Ron Atkinson	11 Jan 1999	16 May 1999	17	5	2	10	29.4%	11.8%	58.8%
21	David Platt	1 Jul 1999	12 Jul 2001	103	37	25	41	35.9%	24.3%	39.8%
22	Paul Hart	12 Jul 2001	7 Feb 2004	135	42	44	49	31.1%	32.6%	36.3%
23	Joe Kinnear	10 Feb 2004	16 Dec 2004	44	15	15	14	34.1%	34.1%	31.8%
24	Mick Harford	16 Dec 2004	10 Jan 2005	6	2	1	3	33.3%	16.7%	50.0%
25	Gary Megson	10 Jan 2005	16 Feb 2006	59	17	18	24	28.8%	30.5%	40.7%
26	Frank Barlow Ian McParland	17 Feb 2006	30 May 2006	13	8	4	1	61.5%	30.8%	7.7%
27	Colin Calderwood	30 May 2006	26 Dec 2008	109	52	33	24	47.7%	30.3%	22.0%
28	John Pemberton	27 Dec 2008	4 Jan 2009	2	2	0	0	100.0%	0.0%	0.0%
29	Billy Davies	4 Jan 2009	12 Jun 2011	126	53	36	37	42.1%	28.6%	29.4%
30	Steve McClaren	13 Jun 2011	2 Oct 2011	13	3	3	7	23.1%	23.1%	53.8%
31	Steve Cotterill	14 Oct 2011	12 Jul 2012	38	12	7	19	31.6%	18.4%	50.0%
32	Sean O'Driscoll	20 Jul 2012	26 Dec 2012	26	10	9	7	38.5%	34.6%	26.9%
33	Alex McLeish	27 Dec 2012	5 Feb 2013	7	1	2	4	14.3%	28.6%	57.1%
34	Billy Davies	7 Feb 2013	24 Mar 2014	59	25	22	13	42.3%	35.6%	22.0%
35	Gary Brazil	24 Mar 2014	3 May 2014	9	2	2	5	22.2%	22.2%	55.6%
36	Stuart Pearce	1 Jul 2014	1 Feb 2015	32	10	10	12	31.25%	31.25%	37.5%
37	Dougie Freedman	1 Feb 2015	Present	52	18	16	18	34.6%	30.8%	34.6%

Records

• Most appearances for the club (in all competitions): 692 – Bob McKinlay (1951–1970)^[104]
• Most goals for the club (in all competitions): 217 – Grenville Morris (1898–1913)
• Highest attendance: 49,946 Vs. Manchester United in Division 1, 28 October 1967
• Lowest attendance: 4,030 Vs. Morecambe F.C. in the Football League Cup, 13 August 2008
• Record receipts: £499,099 Vs. FC Bayern Munich in UEFA Cup quarter final 2nd leg, 19 March 1996
• Longest sequence of league wins: 7, wins from 9 May 1922 to 1 September 1922
• Longest sequence of league defeats: 14, losses from 21 March 1913 to 27 September 1913
• Longest sequence of unbeaten league matches: 42, from 26 November 1977 to 25 November 1978
• Longest sequence of league games without a win: 19, from 8 September 1998 to 16 January 1999
• Longest sequence of league games without a goal: 7, 13 December 2003 to 7 February 2004 and 26 November 2011 to 31 December 2011
• Quickest goal:
  • League: 14 seconds,^[105] Jack Lester vs Norwich City, 8 March 2000
  • League Cup: 23 seconds,^[106] Paul Smith vs Leicester City, 18 September 2007 in the League Cup.¹
• Record win (in all competitions): 14–0, Vs. Clapton (away), 1st round FA Cup, 17 January 1891
• Record defeat (in all competitions): 1–9, Vs. Blackburn Rovers, Division 2, 10 April 1937
• Most league points in one season
  • 2 points for a win: 70, Division 3 South, 1950–51
  • 3 points for a win: 94, Division 1, 1997–98
• Most league goals in one season: 110, Division 3, 1950–51
• Highest league scorer in one season: Wally Ardron, 36, Division 3 (South), 1950–51
• Most internationally capped player: Stuart Pearce, 76 for England (78 total)
• Youngest league player: Craig Westcarr, 16 years, Vs. Burnley 13 October 2001
• Largest Transfer fees paid: £5,000,000 to Peterborough United for Britt Assombalonga^[107]
• Largest transfer fee received: £8,500,000 from Liverpool for Stan Collymore^[108]

¹ By agreement with Leicester City. The game was a replay as the original match three weeks previous was abandoned at half time, due to the collapse of Leicester player Clive Clarke, with Forest leading 1–0.^[109]

European record

Season	Competition	Round	Opponent	Home	Away	Aggregate
1961–62	Inter-Cities Fairs Cup	First round	Valencia	1–5	0–2	1–7
1967–68	Inter-Cities Fairs Cup	First round	Eintracht Frankfurt	4–0	1–0	5–0
		Second round	FC Zürich	2–1	0–1	2–2 (A)
1978–79	European Cup	First round	Liverpool	2–0	0–0	2–0
		Second round	AEK Athens	5–1	2–1	7–2
		Quarter Final	Grasshopper	4–1	1–1	5–2
		Semi Final	Köln	3–3	1–0	4–3
		Final	Malmö FF	1–0
1979	European Super Cup		Barcelona	1–0	1–1	2–1
1979–80	European Cup	First round	Öster	2–0	1–1	3–1
		Second round	Argeş Piteşti	2–0	2–1	4–1
		Quarter Final	Dynamo Berlin	0–1	3–1	3–2
		Semi Final	Ajax	2–0	0–1	2–1
		Final	Hamburg	1–0
1980	European Super Cup		Valencia CF	2–1	0–1	2–2 (A)
1980	Intercontinental Cup		Nacional	0–1
1980–81	European Cup	First round	CSKA Sofia	0–1	0–1	0–2
1983–84	UEFA Cup	First round	Vorwärts Frankfurt	2–0	1–0	3–0
		Second round	PSV Eindhoven	1–0	2–1	3–1
		Third round	Celtic F.C.	0–0	2–1	2–1
		Quarter Final	Sturm Graz	1–0	1–1	2–1
		Semi Final	R.S.C. Anderlecht	2–0	0–3	2–3
1984–85	UEFA Cup	First round	Club Brugge	0–0	0–1	0–1
1995–96	UEFA Cup	First round	Malmö FF	1–0	1–2	2–2 (A)
		Second round	Auxerre	0–0	1–0	1–0
		Third round	Lyon	1–0	0–0	1–0
		Quarter Final	Bayern Munich	1–5	1–2	2–7

Players

Current squad

As of 22 January 2016^[110]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 1 GK Dorus de Vries 2 DF Eric Lichaj 3 DF Bojan Jokić (on loan from Villareal) 4 DF Michael Mancienne 5 DF Matt Mills 6 DF Kelvin Wilson 7 FW Matty Fryatt 8 MF Chris Cohen (captain) 9 FW Britt Assombalonga 10 MF Henri Lansbury (vice-captain) 11 MF Andy Reid 13 DF Danny Fox 15 MF Ryan Mendes (on loan from Lille) 17 FW Nélson Oliveira (on loan from Benfica)

No. Position Player 19 FW Jamie Ward 22 MF Gary Gardner (on loan from Aston Villa) 23 FW Dexter Blackstock 24 MF David Vaughan 25 DF Jack Hobbs 26 GK Dimitar Evtimov 29 FW Chris O'Grady (on loan from Brighton) 31 DF Daniel Pinillos 32 MF Robert Tesche 34 FW Tyler Walker 35 MF Oliver Burke 37 MF Jorge Grant 38 MF Ben Osborn

Under 21's named to first team squad

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 40 DF Alex Iacovitti 41 FW Gerry McDonagh

No. Position Player 43 GK Ross Durrant

Out on loan

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 21 FW Jamie Paterson (on loan to Huddersfield Town until the end of the 2015–16 season) 27 MF Chris Burke (on loan to Rotherham United until the end of the 2015–16 season) — GK Richard Dearle (on loan to Grantham Town until the end of the 2015–16 season) — MF Deimantas Petravičius (on loan to Stevenage until 23 February 2016) — MF Josh Rees (on loan to Torquay United until the end of the 2015–16 season)

No. Position Player — GK Jordan Smith (on loan to Nuneaton Town until the end of the 2015–16 season) — MF Luke Thomas (on loan to Hemel Hempstead Town until 15 February 2016) — FW Nikolay Todorov (on loan to Hemel Hempstead Town until 15 February 2016) — FW Lars Veldwijk (on loan to PEC Zwolle until the end of the 2015–16 season) — DF Joe Worrall (on loan to Dagenham & Redbridge until 6 March 2016)

Notable former players

Player of the Year

Former club captain and manager Stuart Pearce won the Player of the Year award three times, a record he holds jointly with Des Walker.
Kenny Burns, Nigel Clough, Andy Reid and Chris Cohen are the only players to win the award twice.
Andy Reid holds the record for longest gap between Player of the Year awards with a gap of ten years.

Year Winner 1977 Tony Woodcock[111] 1978 Kenny Burns[111] 1979 Garry Birtles[111] 1980 Larry Lloyd[111] 1981 Kenny Burns[112] 1982 Peter Shilton[112] 1983 Steve Hodge[112] 1984 Chris Fairclough[112] 1985 Jim McInally[112] 1986 Nigel Clough[112] 1987 Des Walker[112] 1988 Nigel Clough[112] 1989 Stuart Pearce[112] 1990 Des Walker[113] 1991 Stuart Pearce[113] 1992 Des Walker[113] 1993 Steve Sutton[113] 1994 David Phillips[113] 1995 Steve Stone[113] 1996 Stuart Pearce[113]

Year Winner 1997 Colin Cooper[113] 1998 Pierre van Hooijdonk[113] 1999 Alan Rogers[113] 2000 Dave Beasant[114] 2001 Chris Bart-Williams[114] 2002 Gareth Williams[115] 2003 David Johnson[116] 2004 Andy Reid[117] 2005 Paul Gerrard[118] 2006 Ian Breckin[119] 2007 Grant Holt[120] 2008 Julian Bennett[121] 2009 Chris Cohen[122] 2010 Lee Camp[123] 2011 Luke Chambers[124] 2012 Garath McCleary[125] 2013 Chris Cohen[126] 2014 Andy Reid[127] 2015 Michail Antonio[128]

All-time XI

Shilton

Walker

Burns

Anderson

Pearce

O'Neill

Gemmill

Storey-Moore

Robertson

Keane

Francis

Nottingham Forest F.C. All-time First XI

In 1997 and 1998, as part of the release of the book The Official History of Nottingham Forest, a vote was carried out to decide on the club's official All Time XI.^[129]

Position	Player	Years at club
GK	Peter Shilton	1977–82
RB	Viv Anderson	1974–84
RCB	Des Walker	1984–92; 2002–04
LCB	Kenny Burns	1977–81
LB	Stuart Pearce	1985–97
RCM	Martin O'Neill	1971–81
ACM	Roy Keane	1990–93
LCM	Archie Gemmill	1977–79
RW	Ian Storey-Moore	1962–72
CF	Trevor Francis	1979–81
LW	John Robertson	1970–83; 1985–86

International players

• See List of Nottingham Forest F.C. international footballers

Club officials

Board of directors

Role	Nat	Name
Chairman & Owner		Fawaz Mubarak Al-Hasawi
Co-owner		Abdulaziz Mubarak Al-Hasawi

Technical staff

Role	Nat	Name
Manager		Dougie Freedman
Assistant Manager		Lennie Lawrence
First Team Coach		Paul Williams
Goalkeeping Coach		Steve Sutton
Physiopherapist		Steve Devine
Sports Science & Medicine Manager		Andrew Balderston
Under 21 Manager		Jimmy Gilligan
Under 21 Goalkeeping Coach		Ian Bennett
Academy Manager		Gary Brazil
Youth Development Coach		Jack Lester
Youth Development Coach		Tom Mallinson
Lead Foundation Coach		Richard Meek
Pre Academy Age Group Coordinator		Russ Lovett
Head Academy Scout		Tasos Makis
Academy Scout		Dave Webster
Academy Scout		Jim Higgins
Football Analyst		John Warhurst
Football Analyst & Scout		Omar Yabroudi
Kit Manager		Terry Farndale
Medical Consultant		Dr Frank Coffey

Notes

1. ↑ The others were Liverpool in 1906, Everton in 1932, Tottenham Hotspur in 1951 and Ipswich Town in 1962. Forest remain the only club to achieve this feat having not been promoted as champions.
2. ↑ From 1888 to 1992 the Football League First Division was the top tier of English football. It was superseded by the Premier League in 1992.
3. ↑ Upon its formation in 1992, the Premier League became the top tier of English football; the First and Second Divisions then became the second and third tiers, respectively. The First Division is now known as the Football League Championship and the Second Division is now known as Football League One.

References

External links

• Official website