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First County Visit:	Wednesday 7th October 1992
Competition:	Coca-Cola Cup – (Round 2 – 2nd Leg)
Result:	Nottingham Forest 2 – 1 Stockport County
Attendance:	15,573
Away Trip:	61
Away Day:	243
County Line-up	1 Neil Edwards; 2 Paul Masefield (12 Darren Knowles); 3 Lee Todd; 4 David Frain; 5 Dave Miller; 6 Bill Williams; 7 Jim Gannon; 8 Peter Ward; 9 Kevin Francis (14 Andy Preece); 10 Chris Beaumont; 11 John Muir
Scorer:	Chris Beaumont
Manager:	Danny Bergara
County Visits:	6

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IN THE PRESENCE OF A LEGEND

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I can remember vividly on our first black and white television in the late 50’s and early 60’s watching the adventures of Robin Hood and hearing about the evil Sheriff of Nottingham.  However, it was a place I’d hardly been to before our trip in the League Cup in 1992.  I recall going to Trent Bridge for a Benson & Hedges Cup semi-final and seeing the incomparable Richard Hadlee beating Lancashire almost single-handedly.  But beyond that I’d never been near the place. It’s strange in the latter years in my working career I was driving down to Nottingham three times a week so became very familiar with the city and its environs.   

I imagine that most football fans are very familiar with the fact that the City Ground and Meadow Lane, the home of Notts County, are within a stone’s throw of each other. And Trent Bridge, the home of the County Cricket Club is a matter of yards away as well. You can almost throw a blanket over three major sporting arenas.   Everybody knows that the two Old Trafford’s are with a couple of hundred yards of each other and I also I remember going to Dundee and seeing Tannadice and Dens Park on the same street so there are places where there are two sporting arenas very close but I imagine that there’s very few places where there are three . And when you throw in Colwick Park racecourse as well which isn’t too far away that makes it four. A small area is truly a haven of sporting activity.

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By 1992 watching County had become far more of a pleasure than it had been previously. The arrival of Danny Bergara in 1989 had seen us take steps upwards. There had been promotion and trips to Wembley.    I’d enjoyed watching us on grounds which were previously only known by watching the TV. Going to the City Ground gave us the opportunity to play on yet another European Cup winning team’s stadium.

We’d previously played at Old Trafford and Anfield with Forest yet another one. These were the temples of the English game. It also gave us the opportunity to pit our wits against a manager I regard as one of the finest in my times watching football. Brian Clough had a remarkable record.  As it turned out this was to be his last season at Forest, but his record was quite unbelievable. The only trophy that had escaped him was the FA Cup in his time at the City Ground, and he had created a team which made a provincial club into European Champions, and twice to boot!  A pretty contentious character undoubtedly; very self-opinionated; massively controversial but hugely successful. In the first leg at EP he had been accorded a hero’s welcome.

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Clough was an outstanding manager. When I look back over the years going back to my youth at all the great managers such as Busby, Paisley, and Shankly there is a common feature. And even the great ones in recent years.  Mourinho, with Premier League titles at Chelsea; Klopp at the moment; Wenger; and, much is it grieves me to say it, Ferguson with his amazing record at Old Trafford. All of them were not great players in the context that is generally defined.

Which gets me onto one of my hobby horses. I am bemused that really outstanding players seem to think they can move into management at the highest level and succeed. It doesn’t often happen. You can think about Robson when he went to Middlesbrough; Neville at Valencia and even closer to home at EP. Palmer and Hartford, both internationals, came to manage us but were not suited to the managerial role.

So, I’ve always believed that a great player does not a great manager make. Clough was a pretty good player.  After all his goal-scoring record was phenomenal, (267 goals in 296 club appearances), but he only picked up 2 international caps.   But without brooking any argument he has been one of the great managers.  As a little aside here during the lockdown due to the coronavirus I watched ‘The Damned United’. It’s a film about Clough’s time at Leeds – all 44 days of it – and from my perspective is highly recommended.  

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This was a double decker construction which dwarfed the rest of the ground at that time. On the far side of the pitch from us was the Main Stand. This had remained unchanged for about 25 years. In 1967 there have been a fire which required its reconstruction, but it didn’t have the presence or size that one would normally associate for a Premier League ground.

To our left was the Bridgford End.  It had been a large open terrace until the previous summer, but a new stand was being constructed on our first visit.   On later visits Jeff and I sat in there and it certainly offered a better perspective and height than the fairly low-down seat that we had in the bottom tier the Executive Stand. Behind the far goal stood the Trent End. This was a covered terrace and undoubtedly created a pretty decent atmosphere. That again was replaced shortly after our visit and for later games at the City Ground always struck me as a pretty imposing construction.   Much of the investment was being undertaken in preparation for the Euro 96 games which were being held there. 

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It had been demolished just prior to my first visit, with construction of the new stand, (with its quirky roof-line) in progress

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I liked it as a ground. Some years later when visiting Meadow Lane that was also decent arena. Two good grounds all within the space of 400 yards, and three if you include Trent Bridge which I think is a superb cricket arena.  On those later visits the Bridgford End had been completed. As with the executive stand there were two tiers, but the strange thing was the roof line.  As it met the main stand the roof dipped. Research tells me this was one of the planning conditions.  It had to be lower at that point so as to allow sufficient light onto the houses which stood.  It provided for a bit of individuality.  There’s an interesting video which traces the history of the City Ground.

A little digression at this point. I’ve mentioned Trent Bridge once or twice already. I had a great day there not watching England; not watching Nottinghamshire nor not watching Lancashire. Back in 2000 my oldest son Robert was in his last year at primary school. The school cricket team had qualified for the National Schools finals day. It was held at Trent Bridge and brought together primary schools from all over England. Rob attended Russell Scott primary school in Denton. 

Now Denton is a small town in Tameside on the eastern edges of Manchester. Most people describe it as working class. The opposition that day were from schools down in the South of England and they all turned up in posh blazers and caps, with matching cricket gear.  They looked just the part. The Russell Scott team together with parents and teachers presented a much different picture.  A bunch of “raggy arsed” kids. It was a great day. We cheered them onto the semi-final, where quite frankly they were cheated. The boys from the prep and public schools must have been shocked. Being dumped out of the competition by these “ruffians from oop north” hadn’t been on the agenda.

Before the game the teams were warming up, I got one of the very few freebies I’ve ever had at football.  Coca Cola were the sponsors of the League Cup back then and they had provided series of match balls, (what I always termed a ‘casie’ in my youth!).  These were kicked into the crowd. Paul Masefield whose very brief County career had begun only a week or so previously, (and didn’t last much longer), launched one of these balls towards us and it fell into my welcoming arms.   It’s never been used and is still up in the loft!!

We didn’t expect much out of the game having lost the first leg 3-2. Forest were a Premier League team. Indeed 1992/93 was the first season of the Premier League and Forest had actually featured in the very first televised game on Sky against Tottenham about six weeks previously. It turned out to be a defeat, but we weren’t disgraced. It was 5 years before we were to return, and this time it was on the level terms of being a league game. Forest had dropped a division and we had been promoted.

I only recount that game because it provided me, (and indeed all other County fans who travelled that day), with the sole sighting in a County shirt of one Geoff Aunger. There had been nothing in the press about a new player, and to be frank it wouldn’t have meant much anyway. It turned out that Aunger was a seasoned Canadian international, (45 caps),who had spent all his career in the Canadian Soccer League aside from two very unsuccessful and brief spells at Luton and Chester. He came on as a sub that afternoon at the City Ground; was barely noticeable and was never seen again.

Mention of his name got me to research just how many of the 737 players I’ve seen turn out have been seen for just a single substitute appearance. The list on The Players page and runs in at 37 names. Glancing at them I note that one was Jimmy Goodfellow, who signed prior to the 1978/79 season; promptly got injured and only appeared the once. I mention him because County announced in the last couple of weeks, (I am writing thi in May 2020), that he had sadly passed away.

It was never the most successful of grounds. The table below shows 2 draws from 6 visits. In truth that’s not entirely accurate. On my penultimate trip we drew a League Cup game which went to penalties. The shoot-out was a long drawn out affair, but as with virtually every sudden death decider in which we have featured over the years it went the way of the opposition. The records show that we have faced a penalty shoot out on six occasions, with the only victory being at Crewe in the Auto Windscreens Trophy in 1997.

May 2020

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VISITS

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Day	Date	Competition	Tier / Round	Opponents	Res	F	A	Crowd	Away Day
Wed	07/10/92 (Highlights)	Coca-Cola Cup	Round 2 – 2nd Leg	Nottingham Forest	L	1	2	15,573	243
Sat	20/12/97 (Highlights)	Nationwide Football League – Division 1	Tier 2	Nottingham Forest	L	1	2	16,701	373
Sat	23/10/99	Nationwide Football League – Division 1	Tier 2	Nottingham Forest	D	1	1	15,770	413
Mon	16/04/01	Nationwide Football League – Division 1	Tier 2	Nottingham Forest	L	0	1	23,500	446
Wed	12/09/01	Worthington Cup	Round 2	Nottingham Forest	D	1	1	5,432	449
Sat	29/09/01	Nationwide Football League – Division 1	Tier 2	Nottingham Forest	L	1	2	17,580	452

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ON MY JOURNEY WITH COUNTY AROUND 180 GROUNDS

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Previously – DEVA STADIUM Next stop – GOLDSTONE GROUND