50 Fun Facts About Nottingham Forest

Nottingham Forest were founded in 1865 at a meeting in the Clinton Arms by players of which sport?

Shinty: the stick-and-ball players backed J. S. Scrimshaw's proposal to take up association football instead, and at the same meeting ordered a dozen tasselled red caps.

Forest's 'Garibaldi red' colours honour Giuseppe Garibaldi, leader of which volunteer force?

The Italian Redshirts: clubs were then told apart by their headgear, so the founders' tribute to Garibaldi's volunteers began as a dozen red caps with tassels rather than shirts.

Which club, founded in 1886 with former Forest players in its ranks, took its red from Forest's colours?

Arsenal: ex-Forest men such as Fred Beardsley helped start the Woolwich club and chose its colours; the old tale that Forest posted them a full set of red shirts is disputed by Arsenal's own historians.

Forest's Sam Weller Widdowson is credited with inventing which piece of football kit in 1874?

Shin pads: Widdowson, also a Nottinghamshire cricketer, cut down a pair of cricket pads and strapped them outside his stockings; today the Laws of the Game make them compulsory.

Forest's presumed name comes from Forest Racecourse, historically part of what?

In their early years Forest were a multi-sport club whose baseball team were British champions in 1899.

Turned down by the Football League in 1888, Forest won which rival competition in 1892 before being admitted?

The Alliance: the Football Alliance was set up in 1889 as a rival to the League, and when the two merged in 1892 its last champions, Forest, went straight into the First Division.

Forest's first FA Cup win in 1898 was 3-1 over which club, who had beaten them 5-0 five days earlier?

Derby County were strong favourites after that 5-0 win, but Forest had rested six of their cup side for it, and Arthur Capes scored twice in the final.

Forest's all-time record goalscorer, with 213 goals, is which early 20th-century forward?

He was the club's top scorer for five seasons in a row after Forest's first relegation in 1906.

Which Forest right-back is celebrated as the first black footballer to win a full England cap, in 1978?

Viv Anderson, born in Nottingham, made his debut against Czechoslovakia that November while Forest were league champions, and later became Alex Ferguson's first signing at Old Trafford.

Roy Dwight, who scored and broke his leg in the 1959 FA Cup final, was the cousin of which musician?

Reg Dwight became Elton John; Forest hung on with nine fit men to win 2-1.

Which manager, in charge since 1939, led Forest to the 1959 FA Cup before retiring the following year?

Billy Walker had already won the Cup as Sheffield Wednesday's manager in 1935, and in the 1959 semi-final his Forest side knocked out Aston Villa, the club he had captained as a player.

Johnny Carey's 1966-67 Forest side lost an FA Cup semi-final to which club?

Tottenham Hotspur won 2-1 with goals from Jimmy Greaves and Frank Saul and went on to lift the Cup, so a Forest side that also finished runners-up in the league ended the season with nothing to show for it.

Brian Clough arrived at Forest in January 1975, months after being sacked following 44 days at which club?

Leeds United, the reigning champions, sacked him in September 1974; the Forest side he took over that winter lay 13th in the Second Division, and within five years he had made them champions of Europe.

What was the first trophy of the Clough and Taylor era, won over Orient in December 1976?

The Anglo-Scottish Cup: Clough said anyone who called it a nothing trophy was "absolutely crackers", because it was Forest's first silverware since 1959 and "it made all the difference".

Forest's 1977 promotion, in third place with just 52 points, was confirmed while the squad was where?

Mid-air en route to Mallorca: Forest had finished their fixtures and Bolton still had games in hand, so word of Bolton's 1-0 defeat by Wolves reached the squad on the flight to their end-of-season break.

Which striker did Peter Taylor secretly trail in 1977 to check his drinking and gambling, before Forest turned him into a centre-back?

Kenny Burns: Taylor decided the wild reputation was exaggerated, Forest paid Birmingham City £150,000, and within a year the new centre-back was Footballer of the Year.

Which goalkeeper did newly promoted Forest buy from Stoke City in September 1977?

Peter Shilton: "Shilton wins you matches," Peter Taylor argued, and with him in goal Forest conceded just 24 times in 42 league games on their way to the title.

Which Forest player was voted PFA Young Player of the Year in the 1977-78 title season?

Tony Woodcock had been loaned out to Lincoln City and Doncaster Rovers before forcing his way into Forest's promotion side, and he won his first England cap weeks after the title was secured.

Forest's record 42-match unbeaten league run was ended in December 1978 by a 2-0 defeat at which club?

Liverpool, the reigning European champions whom Forest had knocked out of the European Cup that autumn, were the side that finally beat them, 2-0 at Anfield.

Who became English football's first £1 million player when he joined Forest from Birmingham City in February 1979?

Trevor Francis headed the only goal of that May's European Cup final on his European debut; Clough liked to claim the fee was really £999,999, to keep the milestone from going to his head.

Which Forest player did Günter Netzer admit in 1979 he had never heard of, yet said had run the game?

John McGovern, the quiet captain who had followed Clough from Hartlepools to Derby, Leeds and Forest, had just bossed the midfield as a 1-0 win in Cologne sent Forest to the final.

Forest's first European Cup final win, 1-0 over Malmö in 1979, was played in which stadium?

Munich's Olympiastadion: Forest's record signing, ineligible until the final, headed the only goal at the far post on his European debut; a year later the trophy was retained in Madrid.

Which club did Forest beat 2-1 on aggregate to win the 1979 European Super Cup?

Barcelona, the Cup Winners' Cup holders, wiped out Forest's first-leg lead with a penalty at the Camp Nou, only for Forest to equalise before half-time and carry the trophy home.

Which side knocked holders Forest out of the 1980-81 European Cup in the first round, winning 1-0 home and away?

CSKA Sofia won both legs 1-0, and Forest's captain later said that losing twice to such modest opponents shook the self-belief of a side that had been champions of Europe two years running.

Forest's 1-0 defeat by Nacional in the 1980 Intercontinental Cup was the first staged as a single match in which city?

Tokyo: after years of ill-tempered home-and-away ties, Toyota's sponsorship turned the fixture into a one-off match on neutral ground in Japan, and Forest, who had declined to play the year before, lost the first one.

Forest's 1984 UEFA Cup semi-final defeat was tainted when which club later admitted paying the referee?

Anderlecht overturned Forest's 2-0 first-leg lead after a string of contentious decisions; in 1997 it emerged that the club's chairman had paid the Spanish referee, and UEFA banned Anderlecht from Europe for a year.

Why was Brian Clough fined and banned from the touchline after a pitch invasion in 1989?

He struck his own fans: Clough cuffed supporters celebrating a 5-2 League Cup win over QPR, was fined £5,000, then invited two of them in, apologised and persuaded both to kiss him on the cheek.

Forest's 1989 FA Cup semi-final against Liverpool was abandoned after six minutes in which stadium disaster?

The Hillsborough disaster: a crush on the terraces killed 97 Liverpool supporters; the Taylor Report that followed ended standing at leading grounds, and the City Ground's own Trent End terrace closed in 1994.

In Clough's only FA Cup final, in 1991, Forest lost 2-1 to Tottenham after an own goal by which defender?

Des Walker put the ball into his own net in extra time; Stuart Pearce's free kick had put Forest ahead in a final remembered for Paul Gascoigne's two wild early tackles and the knee injury that followed.

Which striker scored the only goal in the first live televised Premier League game, Forest v Liverpool?

Teddy Sheringham's strike was the first live goal on Sky Sports and almost his last act for Forest: he was sold to Tottenham a week later, and the club went down that season.

Which member of the 1979 European Cup-winning team succeeded Brian Clough as manager in May 1993?

Frank Clark, whose last match as a player was the 1979 final itself, took Forest straight back up and then to third place in 1995, their first European qualification in 11 years.

Which striker left Forest in the summer of 1995 for a British record £8.5 million?

Stan Collymore's 22 league goals had just taken newly promoted Forest to third in the Premier League and into the UEFA Cup, a campaign they then had to face without him.

Which manager announced his retirement when Forest's relegation was confirmed in April 1999?

Ron Atkinson's four months in charge included an 8-1 home defeat, after which he said his side had given the fans a nine-goal thriller; he never managed again.

In 2005 Forest became the first former European champions to be relegated to which level of their domestic game?

The third tier: 25 years after their second European title, Forest finished 23rd in the Championship and spent three seasons a division lower before climbing back.

Which club overturned a 2-0 first-leg deficit to beat Forest 5-4 on aggregate in a 2007 play-off semi-final?

Yeovil Town won 5-2 at the City Ground to go through; a year later Forest clinched automatic promotion on the final day by beating the same club 3-2.

Which family from Kuwait bought Nottingham Forest in July 2012?

The Al-Hasawi family sacked Sean O'Driscoll hours after a 4-2 win on Boxing Day 2012, then parted with his successor, Alex McLeish, after just 40 days.

Which Greek shipping magnate, owner of Olympiacos, completed his takeover of Forest in May 2017?

Evangelos Marinakis's chairman promised European football within five seasons of the takeover; it took eight to qualify, with Forest finally back in Europe in 2025-26.

Steve Cooper's Forest won the 2022 Championship play-off final 1-0 at Wembley against which club?

Huddersfield Town were beaten by a Levi Colwill own goal, ending Forest's 23 years outside the Premier League; Steve Cooper had taken over that September with the team bottom of the table.

In March 2024 Forest were docked four points for breaching which Premier League rules?

Profitability and sustainability rules: a commission found Forest's losses £34.5 million over their limit, yet they still stayed up, on 32 points, the lowest total of any Premier League survivor to that date.

Which club's demotion for breaching multi-club ownership rules upgraded Forest to the 2025 Europa League?

Crystal Palace, the FA Cup winners, were dropped into the Conference League because one investor held sway at both Palace and Lyon, and seventh-placed Forest took their Europa League place.

Which Forest head coach was sacked in October 2025, less than six weeks into the job, without winning a game?

Ange Postecoglou was dismissed within minutes of a 3-0 home defeat by Chelsea, his eighth game without a win; it was the shortest permanent reign the Premier League had seen, undercutting Les Reed's spell at Charlton in 2006.

In 2025-26 Forest became the first Premier League club to do what in a single season?

Use four permanent managers: three were sacked between September and February, yet the fourth still steered Forest to safety and a Europa League semi-final before he went too.

Whose goal against Hamburg won Forest their second European Cup in Madrid in 1980?

John Robertson, the winger Peter Taylor had ordered onto a diet four years earlier, swapped passes with Garry Birtles and squeezed in a low shot midway through the first half.

Which ground stands about 300 yards from the City Ground, on the opposite bank of the river?

Meadow Lane, home of Notts County, is so close that when fire tore through Forest's main stand in 1968 they moved their home games across the river for the autumn, and failed to win one there.

Although named for Nottingham's city status, the City Ground actually stands in which town outside the city boundary?

West Bridgford: the ground lay inside Nottingham when Forest moved there in 1898, but a boundary change in the 1950s left it just over the line.

From which Irish club did Forest sign the teenage Roy Keane for £47,000 in 1990?

Cobh Ramblers: Keane, turned down by English clubs and doing odd manual jobs, was spotted playing semi-professionally in Cork; three years later Forest sold him for a British record fee.

Forest's rivalry with Sheffield United has roots in which event?

The 1984-85 miners' strike: South Yorkshire's pits came out while many Nottinghamshire miners, who wanted a ballot first, kept working, and the bitterness carried over to the terraces.

Which Argentine club says it adopted red after its president watched Forest's 1905 tour and likened them to red devils?

Independiente's own history credits president Arístides Langone, who wanted the colours of the tourists he called "real red devils"; the club has worn red ever since and is still nicknamed the Diablos Rojos.

Forest opened 1978-79 by winning the Charity Shield 5-0 at Wembley against which side, the FA Cup holders?

Ipswich Town were missing four of their Cup-winning side, and Martin O'Neill, with two goals already, was taken off by Clough before he could complete a hat-trick.

Forest's record attendance of 49,946 in October 1967 came against which visitors?

Manchester United, champions that spring with Forest as runners-up, drew the crowd and lost 3-1; no City Ground attendance has matched it since.