1975–76 Nottingham Forest F.C. season

Nottingham Forest F.C.
1975–76 season
Chairman	BJ Appleby, QC
Manager	Brian Clough
Second Division	8th
FA Cup	3rd round
League Cup	3rd round
Top goalscorer	League: Bowyer (11); All: Bowyer (14)
Highest home attendance	19,757 (League)
Lowest home attendance	11,343 (League)
Average home league attendance	14,047 (League)
Home colours	Away colours
	← 1974–75 1976–77 →

The 1975–76 season was Nottingham Forest's 111th year in existence and fourth campaign consecutive in the Second Division since their relegation in 1972.

Summary

During summer the Board appointed BJ Appleby as its new club chairman. The team was reinforced with several players, Goalkeeper Peter Wells from the youth team.^[1] For the defensive line, Frank Clark arrived free from Newcastle United after 14 seasons.^[2] For the midfield, Terry Curran was transferred in from Doncaster Rovers included the transfers out of Peacock and Ian Miller.^[3] In spite of the arrivals, the squad started poorly in League, and was early eliminated in League Cup. For winter, defender Colin Barrett was transferred in from Manchester City playing only a few matches in the season because an injury.^[4] The club was early eliminated in FA Cup being defeated by Peterborough United. For the second half of the season, Clough reinforced the defensive line with McGovern acting as a central-back defender, combined with a boosted performance of Bowyer and Curran allowed the squad to finish on a decent 8th spot in League.

Squad

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


No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
—	GK	ENG	Peter Wells
—	GK	ENG	John Middleton
—	DF	ENG	Viv Anderson
—	DF	ENG	Frank Clark
—	DF	SCO	John McGovern
—	DF	ENG	Sammy Chapman
—	DF	ENG	John Cottam
—	DF	NIR	Liam O'Kane
—	DF	ENG	David Sunley
—	DF	ENG	Colin Barrett
—	DF	ENG	Bryn Gunn


No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
—	MF	ENG	Terry Curran
—	MF	ENG	Ian Bowyer
—	MF	NIR	Martin O'Neill
—	MF	SCO	John Robertson
—	MF	SCO	George Lyall
—	MF	SCO	Jim McIntosh
—	MF	ENG	Paul Richardson
—	FW	SCO	John O'Hare
—	FW	ENG	Barry Butlin
—	FW	ENG	Jimmy McCann
—	FW	ENG	Bert Bowery

Transfers

In
Pos.	Name	from	Type
GK	Peter Wells		Free
MF	David Sunley	Sheffield Wednesday	'loan '
DF	Glynn Saunders
DF	Frank Clark	Newcastle United	Free
MF	Terry Curran	Doncaster Rovers	£42,000^[5]
DF	Colin Barrett	Manchester City	£29,000^[6]

Out
Pos.	Name	To	Type
MF	George Lyall	Hull City F.C.
FW	Jimmy McCann
DF	John Cottam	Chesterfield F.C.
GK	Dennis Peacock	Doncaster Rovers
MF	Ian Miller	Doncaster Rovers
MF	Jim McIntosh	Chesterfield F.C.^[7]	'loan'

Statistics

Players statistics

The statistics for the following players are for their time during 1975–76 season playing for Nottingham Forest. Any stats from a different club during 1974–75 are not included. Includes all competitive matches.

No.	Pos	Nat	Player	Total		Second Division		League Cup		FA Cup
No.	Pos	Nat	Player	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
	GK	ENG	Wells	25	0	23	0	0	0	2	0
	DF	ENG	Anderson	24	0	21	0	3	0
	DF	SCO	McGovern	47	1	41	0	4	1	2	0
	DF	ENG	Chapman	43	1	37	0	4	1	2	0
	DF	ENG	Clark	48	0	42	0	4	0	2	0
	MF	ENG	Curran	33	6	33	6
	MF	ENG	Bowyer	46	14	40	11	4	3	2	0
	MF	NIR	O'Neill	31	5	28+1	5	2	0
	MF	SCO	Robertson	42	5	34+3	5	4	0	1	0
	FW	SCO	O'Hare	45	9	38+1	9	4	0	2	0
	FW	ENG	Butlin	38	8	32	7	4	1	2	0
	GK	ENG	Middleton	23	0	19	0	4	0
	DF	ENG	Cottam	9	1	8	1	1	0
	MF	SCO	Lyall	7	4	3+2	2	2	2
	FW	ENG	McCann	5	1	1+4	1
	MF	ENG	McIntosh	3	0	0+1	0	0	0	2	0
	DF	NIR	O'Kane	11	0	8	0	1	0	2	0
	MF	ENG	Richardson	28	3	22+1	1	4	2	1	0
	DF	ENG	Sunley	1	0	1	0
	DF	ENG	Barrett	10	0	10	0
	FW	ENG	Bowery	3	2	1	2	0	0	2	0
	DF	ENG	Gunn	14	0	11	0	3	0

Source: https://www.11v11.com/teams/nottingham-forest/tab/players/season/1976/

Table

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GAv	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Sunderland (C, P)	42	24	8	10	67	36	1.861	56	Promotion to the First Division
2	Bristol City (P)	42	19	15	8	59	35	1.686	53
3	West Bromwich Albion (P)	42	20	13	9	50	33	1.515	53
4	Bolton Wanderers	42	20	12	10	64	38	1.684	52
5	Notts County	42	19	11	12	60	41	1.463	49
6	Southampton	42	21	7	14	66	50	1.320	49	Qualification for the Cup Winners' Cup first round^[a]
7	Luton Town	42	19	10	13	61	51	1.196	48
8	Nottingham Forest	42	17	12	13	55	40	1.375	46
9	Charlton Athletic	42	15	12	15	61	72	0.847	42
10	Blackpool	42	14	14	14	40	49	0.816	42
11	Chelsea	42	12	16	14	53	54	0.981	40
12	Fulham	42	13	14	15	45	47	0.957	40
13	Leyton Orient	42	13	14	15	37	39	0.949	40
14	Hull City	42	14	11	17	45	49	0.918	39
15	Blackburn Rovers	42	12	14	16	45	50	0.900	38
16	Plymouth Argyle	42	13	12	17	48	54	0.889	38
17	Oldham Athletic	42	13	12	17	57	68	0.838	38
18	Bristol Rovers	42	11	16	15	38	50	0.760	38
19	Carlisle United	42	12	13	17	45	59	0.763	37
20	Oxford United (R)	42	11	11	20	39	59	0.661	33	Relegation to the Third Division
21	York City (R)	42	10	8	24	39	71	0.549	28
22	Portsmouth (R)	42	9	7	26	32	61	0.525	25

Source: ^{[citation needed]}
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal average; 3) Goals scored
(C) Champions; (P) Promoted; (R) Relegated
Notes:

^ Southampton qualified for the Cup Winners' Cup first round as the 1975–76 FA Cup winners.

Results by round

Round	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	32	33	34	35	36	37	38	39	40	41	42
Ground	H	A	H	A	H	A	H	H	A	A	H	H	A	H	A	A	H	A	H	A	H	A	H	A	A	H	A	H	A	A	H	A	H	H	A	H	A	H	A	A	H	H
Result	W	D	L	D	L	W	L	L	L	D	W	D	D	W	D	L	W	W	W	D	L	L	L	W	L	L	D	W	W	D	W	D	W	W	L	W	D	W	D	L	W	W
Position	3	7	12	12	14	12	15	17	19	20	16	14	15	11	11	13	12	10	10	9	11	13	14	11	13	15	16	11	12	12	9	11	8	8	8	8	8	6	6	8	8	8

Source: Competitive matches
A = Away; H = Home; W = Win; D = Draw; L = Loss; = Leader, 1976–77 First Division; = 1976–77 First Division; = 1976–77 Third Division

Matches

A list of Nottingham Forest's matches in the 1975–76 season.^[8]^[9]^[10]

Competitive

Second Division

16 August 1975 1	Nottingham Forest	2-0	Plymouth Argyle	Nottingham
	Horswill (own goal) O'Hare			Stadium: City Ground

23 August 1975 2	Portsmouth F.C.	1–1	Nottingham Forest	Portsmouth
			Bowyer	Attendance: 10,655

30 August 1975 3	Nottingham Forest	0–1	Notts County F.C.	Nottingham
				Stadium: City Ground Attendance: 19,757

6 September 1975 4	Chelsea F.C.	0–0	Nottingham Forest	London
				Stadium: Stamford Bridge Attendance: 21,023

13 September 1975 5	Nottingham Forest	1–2	Hull City F.C.	Nottingham
	Robertson			Stadium: City Ground

20 September 1975 6	Oxford United	0–1	Nottingham Forest
			Lyall

24 September 1975 7	Nottingham Forest	1–2	Charlton Athletic	Nottingham
	Robertson			Stadium: City Ground

27 September 1975 8	Nottingham Forest	1–2	Bolton Wanderers	Nottingham
	Lyall			Stadium: City Ground

4 October 1975 9	Bristol Rovers	4–2	Nottingham Forest
			Robertson Bowyer

11 October 1975 10

Fulham F.C.

0–0

Nottingham Forest

Fulham

18 October 1975 11	Nottingham Forest	3–1	Southampton F.C.	Nottingham
	Cottam O'Neill O'Hare			Stadium: City Ground Attendance: 12,677

21 October 1975 12	Nottingham Forest	0–0	Luton Town	Nottingham
				Stadium: City Ground Attendance: 12,290

25 October 1975 13

Oldham Athletic

0–0

Nottingham Forest

1 November 1975 14	Nottingham Forest	4–0	Carlisle United	Nottingham
	Curran O'Hare O'Hare Butlin			Stadium: City Ground

4 November 1975 15	Blackpool	1–1	Nottingham Forest	Blackpool
			O'Neill

8 November 1975 16

Sunderland F.C.

3–0

Nottingham Forest

15 November 1975 17	Nottingham Forest	1–0	Bristol City F.C.	Nottingham
	Butlin			Stadium: City Ground

22 November 1975 18	Southampton F.C.	0–3	Nottingham Forest	Southampton
			Richardson Bowyer Bowyer

29 November 1975 19	Nottingham Forest	1–0	York City	Nottingham
	Butlin			Stadium: City Ground

6 December 1975 20	Leyton Orient	1–1	Nottingham Forest
			Bowyer

13 December 1975 21	Nottingham Forest	0–1	Portsmouth F.C.	Nottingham
				Stadium: City Ground Attendance: 11,343

20 December 1975 22

Plymouth Argyle

1–0

Nottingham Forest

26 December 1975 23	Nottingham Forest	0–2	West Bromwich Albion	Nottingham
				Stadium: City Ground

27 December 1975 24	Blackburn Rovers	1–4	Nottingham Forest	Blackburn
			Robertson Bowery Bowery Bowyer

10 January 1976 25

Hull City F.C.

1–0

Nottingham Forest

17 January 1976 26	Nottingham Forest	1–3	Chelsea F.C.	Nottingham
	Bowyer			Stadium: City Ground Attendance: 14,172

31 January 1976 27	Luton Town	1–1	Nottingham Forest
			Curran	Attendance: 8,503

7 February 1976 28	Nottingham Forest	3–0	Blackpool	Nottingham
	Bowyer Curran Butlin			Stadium: City Ground

21 February 1976 29	Bristol City	0–2	Nottingham Forest	Bristol
			Curran O'Hare

24 February 1976 30	Charlton Athletic	2–2	Nottingham Forest
			Bowyer McCann

28 February 1976 31	Nottingham Forest	4–3	Oldham Athletic	Nottingham
	Curran O'Neill Butlin O'Neill			Stadium: City Ground

6 March 1976 32	Carlisle United	1–1	Nottingham Forest
			Barry

13 March 1976 33	Nottingham Forest	1–0	Fulham F.C.	Nottingham
	O'Hare			Stadium: City Ground

17 March 1976 34	Nottingham Forest	2–1	Sunderland F.C.	Nottingham
	Bowyer O'Hare			Stadium: City Ground

20 March 1976 35	York City	3–2	Nottingham Forest	York
			O'Hare Downing (o.g.)

27 March 1976 36	Nottingham Forest	1–0	Leyton Orient	Nottingham
	Bowyer			Stadium: City Ground

3 April 1976 37

Bolton Wanderers

0–0

Nottingham Forest

10 April 1976 38	Nottingham Forest	4–0	Oxford United	Nottingham
	Curran O'Neil Butlin Robertson			Stadium: City Ground

13 April 1976 39	Notts County	0–0	Nottingham Forest	Nottingham
				Stadium: City Ground Attendance: 29,279

17 April 1976 40

West Bromwich Albion

2–0

Nottingham Forest

20 April 1976 41	Nottingham Forest	1–0	Blackburn Rovers	Nottingham
	Butlin			Stadium: City Ground

24 April 1976 42	Nottingham Forest	3–0	Bristol Rovers	Nottingham
	Bowyer O'Hare			Stadium: City Ground

League Cup

First round

19 August 1975 1	Rotherham United	1–2	Nottingham Forest	Rotherham
			Chapman McGovern

27 August 1975 2	Nottingham Forest	5–1	Rotherham United	Nottingham
				Stadium: City Ground

Second round

10 September 1975	Nottingham Forest	1–0	Plymouth Argyle	Nottingham
			Bowyer	Stadium: City Ground

Third round

8 October 1975	Manchester City	2–1	Nottingham Forest	Manchester
			Bowyer

FA Cup

Third round

1 January 1976 1	Nottingham Forest	0–0	Peterborough United	Nottingham
				Stadium: City Ground

Replay

7 January 1976

Peterborough United

1–0
(1–0 agg.)

Nottingham Forest

References

^ Holley, Duncan; Chalk, Gary (1992). The Alphabet of the Saints. ACL & Polar Publishing. p. 359. ISBN 0-9514862-3-3.
^ "How Newcastle United legend Frank Clark celebrated his birthday – with a host of Geordie fans" chroniclelive.co.uk 10 September 2016
^ Wilson, Jonathan (10 November 2011). Brain Clough: Nobody Ever Says Thank You: The Biography. ISBN 9781409123187.
^ Colin Barret, Blue Moon
^ Wilson, Jonathan (10 November 2011). Brain Clough: Nobody Ever Says Thank You: The Biography. ISBN 9781409123187.
^ Manchester City profile at Sporting heroes
^ On 6 Januery 1976
^ "1977-1978". Archived from the original on 11 December 2013. Retrieved 19 February 2019.
^ Smales, Ken (1991). Forest – The First 125 Years. Nottingham: Temple Printing. ISBN 978-1870010092.
^ Attaway, Pete (2010). Nottingham Forest: Brian Clough and His Legacy - A Complete Record 1975 - 2010. Southend-on-Sea: Desert Island Book. ISBN 978-1905328833.

[table_note_res_CWC1R0.15492654924976-8] Southampton qualified for the Cup Winners' Cup first round as the 1975–76 FA Cup winners.

[1] Holley, Duncan; Chalk, Gary (1992). The Alphabet of the Saints. ACL & Polar Publishing. p. 359. ISBN 0-9514862-3-3.

[chronic-2] "How Newcastle United legend Frank Clark celebrated his birthday – with a host of Geordie fans" chroniclelive.co.uk 10 September 2016

[3] Wilson, Jonathan (10 November 2011). Brain Clough: Nobody Ever Says Thank You: The Biography. ISBN 9781409123187.

[4] Colin Barret, Blue Moon

[5] Wilson, Jonathan (10 November 2011). Brain Clough: Nobody Ever Says Thank You: The Biography. ISBN 9781409123187.

[shmcfc-6] Manchester City profile at Sporting heroes

[7] On 6 Januery 1976

[9] "1977-1978". Archived from the original on 11 December 2013. Retrieved 19 February 2019.

[10] Smales, Ken (1991). Forest – The First 125 Years. Nottingham: Temple Printing. ISBN 978-1870010092.

[11] Attaway, Pete (2010). Nottingham Forest: Brian Clough and His Legacy - A Complete Record 1975 - 2010. Southend-on-Sea: Desert Island Book. ISBN 978-1905328833.

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