Farewell Trevor Francis: friend, superstar and Nottingham Forest history-maker

The last time I was in Nottingham, we picked a table in one of the cafes facing the Brian Clough statue and reminisced, as usual, about that goal from Trevor Francis, superstar.

Tony Woodcock was back in his old city. The following night, there was the film premiere for Local Heroes, telling the story about three of the boys, all from the area, who had won the European Cup with Nottingham Forest.

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Woodcock was one, Viv Anderson another and Garry Birtles, a former carpet-fitter signed from Long Eaton United for £2,000 ($2,563), was the third.

All of them had played on that night in Munich when Francis ran in at the far post to head in the decisive goal in the 1979 European Cup final against Malmo and confirm what, in football terms, has to be considered a real-life miracle.

To put it into context, Forest had been 13th in the old Division Two when Hurricane Clough swept in for its first day on January 6, 1975 and, before even uttering a word, the new manager had taken off his jacket and flung it at a peg in the dressing room.

Clough being Clough, it landed plum on the hook, but don’t think everything was straightforward before Francis signed up to the adventures that involved Forest winning promotion, the top-flight title, back-to-back European Cups and reaching three successive League Cup finals, as well as knocking Liverpool off their perch long before some ex-Manchester United manager tried to patent the quote.

At one point Clough took his team to York City for a second-tier game at Bootham Crescent. His team included seven of the players who would turn an unfashionable, unheralded team into the kings of Europe: John Robertson, John McGovern, Ian Bowyer, Martin O’Neill, Frank Clark, Colin Barrett and John O’Hare.