The World Famous City Ground

Another back-to-back pair of matches had me driving down from Harrogate to the World famous City Ground for the much anticipated League Cup (ok, Carabao Cup, or whatever it's called these days) 2nd round tie with Tottenham Hotspot.

If it would be half as good as the 4th tier clash at Wetherby Road, I was in for another treat.

On the way, though, I had a couple of stops to make. The home of my first club I supported and then the pilgrimage to me favourite chippy in Notts.

Previously: Match #6, Harrogate Town 2 Carlisle United 3

My home for one night, the Camberley is a great B & B in the center of Harrogate. It has a perfect little car park and my room very very comfortable. I did have problems getting the shower to deliver warm water but the breakfast was more than adequate. I'm really enjoying eating proper English bacon instead of the American-like variety we seem to be lumbered with in Australia.

There were just two of us in the breakfast room and I had a nice chat to a nurse from Southampton (originally Gdansk) who was on her last day attending a conference on treating wounds. The hostess was very friendly but perhaps, a little too keen to lecture her captive audience about her opinions on the length of school holidays and how best to improve people's knowledge in first aid.

The nurse and host had let me know that Betty's tea hall was a must see, so I set a course for it. But seeing a queue outside, my enthusiasm suddenly dipped and instead I headed south to Mansfield.

Field Mill, as it should be called, was the venue of my first match I attended in November 1970. What a cracker it was too. Mansfield Town v Bradford City. Stags went into a 3-1 lead only to see Bradford to storm back to 3-5 away win. Not a bad start to my life as a spectator. I sometimes wonder if I'd have been as much of a fan if it had been a dull 0-0 draw.

To cut a long story short, I never was a season ticket holder at Mansfield but watched them a bit more than Forest in 1970-71 and 1971-72. They were closer after all. I didn't see many games the season after and then in the 73-4 season I decided to stop watching Mansfield and start supporting Forest properly.

The clincher came at Field Mill when they played Crewe Alexandra, bottom of the league having lost their first set of games straight. Mansfield were also struggling but we lads in the North Stand felt entitled to a win. Murphy's Law intervened and Crewe won 2-0, causing two of us to decide enough was enough.

A few weeks later, the deal was done when I saw second division Nottingham Forest thrash high flying Manchester City 4-1 in the FA Cuo 4th Round with Duncan McKenzie playing an absolute blinder.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Still, I had several returns to watch Mansfield and I'll always look out for their results.

The ground, now called the One Call Stadium, looks very impressive, although the Bishop Street stand remains unused and just acts as a big advertising board.

Like the Kassam then, One Call is a three sided stadium. Sad that.

Still, I popped into the shop to buy a souvenir and into Sandy's a new bar under the big West Stand, before heading off for my 8th fish & chips.

I must have bought fish & chips from chip shop on Annesley Road twenty times but with ever decreasing frequency. Still the lady who runs it seemed to recognise me.

"Long time, no see".

The fish and chips are always good too.

After that, it was time to find my accommodation, a bedroom in a small house in what used to be called the Meadows. It's a thought that used to send a shiver down your spine but the area seems to be quite nice now.

The Chinese lady that runs the place was very friendly and the room very comfortable indeed. It was bizarre, looking out the bedroom window down on a road I must have walked along many times one the way to/from watching Forest.

I had an hour or so to kill before the match so popped into the Salutation.

I wanted to have a quick one in the Trip but the queue was ridiculous.

Instead I had a quick one at that pub with the long name I can never remember. *checks Google* ... Fellows, Morton & Clayton. Many happy memories there but not this time...

Bad choice of pint, so I was off the The Trent Navigation nearer the ground.

Having met up with me old mate from university, it was off to the match and the famous walk over Trent Bridge.

In contrast to the Brentford game, it was great to be in the open air and so part of the crowd so I could join in with our "anthem" City Ground, oh mist rollin in from the Trent. Not lyrics Paul McCartney would have come up with.

In a great start Forest hit the post and pressed the Spurs goal for 20 minutes before they threatened at all.

Jesse Lingard played the best game for Forest. 0-0 at half time was a bit flattering to Spurs.

In the second half, Forest carried on where they left off. Lingard made a crucial pass to Lodi on the left and he took it forward, cane inside and then unleashed an absolute beauty to put us up.

A few minutes later, Aurier surged down the right, delivered a beautiful cross to the far post where Surridge intelligently headed it back across the face of the goal for Lingard to nod home his first goal for Forest.

Ecstasy!!

This was the best feeling I've had at a Forest game since winning the European Cup.