Nottingham Forest v Southampton league cup final 17th March 1979 i was 13 years old.Dave hallam my best friend at the time ,told me youve got a ticket if you want one !! I couldnt believe my luck..I was going to wembley .yes wembley ,The twin towers,....Wembley way..Englands home ,I had dreamed about wembley all my life,all good football memories and future sporting triumphs seem to land on the magic turf at London HA9 0WS
"How you got me a ticket"...i couldn't believe my luck. Dave′s parents used to sell the forest lottery tickets which guaranteed a ticket for any final as a reward for being a agent, Also Joyce and Les ,were very much part of the Bilsthorpe forest supporters club which in conjunction with Retford branch used to run coaches to all forest home and away games. So my ticket was nailed on and all i could think about was the league cup final 1979...Fri night my dad took me to dave′s house dropped me off and wished me well for the biggest day of my football supporting life. All we talked about all night was how good Wembley and the big game would be ..finally. falling asleep at whatever o clock..
The day of the game arrived i was so excited , weeks of dreams were finally upon us i was off to see the mighty reds at wembley, as i opened the curtains i noticed the snow, It must have been at it all night because it was really deep..maybe 5 five or six inches !.We were due to be picked up at approx 9.30 am by a bloke who often ferried the hallams to forest games when not on the supporters bus, 9.30 arrived no car did.... we were starting to worry now as the local radio was reporting bad snowfall all over the east midlands . 10.00 ....1030...11.00..the phone rang , it was derek the lift ..he couldn't get the car going so we had to try other means....YOU WHAT !!! its the big day and now we have no lift, Joyce and Les to their credit tried so hard to get us a lift but with the weather and time against us it was decided to give up.....
I sat on the settee with Dave , Les had his chair and Joyce had hers ..even the gerbil had a ringside seat in his wheel as the radio blasted out "welcome to wembley stadium for Brian cloughs nottingham Forest v Lawrie Mcmenemys Southampton" I had my match ticket in my hand along with a red n white wembley scarf on my wrist. As you probably know forest won 3-2 with garry birtles scoring 2 and tony woodcock the other , in fact birtles had a goal disallowed which would have made a fine hat trick, we Cheered as if we were there but .....we wernt..The crowd that day was 96,952 should have been 96,957 .......
That night me and dave waited for match of the day so we could see the highlights that we had missed , Joyce and Les went to the social club ....numerous folk told them should have rung me etc ..if only !! This was one of the lows Ive had, and maybe the most devastating whilst being a NFFC fan ......
The moral of this story is , if your team gets to wembley book a hotel and go for the weekend . You reds!!!!!!!
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