19 May 2023 , 21:50
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Lights out, the night before a Wembley final, Nottingham Forest players were summoned downstairs to the private room where they had just finished dinner.
They found Brian Clough, the sultan of the Trent, with a crate of champagne and orange juice to help irrigate his unorthodox late-night game for a laugh. "Nobody leaves this room until every one of you tells a joke that I like," said Old Big 'Ead, mixing a Bucks Fizz which was four parts sparkling and one part citrus.
One by one, the players did their stand-up routine, but the following day the joke was on Forest. Goalkeeper Peter Shilton and defender David Needham collided outside the box, Andy Gray walked the ball into an open net and Wolves surprisingly won the League Cup final 1-0.
"I was obviously a very bad joke-teller because I didn't get to bed until well after midnight," mused right-back Viv Anderson. "It's the only time I played in a cup final with a headache. To be fair, Mr Clough's man-management was unique, and his preparation for big games often involved alcohol consumption. We won a lot more than we lost, so you can't say it didn't work.
"Later that season, before a European Cup semi-final second leg against Ajax, as soon as we had checked into our hotel he said, 'Bags down, we're going for a walk' – and he led us into Amsterdam's red light district. He stopped in a doorway, chatting to one of the women, and then he turns round and announces, 'Gentlemen, I've negotiated a good deal with these ladies - and the club's paying.'
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"The married lads stayed outside, but the younger boys who were single couldn't believe their luck. Can you imagine Arsene Wenger or Pep Guardiola arranging a night out like that before a major semi-final?"
Viv Anderson (second row, far left) won two European Cups under Clough at Nottingham Forest (Bob Thomas/Getty Images)Is Brian Clough the greatest English manager of all time? Let us know in the comments below!
Forest safely negotiated the second leg and went on to retain the European Cup the following month, beating Hamburg 1-0 in the final. Back in Nottingham a few days later, Anderson bumped into an old mate who had made the trip to Madrid to see John Robertson score the winner in the Santiago Bernabeu.
"Was that Peter Shilton I saw training on the traffic island of a roundabout the day before the game?," he asked. "Yes, that would have been Shilts," replied Anderson. "Cloughie didn't want us going anywhere near a ball at the end of a long season, but Shilts wanted to get the feel of the ball in his hands and that was the only patch of grass we could find near our hotel."
Happy days – they don't make managers like Clough any more, and during his career Anderson played for a dizzying cast of the best including Sir Alex Ferguson, Sir Bobby Robson, Terry Venables, Ron Atkinson and George Graham.
Local Heroes is available to watch from June 5He was Fergie's first signing at Manchester United, the club he supported as a boy, but he was released after a year on schoolboy forms at Old Trafford before returning to Nottingham and working briefly as a silkscreen printer until Forest came calling.
Next month a feature-length film, Local Heroes, which chronicles the stories of Nottingham-born trio Anderson, Tony Woodcock and Garry Birtles, a throwback to a golden era at the City Ground.
"It's about three lads from the same city who fight their way through setbacks and go on to win back-to-back European Cups," said Anderson, now 66. "These days you would be lucky to find Champions League winners with three players from the same country.
"But I watched Manchester City destroy Real Madrid the other night and thought, 'Wow, they are incredible.' As Chelsea have found out over the last year, money alone doesn't buy you success. I played with Trevor Francis, Britain's first £1 million footballer, at Forest and now I'm watching Jack Grealish, our first £100m player, performing like he's worth every penny – and more."
This weekend, Forest and Arsenal – two of Anderson's former clubs – meet at the City Ground with the Tricky Trees seeking at least a point to stay above the dotted line. "Before the season started, I said Forest needed to make the City Ground a fortress because they might find points hard to come by on the road,” said Anderson.
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"If they stay up - and I think they'll just about do it - it's their home results which have served them well because their away form has been disastrous. It would be a crying shame if they spent 23 years trying to get back in the Premier League and then only stopped up for one season."
Local Heroes is on Blu-ray, DVD & digital (inc. Amazon, Sky, Virgin & iTunes) from June 5