Forest Early History - sponsored by I‘m Red Till Dead

[Raymondo Ponte']

Bastards attacked me and my brother at Bellend Road in the 70's.

 

[I'm Red Till Dead]

(Nottingham Evening Post, Tuesday, October 03, 1995)

The Stuart Pearce Column

‘Souvenir King’ Stone to start his own cap collection

Midfielder can make England spot his own
​

THE Football Association had better watch out now that “Souvenir King” has made the England squad

If they take their eyes Steve Stone for a minute in Oslo next week they’ll have no kit left.

Tracksuits shorts socks boot laces even Terry Venables’s sweatshirt - Stoney will have his eye on the lot.

He’ll bag his own gear and anyone else’s going spare. And if there’s any soap or towels in the kit with three lions on it he’ll probably add that to his collection as well.

The fact that he’s a newcomer in the squad won’t stop him gathering souvenirs.

In fact he’ll be relishing the opportunity to pick up some new gear.

Stoney loves a bit of kit and a memento more than anyone I’ve ever met.

If there’s ever anything on offer you’ll always find him at the front of the queue.

And he’s not too fussy what he accepts either.

He was at it in Malmo the other week when we visited the stadium after training.

We were doing the PR bit for the club. You know the sort of stuff shaking people’s hands and presenting the caring sharing face of Nottingham Forest.

And as Malmo’s show of friendship all the players were presented with two cut-glass tumblers.

Stoney must have re-joined the presentation queue several times because he got back on the coach with dozens of the things.

The lads reckon he must have a lockup like Arthur Daley, because he just hordes everything.

Hopefully he’ll be starting a new collection in Oslo next week by picking up the most important thing he’s going out there for.

His first of many international caps for England.

That’s the real target for him now that he’s made it into the senior squad for the first time.

And he certainly deserves a crack at it for the way he’s started the season.

Stoney’s managed to pick things up exactly where he left them last May.

He’s running people to death just like he did in his first season in the Premiership and he showed against Malmo that he can do it against continental opposition.

In the home leg he ran them ragged and they couldn’t stick with him in the end.

Now he has to take the next step up from here.

When he looks at the people who are competing with him for a place he’ll know that he’s got to improve a stage further to get himself in the team.

Darren Anderton Steve MacManaman and Dennis Wise have all been in the squad for a while.

They’ve had a few squad training sessions whereas Stoney has only been picked in that ‘young stars’ get-together last season.

So getting on the training field with the rest of the players for the first time can be a bit daunting.

I know I felt a bit like that when I first got involved, but Stoney should be all right.

He’s not exactly short of confidence. He’s not the sort to get scared before games.

In fact he gets hyped up by everything which probably explains the way he plays the game hassling people.

I’ll try to look after him as best I can but I can’t be held responsible for any of the kit.​

 

[I'm Red Till Dead]

(Nottingham Evening Post, Saturday, August 21, 1999)

Moore remembers fire​

SHORTLY before half-time as Forest and Leeds were locked at 1-1 in front of 30,000 people 31 years ago on August 24, 1968, wisps of smoke were seen from between seats in the City Ground's Main Stand.

Within minutes fans were spilling onto the turf as flames began to lick through the wooden floorboards.

One of those people was Carol Storey-Moore, who was dragged out of the stand by club committee man Fred Reacher, later to become chairman.

Shortly after they made their way onto the pitch, a series of explosions were heard and the fire started to rip through the stand.

But her main concern was for husband Ian, who was one of the Forest players retreating down the tunnel - right into the heart of the blaze.

Current Forest chief scout Storey-Moore remembers it vividly.

"When we got down the tunnel there wasn't much left of the dressing room, it looked like it had been fire bombed," he recalls. "We didn’t spend too long down there we just got out as fast as we could.

"But my main memory is traveling home still wearing my kit as all my clothes were destroyed."

Forest's 1-1 scoreline - Dave Hilley was the home marksman - was scrubbed out, the match being replayed later.

Forest's next six ‘home’ games brought good memories for Moore - but not for the team.

He scored six goals in the games which were all played at Meadow Lane - but Forest didn’t win one of them.

 

[I'm Red Till Dead]

One for the 'Bomber' fans -

(Nottingham Evening Post, Tuesday, January 21, 1986)

​

Bowyer scores v Cologne in the European Cup semi-final to send Forest to the final

THIS IS YOUR LIFE - IAN BOWYER​

IT’S 20 years since Ian Bowyer set out a career as a professional footballer. Twenty years of high honours, deep despair - and endless determination.

And so in the midst of his Testimonial Year celebrations today we say: "Ian Bowyer This is your Life…

BORN on June 6, 1951, in Ellesmere Port, you grow up as an Everton supporter.

Your dream is to sign on at Goodison Park - but your headmaster at Little Sutton Secondary Modern School, Mr. Billy Roberts also, taught Joe Mercer. So he makes sure you go to Manchester City.

You blossom immediately under the Maine Road management of Joe Mercer and coaching flair of Malcolm Allison.

You sign professional forms in August, 1968, a left winger in a squad littered with household names such as flamboyant Francis Lee, mercurial Mike Summerbee and "Nijinsky” Colin Bell.

FAITH​

Aged 16 you become a regular in the reserves and make your first team debut only a year later, against Newcastle United.

It is not a happy occasion. You are carried off with concussion after a collision with United goalkeeper lam McFaul, and City lose 1-0.

But Allison’s faith in you does not waver . "This boy is tremendous at taking chances,” he says. "He’s not big and he’s not strong. But he IS positive and aggressive.”

You make three more League appearances that season - and ironically, your first away game is at Nottingham Forest.

Your willingness to work and learn impresses Mercer. Your Ford Anglia car impresses Chris, your wife-to-be.

"The old Anglia saved me and a friend a half-crown bus fare home,” recalls Chris, who was then a typist in Manchester and deeply suspicious of your claim to be a professional footballer.”

“I asked my brothers if they’d ever heard of a footballer called Ian Bowyer and they hadn’t,” she says. “Mind you they were United supporters.”

"But when he told me he stay in on a Friday night, I thought he was giving the brush-off."

CONVINCE​

You finally convince Chris and the City management of your good intentions, though. And in addition to winning a bride in 1970, you taste League Cup and Cup-Winners’ Cup triumph as a super-sub in City’s team of all-stars.

At Wembley in March you as substitute for Mike Summerbee in the League Cup final against West Brom. Their only goal comes from former Notts County favourite Jeff Astle and your 2-1 win is earned by strikes from defenders Mike Doyle and Glyn Pardoe.

In Vienna a month later you replace Doyle to help City defeat the Poles of Gornik Zabree in the Cup-Winners’ Cup Final. The score again is 2-1. The goals come from Neil Young and a Francis Lee penalty.

But so talented is the City squad that in your first three years as professional you make only 42 League appearances and two as substitute.

ARRIVAL​

Your striking rate of 13 goals persuades you to seek a club able to offer more first team football, especially when the arrival of baby Gary means you have another mouth to feed.

In June, 1971, you sign for late Jimmy Bloomfield, manager of Second Division Orient. It means moving from your own house in your native North-West to a flat in London, but the upheaval does not affect your form.

You score 18 goals in 78 League games, including three as substitute, and halfway through a massive re-building programme on a house when Dave Mackay invites you join Nottingham Forest in October, 1973.

You jump at the chance to get away from the impersonal capital (and might have gone to Carlisle who were also chasing you).

Mackay pays £40,000 for you, explaining: "He’s a battler, has loads of courage and scores goals.”

Chris finds it harder to settle in Nottingham - especially when Mackay departs.

"That’s tended to happen to every manager who’s signed Ian,” she says. "I kept thinking 'Anytime now we’ll be moving again’ Nobody knows what’s coming next in football.”

Certainly nobody could have predicted the prizes that would come your way in Nottingham.

On December 23, 1974, Chris presents you with twins - Paul and Lisa.

Success is earned in pairs by Forest too: Anglo-Scottish Cup and promotion from Division Two 1977, League Championship and League Cup 1978, European Cup and League Cup 1979, European Cup and Super Cup 1980.

HEADER​

You play in both European Cup finals, against Malmo in Munich on May 30, 1979, and Hamburg in Madrid on May 28, 1980.

You will always be remembered for the header that gave Forest victory in Cologne after a thrilling 3-3 first leg draw at the City Ground in the 1979 semi-final.

Late 1980 is a sad time. Forest are knocked out of the European Cup, you lose your place. And in January 1981, you move to Sunderland.

Since Mackay paid £40000 for your services you have played 222 League games for Forest, made 17 appearances as substitute, and scored 49 goals.

Sunderland manager Ken Knighton and his assistant Frank Clark - one of your playing mates in Forest’s glory-glory run - value you so highly that they pay £250,000 for you.

A few months later with Chris and the family still living in Nottingham you suffer a knee injury. You complete house-hunting in the North-East while your leg is still in plaster, move the family in August so as not to disturb the children’s schooling and re-sign for Forest five months later.

In the meantime, Knighton and Clark are sacked and you become so unsettled that you ask for a move.

You return to the City Ground on a foggy New Year’s Day, 1982, but it is October before Chris and the kids are able to rejoin you, the latest house-hunting having ended in Edwalton.

In August you become club captain. It looks as if you are set to become the first British player to win medals in all three European club competitions when Forest take a 2-0 first leg lead over Anderlecht in the 1984 UEFA Cup semi-finals.

CEASELESS​

But the Belgians aided by controversial decisions and penalty, win the second leg 3-0.

Even so the Midland Soccer Writers’ Association are sufficiently impressed by your ceaseless efforts that they name you their Player of the Year.

Manager Brian Clough agrees with their judgement. "His commitment to this club has been astounding,” he says.

You prove The Boss right, again, this season Having turned down a move to Luton you fight your way back into the Forest first team.

You’re the elder statesman now among a new generation of kids. And you’re unquestionably the man for all seasons!

 

[Rockabilly]

One for the 'Bomber' fans -

(Nottingham Evening Post, Tuesday, January 21, 1986)

​

View attachment 16490
Bowyer scores v Cologne in the European Cup semi-final to send Forest to the final

THIS IS YOUR LIFE - IAN BOWYER​

IT’S 20 years since Ian Bowyer set out a career as a professional footballer. Twenty years of high honours, deep despair - and endless determination.

And so in the midst of his Testimonial Year celebrations today we say: "Ian Bowyer This is your Life…

BORN on June 6, 1951, in Ellesmere Port, you grow up as an Everton supporter.

Your dream is to sign on at Goodison Park - but your headmaster at Little Sutton Secondary Modern School, Mr. Billy Roberts also, taught Joe Mercer. So he makes sure you go to Manchester City.

You blossom immediately under the Maine Road management of Joe Mercer and coaching flair of Malcolm Allison.

You sign professional forms in August, 1968, a left winger in a squad littered with household names such as flamboyant Francis Lee, mercurial Mike Summerbee and "Nijinsky” Colin Bell.

FAITH​

Aged 16 you become a regular in the reserves and make your first team debut only a year later, against Newcastle United.

It is not a happy occasion. You are carried off with concussion after a collision with United goalkeeper lam McFaul, and City lose 1-0.

But Allison’s faith in you does not waver . "This boy is tremendous at taking chances,” he says. "He’s not big and he’s not strong. But he IS positive and aggressive.”

You make three more League appearances that season - and ironically, your first away game is at Nottingham Forest.

Your willingness to work and learn impresses Mercer. Your Ford Anglia car impresses Chris, your wife-to-be.

"The old Anglia saved me and a friend a half-crown bus fare home,” recalls Chris, who was then a typist in Manchester and deeply suspicious of your claim to be a professional footballer.”

“I asked my brothers if they’d ever heard of a footballer called Ian Bowyer and they hadn’t,” she says. “Mind you they were United supporters.”

"But when he told me he stay in on a Friday night, I thought he was giving the brush-off."

CONVINCE​

You finally convince Chris and the City management of your good intentions, though. And in addition to winning a bride in 1970, you taste League Cup and Cup-Winners’ Cup triumph as a super-sub in City’s team of all-stars.

At Wembley in March you as substitute for Mike Summerbee in the League Cup final against West Brom. Their only goal comes from former Notts County favourite Jeff Astle and your 2-1 win is earned by strikes from defenders Mike Doyle and Glyn Pardoe.

In Vienna a month later you replace Doyle to help City defeat the Poles of Gornik Zabree in the Cup-Winners’ Cup Final. The score again is 2-1. The goals come from Neil Young and a Francis Lee penalty.

But so talented is the City squad that in your first three years as professional you make only 42 League appearances and two as substitute.

ARRIVAL​

Your striking rate of 13 goals persuades you to seek a club able to offer more first team football, especially when the arrival of baby Gary means you have another mouth to feed.

In June, 1971, you sign for late Jimmy Bloomfield, manager of Second Division Orient. It means moving from your own house in your native North-West to a flat in London, but the upheaval does not affect your form.

You score 18 goals in 78 League games, including three as substitute, and halfway through a massive re-building programme on a house when Dave Mackay invites you join Nottingham Forest in October, 1973.

You jump at the chance to get away from the impersonal capital (and might have gone to Carlisle who were also chasing you).

Mackay pays £40,000 for you, explaining: "He’s a battler, has loads of courage and scores goals.”

Chris finds it harder to settle in Nottingham - especially when Mackay departs.

"That’s tended to happen to every manager who’s signed Ian,” she says. "I kept thinking 'Anytime now we’ll be moving again’ Nobody knows what’s coming next in football.”

Certainly nobody could have predicted the prizes that would come your way in Nottingham.

On December 23, 1974, Chris presents you with twins - Paul and Lisa.

Success is earned in pairs by Forest too: Anglo-Scottish Cup and promotion from Division Two 1977, League Championship and League Cup 1978, European Cup and League Cup 1979, European Cup and Super Cup 1980.

HEADER​

You play in both European Cup finals, against Malmo in Munich on May 30, 1979, and Hamburg in Madrid on May 28, 1980.

You will always be remembered for the header that gave Forest victory in Cologne after a thrilling 3-3 first leg draw at the City Ground in the 1979 semi-final.

Late 1980 is a sad time. Forest are knocked out of the European Cup, you lose your place. And in January 1981, you move to Sunderland.

Since Mackay paid £40000 for your services you have played 222 League games for Forest, made 17 appearances as substitute, and scored 49 goals.

Sunderland manager Ken Knighton and his assistant Frank Clark - one of your playing mates in Forest’s glory-glory run - value you so highly that they pay £250,000 for you.

A few months later with Chris and the family still living in Nottingham you suffer a knee injury. You complete house-hunting in the North-East while your leg is still in plaster, move the family in August so as not to disturb the children’s schooling and re-sign for Forest five months later.

In the meantime, Knighton and Clark are sacked and you become so unsettled that you ask for a move.

You return to the City Ground on a foggy New Year’s Day, 1982, but it is October before Chris and the kids are able to rejoin you, the latest house-hunting having ended in Edwalton.

In August you become club captain. It looks as if you are set to become the first British player to win medals in all three European club competitions when Forest take a 2-0 first leg lead over Anderlecht in the 1984 UEFA Cup semi-finals.

CEASELESS​

But the Belgians aided by controversial decisions and penalty, win the second leg 3-0.

Even so the Midland Soccer Writers’ Association are sufficiently impressed by your ceaseless efforts that they name you their Player of the Year.

Manager Brian Clough agrees with their judgement. "His commitment to this club has been astounding,” he says.

You prove The Boss right, again, this season Having turned down a move to Luton you fight your way back into the Forest first team.

You’re the elder statesman now among a new generation of kids. And you’re unquestionably the man for all seasons!

This is brilliant thanks for sharing Red.

 

[I'm Red Till Dead]

This is brilliant thanks for sharing Red.

I thought you'd like it.

 

[Rockabilly]

I thought you'd like it.

I’ve just read it again.

 

[I'm Red Till Dead]

I’ve just read it again.

Go on. Once more. They say three times is a charm.

I've transcribed a five part Psycho (early) bio from 1993, and I'm 2/3rds through transcribing a piece on Stan from 1994, mostly about his time pre-Forest. I also have a five part piece bookmarked which I think is about Ron Atkinson's time here and what he thinks went wrong.

 

[Rockabilly]

Go on. Once more. They say three times is a charm.

I've transcribed a five part Psycho (early) bio from 1993, and I'm 2/3rds through transcribing a piece on Stan from 1994, mostly about his time pre-Forest. I also have a five part piece bookmarked which I think is about Ron Atkinson's time here and what he thinks went wrong.

Nice one Red… can’t wait.

 

[I'm Red Till Dead]

(NEP 11/02/1986)
Bombers testimonial year banquet.

 

[football post]

I've been watching a few 1st division goal compilations on YouTube from the late 60s to mid 70s. Bomber features quite a lot for City in the 69/70 season. The coverage is a bit dodgy as it's mainly black and white footage but there's some good finishes.

 

[Rockabilly]

(NEP 11/02/1986)
Bombers testimonial year banquet.

View attachment 16492

Magic

 

[Rockabilly]

I've been watching a few 1st division goal compilations on YouTube from the late 60s to mid 70s. Bomber features quite a lot for City in the 69/70 season. The coverage is a bit dodgy as it's mainly black and white footage but there's some good finishes.

I love watching all those old YouTube videos.

 

[valspoodle]

Go on. Once more. They say three times is a charm.

I've transcribed a five part Psycho (early) bio from 1993, and I'm 2/3rds through transcribing a piece on Stan from 1994, mostly about his time pre-Forest. I also have a five part piece bookmarked which I think is about Ron Atkinson's time here and what he thinks went wrong.

Your industry in gathering all this history stuff together is fantastic. Thank you.

 

[I'm Red Till Dead]

(Nottingham Evening Post, Monday, January 17, 1994)

Stan Collymore has transformed himself from an unknown into a potential England striker. IAN EDWARDS talks to the Nottingham Forest goal machine and those who have helped to shape his career about his rise and rise Part One: From Walsall to Anfield

THE STAN COLLYMORE STORY The making of a £3m super striker - Part 1

PLEASE SIR I WANT TO BE A TOP CLASS FOOTBALLER

Collymore’s message to the careers office was just the job​

THE careers office saved Stan Collymore’s career as much as any manager.

Collymore is now a £3m-rated striker, feted by the Premier League, adored on the City Ground terraces and tipped as a future England international.

Six years ago it looked as though the quiet kid from Stone in Stafford had nowhere to turn after telling the then Walsall boss John Barnwell: “I want to leave.”

Collymore had more clubs as a teenager than most players do in their whole career.

The list stretched from Walsall to Wolves on to Stafford and then to Crystal Palace Why?

Problems with discipline, his dislike of training and his failure to hold down a place raised suspicion among managers - and doubts for Collymore himself - about whether he’d ever make it into the big time.

So the first stop Walsall, was so nearly the final stop too.

Collymore admits he had a rude, abrupt awakening when he was offered a place on Walsall’s YTS scheme.

He might have become a business tycoon rather than a goal-scorer. For when the offer came he was halfway through a two-year college course on business studies.

But when he swapped the dressing room for the classroom, Collymore admits: “It was a lot harder than I imagined. “I’d missed the first 12 months, so the rest of the players were a lot fitter than me. “I honestly didn’t realise how much hard work I had to put in to make a career of football.

“And there was friction between Ray Train - the youth team coach - and me.

“He used to push us very hard and let’s say we had a few fall outs because of my fitness.

“He thought I wasn’t trying hard enough and wasn’t committed to job.

“I thought I was being criticised unfairly.

“That’s why in the end I went to John Barnwell, who had just been appointed the new manager, and asked him if I could leave.”

That didn’t seem like a good idea.

For Collymore hadn’t got another club lined-up. He had no contacts in the game. There was hardly a queue of bosses waiting to give him another chance.

DREAMING​

Enter the career’s office.

While most youngsters grow up dreaming of becoming a fireman or a train driver or a footballer, very few go to the careers centre prepared to say so.

Collymore proved to be the exception.

“I just went to the careers office and told them I wanted to carry on in football,” he added . “They were brilliant.”

“They ’phoned round several clubs and a couple of days later Barry Powell, Wolves’ youth team coach rang me up.”

“They took up the remaining few months on my YTS, I scored on my debut a couple of days later and ended up with 15 goals in 19 games.”

Collymore forced his way into the reserves and won a three-month contract.

So much for childish dreams!

Wright stuff made Stan a man​

A DRESSING room row turned Stan Collymore from a £100 a week part-timer into a £3m striker.

Collymore’s extraordinary climb from the Vauxhall Conference might never have begun without it according to the boss who took a gamble on him.

Chris Wright was manager of Stafford Rangers when he snapped up a 19-year-old goalscorer described as being “a bit shy and idle.”

Collymore had been released by Wolves and according to Wright, “played when he felt like it and needed a kick up the backside.”

The unflattering pen portrait hardly resembles the fearsome ‘Stan, the Man’ who Wright now unhesitatingly tips as a future England striker and also stresses: “If Forest had signed him last season the club wouldn’t have gone down.”

So how did the transformation occur?

“It was half-time in a match at Barnet,” says Wright. “Stan had a barny with our captain on the pitch and I went for him when we got back into the dressing room. “I was livid with his conduct. I told him I wouldn’t pick him again. I said his attitude was a disgrace and he needed to sort himself out.“

“On the coach going home, I wouldn’t speak to him.”

Wright changed his mind when Collymore arrived for training the following week.

“He was most apologetic. He said it wouldn’t happen again - and it didn’t.”

“In fact he went on to get 11 goals in the next nine games and never looked back.”

“To be honest, I think he lost his head a bit early on purely because he was frustrated and he’d been drained of confidence after Wolves let him go on a free.”

“He deserved that second chance.”

After 18 months, Crystal Palace moved for Collymore - his stay was brief - before he began attracting headlines and bids at Southend.

“The strange thing is Telford wanted to buy him from us for £10,000. I told our chairman: ‘Hang on, because this bloke can go all the way.’”

“Once he got his act together, I never doubted it. He has tremendous skill, he’s very brave and can use both feet, well as get goals with his head. He’s a diamond.”

“He’ll score spectacular goals that supporters will remember.”

“I expect him to settle in and become a crowd favourite. If only Forest had signed him last March… they wouldn’t be in the First Division now. No way.”

“He is a natural goal-scorer, so will score wherever he plays.”

“The next stop for Stan is the Premier League and a place in the England squad.”

“He’ll make it believe me.”

“The only surprise is that it’s taken so long for him to make it.”

Wright who also schooled Notts County’s Paul Devlin believes Collymore’s case proves one point.

“It shows clubs sometimes make rush judgments on kids.”

“You’ve got to remember you’re dealing with teenagers who haven’t grown up either as people or players.”

“Blimey, Stan was still living with his mum when he came to us.”

“But I know this: He grew up that day at Barnet.”

The day Wolves gave me the sack​

WHEN Wolves boss Graham Turner called Stan Collymore into his office, the striker thought he was getting a new contract.​

Instead he got sack.

Collymore remembers: He told me he couldn’t take on another striker because he’d got Steve Bul,l Andy Mutch, John Paskln, Paul McLoughlin and Colin Taylor.”

“It was a massive in kick in the teeth. At 18 years-old whether I would ever make it”

Collymore consequently arrived at another crossroads.

What the experience did was harden his attitude. He says: “I did some serious thinking.”

“I was down-hearted and it had a knock-on effect in my first season at Stafford.”

“I told myself: ‘You can be happy with what you’ve got in the Conference or you can get really fit and give it a go.”

“I had to do it then, so I trained and showed up well and Palace came in.”

Steve Coppell thought he was worth a £100,000 gamble and Collymore swapped Altrincham for Anfield – literally.

He teamed up with Wright2, Bright, Salako and Thomas… and his first away game was at Liverpool.

“I came on as sub. For John Salako in front of 39,000. It was awesome. I was only 20.

“The following season I was really expecting to break into the first team. Palace using as a wide player and panic bells started to ring.”

“I couldn’t play in my own position. I got very disenchanted.”

“Then Ian Wright went to Arsenal and I thought would get a chance - until Palace bought Marco Gabbiadini.”

“He left pretty soon and Coppell started using Chris Coleman, a left back, as centre forward.”

“I knew then I had no future at Palace.”

Tomorrow: Who was the biggest influence on Stan Collymore​

 

[I'm Red Till Dead]

(Nottingham Evening Post, Tuesday, January 18, 1994)​

Stan Collymore has transformed himself from an unknown into a potential England striker. IAN EDWARDS talks to the Nottingham Forest goal machine - and those who have helped to shape his career - about his rise and rise.

THE STAN COLLYMORE STORY The making of a £3m super striker - Part 2: From Palace to Southend

MURPHY’S LAW PUT ME ON THE PATH TO FAME AND FORTUNE

Scoring goals is the ONLY thing I wanted to do​

SIX words convinced Stan Collymore to leave Crystal Palace for what turned out to be fame - if not fortune - at Southend.

Colin Murphy, then the Southend boss, uttered a sentence that was music to the ears of the frustrated striker, still itching to make the big impact he craved for.

“’I want you to score goals,’ was the first thing Murph said to me.”

“And that was all I needed to hear,” said Collymore.

“That was all I’d ever wanted to do.”

“I’d always been a striker and what Palace were doing to me was ruining my career.”

“So when Murph came in I jumped at the chance. I never had a second thought.”

Southend, his fourth league club in almost as many years, became the stepping stone which launched Super Stan, the £2m Man.

It also netted Southend a huge profit on the £150,000 transfer fee.

Palace were in the old First Division and flourishing.

Southend were in the old Second Division and struggling. Small crowds, apparently limited potential.

But Collymore is adamant: “I never saw it as a step backwards It was the opposite really. It was a chance to play regularly and to see if I was up to the professional game.”

“I could have stayed at Palace and played the odd game in the first team or go to Southend and test myself.”

It was no contest.”

“Murph still rings me. He came here when I signed. He’s a genuine bloke who cares about his players.”

“Everything he does is geared to them, and not making money, and he’s probably been the biggest influence on my career.”

Murphy was also Collymore’s biggest ally along with Barry Fry when the rumours about Nottingham Forest and £1m-plus transfers started to circulate before last season’s deadline… and when the deal fizzled out.

“Murph and Barry Fry kept me in touch with everything but I never spoke to anyone,” said Collymore.

“I never shouted my mouth off, because I’d had enough knocks to know what could happen.”

“I wanted to join Forest, so I was disappointed when everything fell through.”

“But it was a make-or-break time for Southend. We were fighting to stay up and I had something to focus on immediately.”

“People were watching, waiting for my head to drop and for me to stop trying.”

“The day after deadline day, we had a match against Tranmere. Murph and the Tranmere boss said that I stood out above everyone else that night despite what had happened to me.”

“I learned a lot about myself.”

“I suppose it was easier for me to come here this season. It’s a fresh start for everyone.”

“It would have been much harder for me last season coming in for the last ten games with a £2m price-tag on my head and Forest fans expecting me to save them from the drop.”

“I’m not saying I would have kept Forest up, but I know I would have scored goals.”

“It seems big headed but when I was growing up watching football I believed that I would not play unless I was the best at what I did.”

“This has all happened to me in sixth months, but basically I’ve been the same player since I left Stafford Rangers.”

“I’ve always thought I can go right to the top. Ever since I was a kid. Stanford was just a temporary set back."

HOW COLLYMORE SAVED SOUTHEND​

FORMER Forest and Notts County coach Colin Murphy never had the slightest doubt that Stan Collymore would make the grade.

“He is big, strong, exceptionally quick. He is technically good with an excellent first touch,” said Murphy. “Not many players can run with the ball and shoot. And when you combine all those attributes with technique you have quite an interesting footballer don’t you?”

“It’s not for me to pick the England team. But I have signed and sold Harford and Fashanu and Stan measures up favourably to both of them. And he’s only 22.”

Murphy tried to buy Collymore twice - for £25,000 for Lincoln from Stafford Rangers - before he joined Crystal Palace.

The former Derby boss finally got his man when he was manager at Southend. But the £150,000 he spent represented a tremendous gamble for the club.

Said Murphy, now back as director of coaching at Southend: “That money was very difficult to scrape together Signing. Stan was life or death for the club.”

“But I knew from the moment saw him play for Stafford at Kettering that he had the potential to become something special.”

“He had been for trials with a lot of clubs but to be frank no one wanted to give him the time of day.”

"They either had reservations about him as a boy or did not want to get left with egg on their faces if he failed. But I did my homework on him and spoke to people like his teacher to check on his development.”

"At the end of the day I did not see him as that bad a fellow.”

"Perhaps all he needed was someone to put an arm round him and understand him.”

“In any case, I had been lucky in the past with coloured strikers like Devon White, Cunningham and Fashanu.”

“And I was prepared to back my judgment that I could handle him. I tried for five or six weeks to sign him but then Palace came in.”

Murphy’s patience paid off in the end and Collymore rewarded him by scoring 16 goals in his short spell at Roots Hall.

Big clubs soon became alerted by his goalscoring feats at the back end of last season. He might have come to Forest - indeed he might have saved them from relegation.

“A large number of clubs were sniffing round,” said Murphy.

“Blackburn were very interested. I thought he was worth £1m, but to be honest I never thought he would go for over two.”

“There is no limit to what he can do now. What’s he got, 19 goals. And he appears to be making a lot of them for himself with runs from deep in midfield.”

“I still live between Lincoln and Newark so I keep in touch with his progress through the Evening Post and I am delighted to see that he is doing so well.”

One look at ​

IAN WRIGHT took one look at Stan Collymore on the training pitch and earmarked him as a future England striker.

Wright, one of the games deadliest marksmen and an international in his own right, was at Crystal Palace when Collymore arrived, big, brash and eager to make an impression.

He didn’t take long according to close friend and long-time mentor Mark Bright, who was amazed at the way Collymore, a £100,000 arrival from non-league Stafford Rangers, bounced around the practice pitches.

“Ian looked and myself looked at him and said if he carries on like this he’s England material. That’s how big an impact he made,” recalls Bright.

“When he first came he was like a breath of fresh air. His first week in training was a dream for him.

He came with all the confidence, was quick, looked great running with the ball, shot with both feet, took people on and scored goals.

“He looked like he was ready to go straight into the first team.

“Steve Coppell always used say that when you take a player from the from non-league the first 12 months are the hardest, because all the freshness gets taken up in training.”

That happened to Collymore, who found himself stuck in the reserves and being played of position.

“There was a lot of talk about Stan not liking training. But no-one likes to train when things aren’t going too well.”

“It was a kick up the backside for him because he thought he should have been in the Palace team.”

“But it does take time people adjust and Stan was no different. He wanted to score goals all the time, but didn’t want to work on the other aspects of the game too much. Even though I tried to help him.”

“He was infuriating at times. I used to look at him and think he’s quicker than me, he’s bigger than me, he’s stronger than me. He could be earning £7,000 a week, but was wasting it.”

Bright has kept a close eye on Collymore’s development and feels the move to Southend was the real reason for the striker’s emergence.

“That was the making of him. I told him that sometimes in this game you have to move backwards, or sideways, to move forwards.”

Part Three tomorrow: Why Stan Collymore says he has more to offer England than Alan Shearer and Andy Cole​

 

[I'm Red Till Dead]

(Nottingham Evening Post - Wednesday 19 January 1994)​

Stan Collymore has transformed himself from an unknown into a potential England striker. IAN EDWARDS talks to the Nottingham Forest goal machine - and those who have helped to shape his career - about his rise and rise.

THE STAN COLLYMORE STORY The making of a £3m super striker - Final Part: My England dream

Don’t forget me, England – I can outshoot all the rest.

Just let me prove I’m a more complete player than Cole and Shearer.​

THE illusive first England cap can’t come fast enough for Stan Collymore - and he feels he’s got more to offer than Alan Shearer and Andy Cole.

Collymore is one of the brat-pack of bright young strikers, along with Newcastle’s Cole, being tipped as an international star of the future.

Cole is burning holes in Premier League defences like a laser beam and is currently ahead of Collymore in the list of heirs apparent to partner Alan Shearer.

Despite his 19-goals this season, Collymore - 23 this week - has been largely overlooked as a possible for the 1996 European Championships.

Many are reserving judgment until he is tested at the very top level, but Collymore believes his intense England ambitions should not be discriminated against because of his Division One status.

He also feels he’s got a better all-round game than Shearer and Cole and doesn’t want to wait until the European Championships to prove it.

“If I was picked in the next England squad I would not disgrace myself,” said Collymore.

“In 1996 I will be 25, approaching my peak, but when I see the other people who are playing it can’t come soon enough for me.

“I don’t think it should make any difference where Forest are or what your career status is. If you can play, you can play.

“I feel if I can keep going the way I am at the moment and keep improving, then I look at Cole and Shearer - who are the same age as me and think ’yes I can play for England.’”

“Without blowing my own trumpet they’re just goalscorers. They get in the box and score.”

“I think I can do more. I pull out wide and get crosses in. I’d like to think I’ve got a better all-round game as well as being able to score goals.”

“Hopefully, the new England manager will look at a broad range of things.”

“Cole’s got a great instinct in front of goal but he and Shearer will be the first to admit they rely on a great service.”

“So do I but sometimes I can get a goal out of nothing.”

“Certainly I’ve got ambitions to play up front with Shearer and Cole.”

“I want to play as soon as possible. I hear comments that I’m still learning the game.”

“I bet if you asked Stuart Pearce he’d be honest enough to tell you he’s still learning too.”

“So I’m confident I can do it.”

Collymore feels the only way he can learn is for the new England boss to revive the B team as soon as possible.

He sees it as a valuable teaching aid to life at international level and the perfect way to give England’s bright young guns an opportunity.

“Maybe it’s time to give the young people a chance. It’s no good throwing them in when they are 25. You have to learn to play against international teams,” he added.

“The B-team would be perfect to blood players. Give them a chance at that level rather than throwing them into important qualifying matches without any previous experience.”

“You can put players in without too much pressure and they can get used to playing international opposition.”

“There’s nothing between the under-21 and the full team. So if you’re not doing what Cole is you end up in a bit of a void.”

“Then you get to 25 and get put in an England squad and you’ve lost two years of finding out what Europe has got to offer.”

The new England boss shouldn’t miss the chance to find out what Collymore has to offer.

Family tragedy put life into perspective​

STAN COLLYMORE can handle the pressure of huge transfer fees, crowd abuse and anything that football can throw at him.

Any problems he suffers playing the game he adores are dwarfed by the personal tragedy that struck his family shortly before he joined Forest.

Collymore was on the verge of making his 2m move to the City Ground - and earnings way beyond his childhood dreams - when his sister Andrea died of cancer.

Immediately, Collymore’s difficult course through the professional game; the rejections at and Wolves and Crystal Palace and the disappointment when the first chance to join Forest fell through were put into perspective.

“It’s very easy to feel sorry for yourself if things aren’t going your way in this game,” said Collymore.

“But when, something like that happens… well football’s not even important anymore. Andrea was only 43. She had been ill for a long time but that didn’t make it any easier.

“It’s terrible knowing that there’s nothing you can do. No matter how successful you may be.”

“People think they are having a bad time when they get some stick from the crowd during a game.”

“There are times when I get a bit down and then I stop and think about my sister.”

“You can’t even begin to compare football with life and death.” Having someone close to you taken away at such a young age puts everything into perspective.”

“That was the reason wanted a move back to the Midlands to be near my mom.”

“She took the death badly and I wanted to be there for her. She’s always been very supportive of me. She’s always listened to my moaning and put up with my problems and bad habits.”

Stan’s mom Doreen still cooks, does his washing and goes round his new house in Cannock to tidy up after her son.

She still has to put up with his disappearing acts, but doesn’t like watching Stan play.

“She’s saw me once when I was at Southend and she’s seen once since I came to Forest.”

“But she doesn’t watch too well. She gets nervous and twitchy. She knows about the game and will always sit and have a chat. Throughout my career she’s given me constant support and backing.”

 

[I'm Red Till Dead]

I'd forgotten what a good looking guy Stan was when he was younger

 

[I'm Red Till Dead]

(Nottingham Evening Post, Friday, September 10, 1993)

STUART PEARCE’S leadership is legendary. He is the general who makes England and Nottingham Forest tick. Now Captain Fantastic has agreed to tell his own story in his own words exclusively in the Evening Post, starting today. In this the first of the series, Pearce talks of his formative years at non-League Wealdstone and of his early influences.

THE MAN WHO MADE ME

IT WASN’T BOBBY GOULD OR EVEN BRIAN CLOUGH

My story - Stuart Pearce - Part 1​

SOME people think either Brian Clough1 or Bobby Gould2 turned me into an England international

They’re wrong! The best guv’nor I’ve ever had worked for Brent Council.

I can’t tell you his name. Blimey he’d get the sack if I did.

Let’s just say I’d probably still be wiring houses for a living without him.

He was my works foreman and very fortunately happened to be my brother’s best mate as well.

He had such an interest in my future that he fiddled time-sheets to make sure I got enough free time to play for Wealdstone. Of course I’d be obliged if you keep that story to yourself… we don’t want to get anyone into trouble do we?

I’ve got to admit something else as well.

I only got into the Wealdstone side because there was a fixture backlog at the end of one season.

The old pros wouldn’t take afternoons off in the middle of the week so the kids including me got a chance.

I’ll never forget my first game ’cos I was awestruck and I’m only talking about a 2-2 draw at Redditch.

Being 17 and as green as grass I can honestly say that playing for Wealdstone felt as big as playing for England does now.

That’s how much the whole thing meant to me.

And I wouldn’t have come as far as this without my old man, Dennis.

For school matches there’d be two or three parents on the touchline rain or shine.

He was one of them. And he’d go so far as to clean my boots afterwards as well. I wasn’t the one who wrote off for trials either.

He put pen to paper on my behalf which is how I ended up going to Queen’s Park Rangers’ gym in Ruislip every Friday evening for 12 months. It got me nowhere. Rangers didn’t want me. The bloke who took training was vague but the message was clear: ‘You’re not up to it son.’

In those days I was a centre half, without being especially tall I didn’t kid myself, either.

There were a lot of lads far better than me.

So when I left school I honestly didn’t know where to go, what to do.

I went for interviews with the police and army - mainly because I took a fancy to the uniforms!

And I liked leaping through hedges when I was a kid.

Later I got a job humping boxes around a warehouse for a year or so.

That’s when my sister Pam suggested I should take a day release course at college and become a spark (that’s an electrician to the uneducated) like my brother Ray.

Now I confess I don’t have any O-levels. Studying wasn’t exactly my thing at school.

Let’s put it this way. The bonus of playing for the school team was that I missed so many lessons.

But – amazingly - my college grades were good. So becoming a pro didn’t cross my mind.

Wealdstone was enough for me at the time and I took it seriously. Very seriously.

It was hard.

Most of my mates went down the boozer on Friday nights. I tagged along… and I’d get a lot of stick when I disappeared at 9pm after downing a couple of orange juices because Wealdstone were playing the next day.

Ask me why I made it and without being conceited I can tell you in one word. Attitude.

I’ve seen bags of players with ability.

But the game wasn’t the be-all-and-end-all of life to them as it was for me.

I was single-minded. I couldn’t play halfheartedly. It was all or nothing as far as I was concerned and the same applies even now.

If I’d said ‘Blow it’ and sunk a few pints in my teens - the years which make or break a player - I know I wouldn’t have got this far.

No way.

For a lot of time I was playing alongside old pros. Blokes who’d notched up 70-odd appearances for a League club and saw Wealdstone as a step down.

I saw it as the biggest thing I’d ever done in my life.

So I didn’t mind being the odd one out in the pub.

Especially when Wealdstone were paying me as well.

Honestly I could hardly believe my luck.

I got £15 a week, plus a £3 win bonus.

I thought I’d won the pools

MY NUMBER ONE LESSON IN NON-LEAGUE FOOTBALL​

I SOON learnt an important lesson about non-League football. It came in a match against Altrincham.

I can’t remember the winger’s name - I probably didn’t know it in the first place - but I’ll never forget what he tried to do to me.

I whipped the ball away from him cleanly Instead of getting congratulations from my centre half I got an earbashing.

He’d seen the winger coming to sort me out and shouted across: “That bloke was only interested in one thing”

Put it this way it could have been the end of a very promising career.

The rest of his advice about the ball and erasing it from my memory made the message clear

“Look after number one”

So don’t ever think non-League was a soft touch. Far from it. The wingers were as strong as central defenders and loved kicking fullbacks.

And the League was full of ex-pros who knew how shall I put it? - all the tricks of the trade.

They were strong-minded and well, just strong.

I’m not exaggerating when I say Wealdstone used to play Wimbledon on Boxing Day and if there were fewer than four sent off it was a clean game.

I never once got a red card at Wealdstone

But if you weren’t competitive, if you didn’t know how to take care of yourself, you didn’t survive at that level.

Ask Carl Tiler’s dad.

He was a right-back who played for Boston.

I saw him on the train when we were going to Wembley one year and he still reckons I used to kick him.

I reckon it was a case of mistaken identity

IN PART TWO ON MONDAY: HOW I TOOK A PAY CUT TO BECOME A PRO​

 

[I'm Red Till Dead]

(Nottingham Evening Post, Monday, September 13, 1993)​

STUART PEARCE’S leadership is legendary. He is the general who makes England and Nottingham Forest tick. Now Captain Fantastic is telling his own story - in his own words - exclusively in the Evening Post. Here in the second of the series, Pearce talks of how he took a pay-cut to become a pro.

Gould made me take a wage cut to turn pro

My story - Stuart Pearce - Part 2​

BOBBY GOULD greeted me with the friendly line: “Accept our terms or get out of the door.” Blimey, what an introduction to life at the top.

I’m telling you Gouldy was tougher than Brian Clough.

So tough in fact, I had to take wage cut to play for him - and I was only an electrician, hardly in the millionaires’ league.

I‘d clued myself up before going to Highfield Road. I’d got my spiel all planned. When the offer to see Gouldy arrived, I went to chat to the old pros in the Wealdstone team for a bit of ‘independent financial advice.’

I didn’t have a clue about wages… about bonus money… about how much - or what - to expect from Coventry.

The lads at Wealdstone did a bit of card marking and I thought: “Right I‘m ready for anything.”

And I thought my big chance must mean big money.

I was wrong. Not half.

Gouldy bless him sorted me out in five minutes flat.

I’d barely sat down when he snapped: “We don’t give signing on fees - I’ll give you this amount and you can accept it or get out of the door.”

Let’s say it was a shock the old system.

What choice had I got?

I was 21, a kid with spots. And there was no way I was going to call his bluff.

Now if I knew then what I know now… well maybe things would have been different. I’d have dug my heels in bit.

But one thing suddenly flashed across my mind.

The vision of me as an old bloke sitting at home by the fireside thinking about what I might have been.

Or of going back to Wealdstone and waiting for another club, another gaffer to take a fancy to me.

Who knows? I might still be waiting for the ‘phone to ring.

No, I didn’t have an option. I had to give Coventry a bash.

Apart from the cash the whole thing perfect.

And if nothing else I’ve given Gouldy a story he’s been able to milk for the last ten years.

You know the one I mean, don’t you?

Where he turns up for ten minutes, watches me dispatch some fella into the top row of the stand, turns to his missus and says: ‘Come on luv, we’re off - I’m signing that lad.’

I’m sure every time he tells it, the poor winger ends up on his backside faster than he did the time before.

I think it’s got to a stage where I sorted him in the car park half an hour before kick-off.

Sorry Gouldy, only kidding, mate.

What else can I tell you about signing for Coventry.

Everything happened so quickly it was a blur – honest.

One minute I was a ‘spark’, the next I was a pro.

We were playing Yeovil when it happened.

One of the lads - and goodness knows how he knew - button-holed me and said, “Look, Pearcy, I shouldn’t be telling you this but… the Coventry City manager is here to watch you.”

A fortnight later I’d left London and my mum’s cooking and was living in a Coventry hotel.

I don’t mind admitting it was a strange experience for someone as sensitive as me who had always lived at home.

Sometimes I wondered what I’d done.

Particularly as I had more houses than Barrett’s during my time there.

Five different addresses in 18 months to be exact.

But I was lucky. Very lucky

Somehow, I managed to prove myself early on.

I’d only played three reserve games and I was in the first team. Six months later John Sillett was telling my girlfiend Liz’s boss that I’d be England skipper one day. (Maybe he should have been my agent)

It’s funny how things turned out. Even on my debut.

Of all teams, I faced Queen’s Park Rangers - the club which turned me down as a kid.

The night before I didn’t lose wink’s sleep. I could have nodded off hanging upside down from a light shade.

The following morning I was as nervous as hell.

We won 1-0, then beat Liverpool 4-0 two games later.

The rest, as they say, is history.

And before you ask… yes I’m glad I went to Coventry before I signed for Forest.

Or I might not have been as good when I got here.

Maybe it’s because I’m a Londoner!​

I USED to love London so much that I never wanted to leave. Now I’ve been away from it for so long, I honestly don’t want to go back.

So it’s hard to believe that a bit of homesickness was enough to put me off Hull City.

Please don’t laugh.

But I lasted exactly a day at the club.

I’d been invited for trials against Grimsby. Hull didn’t appeal though because it seemed a long way from home. I’d wanted to come home before I got there.

Perhaps it had something to do with the fact I felt such an affinity for Wealdstone and my mum’s home cooking.

The club pulled crowds of 3,000 - and I swear I knew most of them by name. Certainly the hard core fans.

Great times? Absolutely.

The season we won the Southern League and Cup double our £3 win bonuses - an absolute fortune to me - were coming thick and fast.

My own part in it was all down to the bloke who gave me my first contract as a player.

His name was Alan Foggerty, and I’ll always be grateful.

I respected him as much as I’ve done any manager I’ve worked alongside.

He lasted 12 months after I arrived - and no it wasn’t my fault he got the sack.

Al turned to me on his way out and yelled: “I expect to see a lot more of you in the future,” which said something about how strongly he rated me.

So did ‘Harry’ Bassett in the days Wimbledon had just reached the Football League. Wealdstone and Wimbledon were close. So much so we used to go to their place for treatment

That’s when Harry collared me and said: “I’ve put an offer in for you but I don’t want to pay twenty-five grand.”

What ‘Harry’ wanted to pay was about £6,000.

He told me to go and see the chairman. “Tell him you want to play in the Football League and we’ll sort something out.”

The chairman wasn’t daft, though.

Which is why Alan Foggerty is working for Harry as a scout at Sheffield United… and why I’m at Forest.

IN PART THREE TOMORROW : LIFE WITH CLOUGH​

 

[I'm Red Till Dead]

(Nottingham Evening Post, Tuesday, September 14, 1993)

STUART PEARCE'S leadership is legendary. He is the general who makes England and Nottingham Forest tick. Now, Captain Fantastic is telling his own story - in his own words - exclusively in the Evening Post. Here in the third of the series, Pearce gives a unique insight into the management style of the great Brian Clough.

Cloughie scared me but stood by us all

My story - Stuart Pearce - Part 3​

I’D be lying if I said Brian Clough didn’t scare me at one time or another. There were a lot of reasons for it If you got big-headed he would be the first to put you down. And you put your neck on the line every time you opened your mouth.

At the time he might ignore what you said. But he never forgot it. When it suited him he could throw your words back in your face.

Let me put it this way. If your idea or opinion was right for ten games, Cloughie would say nothing. Absolutely nothing.

If it backfired in the very next match he’d be in to call you a so-and-so. Not much!

Don’t get the wrong impression. I didn’t dislike him.

For 99 per cent of the time, Cloughie was a good bloke to work for. And whether players were frightened of him or not - and I can tell you that most were - everyone respected him.

There’s another thing I can say on his behalf. If a player was having a hard time on the pitch, or if the papers were giving him a lot of stick, he’d make sure he said the right things in public, as well as in private, to protect him.

He knew when he had to leap to your defence. I certainly can’t moan about him.

Not when his very presence and reputation brought me to Forest from Coventry in the first place.

His presence persuaded me to come. Nothing else.

Now I don’t know if I’ll ever go into management .

If I do I’ll take a lot from the way he did things.

Let’s face it we aren’t talking about a normal gaffer, if you see what I mean.

He’d pop down the training ground every now and then with his walking stick, flat cap and the dog.

A lot of people thought he had some strange ideas about training.

To him it was simple.

He never could see the point of slogging it out down there for hours on end leaving nothing left for matches.

I can’t see anything strange in that.

And he was never one for ranting and raving before a big game.

At the City Ground we wouldn’t see him until ten minutes before kick off.

He’d say a few words to get us going and then stick the ball on a towel in the middle of the room.

“That’s what we play with Go and win it.”

Different, eccentric, call him what you will, it worked.

Managers are judged on trophies the way strikers are judged on goals.

CUPS GALORE​

And in the eight years I played under him, I won cups galore and picked up more than 50 England caps.

Blimey, being HIS captain also raised my stature. There was something about being skipper of HIS team which lifted my reputation.

But he kept me on my toes.

He didn’t care who you were or what you’d achieved in the game. You had to toe the line.

If you didn’t do your job, the verbals you’d get would be strong enough to strip the paint off the dressing room walls.

He wasn’t bothered if you were a spotty-faced apprentice or the Footballer of the Year… the treatment was the same. To be honest I agreed with him.

The higher and more successful you, get the more self-discipline he expected.

I liked the way his beliefs about the way football ought to be played, the way players ought to behave, wouldn’t change for hell or high water.

SO SIMPLE​

No one could have made the game simpler.

At Coventry we watched videos, something I believe bores players generally - particularly if you’re watching yourself get panned.

When I came to Forest I found things were far more laid back.

Training was built around all the things players like: Five-a-side, a few quick sprints. Basically nothing tedious. He had few equals as a negotiator too.

Put it this way. He caught me out at our first meeting. He listened to everything I asked for and then he threw in “Oh and you’d better have this and that.”

I hadn’t even asked for either of them so I walked out thinking I was the bees knees.

Only later did I realise he was probably laughing at me behind the door and thinking he’d signed me for peanuts.

Well you live and learn.

I’d say I’ve been naive in the game until about two years ago.

The problem is you go through football and by the time you’ve gathered all the knowledge you need to survive in the game, it’s time to retire.

I WAS JUST THE MAKEWEIGHT​

MY first real contact with Forest came on a street comer. I was walking to a match at Coventry when Alan Hill tapped me on the shoulder.

Let’s say he wasn’t inquiring after my health.

Later I was sitting at home when the ’phone rang. The voice on the end was unmistakable.

You can guess, can’t you?

“Hey how would you like to come and work for me young man,” was the gist of the message. It was the end of the season and Coventry, for some reason I still can’t fathom out, had said nothing about a new contract. So I was free to talk to anyone. The strange thing is Cloughie didn’t want me as much as he did Ian Butterworth.

Butts was his target and I suppose I was the makeweight.

Mind you I’ve never forgotten one thing that happened when Coventry played Forest at the City Ground.

I went down injured… and looked up to find the Forest physio on the pitch.

He treated me then asked: ‘How old are you?’

Goodness knows who could have sent him on to ask such an odd question

TOMORROW: ENGLAND MY ENGLAND​

 

[I'm Red Till Dead]

(Nottingham Evening Post, Wednesday, September 15, 1993)​

STUART PEARCE’S leadership is legendary. He is the general who makes England and Nottingham Forest tick. Now Captain Fantastic is telling his own story - in his own words - exclusively in the Evening Post. Here in the fourth of the series Pearce leaps to the defence of England managers past and present.

My England debt to Robson and Taylor

But the flack fired at both of them on a personal level is disgraceful.

They have been crucified.

My story - Stuart Pearce - Part 4​

JACK Charlton summed up what it means to be the England boss.

He reckons he gets enough flak from the English media just being the manager of Ireland.

I bet he’d rather go fishing than manage England.

He’d certainly be well out of the way, judging by what I’ve seen over the last eight years.

I’ve never ‘forgotten the way Bobby Robson was mauled by the media. And I can’t comprehend why Graham Taylor is treated the same way.

Yes, Big Jack’s spot on.

Don’t take the England manager’s job unless you’re prepared for the biggest hounding of your life from the press.

If you can’t handle having your personal life being put under the microscope. Steer clear.

I don’t have to tell you what Robson and the present gaffer have had to endure.

It’s fair enough that they are criticised for their professionalism, or poor performances.

But the flak fired at both of them on a personal level has been disgraceful. They’ve been crucified.

And for what? For simply being the England boss. For losing the odd match. For not winning every game in style.

I see no attraction in facing a firing squad every few months.

Of course there’d be pride in being appointed. There’s satisfaction of reaching the top of your profession too.

But it comes at a high price.

What’s more I don’t know of a successful manager who wouldn’t think twice before giving up a place at a top club to take over at Lancaster Gate.

I’ve heard Ron Atkinson1 say he’d rather stay at Villa.

Now Ron would have a bash at most things - including Karaoke (though he can’t sing).

But would he want the headlines Robson had to suffer. Not a chance.

No one deserves to be treated like that.

I’ll tell you about Robson in case you get the wrong idea.

He was a kind man who cared for his players and took the bullets for many of them.

He was great under pressure as far as I’m concerned.

He held his head high pushed his chest out and kept a smile on his face.

And was a far, far stronger man than people perceived him to be.

If he hadn’t been he wouldn’t have survived five minutes - neither would Taylor.

I admired Robson because he stuck at it. He never let them grind him down.

If they did he never let it show to the players and in the end he finished a breath away from reaching the World Cup final.

Overnight he almost became a national hero and world champion.

All this - after being rubbished and villified for eight years.

I swear I’d have loved to see him come back from Italy with the cup.

Can you imagine a more perfect way to go?

What a shame it didn’t happen.

I owe Robson a debt. At 25 and with one over-aged U-21 cap to my name, I never expected to get close to a World Cup final.

I regarded playing for U-21s as a massive thing for me. I told my wife Liz that I was graduating to the U-19s. She never did quite get to grips with it.

A bit like yours truly really when Robson called me into the full squad for the first time.

When I was called up I couldn’t believe it.

My chance came because Kenny Sansom was having an operation.

He’d got 70 odd caps at the time and seemed as if he’d be there forever. I had a lot of respect for Sansom.

And I’ll never forget meeting him at a PFA dinner in my days at Wealdstone.

You know how people always say stupid things…

Well the Wealdstone manager introduced me to Sansom and said: “This bloke is after your job.” I wanted to hide in the loo.

When I got it I was scared stiff. Robson picked me against Brazil in the Rous Cup.

I’ll be honest I didn’t know whether I was good enough. At the time I’d have been content getting another game for the U-21s.

All of a sudden I was sitting at the same table with Hoddle, Butcher, Shilton. THE big boys. THE Legends.

And at the head of the lot was Bryan Robson - an absolute God.

I looked around the room and thought to myself: “I’m not worthy enough to train on the same pitch.”

When I got on the training pitch itself, I knew I wasn’t.

Seeing Hoddle at close quarters was incredible.

He could do things with the ball that I couldn’t even dream of. Some of the stunts he pulled with the ball were awesome.

A HARD MAN, NO NOT ME​

PSYCHO - I can’t for the life of me remember where the nickname came from. All I can think is that it must have been about five years ago.

At the time Norman Whiteside was “Rambo” and Pat Van Den Hauwe was “Psycho” at Spurs.

You remember. Everyone had their so-called hard men then and for some reason the fans singled me out as ours.

I can’t for the life of me think why. Maybe it’s because I’m the only one with a tattoo.

But, from that day on It’s stuck to me like glue.

And I don’t mind admitting I enjoy it. No, not for the macho thing, far from it.

It’s just a bit of fun which gives the crowd and me a buzz. You know the routine.

I clench my fists, the crowd go potty and it gets me in the mood for the game. Great.

That’s the way I’ve always used it. As a positive thing.

Don’t get me wrong, I could have gone the other way and tried to live up to it.

That’s something a lot of people would have loved to see.

Me running round like a nutter every Saturday and getting sent off after two minutes.

I wouldn’t give anyone the satisfaction.

And I can honestly say I’ve never altered my game because of it.

I’ve never gone out and tackled like an idiot and I’ve never held back because of it.

TOMORROW : ME AND THAT WORLD CUP PENALTY ​

 

[I'm Red Till Dead]

(Nottingham Evening Post, Thursday, September 16, 1993)​

STUART PEARCE’S leadership is legendary. He is the general who makes- England and Nottingham Forest tick. Today, Captain Fantastic concludes his own story - in his own words. Look out for his new weekly column only in the Post starting on Tuesday.

Penalty miss made me a stronger man

My story - Stuart Pearce - Part 5​

I HONESTLY believe missing that World Cup penalty in Italy has made me a stronger man. I made a mess of the biggest moment of my life… but I was determined to get something positive out of it. It was the only way to handle it.

So I came back gritted my teeth scored 16 goals and reached an FA Cup final. I can never make up for it but it certainly helped.

I thought if I could get over it, I could get over anything.

I know it’s a cliché. But, at the time, I wanted the ground to open up and swallow me.

Words haven’t been invented to describe how I felt.

I was in tears, Gazza1 was sobbing, along with the whole of the dressing room.

By the time we’d finished, it made the River Trent look like a stream.

Let’s face it, we’d just missed out on something all footballers dream of and I thought it was all my fault.

I’m not exaggerating when I say I was still crying when I got on the coach two hours later.

The fact that Chris Waddle missed his ’pen’ as well made no difference to me.

The Germans would have scored their last one anyway.

That’s why I just couldn’t look at any of the lads. I didn’t want to speak to anyone.

I thought I’d let the whole of England down.

And as if that wasn’t bad enough, I got pulled in for a drugs test.

Let’s say it wasn’t the best timing in the world when the bloke from Fifa tapped me on the shoulder

Especially when I had to go with Shilts and two Germans, who were celebrating getting to the final

That was the final straw Shilts2 and the two Germans - how can I put it? - did what was required of them. I couldn’t. I spent an hour walking round the pitch with the England doctor waiting to give a specimen.

On the way back to the hotel, there were fortunately people about like Des3, Steve Hodge and Webby4.

They’re friends and were very sympathetic. I knew they meant it when they said: ‘Bad luck.’

Des and me were room-mates.

Of all the players I know, I get on better with him than any other.

We’re very similar. We don’t have to talk all the time to get on well.

Good job really.

When we got back to our room, the last thing I wanted to hear was Des telling me I should have placed it in the corner.

Des bless him, knew when to shut up.

“I know I can’t say anything to make you feel any better. So do you fancy a cup of tea?” was all I got from him.

Hardly consoling words - but just what I needed. It’s funny how things turn out.

A year later he was scoring an own goal in the FA Cup final and I was there for him like a shot. I feel as gutted for him if he does anything detrimental to his career as he does for me.

And there’s no point saying don’t worry about it. You do. I was up all night. Taking that pen over and over again and going to the loo. I’d drank so much water trying to fill the little bottle that I was going every half an hour. The next day was even worse. Going to see Liz and my mum and dad was awful. I was walking to the hotel thinking all the English fans were looking at me and I felt every one of them was saying, ‘There’s Stuart Pearce. He cost us the World Cup.’

When I saw Liz, I was close to tears. They were upset for me and I was upset for them. I’d let them down.

And I can’t say I was looking forward to the journey back to England. I’ll be honest. I was almost afraid to come back home.

The last thing I wanted was Luton airport full of screaming fans having a go at me. I needed that like a hole in the head. I get enough stick at grounds all over the country. I expect that. What I wasn’t banking on was the reception I got.

The supporters were brilliant I had letters from all over the country. I can’t tell you how much that meant to me at the time. But I’ll still never forget that night in Turin.

It’s Rock City for me​

MANY people think I stayed at Forest for the money. Well, I can’t lie I’m getting well paid… just a bit more than Cloughie’s £200 a week.

And it’s true Liz, that’s the wife, and me have got a nice little set-up where she can ride her horses and I’ve got my privacy.

Yes I suppose I’ve come a long way since adverts in the programme offering my services as a spark, just in case I didn’t make it.

But I couldn’t leave Nottingham now.

I’d miss Rock City too much.

Especially now I’m getting a few more of the lads interested in the Lurkers and Vibrators.

Oh they’re punk rock bands just in case you hadn’t heard of them.

I’ve been into the Sex Pistols and all that kind of stuff ever since I was a kid in London.

Footballers favourites like Luther Vandross and Phil Collins have never been my scene.

I need something that’s a bit more up tempo.

Something to get the adrenalin pumping before a game.

It’s also a great escape route.

Because people don’t think of as a Forest player or the England captain.

I’m just Stuart Pearce, the Vibrators fan.

I’ve even been to Derby thinking I’d better keep my head low.

Then someone comes over and says: “Great the England captain likes the Lurkers.”

They see me as music fan and I love it.

One of the best nights I had was at the Narrowboat when 40 hard core punks turned up to see the Lurkers.

The lead singer came over and said: “Pearcy I would have put you on the guest list but I wouldn’t break even.” Then after two hours bouncing himself silly he dived off the stage and started selling T-shirts. That’s absolutely priceless.

Liz isn’t too keen on my musical tastes, but then I’m not a big fan of the horses.

I try not to ride them. I’m scared of falling off.

 

[I'm Red Till Dead]

1993.

 

[I'm Red Till Dead]

(Stapleford & Sandiacre News, Thursday, March 09, 1978)​

Ensuring his team don’t get the chop!​

A window display with a difference in one Sandiacre shop has certainly caught the eye of shoppers and motorists.

Mr. Pete Cheetham, owner of Pete’s; the butcher in Derby Road, has gone Wembley-mad. His favourite team, Nottingham Forest, will be there a week on Saturday in the League Cup Final and Pete is already celebrating.

He has decorated one large part of his window area in red and white with the words, ‘We’ve Got the Whole World In Our Hands’ painted on the window.

COULD NOT GO​

Explained Mr. Cheetham: "In 1959 when Forest were last at Wembley, I could not go because I had only just got married.

"At the time I said I would really celebrate the next time they got there by decorating the shop window and also by actually going to Wembley.

"I have kept my word. Nothing could keen me away from the twin towers on March 18 - and nothing was going to stop me having a window display."

The display consists of red and white scarves, banners, rosettes and a huge flag which flew above the main stand before the 1968 City Ground fire and which Mr. Cheetham was able to keep.

‘GREAT’​

He says he has had one or two grumbles from Notts County and Derby County fans - but the majority of people love the display.

Added Mr. Cheatham: "The response from the public has been great. I have had motorists stopping their cars and looking and nearly everyone who walks by stops.

"I just hope I enjoy the day at Wembley as much as I have enjoyed the build-up."

Mr. Cheetham is a committee member of the Stapleford branch of the Forest Supporters’ Club and therefore automatically receives a Cup Final ticket.