Monday, November 26, 2012

26 November 1977 - Run For The Forest

On 26 November 1977, Nottingham Forest drew 0-0 with West Brom to start a club-record streak of 42 unbeaten league matches.

Forest were in the third full season under the managerial duo of Brian Clough and Peter Taylor, who took charge of the club in January 1975. They were in Division Two at the time, but won promotion to the top flight for the 1977-78 season.

They started off well in the First Division, winning ten and drawing two of their first thirteen matches and claiming the table's top spot in week nine. They remained there for the duration of the season, even after losing two of their first three games in November. Those two losses, to Chelsea and Leeds, joined an earlier one to Arsenal as their only losses on the season.

Their next match was the home draw against West Brom, followed by another 25 undefeated matches in the league to lift them seven points clear of runners-up Liverpool in the final table (Forest had also beaten Liverpool in that season's League Cup final).

The next season started with another 16 straight undefeated matches to take the total to 42 before Forest finally lost to Liverpool on 9 December 1978. They finished the season as runners-up to Liverpool in the league, but took some consolation by winning the first of two consecutive European Cups that year.

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