Fierce, passionate rivalries are an essential ingredient of football, the “salt in the soup” as Jurgen Klopp once memorably described them.
Some are as eternal as the game itself and the clubs involved, like the red-blue divide which unites Merseyside and the historical battles of will with Manchester United, while others are of their time and crackle before fading. The idea of Manchester City and Chelsea being major rivals to Liverpool would have been laughable to those who grew up in the era when the nouveaux-riche pair were often more concerned with preserving top-flight status than competing for the top prizes at home and abroad.
But the game's cyclical nature means that while some disputes endure, others are more fleeting as the resumption of one of the Reds’ most unlikely but eventful rivalries in the FA Cup quarter-finals this weekend highlights. Liverpool’s trip to the City Ground on Sunday evening will be their first meeting with Nottingham Forest this century, which seems inconceivable to those who remember the repeated high-octane encounters between the pair in the 1970s and 80s but is the reality with the East Midlands club still seeking to regain the Premier League status they lost following a third relegation in six years in 1999.
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The sides had first done battle as long ago as 1895 when Liverpool won a First Division encounter 5-0 at Anfield and, although Forest spent more time in the lower divisions, were familiar opponents by the time Kevin Keegan made his Reds debut against them in August 1971 in the most historically noteworthy encounter up until that point.
Forest were relegated to the Second Division the following May however and it was on their return to the top flight five years later that a rivalry emerged that would see both conquer Europe twice. Having taken Forest’s East Midlands rivals Derby County to a surprise league title triumph in 1972, Brian Clough took charge at the City Ground in January 1975, less than four months after his infamous 44-day spell as Don Revie’s successor at Leeds United, with the club 13th in the Second Division. Progress was slow initially with Forest only finishing eighth and not troubling the promotion placings by the end of his first full season in charge but the arrival alongside him of Peter Taylor, the assistant manager with whom he’d taken Derby to title glory, in the summer of 1976 proved a catalyst for extraordinary success.
Their first trophy together in Nottingham arrived midway through the following campaign and, while only the much-derided and long-forgotten Anglo-Scottish Cup, the club’s first silverware since a 1959 FA Cup triumph over Luton Town helped Clough develop a winning habit and was soon followed by promotion and greater triumphs beyond even surely the wildest of dreamers. Forest had to wait a week after victory in their final league game of the season over Millwall left them in the third and final promotion spot before rivals Bolton Wanderers failure to win at Wolves confirmed Clough’s men were up, despite their points tally of 52 being the fifth-lowest of any promoted side in history.
It mattered not as the newly-promoted side began life back in the First Division with a 3-1 victory at Goodison Park over Everton and embarked on a truly remarkable campaign, becoming only the fourth team in history after Liverpool (1906), Everton (1932), Tottenham Hotspur (1951) and Alf Ramsey’s Ipswich Town (1962) to win the championship immediately after winning promotion from the Second Division, denying Bob Paisley’s men - who finished seven points adrift in second place - a third successive title after remaining unbeaten from November onwards in their final 26 league games of the season and sealing matters with four games to spare.
Liverpool would go on to retain the European Cup they had won for the first time in Rome the previous May with a 1-0 triumph over Belgian side FC Bruges at Wembley but before that were eyeing a first ever League Cup triumph after seeing off Chelsea, Derby, Coventry, Wrexham and Arsenal to reach the final where their opponents would be Clough’s Forest, flying and four points clear at the top of the First Division. A goalless stalemate at Wembley meant a replay four days later at Old Trafford and it proved to be a highly controversial encounter which set the tone for a rivalry between the clubs that would simmer for the next decade or so, one particular incident symptomising the changing nature of the game and eventually leading to the laws being amended.
The first 45 minutes in Manchester had followed the pattern of the first game at Wembley with Paisley’s men taking the game to their opponents but being unable to find a way past rookie 18-year-old goalkeeper Chris Woods, playing in place of England number one Peter Shilton who having only moved to the City Ground from Stoke City earlier in the season was cup-tied along along with David Needham and Archie Gemmill, Graeme Souness similarly being ineligible for Liverpool. The match sprung into life seven minutes after half-time when a Tony Woodcock pass caught the Liverpool defence square and sent Scottish forward John O’Hare clean through on goal ahead of Reds defender Phil Thompson and bearing down on Ray Clemence. As the Forest man neared the edge of the penalty area, Thompson clipped his heels from behind and brought him down only to turn round and see, to his horror, referee Pat Partridge pointing to the penalty spot.
Despite heated Liverpool protests and television replays showing the foul occurred a yard outside the box, John Robertson stepped up to beat Clemence from 12 yards to put Forest in front and the Reds’ sense of grievance was enhanced further five minutes later. Terry McDermott chested down Kenny Dalglish’s volleyed square pass and thumped home what appeared to be the equaliser only for referee Partridge to rule it out for handball despite the ball appearing to hit the midfielder's shoulder, with Liverpool’s bewilderment at the official’s performance reaching levels of apoplexy when he shortly afterwards handed veteran midfielder Ian Callaghan his first ever booking in the 849th game of his 857-game Anfield career.
Forest held on to win 1-0 and lift the trophy but the referee and his influence on the game’s decisive moments dominated the post-match discourse. An incensed Tommy Smith said on television that Partridge “should be shot” while Phil Thompson explained why he thought his foul, though calculated, should not have been given as a penalty.
"There was no way I could get to it the ball”, the Liverpool defender said. “John O'Hare would have scored and I knew he was outside the area so I brought him down. It was my only chance to get him. I had to pull him down. It was a professional foul. I know it sounds bad, but I had to kick him outside the box.”
"Obvious penalty," said Forest assistant boss Peter Taylor. "Nobody is doubting it, surely?" Having being told by the interviewer that television replays showed the foul was committed outside the penalty area, Taylor famously added, "They (the cameras) also show that we have the cup, that's the main thing."
Thompson's admission is believed to be the first time the now-widespread term ‘professional foul’ had been used and caused outrage among sections of the football and media establishment although there were no immediate consequences. But a similar incident in the FA Cup final two years later when Arsenal defender Willie Young cynically brought down West Ham midfielder Paul Allen to prevent him scoring as he ran through on goal with referee George Courtney only able to award a free-kick to West Ham and a caution to Young did lead to calls for fouls of such callous nature to be outlawed.
The 1970s had been a somewhat bleak period for English football with successive failures of the national team to qualify for the World Cup and the rise of hooliganism leading to a drop in attendances. Chairmen of the Football League clubs met to decide how the game could be made more exciting, appointing a subcommittee to look into the matter which included Jimmy Hill as chairman and involved the likes of Bobby Charlton and former Liverpool captain Matt Busby. They recommended that an offence which denied an attacking player the opportunity of scoring a goal should be deemed ‘serious foul play’ and receive a red card as punishment and, while the plan was initially rejected after being submitted to the International Football Association Board, the 'professional foul' was eventually adopted into the Laws of the Game in 1990 and first used at that summer’s World Cup in Italy.
Liverpool meanwhile looked to avenge their League Cup frustration the following season by regaining the league title from Forest and would ultimately do so in imperious fashion but not before surrendering their European crown to their emerging East Midlands rivals. With the Reds qualifying as holders alongside newly-crowned champions Forest for the 1978/79 European Cup and no such thing as ‘country protection’ in an era when only the champions of each league took part, the sides were paired together in the first round with the first leg to be played at the City Ground.
Garry Birtles gave the hosts a first leg lead and Paisley’s experienced side, despite having won European trophies for the previous three seasons, made the mistake of chasing an equaliser despite still having the second leg to play at Anfield and, pushing forward late on, conceded a killer second goal to full back Colin Barrett three minutes from time.
Graeme Souness admitted years later that a rare display of Liverpool naivety had cost them dear. “I was taught a harsh lesson in my early days at Liverpool that stood me in good stead for the rest of my playing career”, he said. “We had won the European Cup in my first six months in 1978, but were then drawn against Nottingham Forest at the City Ground as we set out to defend it. We were 1-0 down with three minutes to go and I went chasing the game from central midfield and ended up in their left-back area. The ball was played in to where I should have been, then back out to the left wing, squared and they scored to make it 2-0. Joe Fagan tore a strip off me afterwards. We would have taken 1-0, but 2-0 made it twice as difficult. Forest got a 0-0 draw back at Anfield and we were out. That was my lesson."
Knocking the back-to-back European champions out launched Forest themselves on an astonishing path to glory, Clough’s men going all the way to the Munich final in the first ever crack at the continent's premier competition where they triumphed over Swedish side Malmo through Trevor Francis’s far-post header, and then retaining the trophy twelve months later with victory over Kevin Keegan's Hamburg in Madrid, an incredible and unprecedented achievement unlikely to ever be repeated.
Forest have yet to win a second league since that shock 1978 maiden triumph, finishing their title defence a distant second to Paisley’s men who regained their domestic crown with one of their most dominant ever championship wins after amassing a record points tally of 68 (98 in a three-points-for-a-win era) and conceding only 16 goals in their 42 league games, with just four of them being at Anfield. The destination of the trophy never looked in doubt with Liverpool going top spot in the early weeks of the campaign and staying there but one of the most memorable results and performances came when Forest returned to L4 in early December a little over two months after knocking the Reds out of the European Cup there.
Although they already held a five-point lead over Forest, with both league games the previous season having been drawn, Liverpool had not managed to beat Clough’s side in six games since their promotion and had only managed a solitary goal against them in that time. Four days earlier Forest had won 1-0 at Bolton to break the English League record by going 42 games unbeaten to further increase the Reds’ motivation and, in front of a packed and crackling Anfield, they would finally fall. Despite fluent, attacking football for much of the season such as the early-season 7-0 annihilation of a Tottenham side boasting Argentina World Cup winners Ossie Ardiles and Ricky Villa, the begrudging respect Forest had earned in previous encounters saw the hosts adopt a more cautious approach but, after Terry McDermott rifled a penalty past Peter Shilton on 28 minutes after trickery in the box by Kenny Dalglish, the Scouse midfielder doubled his tally shortly after half time to secure a satisfying win and end Forest’s long unbeaten run.
The following season saw an intense period of four matches between the sides in four weeks after they were drawn together in the League Cup semi-finals and the fourth round of the FA Cup. A last-minute John Robertson penalty gave holders Forest the advantage in the first leg of the semi-final at the City Ground but four days later on the same ground goals from Dalglish following a rare Shilton error - “He was due to drop one against us”, quipped Bob Paisley afterwards - and a McDermott penalty sent Liverpool through to the FA Cup fifth round.
Another Robertson penalty two and a half weeks later at Anfield earned Forest the 1-1 draw which took them back to Wembley in the League Cup final (where they would be beaten by Wolves) but seven days later two goals in the final ten minutes from McDermott and Ray Kennedy gave Liverpool three First Division points as they marched inexorably towards another league title.
Forest then slipped into the pack for a while as Clough embarked on a rebuilding process which would not bear fruit until the latter part of the decade, although there was a memorable televised encounter between the sides in October 1984 when Liverpool - struggling initially to adapt to the departure of midfield general Graeme Souness to Sampdoria - kicked off in the unusual position of being in the bottom three after a poor start to the season which saw them win only two of their first eleven league matches, goals in each half from Ronnie Whelan and Ian Rush sparing the Reds’s blushes and moving them up to 13th.
By 1987/88, the emergence of his Clough’s son, Nigel - a crafty inside forward like his father had been before his playing career was cut short by injury - along with the likes of Stuart Pearce, Des Walker and Neil Webb had made Forest into a growing force again but unfortunately for them Liverpool, now under the managership of Kenny Dalglish, had shifted through the gears and would produce one of their most dominant and attractive championship-winning sides with John Barnes, Peter Beardsley, John Aldridge, Ray Houghton and co hitting the heights.
Although Forest would end up finishing third, they were Liverpool’s main - albeit distant - contenders for much of the campaign even though, with the Anfield league fixture having to be rearranged, the sides would not actually meet for the first time until early April when they would do battle three times in eleven days. The trilogy began with a First Division encounter at the City Ground only a fortnight after Dalglish’s men had finally lost their first league game of the campaign at Goodison Park to Merseyside neighbours Everton after equalling Leeds United’s record of 29 games unbeaten. Clough’s men would inflict the Reds' second and final league defeat that afternoon with a John Aldridge penalty not enough to deny the hosts victory after an Alan Hansen own goal and Neil Webb strike put them in control.
Seven days later however the sides met in the FA Cup semi-final at Hillsborough. Perhaps emboldened by the previous week’s victory, Forest full-back Steve Chettle claimed in the press beforehand he would have soon-to-be-named double Footballer of the Year John Barnes “on toast” but those words came back to haunt him when the Liverpool winger motored past him down the left flank early on and drew the foul which gave Aldridge the opportunity to put Liverpool in front after 14 minutes from the penalty spot, Barnes also involved in the classic counter-attack six minutes into the second half which led to a sumptuous Aldridge volley that doubled the lead and later won a BBC Goal of the Season competition made up entirely of Liverpool contenders, a Nigel Clough effort not enough to stop the Double-chasing Reds marching on to Wembley. Four days later, the series was completed with the return league fixture at Anfield which produced what is still regarded as one of Liverpool’s finest performances of all time.
Although Forest performed creditably and created a number of opportunities of their own, they could not live with Dalglish’s side who moved to within one win of reclaiming their league title from Everton with a 5-0 win courtesy of goals from Houghton, Aldridge (2), Gillespie and Beardsley. England legend Tom Finney was in attendance that night and paid tribute to the Reds’ stellar showing, saying, “That was the finest exhibition I’ve seen the whole time I’ve played and watched the game. The skills and the speed the game was played at was absolutely tremendous. You couldn’t see it bettered anywhere, not even in Brazil. The moves they put together were fantastic.”
The sides would meet three times again the following season but in very different circumstances. Forest won an October First Division encounter 2-1 at the City Ground which saw Ian Rush score his first league goal since his return from Italy and six months later the clubs were again paired in the FA Cup semi-finals, with the Football Association deciding the match would again to be played at Hillsborough after ignoring serious concerns raised by Liverpool over the arrangements after the previous year’s encounter.
Catastrophic crowd mismanagement before the kick off by the South Yorkshire Police led to a lethal crush inside the caged pens of the Leppings Lane terrace Liverpool had been allocated, with an inadequate emergency response that included dozens of ambulances being left outside and prevented from trying to save lives by police fixated with non-existent hooliganism, ultimately meaning 97 innocent men, women and children were unlawfully killed in Europe’s worst ever sporting disaster.
When the match was replayed three weeks later at Old Trafford, Liverpool triumphed 3-1 to set up a fitting all-Merseyside final with Everton to leave Brian Clough - who that season saw his side lift the Littlewoods and Simod Cups but was still left searching for the one major trophy to elude him throughout his career - accepting his side were in a ‘no-win situation’.
Three days later Forest were the opponents for Liverpool’s first match back at Anfield after Hillsborough in a rearranged First Division fixture with a late Aldridge penalty giving the Reds the three points they needed in their neck-and-neck title race with Arsenal which went right to the final seconds of the marathon and seismic season before Michael Thomas's stoppage time goal clinched it in the most dramatic league conclusion ever seen.
Forest and Liverpool were each other's first opponents of the 1990s, with the sides drawing 2-2 at the City Ground on New Year’s Day and the scoreline being repeated at Anfield when they were paired together on the weekend of the first anniversary of Hillsborough that April, both matches seeing Clough’s side recover from two goals down but it would prove to be a decade of even steeper decline for the East Midlands club than it was at Anfield.
It began well enough for Forest when they retained the League Cup with victory over Oldham Athletic in 1990 and the following year Clough finally saw his side reach the FA Cup final but, weeks after they beat Liverpool at the City Ground to end Liverpool’s reign as champions, they were unable to hang on to an early lead given to them at Wembley by Stuart Pearce and were beaten in extra time after Des Walker’s own goal.
The clubs began the Premier League era together in August 1992, Teddy Sheringham’s goal sending Liverpool to defeat at the City Ground but Clough’s 18-year reign as manager would end in relegation the following May. Forest would return to the top flight a year later and, inspired by striker Stan Collymore, finished ahead of Liverpool in third and qualified for Europe in their first season back but the Cannock-born striker moved to Anfield in a British record £8.5m deal and Forest were relegated again in 1997 while still managing to take two costly points off Roy Evans’s title-chasing Reds during the run-in.
After another immediate promotion, Michael Owen - fresh from his France 98 heroics - bagged four goals when Forest were hammered 5-1 on their most recent visit to Anfield and the following April, with Gérard Houllier now in sole charge after the failed joint-manager experiment with Roy Evans, Pierre van Hoojidonk’s injury-time free-kick salvaged a 2-2 draw for Ron Atkinson’s rock-bottom side but wasn’t enough to stave off another demotion to the second tier from where they are yet to re-emerge.
