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The 1963/64 season was coming to a close, in fact our visit to Nottingham Forest was our last away game of the season and was played on what was the final weekend of fixtures. We'd just gone four games without a win, three defeats and a draw, and were looking to end the season on a high note which we did with two wins, the other a 7-2 thrashing of Spurs.
Ian Towers and Willie Irvine both scored in the first seventeen minutes but Forest did pull one back in the second half. However, Towers got a second and we ended the game 3-1 winners. The last Burnley players to win at Forest were: Adam Blacklaw, Fred Smith, Alex Elder, Brian O'Neil, John Talbut, Brian Miller, Willie Morgan, Andy Lochhead, Willie Irvine, Gordon Harris, Ian Towers.
Since then it has hardly been good. We've won just three points from fourteen league visits and also suffered a 4-1 defeat in the League Cup in 1990. Only Barnsley currently in our division can boast to have gone longer without losing at home against Burnley.
Our season hasn't started well, and we need a win. No better time or place to do it than the City Ground Nottingham.
Forest are back in the Championship after a three year absence. Relegated at the end of the 2004/05 season under the management of first Mick Harford and then Gary Megson they were expected to come straight back up.
But it didn't quite work like that, although they eventually just missed out on the play offs in their first season and were beaten by Yeovil in the semi-finals a year later. Last season they hardly looked candidates for automatic promotion for much of the season but a late run of six wins and a draw in the last seven games saw them storm into second place.
The belief was that another failure would have seen manager Colin Calderwood leave the club but in the end he became the hero and spent the summer building his squad for the new season at a higher level.
Most of his summer spending concentrated on his forward line and he splashed out the tidy sum of £2.65 million on Derby's Rob Earnshaw. He then added Andrew Cole, who had turned down the Clarets before paying Carlisle £1.14 million for Joe Garner.
His only other permanent signing was French midfielder Guy Moussi and he's also added Lee Martin (Manchester United) and Paul Anderson (Liverpool) on loan.
Forest fans I've spoken to have admitted they would be happy to end the season in mid-table and not have any worries about going down. So far they've collected four points from their four games with just the one win against Watford.
Somehow I don't see them as relegation candidates and expect them to be well clear of the drop zone come the end of the season.
Nottingham Forest will certainly make at least one change from the side that lost at Wolves. Julian Bennett is ruled out with a calf injury and his place at left back will be taken by debutant Joe Heath. There's also likely to be a change in the centre of defence with fit again Kelvin Wilson expected to replace Ian Breckin.
Other than that it could be same again although Calderwood is contemplating giving Andrew Cole his first Nottingham Forest start and if that's the case it would probably mean Rob Earnshaw dropping to the bench.
If Cole does play Forest should line up: Paul Smith, Luke Chambers, Kelvin Wilson, Wes Morgan, Joe Heath, James Perch, Guy Moussi, Chris Cohen, Nathan Tyson, Andrew Cole, Lee Martin. Subs from: Dale Roberts, Matt Thornhill, Ian Breckin, Lewis McGugan, Garath McCleary, Rob Earnshaw, Emile Sinclair.
Ever since the final whistle at the Plymouth game two weeks ago there has been much speculation as to what team Owen Coyle will play with Chris Eagles beginning a three match ban after being sent off in that game.
The permutations were certainly discussed on this site's message board and were complicated even further by the signing of Steven Thompson from Cardiff City two days later.
There have been all variations suggested but Eagles will have to be replaced and almost certainly so will Christian Kalvenes who was substituted in the Plymouth game with a groin injury.
Stephen Jordan will come in for Kalvenes I would have thought but who comes in for Eagles, and are there likely to be any more changes. I don't think for one minute Owen will make any unnecessary changes to his back line and likewise I think Graham Alexander will continue in his midfield role.
Further up the pitch, I have a suspicion that he might start Thompson on the bench and could bring in Robbie Blake for Eagles, there again he could bring in either Joey Gudjonsson and Alan Mahon.
The team could look like this: Brian Jensen, Russell Anderson, Clarke Carlisle, Steven Caldwell, Stephen Jordan, Graham Alexander, Wade Elliott, Kevin McDonald, Chris McCann, Robbie Blake, Martin Paterson. Subs from: Diego Penny, Michael Duff, Joey Gudjonsson, Alan Mahon, Ade Akinbiyi, Steven Thompson.
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Forest were battling to avoid the drop but you wouldn't have thought so, and the fans had just about given up on them with many wearing special red shirts with the slogan, 'You're not fit to wear the shirt'.
They offered nothing and we really should have found ourselves well ahead at half time. Both James O'Connor and Ade Akinbiyi, the two most recent signings, missed good chances and we went in at half time.
Nothing changed in the first half of the second half, and if the misses from O'Connor and Akinbiyi weren't good then I'll never know how Lee Roche didn't put us in front. He was right in front of goal, just a few yards out, and just had to hit the ball in. Somehow he managed to hit a shot that would have gone hopelessly wide had he not hit it at Ade who almost turned the Roche disaster into a goal.
You sensed we might pay the price, and we did. Danny Coyne failed to deal with a cross and Commons made no mistake from the rebound. There were just twenty minutes left but even so we should still have gone on and won it. We even had another chance as good as the one Roche missed. This time substitute John Oster blazed it high over the bar from ten yards out.
There was just time for the Burnley fans to turn on former striker Gareth Taylor. He'd been involved in an unsavoury incident in the first half with Gary Cahill but his challenge on Ade was an absolute shocker and it was hard to believe that he got only a yellow card. It was close to the Burnley fans who baited him with chants of 'Burnley reject'.
But Taylor was the one smiling at the end after a hard to believe 1-0 win for Forest. It didn't help them though in the end as they still went down.
The teams were;
Nottm Forest: Colin Doyle, John Curtis. Wes Morgan, Andy Melville, Gareth Taylor, Darryl Powell, Paul Evans, Ross Gardner, James Perch, Kris Commons (Neil Harris 90), Scott Dobie. Subs not used: Barry Roche, Chris Doig, Eugen Bopp, Jon-Olav Hjelde.
Burnley: Danny Coyne, Michael Duff, Gary Cahill, John McGreal, Mo Camara, Lee Roche (John Oster 65), Micah Hyde, Tony Grant (Dean Bowditch 72), James O'Connor, Graham Branch (Jean-Louis Valois 78), Ade Akinbiyi. Subs not used: Brian Jensen, Joel Pilkington.
Previous 20 Seasons | |||||
Season | Div | Ven | Result | Att | Scorers |
1990/91 | LC | a | 1-4 | 17,897 | Mumby |
| . | . | h | 0-1 | 11,399 | . |
2000/01 | 1 | a | 0-5 | 17,195 | . |
| . | . | h | 1-0 | 17,876 | Payton(pen) |
2001/02 | 1 | a | 0-1 | 24,016 | . |
| . | . | h | 1-1 | 15,085 | Gnohere |
2002/03 | 1 | h | 1-0 | 13,869 | Briscoe |
| . | . | a | 0-2 | 25,403 | . |
2003/04 | 1 | h | 0-3 | 12,530 | . |
| . | . | a | 1-1 | 26,885 | Chaplow |
2004/05 | 1 | h | 1-0 | 11,622 | Blake |
| . | . | a | 0-1 | 24,165 | . |