Nottingham derby

The Nottingham Derby is the name given to football matches contested between Nottingham Forest and Notts County. Games between the two clubs are often referred to as Trentside Derbies because of Meadow Lane and the City Ground's proximity to the River Trent.

The Nottingham Derby is not to be confused with The Nottinghamshire derby between Notts County & Mansfield Town^[1]

History

Chart showing the finishing league positions of County and Forest since 1898-99 season until 2010. County represented in black, Forest in red.

The two clubs are amongst the oldest football clubs in the World. County were formed in 1862 and are the oldest professional association football club in the world. Forest were formed three years later by a group of men playing the now largely unknown sport of Bandy.

The first game contested between the two clubs was played in March 1866. It was Forest's first match as a football club and the result remains disputed. Some records claim that the game ended with 1-0 victory for Forest while others record a 0-0 draw.

The first competitive meeting in the FA Cup came on November 16, 1878 and resulted in a 3-1 victory for Nottingham Forest. The first league game occurred on October 18, 1892 and resulted in a 3-1 victory for Notts County.

The biggest victory in derbies between the two clubs was 5-0, which was achieved by Forest on November 21, 1901 and again on October 10, 1953. County's biggest win was 4-1, which last occurred on February 12, 1953.

Nottingham derbies were a fairly regular occurrence until the mid 1950s. Since then, games between the two clubs have become extremely rare with results between the clubs becoming more savoured by supporters, particularly those of Notts County. Nowadays, the two sides rarely meet because they are in different divisions.

The last competitive Nottingham derby occurred on February 12, 1994 and resulted in a 2-1 victory for Notts County. Charlie Palmer (or 'Sir' Charlie Palmer as he has been dubbed by Notts County fans) scored with just four minutes remaining and only ninety seconds after Forest had equalised.

The last Forest win was a few months prior, when Stan Collymore scored late on at the City Ground to secure victory for the Reds. Today, Forest and Notts County matches have occurred as pre-season matches at Meadow Lane. Forest won 2-1 on 30 July 2007 and 3-2 on 2 August 2008, but the final pre-season friendly to date occurred on 25 July 2009, resulting in a 2-1 for Notts County.

Today, rivalry is largely one-sided. Notts County fans see the supporters of Forest and the club in general as condescending and arrogant towards them. Furthermore, Notts fans have accused local media of being biased towards Forest, a claim that had some credibility after BBC Radio Nottingham attempted to drop live coverage of their games in 2001 in favour of the Reds.

Forest fans consider Derby County to be a more serious rival with matches between Derby and Forest being called the East Midlands derby. Many Forest fans believe that Notts County supporters are 'bitter' and are jealous of their larger fanbase and more successful past.

Despite all this, relations between the fans is largely good natured and driven by the banter and gloating seen in most intra-city derby games. The fact that family members, friends, work colleagues and school mates support the respective sides means that even if rivalry is largely dormant, any Nottingham derby is taken incredibly seriously by both sets of supporters.

Forest fans like to taunt Notts County as 'our little brothers' in reference to the sheer gulf in support and success between the two clubs and often refer to Notts fans as 'the Bitters' or 'Sadpies', in reference to often one-sided nature of the rivalry. Meadow Lane is often called 'Legoland'.

The rivalry however is friendly, when Notts County went into administration Forest staff, fans and players donated generously to help their 'little brothers'.

But despite this, a 'friendly' match between the two sides in July 2007 at Notts County's Meadow Lane ground was marred by fighting on the pitch involving both sets of supporters after the final whistle.

The trouble led to arrests several months later and criminal convictions and bans for those involved.

For their part, Notts County supporters refer to Forest as 'the F word', a tongue-in-cheek suggestion that the word 'Forest' is ineffable or as Florist. Many Notts fans also avoid wearing red ('the bad colour') and refer to the City Ground as the 'Shitty Ground'.

As in the Manchester derby, an element of territorial technicality may come into play, since Meadow Lane is within the boundary of Nottingham city, while the City Ground, despite its name, lies beyond the city boundary at the Trent in West Bridgford (though this boundary is rather strangely drawn).

Statistics

The two clubs have met a total of 94 times in the League, FA Cup and League Cup. The two sides have contested games in a number of other competitions including the Nottinghamshire County Cup (contested between the two Nottingham sides and Mansfield Town) and the Anglo-Italian Cup. The results and statistics from those games are not included below.

	County wins	Draws	Forest wins
League	28	23	35
FA Cup	2	1	3
League Cup	0	0	2
Total	30	24	40

League Matches

Notts County in the league at home Date Venue Score Competition 8 October 1892 Trent Bridge 3–0 First Division 9 October 1897 Trent Bridge 1–3 First Division 8 October 1898 Trent Bridge 2–2 First Division 11 November 1899 Trent Bridge 1–2 First Division 26 December 1900 Trent Bridge 1–0 First Division 16 November 1901 Trent Bridge 3–0 First Division 26 December 1902 Trent Bridge 1–1 First Division 28 November 1903 Trent Bridge 1–3 First Division 25 March 1905 Trent Bridge 1–2 First Division 4 November 1905 Trent Bridge 1–1 First Division 4 April 1908 Trent Bridge 2–0 First Division 21 November 1908 Trent Bridge 3–0 First Division 8 January 1910 Trent Bridge 4–1 First Division 3 September 1910 Meadow Lane 1–1 First Division 25 December 1913 Meadow Lane 2–2 Second Division 18 September 1920 Meadow Lane 2–0 Second Division 5 November 1923 Meadow Lane 1–1 Second Division 22 September 1923 Meadow Lane 2–1 First Division 20 September 1924 Meadow Lane 0–0 First Division 18 September 1926 Meadow Lane 1–2 Second Division 22 February 1928 Meadow Lane 1–2 Second Division 20 October 1928 Meadow Lane 1–1 Second Division 4 January 1930 Meadow Lane 0–0 Second Division 13 February 1932 Meadow Lane 2–6 Second Division 8 October 1932 Meadow Lane 2–4 Second Division 17 February 1934 Meadow Lane 1–0 Second Division 29 September 1934 Meadow Lane 3–5 Second Division 22 April 1950 Meadow Lane 2–0 Third Division (South) 15 September 1951 Meadow Lane 2–2 Second Division 30 August 1952 Meadow Lane 3–2 Second Division 27 February 1954 Meadow Lane 1–1 Second Division 12 February 1955 Meadow Lane 4–1 Second Division 11 February 1956 Meadow Lane 1–3 Second Division 20 October 1956 Meadow Lane 1–2 Second Division 26 December 1974 Meadow Lane 0–1 Second Division 25 March 1975 Meadow Lane 2–2 Second Division 13 April 1976 Meadow Lane 0–0 Second Division 9 April 1977 Meadow Lane 1–1 Second Division 12 April 1982 Meadow Lane 1–2 First Division 4 December 1982 Meadow Lane 3–2 First Division 31 March 1984 Meadow Lane 0–0 First Division 24 August 1991 Meadow Lane 0–4 First Division 12 February 1994 Meadow Lane 2–1 Second Division

Nottingham Forest in the league at home Date Venue Score Competition 25 February 1893 Trent Bridge 3–1 First Division 4 September 1897 Trent Bridge 1–1 First Division 4 February 1899 City Ground 0–0 First Division 17 March 1900 City Ground 0–3 First Division 24 November 1900 City Ground 5–0 First Division 26 December 1901 City Ground 1–0 First Division 15 November 1902 City Ground 0–0 First Division 26 December 1903 City Ground 0–1 First Division 26 November 1904 City Ground 2–1 First Division 26 December 1905 City Ground 1–2 First Division 7 December 1907 City Ground 2–0 First Division 27 March 1909 City Ground 1–0 First Division 4 September 1909 City Ground 2–1 First Division 26 December 1910 City Ground 0–2 First Division 31 December 1913 City Ground 1–0 Second Division 11 September 1920 City Ground 1–0 Second Division 14 November 1921 City Ground 0–0 Second Division 29 September 1923 City Ground 1–0 First Division 24 January 1925 City Ground 0–0 First Division 5 February 1927 City Ground 2–0 Second Division 17 September 1927 City Ground 2–1 Second Division 2 March 1929 City Ground 1–2 Second Division 7 September 1929 City Ground 1–1 Second Division 3 October 1931 City Ground 2–1 Second Division 18 February 1933 City Ground 3–0 Second Division 7 October 1934 City Ground 2–0 Second Division 9 February 1935 City Ground 2–3 Second Division 3 December 1949 City Ground 1–2 Third Division (South) 10 October 1953 City Ground 3–2 Second Division 3 January 1953 City Ground 1–0 Second Division 10 October 1953 City Ground 5–0 Second Division 25 September 1954 City Ground 0–1 Second Division 1 October 1955 City Ground 0–2 Second Division 1 May 1957 City Ground 2–4 Second Division 3 March 1974 City Ground 0–0 Second Division 28 December 1974 City Ground 0–2 Second Division 30 August 1975 City Ground 0–1 Second Division 8 March 1977 City Ground 1–2 Second Division 23 January 1982 City Ground 0–2 First Division 23 April 1983 City Ground 2–1 First Division 16 October 1983 City Ground 3–1 First Division 11 January 1992 City Ground 1–1 First Division 30 October 1993 City Ground 1–0 Second Division

Results in Cup matches

Date	Venue	Matches			Competition
		Team 1	Score	Team 2
16 November 1878	Trent Bridge	Notts County	1–3	Nottingham Forest	FA Cup
8 November 1879	Trent Bridge	Nottingham Forest	4–0	Notts County	FA Cup
1 December 1883	Trent Bridge	Notts County	3–0	Nottingham Forest	FA Cup
26 November 1887	Trent Bridge	Nottingham Forest	2–1	Notts County	FA Cup
24 February 1894	Trent Bridge	Nottingham Forest	1–1	Notts County	FA Cup
3 March 1893	Trent Bridge	Notts County	4–1	Nottingham Forest	FA Cup
1 January 1978	City Ground	Nottingham Forest	4–0	Notts County	League Cup
8 August 2011	City Ground	Nottingham Forest	3–3 4-3 pens	Notts County	League Cup

Notes and references

1. ^ "County look forward to local derby". BBC Sport. 19 June 2001. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/worthington_cup/1397423.stm. Retrieved 2009-08-25. 

External links

• Violence mars 'friendly' match between city rivals
• News reports from the last competitive Nottingham derby
• Nottingham derby head-to-head