[themaclad]

The City Ground is a football stadium in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England, on the banks of the River Trent. It has been home to Nottingham Forest Football Club since 1898, and has 30,445 seats.

The stadium was a venue when England hosted Euro 96, and is only three hundred yards (270 m) away from Meadow Lane, home of Forest's neighbouring club Notts County; the two grounds are the closest professional football stadiums in England and the second-closest in the United Kingdom after the grounds of Dundee and Dundee United. They are located on opposite sides of the River Trent.
Nottingham Forest moved to their new ground on 3 September 1898 – 33 years after their formation and six years after election to the Football League.

To raise the £3,000 required to finance the move the club asked members, supporters and businessmen to subscribe to "New Ground Scheme" bearer bonds which cost £5 each. Over £2,000 was raised this way.

The new ground was called the City Ground. It was only a few hundred yards from the old Town Ground at the opposite end of Trent Bridge, which had been named after the Town Arms pub. Nottingham was granted its Charter as a City in 1897 and it was called the City Ground to commemorate this as the land on which it stands was at that time within the City boundary. In 1952 boundary changes resulted in the ground coming under the local council of West Bridgford (Rushcliffe Borough Council) rather than the City. Opposite the City Ground, still within the City boundaries, lies Meadow Lane, home of Notts County. The City Ground was wide open on three sides with no protection from the weather but the pitch was one of the finest in the country. This was due to the presence on the committee of J. W. Bardill, a nurseryman whose family firm still exists in Stapleford near Nottingham and whose company was given the task of preparing the pitch.

In 1935, the club had the opportunity to buy the ground from Nottingham Corporation for £7,000 but they declined.

On 12 October 1957, a new East Stand opened at the City Ground, costing £40,000 and having benches to seat up to 2,500 fans. The visitors for the opening were Manchester United’s "Busby Babes", just four months before eight of them died in the Munich air disaster. On 11 September 1961, the floodlights at the ground were officially turned on for the first time as Forest faced Gillingham in the League Cup.[7] A new record attendance of 49,946 was set in October 1967 when Forest beat Manchester Utd 3-1 in a First Division fixture, five months after Forest had finished second to United in the league. In December 1967 the City Ground was host to an England U23 match against Italy.[8]

The Main Stand was largely rebuilt in 1965 but, on 24 August 1968, fire broke out during a First Division game against Leeds United.[9] It started in the boiler room, just before half-time. The stand was damaged but, despite a crowd numbering 31,126, none of them were injured.[9] The only reported injuries were to a television crew on the TV gantry, who had to scramble down it because the access ladder was stored in the boiler room. The gantry was extended the length of the stand and now has access at both ends. As a result of the fire, Forest played six 'home' matches at nearby Meadow Lane and did not win one of them. Sadly many of the club's records, trophies and other memorabilia were lost in the fire. The stand was refurbished.

The Executive Stand was built in 1980 at a cost of £2 million — largely from proceeds of the highly successful era in which Forest brought the European Cup back to Nottingham in 1979 and 1980, having won the league title in 1978. Forest also won the Football League Cup twice during that era.

Under Clough's reign, Forest had taken the English domestic game and the European scene by storm and money raised from those successes was invested in a stand that had a capacity of 10,000. It was renamed The Brian Clough Stand after his retirement, and was re-opened after refurbishment by the man himself in the mid-1990s. The stand also incorporated 36 executive boxes and a large dining area, which was designed to be the focus of the club's corporate hospitality arrangements.


Aerial image showing the proximity of the City Ground (bottom) to Meadow Lane.
Nottingham Forest had been the opposing team in the fateful FA Cup semi-final against Liverpool at Hillsborough, Sheffield, on 15 April 1989, in which 96 Liverpool fans were fatally injured in a human crush on the stadium's terraces. The disaster resulted in the Taylor Report ordering that all clubs in the top two divisions of English football should have an all-seater stadium by August 1994. This resulted in the need for more redevelopment and refurbishment at the City Ground.

More major development took part in 1992–93 with the rebuilding of the Bridgford Stand. Work started in April 1992 and when completed the Stand had a capacity of 7,710, the lower tier of 5,131 being allocated to away supporters. The unusual shape of the roof was a planning requirement to allow sunlight to reach houses in nearby Colwick Road. The Stand includes accommodation for 70 wheelchair supporters.[10] It also houses a management suite, which includes the public address systems, computerised electronic scoreboard controls and the police matchday operation.

The Trent End was the most recent stand to be rebuilt between 1994 and 1996 — in time for Euro 96, the European Football Championships. The new stand, such a prominent landmark by the River Trent, held 7,338 to take the ground's capacity to 30,576 all-seated.

The ground would be able to expand to up to 46,000 if ever there was ever a return to the top flight. Forest were relegated from the FA Premier League three times between 1993 and 1999. Although they achieved promotion at the first attempt following the first two relegations, they have yet to return to the Premier League since their relegation in 1999 and even spent three seasons in League One - English football's third tier.

On 20 June 2007, the Forest board announced plans for a possible relocation to a new 50,000-seat stadium in the city, although such a move was not expected to take place before 2014. This was part of England's bid to host the 2018 World Cup, but in December 2010 England's World Cup bid was rejected in favour of Russia being selected as the host nation.

Several improvements to the stadium have been made since the Trent End rebuild such as two new LED Screens being installed between the Trent End and the Brian Clough Stand and in the far corner of the Bridgford Stand. A small number of seats were lost because of this. LED advertising boards were also installed around the perimeter of the pitch excluding the Main Stand. These improvements cost around £1 million.

The City Ground also hosted the FA Women's Cup Final for two successive years in 2007 and 2008. The 2007 final was contested by Arsenal L.F.C. and Charlton Athletic L.F.C. with the attendance of 24,529 smashing the previous record attendance for the competition of 13,824 for the final between Arsenal L.F.C. and Fulham L.F.C. at Selhurst Park in 2001. In 2008, the attendance record was broken once again when 24,582 spectators saw Arsenal L.F.C. beat Leeds United 4–1.

Aside from football, the stadium has also hosted two other large-scale events. On 28 April 2002 the stadium hosted a semi-final of rugby's Heineken Cup in which Leicester Tigers beat Llanelli Scarlets 13–12. Leicester Tigers once again played at City Ground when they were defeated 19-16 by Racing 92 on 24 April 2016 in the semi-final of the European Rugby Champions Cup. The stadium hosted its first music concert when R.E.M. performed there[11] in front of an audience of 20,000.

In October 2015, Forest renamed the Main Stand, "The Peter Taylor Stand" after former European Cup winning assistant-manager Peter Taylor, who died 25 years earlier.[12]

Following issues with the ground's safety certificate, the capacity of the stadium was reduced to 24,357 ahead of the 2016–17 season.[13]

MANAGER

Steve Cooper



Early coaching
While a player, Cooper studied for his coaching badges and began coaching at Wrexham's academy.[7] At the age of 27, Cooper obtained his UEFA Pro Licence, becoming one of the youngest coaches to achieve the qualification.[8][9]

After several years coaching at Wrexham's academy, Cooper became the club's head of youth development.[10] On 3 September 2008, Cooper was appointed as a youth coach at Liverpool, initially taking charge of the under-12s.[11] On 18 July 2011, he was named manager of Liverpool's academy.[12] Cooper coached the under-18s for the 2012–13 season, leading them to the semi-finals of the FA Youth Cup, where they lost to Chelsea.[13] While at Liverpool, Cooper oversaw the development of such players as Raheem Sterling, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Ben Woodburn.[14] In 2013, Cooper joined the FA as a youth coach educator and also taught on the FA Wales A Licence course.[14][15]

England youth
On 13 October 2014, Cooper was appointed as manager of the England national under-16 team.[9] The following year, he took charge of the under-17s, coaching players such as Jadon Sancho, Phil Foden and Callum Hudson-Odoi.[14] Cooper led his side to the final of the 2017 UEFA European U17 Championship, where they lost to Spain 4–1 on penalties following a 2–2 draw.[16] Cooper's U17s then won the 2017 FIFA U17 World Cup in October 2017, beating Brazil 3–1 in the semi-final and Spain 5–2 in the final.[17][18]

The following year, Cooper's side reached the semi-finals of the 2018 UEFA European U17 Championship, where they lost to Netherlands on penalties.[19] They did not qualify for the quarter-finals of the 2019 UEFA European U17 Championship, despite beating Sweden 3–1 in their final group game.[20] During his time at England, Cooper oversaw a specialised coaching model which included in-possession and out-of-possession coaches.[21] He was also responsible for the coaching programme and curriculum for the under-15s.[21] On training young players, Cooper said, "Sometimes I will talk and tell the players my thoughts, but most of the time I facilitate... that's how players learn, as a modern player. The days are gone, for me, where everything is the coach telling the player, that's finished."[21]

Swansea City
Cooper was appointed head coach of Championship club Swansea City on 13 June 2019 on a three-year contract.[22] His first match was a 2–1 win against Hull City at the Liberty Stadium, with goals from Borja Bastón and Mike van der Hoorn.[23] Cooper was named the EFL's Championship Manager of the Month for August after Swansea's unbeaten start to the season saw them move top of the league, with 16 points from 18.[24] This was Swansea's best start to a season in 41 years.[25]

During the January transfer window, Cooper signed Rhian Brewster, Marc Guéhi and Conor Gallagher (all of whom Cooper had coached in the England set-up) on loan from Liverpool and Chelsea respectively.[26] Following the outbreak of COVID-19 and subsequent pandemic, the Championship season was suspended indefinitely, with Swansea in 11th place and three points from the play-offs.[27] The season restarted on 20 June.[28] On the final day of the season, Swansea beat Reading 4–1 to finish sixth, moving into the play-offs ahead of Nottingham Forest on goal difference.[29] They were defeated by Brentford 3–2 on aggregate in the semi-final.[30]

In his second season, Cooper again led Swansea to the play-offs, despite criticism of his style of play and Swansea's poor form towards the end of the season.[31][32] They drew 2–2 with Reading on 25 April 2021 to secure their play-off place, with two league games left in the season.[31] This was Cooper's 100th game in charge.[33] Swansea finished 4th in the league[34] but lost the play-off final to Brentford.[35] He left the club by mutual consent in July 2021.[36]

Nottingham Forest
Cooper was appointed head coach of Championship club Nottingham Forest on 21 September 2021 on a two-year contract.[37]

LAST TIME OUT



MACS FORM GUIDE

FOREST 11 PNE 12

PNE Team News

rudd_d_bournemouth_h_2122_16x9.jpg

Having jarred his knee in the warm up against AFC Bournemouth, and having to be replaced on the bench by Mathew Hudson, Declan Rudd will be assessed ahead of the trip to Nottingham.

Frankie McAvoy is not expecting to have anybody available who wasn’t for the Bournemouth victory, with Matthew Olosunde and Ched Evans not back until after the international break.

Josh Murphy, Izzy Brown and Connor Wickham also remain sidelined.

The Opposition

Following a worrying start to their campaign, a change of management seems to have turned Nottingham Forest’s fortunes.

Chris Hughton was the man in charge at the beginning of the season, but after taking a point from their opening seven games of the campaign, he was dismissed.

Now in charge at the City Ground is former Swansea City head coach Steve Cooper, and Forest enjoyed an immediate bounce after his arrival, winning four consecutive games after a draw in his first match.

Key Stats

Still a worry for Forest, though, may be their home form, given that they have picked up just five points from a possible 24 playing in front of their own supporters.

They have also not had the best of times playing in this particular fixture in recent history, with North End taking all three points from the City Ground in three of the last four meetings.

One of Forest’s dangermen – and their top scorer so far this season with six goals – is Lewis Grabban, who played under Frankie McAvoy while both were at Norwich City.

Our Last Meeting


PNE signed off their 2020/21 Championship campaign with a 2-1 victory at the City Ground.

The hosts went ahead 17 minutes in as Manchester United loanee James Garner found the net with a 30-yard effort, but the Lilywhites turned the game on its head in the second half.

Tom Bayliss scored his first goal for the club to draw the visitors level on the end of Scott Sinclair’s cross, before Liam Lindsay sealed the three points on Gentry Day.

Man In The Middle

There will be a man well-versed in the Premier League taking charge of Saturday’s fixture, with Simon Hooper our referee.

Hooper has refereed 35 games in the English top flight, the most recent of those being Leicester City’s victory away at Brentford in October.

It’s been a long time since he was the main official for a PNE game; that was back in March 2018 as Fulham won 2-1 at Deepdale.



MACS VIEW

What a difference a week makes pick up a point tomorrow it can be viewed as a more than decent week. Need to keep an eye of Johnson looks a really useful player although still learning the game does at time tend to take the ball too far, Grabban alwys a danger.
Usually a great trip out to what a consider one of the best grounds in teh Championship, about 5 to 6 hours on the coach tomorrow been a long tarmac sniffing adventure

[themaclad]

Nottingham Forest 3 Grabban 2 Colbeck Preston North End 0

Nottingham Forest line-up: Samba; Spence, Worrall, McKenna, Lowe; Yates, Colback, Zinckernagel (Lolley, 68); Johnson, Grabban (Taylor, 70), Mighten (Lolley, 63). Subs not used: Horvath, Figueiredo, Bong, Ojeda.

PNE line-up: Iversen; van den Berg, Bauer (Storey, 20), Hughes; Barkhuizen, Whiteman, McCann, Potts (Sinclair, 56), Earl (Cunningham, 56); Johnson, Riis. Subs not used: Hudson, Ledson, Huntington, Maguire.

Referee: Mr S Hooper

Attendance: 27,129 (1,917 away fans)

Would have taken 3 points from either Forest or Bournemouth games, however this was a disappointment, pivotal moment wasn't the iffy penalty, the soft free kick for teh second and having to listen to Mull of Kintyre twice during the afternoon, it was Bauer's injury and early departure from the game after 20 minutes. Once he was substituted the defence never looked assured again, Storey had a nightmare after coming on, also missed Browne injured and Maguire who was rested to the bench!!!!
Graet atmosphere besides the Trent the first 20 minutes were played at a rapid pace both sides trying to gain a foothold was our best part of the game although Forest threatened it was us who had teh first shot at goal Potts bringing an unthordox save from Samba.
Bauer departed and Forest took charge, went close from Zinkernagel although he had a better option to the left of him and then took the lead from a penalty, interesting decison player fouled was behind Whiteman as he cleared the ball down he went, spot kick given, Grabban down the centre one down
They went close again a minute later as a shot whistled past the far post.
One became two ever so soft free kick by Johnson, ball into box headed towards Colback first time volley(having seen it Potts turns his back on the shot)
Needed a goal before the break and really should have had one, good team play down the right ball onto box Potts puts it in the Trent
Second half rarely threatened the goal although we had plenty of the ball, noticeable Forest harried us at every opportunity and forced us backwards, teh third camme when Johnson waltzed us way through the defence and whoever were in front of him, the ball ended up bouncing in front of Grabban hooked it back towards the goal went in off the post
Less than happy campers demanding the manager vacate the seat interesting as we had won the previous two gamesthink he's facing an uphill battle to convince a few.

Nottingham Forest boss Steve Cooper:

"It was a good win, it was great to score three goals and keep a clean sheet. I like the fact that we were ruthless in the key moments when we got into scoring positions.

"I actually think that, in terms of general play, we have played better in other games which we have not won. We played better against Fulham I thought, which sounds daft when you consider we lost that game 4-0.

"But I like the fact that when we were not keeping the ball as well as I would have liked, we still did not look like conceding."

Preston boss Frankie McAvoy:

"Losing Patrick [Bauer - defender] 20 minutes into the game didn't help us. But goals change games, along with decisions. I have seen their penalty back and I understand why the referee has given it but it doesn't look like there is much contact there at all.

"We didn't defend well enough, the three goals were all poor ones to concede. We were shot shy and didn't do enough in the final third. We changed it 10 minutes into the second half when we went to a back four and played with three up top. But after that we somehow managed to have even less of a threat. We had more of the ball, we had more possession in the game but we just didn't do enough with it.

"In the first half we were sloppy with the ball and we didn't match runners enough. We did not do enough overall. At the end of the day, it was just disappointing all round."

[themaclad]