‘It brings back memories of the early 90s’: Reds fans and former players look forward to first FA Cup semi-final in 34 years
Rich Fisher with his ten-year-old son Arlo, holding a replica of the FA Cup
By Henry Green
When Nottingham Forest last made an FA Cup semi-final, they were still regularly battling with the giants of English football and filling the trophy cabinet. Now, 34 years on, Reds fans are reminiscing of Wembley and silverware again.
Less than a year on from surviving a relegation run-in, they sit third in the Premier League – and are now in with a chance of winning the most famous cup competition in the world.
Forest’s date with Manchester City at Wembley Stadium was confirmed via a third FA Cup penalty shootout win of the season against Brighton. Fittingly, it was club captain and Forest academy graduate Ryan Yates who scored with the decisive kick of the game – making it 4-3 on penalties after both sides failed to find the back of the net over 120-minutes on Saturday afternoon.
Boyhood Forest fan Steve Chettle represented the club in that last FA Cup semi-final in 1991. He told Notts TV reaching that stage of the cup in the 1990s felt just as special without the guaranteed Wembley appearance which comes with a modern-day place in the last four.
“On the day, it was a great occasion for the fans and players. It was a good job we won actually so that we got to play at Wembley,” Chettle said.
“For myself it was golden because I was a boyhood fan of the club and I was part of the golden generation. It was big knowing that when I was younger I had been watching the club with the dream of playing for them,” he added.
That semi-final win in 1991 – a 4-0 demolition of West Ham at Villa Park – itself marked the first time since 1959 that Forest made the FA Cup final. Chettle says it was “like a big party” following the match.
In the end, despite Gazza’s infamous tackle on Gary Charles costing a free-kick which Forest opened the scoring from via a Stuart Pearce thunderbolt, the Reds lost 2-1 to Tottenham in the 1991 final.
Rich Fisher, a Forest fan and writer of the book ‘The Church of Stuart Pearce and Other Stories’, says despite the clubs differing fortunes in recent years, the Reds have brought a renewed optimism to the City Ground which has grown gradually throughout the season.
“I was 11 when we were last in the FA Cup semi-final, now I’m in my 40s, so it has been a nice nostalgia trip talking to my kids about Forest and looking back at old videos of the football from the early nineties,” Fisher said.
“On our day during the Brian Clough era, we could beat anybody – and it was pretty normal to see the team doing so well back then. I think the Forest fans took it a bit for granted and after so many years of struggling, I think getting to where we are is even more special and brings back memories of the early nineties,” he added.
“We are all absolutely buzzing to have a day out at Wembley – and hopefully it will be two days out at Wembley. Man City are obviously a very good side and it’s not going to be easy, but we got the better of them at the City Ground so there is an argument that we have figured them out,” Rich said.
Steve Corry regularly provides blind commentary for Nottingham Forest. Although he won’t be commentating on the FA Cup semi-final, he will be attending the game as a fan.
“We’ve got a big chance with the way we’ve been setting up in the cup. The game is going to be unbelievably difficult – but Man City aren’t the force they once were and in hindsight, I’m glad they beat Bournemouth as they have gotten the better of us this season,” Corry said.
Corry was commentating on a Championship fixture – rather than Forest – on Saturday. As soon as he heard the game was going to penalties, Corry says he was confident Forest would win.
“It was a very backs to the wall game but as soon as it went to penalties I know that we were penalty kings and that we would win. I think that 90 per cent of fans will have been confident that we would win at that point,” Steve added.
Last season, each side that made the FA Cup semi-final were allocated 34,000 tickets. Information about when tickets go on sale is yet to be released, but the club has said season card holders will be given ticket priority before MyForest members are allowed to purchase tickets, with extra tickets being made available to non-season card holders or non-members dependent on how many are sold.
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