Notts County and Nottingham Forest to play for Derek Pavis Trophy in honour of former Magpies chairman

Video: The Magpies and the Reds will play in the first Derek Pavis Memorial Match on Wednesday evening.

A friendly between Notts County and Nottingham Forest has been named in honour of former Magpies owner Derek Pavis.

Pavis died aged 87 in March following illness and spent 13 years as Magpies owner; he was also a director at the City Ground.

He joined Notts in June 1987 and stepped down 13 years later on his 70th birthday.

The annual pre-season friendly between the two neighbours will be called the Derek Pavis Memorial Match in his memory and both teams will compete to win the Derek Pavis Trophy, which was unveiled at Meadow Lane on Tuesday.

The trophy will be up for grabs when the two sides meet each year ahead of the domestic season, and the first memorial match takes place at Meadow Lane on Wednesday (July 19) evening.

Derek’s widow Vivian said: “It came as a great surprise and wonderful honour that the match is being played in memory of my Derek to be called the Derek Pavis Memorial Match.

“As a family we’re very, very proud – and he would be as proud as punch. He put his life into football for many, many years, not only at this level but also he was the former president of Basford United. It was his life. Football was in his blood.”

During Pavis’ reign at the Lane, he appointed former England boss Sam Allardyce and Neil Warnock as managers.

Under Warnock, Notts won back-to-back promotions to reach the old First Division in 1991.

Les Bradd, the Magpies’ record goal scorer, said: “This man [Derek] has been an absolute treasure in the eyes of many Notts County fans: two trips to Wembley, to wins at Wembley.”

He added: “When Derek initially took over this club he did it his way. He ran it his way. He once called me over to the main office and he shot me down in front of everybody for buying some paper clips and elastic bands.

“He said, ‘you get those from the bank and, if the don’t give you them, let me know and I’ll move the bank account’.

“He believed that everything he could save he would reinvest in players to give to the manager.

“He developed this stadium and, in a short space of time, he brought Neil Warnock in as manager and took the club from the lower reaches of the third to the second [division] and then into the First Division.”

Nick Richardson, communications manager at Meadow Lane, said: “Alan Hardy, our chairman, was very keen obviously to do something to mark the occasion and Forest have been brilliant in cooperating with that.

“It’s great that there’s going to be so many fans. We’re expecting at least 11-12,000 fans here on Wednesday.

“And it’s great they’ll be here to celebrate everything he did for both clubs.”

Warnock was drafted in from Scarborough Athletic in 1989 and Notts won successive play-off finals at Wembley – winning against Tranmere in 1990 and Brighton in 1991.

He appointed Allardyce in January 1997, who won 56 of his 145 matches until resigning in October 1999 to take over Bolton.

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