Living in Mansfield meant very few world class players ever came, Nick Sharkey was the closest
We'd go to see Man Utd, at Forest, for Best, Law, Charlton, etc. if we couldn't get to Sunderland.
We went to Forest for the European Cup semi final match against Cologne in 1979,
paid on the gate and saw a great match that finished 3-3.
Before the match we went to the Vale Hotel, Nottingham, for a few pints. As we walked in and ordered the Forest fans mistook our Geordie accents for German and a big cheer went up. We played along with it and put on outrageous German accents. The daft buggers bought all our drinks and we entertained them with ludicrous tales of our ferry crossing, hitch hiking and sleeping in barns
As we were going into another story a minibus full of actual Germans pulled into the carpark ...
Outstanding that!
And right about just turning up and paying, for almost any game. Those days man.
... we realised we were f*cked so said we were going out to greet our countrymen and legged it down Mansfield Road as fast as we could.
We laughed about it for weeks but probably deserved a clout.
