It showed the great Brian Clough didn’t know everything after all

Nottingham Forest in the Carabao/League Cup at the City Ground coming up.

I was gaffer on my last ever offshore job in the North Sea back in 2018, when a then lower league Forest deservedly knocked us out of this same competition for a second year in a row.

August 2017 at St James’ Park, then August 2018 at the City Ground.

I don’t know why, but I watched that last cup exit to Nottingham Forest, amongst a recreation room full of mostly exiled Geordies, Mackems, Smoggies, Glaswegians and plastic Mancs. I guess I thought that I’d be sociable (some of the gaffers never sat with the lads who were on the tools, for reasons known only to themselves).

These were the dark days when our owner didn’t want our team to progress in domestic cup competitions. Premier League revenue by ‘winning’ relegation scraps and being balance sheet champions was all that mattered.

Unbelievably, there are still an exceedingly small number of Newcastle United supporters who actually preferred this, to what we have had over the last two and a half seasons.

And that is hope given to us by these current owners who bought Mike Ashley out, who are running the club in an ambitious fashion and now a team that are competitive, one that we are once again proud of.

It has seemed to have been a frustrating summer for both our club and supporters. We have had the PSR episode at the end of June, that was soon followed by the news that the extremely popular Amanda Staveley and her husband Mehrdad Ghodoussi, would be selling their shareholding and leaving the club.

Fans of all clubs love marquee signings and as of yet Newcastle haven’t really splashed the cash in the summer transfer window.

Two league games into the new EPL season the team have had to battle like hell, but have still managed to take four valuable points.

There has been enormous disappointment with the way the Toon have played in these two games. As of yet we seem off the pace and have struggled to maintain and carry the momentum we had gained in the great run at the end of last season.

So back to the cup tie with Forest.

For me this is a must win game for everyone that loves and is associated with United.

A lot of people have said that being out of Europe in the 2024/25 season would help us in the domestic competitions. Well the first big test of that rhetoric, is coming up.

Nottingham Forest are one of our Premier League rivals and no mugs under Nuno Espirito Santo. I’ve never been a great lover of them or their supporters, but I loved Brian Clough.

I actually had the pleasure of meeting him as a youngster. I think he was impressed that as others ran past him into the shop that he had just opened, I stopped and offered to shake his hand.

He called me a good boy, and I thought to myself, that even the great Brian Clough didn’t know everything after all.

Newcastle win this tie and the season begins in earnest as I see it. It will give everyone around the club the boost that is currently needed, really kickstart our season.

Newcastle United are a good side and have a few players that are the envy of every club in the EPL. I’m backing Eddie and the Hotrods to get a little of their mojo and momentum back at the City Ground.