Did you know?
Originally shinty players – a team game played with sticks in the Scottish Highlands much like hockey or hurling – Forest’s founders met at the Clinton Arms in 1865 for the small matter of post-match pints and setting up one England’s biggest clubs. They offered assistance to Liverpool, Arsenal, Brighton and Everton among others. Somehow, though, they were rejected in their bid to join the inaugural Football League in 1888 and later entered in 1892.
The founders identified with Giuseppe Garibaldi, the Italian revolutionary hero who led the redshirts and played a crucial role in the unification of Italy, and so ordered kits in ‘Garibaldi Red’. Forest later donated a set of kits to Woolwich Arsenal in 1886, influencing their decision to wear red.
Sam Weller Widdowson was a highly successful sportsman during the Victorian era playing cricket for Nottinghamshire and – when the schedule allowed – football for Nottingham Forest. So highly was he rated that he played once for England against Scotland in 1880.
Before kick-off in 1874, Widdowson cut down a pair of cricket pads and strapped them to his socks. His opponents – hell, even his teammates – found the concept a ridiculous one and reacted with laughter, but it soon caught on and to this day shin pads are a requirement in the Laws of the Game.
Widdowson continued to be at the forefront of football development: he refereed the first game to use nets and became Forest’s chairman from 1879 to 1884.
Match details
- Saturday, 30th March
- 15:00 GMT
- City Ground
- Live audio commentary on Palace TV+
