Nottingham Forest 2-0 Liverpool (1978): Clough Topples the Holders

The Football Documentary Channel · Published 13 September 2026

Nottingham Forest 2-0 Liverpool (1978): Clough Topples the Holders

Nottingham Forest 2-0 Liverpool was the result at the City Ground on Wednesday 13 September 1978, the first round first leg of the European Cup, as Brian Clough’s reigning English champions knocked over the holders. Garry Birtles scored on 26 minutes and full-back Colin Barrett volleyed a second on 87, both created by Tony Woodcock, as LFChistory records. Forest then drew the Anfield return 0-0 to go through 2-0 on aggregate, a night we revisit in our On This Day series.

Forest had been a Second Division side eighteen months earlier. What follows is how the champions of England knocked out the champions of Europe, and why a £2,000 signing from non-league football chose Liverpool as the night to arrive.

The Night Forest Removed the Champions of Europe

Champions of England Draw the Champions of Europe

The European Cup did not seed its favourites in 1978, so the draw was free to be cruel, and it was. Forest, in their first season in the competition, came out against Liverpool, who had won the trophy in Rome in 1977 and at Wembley in 1978. Both clubs were English, which meant one of the two best sides in Europe would be gone by late September. Bob Paisley’s Liverpool were the measuring stick for the continent; Forest, per ESPN’s account of the era, had returned to the top flight in 1977 and taken the 1977-78 title seven points clear of Liverpool themselves.

The two knew each other well by then. Six months earlier Forest had beaten Liverpool in the 1978 League Cup final, John Robertson settling the Old Trafford replay from the penalty spot to complete the first League and League Cup double in English football. So this was no plucky newcomer meeting a giant. The reigning English champions had drawn the reigning European champions, and the City Ground sold out to see which claim held.

Nottingham Forest 2-0 Liverpool: How Birtles and Barrett Struck

Clough’s answer to European champions was a centre-forward almost nobody had heard of. Garry Birtles had cost Forest £2,000 from non-league Long Eaton United, and his only previous notice was a forgotten Second Division debut against Hull City in March 1977. On 26 minutes Tony Woodcock slipped him in and Birtles beat Ray Clemence for his first goal in a Forest shirt, on a night the whole country was watching. Liverpool, unbeaten European royalty, were behind to a player they had never scouted.

One goal was not thought enough to carry to Anfield, and Phil Thompson told Birtles as much. Then, with three minutes left, Woodcock headed a Birtles cross back across goal and Colin Barrett, a full-back, met it on the volley for 2-0. Birtles later recalled walking back to Thompson and asking, Will two be enough then? The City Ground had its answer before the second leg had even started.

How the night unfolded:

• KO Forest, in their first European Cup tie, host the back-to-back holders.
• 26′ Woodcock releases Birtles, who scores his first Forest goal past Clemence for 1-0.
• 87′ Woodcock nods a Birtles cross back and Barrett volleys the second, 2-0.
• FT Nottingham Forest 2-0 Liverpool; a two-goal lead to defend at Anfield.

Holding On at Anfield, and the Trophy That Followed

Anfield on 27 September 1978 was the test of whether the first leg had been a fluke. In front of 51,679, Liverpool threw everything at Forest and could not break them. The tie finished 0-0 on the night and 2-0 on aggregate, and the holders were out in the first round, as LFChistory records. Clough’s defence, marshalled by Kenny Burns and Larry Lloyd, kept the clean sheet that mattered most in the club’s short European history.

What made the shock resonate was what came next. Forest did not just remove the champions and fade; they took the trophy themselves, beating Malmo 1-0 in the 1979 final in Munich through a Trevor Francis header. The holders, in other words, were knocked out by the eventual winners, and Birtles, the £2,000 unknown of 13 September, finished the season as the club’s leading league scorer with a European Cup medal in his pocket.

READ MORE: More nights that reshaped the European Cup, in our On This Day series

Nottingham Forest 2-0 Liverpool (1978)

A £2,000 unknown, a full-back’s volley and a defence that would not yield at Anfield: Brian Clough’s Forest met the champions of Europe in their own first European tie and knocked them out, then went and won the thing. For more nights that turned the game on its head, keep exploring our On This Day series, and dig into more of English football’s fiercest rivalries.