The Reds

Lore & Background

The red shirt is not merely a colour choice; it is a declaration. In the 1860s and 70s, when clubs were still finding their visual language, Forest's adoption of red set them apart in the muddy, half-formed leagues of Victorian football. That red carried through the amateur years, through the First Division, through the lean decades, and into the golden 1970s when Brian Clough and Peter Taylor built a side that looked like a single red wave rolling down the pitch. The 1979 and 1980 European Cup triumphs in Madrid and Brussels cemented the Reds as a name that echoed across the continent, and the image of that all-red backline became seared into the collective memory of a generation of Nottingham fans.

The identity extends beyond the pitch. In the pubs along the Old Market Square, in the terraces of the City Ground, in the schoolyards of West Bridgford and Beeston, the red shirt is a badge of local loyalty that predates the Premier League era and survived its commercialisation. The East Midlands Derby against Derby County — the only other major club in the region — sharpens that identity every season, a rivalry born of geography and class as much as football. When the drums roll and the terraces roar, it is not just a match; it is the city asserting itself.

Even in the leaner years, the red never faded. It was worn in the Championship, in the Conference, in the long, slow climb back up. Fans who remember the 2010s promotion push will tell you that the red shirt in those lower-league grounds carried the same weight it did in the European Cup final. The colour is the constant. The results fluctuate. The identity does not.

In Their Own Story

Saturday, 1979. The air in the City Ground smells of wet wool and fried onions. You're seventeen, standing on the Kop end, your father's old red shirt stretched over your shoulders because the new one is still in the wash. The team walks out — all red, all red, a wall of crimson against the grey Nottingham sky. You can see the number 10, the number 7, the number 4, and for a moment the terraces go quiet in a way that feels sacred. Then someone starts the chant, and the quiet shatters into a roar that you feel in your sternum. That night, Madrid. That night, the world. But you are here, in the rain, in the red, and it is enough. It has always been enough.

Reader's Guide

The red shirt. Not a jersey, not a kit — a shirt. In Nottingham, you don't buy a Forest shirt; you inherit one, or you earn one, or you steal one from a friend's washing line when you're twelve. The colour is a deep, arterial red, not the bright cherry of a supermarket sign. In the 70s it was a slightly different shade, more brick than blood, and the fans who wore those old shirts to the European Cup final in Madrid carried that specific red like a talisman.

On matchdays, the terraces at the City Ground become a single organism of that colour. You see it from the top row: a sea of red heads, red scarves, red flasks, red anything. The away end is a different story, but home is home, and home is red. The emotional weight is in the quiet moments — the player who scores his first goal and runs to the corner flag, the crowd erupting, and you realise you've been screaming for ninety minutes and your throat is raw and you don't care because the red in front of you just did something extraordinary.

The East Midlands Derby sharpens it all. Derby in blue, Forest in red, and the contrast is the whole point. The rivalry is old, territorial, and deeply personal. A Forest fan in Derby, or a Derby fan in Nottingham, knows the red is a challenge as much as a colour. It says: this city, this ground, this identity, is ours. And in the 70s, when the Reds were beating the biggest clubs in Europe, that red was the most dangerous colour in world football.

Did You Know?

• Nottingham Forest's back-to-back European Cup wins in 1979 and 1980 remain the only time an English club has achieved that feat, and the all-red side of that era is still the most iconic image in the club's history.
• The club was founded in 1865, making it one of the oldest football clubs in the world, and the red identity predates the modern Premier League era by well over a century.
• The East Midlands Derby against Derby County is one of the oldest and most geographically compact rivalries in English football, with the two cities separated by only a handful of miles.
• Brian Clough's tenure at the City Ground (1973–1980) produced the club's most decorated period, including the 1978 First Division title and two European Cups, and he remains the most referenced figure in Forest's cultura