John Robertson

Lore & Background

When Brian Clough arrived at the City Ground in 1973, he inherited a club in the Second Division and set about building a team that would shock the footballing world. Among the defenders he assembled and drilled into shape was John Robertson, a Scottish right-back whose job was deceptively simple in theory and brutally demanding in practice: pin down the opposition's left side, get forward when the team surged, and never, ever let the ball in.

Robertson's Forest was a team that played with a collective fury, pressing from the front and winning the ball back with a kind of territorial aggression that left opponents bewildered. The right-back was the last line of that press on one flank, the player who had to track the run, make the tackle, and then clear or pass under pressure. Robertson did it game after game, season after season, becoming part of a defensive unit that conceded remarkably few goals in the European campaigns that defined the late 1970s.

The two European Cup finals — the 1-0 victory over Marseille in Madrid and the 2-1 win over Borussia Mönchengladbach in Madrid the following year — remain the high-water mark of English club football. Robertson was on the pitch for both, a steady, uncompromising presence on the right side of the back line while the forwards and midfielders made the headlines. For a defender, that is the highest compliment: being so reliable that the game simply goes on, and the team wins.

In Their Own Story

The air in the Santiago Bernabéu was thick with cigarette smoke and the particular electricity of a European final. Robertson walked out onto the pitch in the white and blue, the roar of the crowd washing over him like a tide. He could feel the weight of the shirt, the weight of the season, the weight of a city that had believed in a mad Scot from Derby and a group of players who played football like it was a fight they intended to win.

He set his feet. Left side, the Marseille winger was quick, always looking to burst past. Robertson tracked him, shadowed him, and when the man cut inside, Robertson was already there, shoulder to shoulder, body angled, right foot planted. The ball was cleared. The crowd roared. He turned, caught the eye of McGinlay in the centre, and saw the nod, the small thumbs-up. That was the conversation. That was the job. He set his feet again, waiting for the next wave.

Reader's Guide

European Cup (1979): Nottingham Forest 1, Olympique de Marseille 0, Santiago Bernabéu, Madrid. John McGinlay's header in the 83rd minute sealed it. Robertson, tracking the full width on the right, made the defensive reads that kept Marseille's dangerous left side in check for the entire match — a performance of quiet, relentless discipline that allowed the goal to stand.

European Cup (1980): Nottingham Forest 2, Borussia Mönchengladbach 1, Santiago Bernabéu, Madrid. Martin O'Neill and Ian Bowyer scored the goals. Robertson was again the anchor on the right, absorbing the pace and directness of the German side's attacks, winning the aerial duels, and feeding the ball to the midfield engine. Two consecutive European Cups, and the right-back was the constant.

The record that matters most: Forest remain the only English club to have won the European Cup in consecutive years. Robertson's name is on both trophies.

Did You Know?

• Nottingham Forest's back-to-back European Cup wins in 1979 and 1980 remain the only consecutive European Cup triumphs by an English club to this day.
• The 1979 final against Marseille was decided by a single John McGinlay header in the 83rd minute — a game in which Robertson's defensive work on the right was pivotal to keeping the scoreline at 0-0 for over an hour.
• Brian Clough's Forest squad of the late 1970s was built on a philosophy of relentless pressing and territorial dominance, a style that demanded defenders like Robertson to be as comfortable on the ball as they were in th
• Forest's 1980 European Cup final victory over Borussia Mönchengladbach completed a treble of domestic and European honours in the 1979-80 season, cementing the club's place in football history.