What Brian Clough Did Before Forest Played At Millwall

Nottingham Forest are on the team bus heading to Millwall. Early in the season, the Old Den, and plenty of talk beforehand about what the afternoon might hold 🔥 The bus pulls over. They aren't at the ground yet 🤔 Brian Clough stands up and tells them all to get off. Then he leads them the last mile on foot - green top, walking stick, the whole squad following him through the streets to the Old Den. Stuart Pearce's reading of it: you don't scare us, we're in town today, and we've come to play football 💪 He tells Jeff Stelling why Clough was the best manager he worked under, after eight years at Forest and seven of them as his captain. Lose on a Saturday and Clough might tell them he'd see them next Friday. Reach a cup final and they'd be running the day after ⚽️ There's the coach pulling over on the M1 so Clough could get off with a tray of sandwiches and offer one to a lorry driver with his head under the bonnet - then get back on and drive away, leaving the driver wondering whether that had really just happened 🤣 And the referee's room at Bramall Lane before kick-off: Clough, Pearce, Vinnie Jones, Dave Bassett and four officials in a space barely big enough for them, which Pearce describes as pure pantomime 😅 Jeff has his own Clough story too, from his days as a young reporter in the north-east - writing to every top-flight club in the country for a radio auction, hearing nothing back from any of them, and then the newsroom putting a call through from a Mr Clough 📞 From the full episode with Stuart Pearce on The Jeff Stelling Show, filmed Wednesday 13th May 2026. ▶ Watch the full episode:    • Stuart Pearce Reveals What’s WRONG With Fo...   🔔 Subscribe to OLBG so you don’t miss an episode of The Jeff Stelling Show:    / @olbguk   #StuartPearce #BrianClough #NottinghamForest #Millwall #JeffStelling