When Brian Clough died in September 2004, the cities of Nottingham and Derby were united in grief at the loss of a shared sporting icon. 

The traditional rivals who supported Derby County and Nottingham Forest, the football teams at either end of the A52, joined together in mourning.

Nottingham erected a city centre statue of Clough; Derby County are in the process of erecting a stadium monument to both Clough and his assistant Peter Taylor; the supporters lobbied local councils to rename the A52 running between the cities as ‘Brian Clough Way’.

Brian Clough was a man who brought unprecedented success to both clubs; he was honoured by both cities and that great sporting heritage still resounds vividly among both sets of fans.
Clough was controversial, fiery, and unique - and was undoubtedly a great football manager.

He was also a disciplinarian who demanded that his teams played ‘the right way’ and would not tolerate indulgence in gamesmanship, calculated foul play, or show disrespect to match officials or initiate associate controversies. The result was attractive teams that won trophies and became nationally and internationally successful.

It’s hardly how you could describe the way Nottingham Forest played at Pride Park Stadium on 30th January; Clough Senior would have cringed.

Clough’s son Nigel, an accomplished international player with Nottingham Forest, Liverpool and Manchester City followed in his father’s managerial footsteps to achieve progressive success and gain experience at Burton Albion, now in a healthy position in League Two of the football League, before he ultimately rose to the appointment of Derby County manager just over a year ago.

At a similar time, ex-Derby manager Billy Davies took up the challenge as Nottingham Forest manager. Davies left Derby in bitter circumstances at the end of 2008 after a clash with then-director Adam Pearson. The club was rooted to the bottom of the Premier League with an uncompetitive team, despite a whirlwind promotion under Davies in his first season with the club.

Davies’ irascible and egoistic personality has often left fans of his previous clubs - Preston North End and Derby County - quite ambivalent about him despite his considerable achievements with those clubs.

The manner of his departure and some of his derogatory or dismissive comments have succeeded in greatly souring feeling towards Davies from many quarters and he stayed out of work from football for a very long time after leaving Pride Park Stadium.

With that background, the rivalry between the A52 clubs seems to have ratcheted up a notch and Davies has become the enfant terrible of the situation. Now, the Nottingham Forest manager has set in train some unnecessary events and unsavoury consequences following the ‘throw-in’ controversy at the end of Forest’s 1-0 defeat at Pride Park Stadium.

He subsequently made grave allegations of assault against a fellow-manager and after instructing his solicitor to formally complain to the League Manager’s Association. The inflammatory allegations accusing Derby manager Nigel Clough of assaulting him may damage the relationship between the two clubs and their fans.

The whole saga hardly serves Davies - who has a fair few less friends in Derby than he thinks - very well, and with a couple of dozen animated and emotional football players and staff all involved in the heat of the moment, the only way to avoid the odd nudge or knock is to steer well clear!

In the melee that resulted from a coming-together of players and staff from both sides in the stoppage-time incident, Davies reported that Clough had kneed him from behind. Davies refused to shake Clough’s hand after the game and was physically obstructed from doing so by Davies’ assistant David Kelly (who also did not shake Clough’s hand).

Davies later accused Clough of assault through the media, saying: “He was out of order in kneeing me in the back of the leg. I don't mind him doing it to my face, but to do it to my back was a bit cowardly. That's why I didn't shake his hand.” It seems a quite wayward accusation to me and if unproved is tantamount to a slur against Nigel Clough.

Kelly may even have verbally abused Mr Clough - one for the lip-readers to decipher! Kelly, in true nodding-dog fashion, later declared that he had witnessed the assault on his manager.

Video footage shows a large knot of tangling individuals; the melee arising after three Forest players converged aggressively on Jay McEveley and tried to seize the ball (one picture shows no less that 5 Forest players surrounding McEveley; if that’s not incitement, I don’t know what is!)

The officials were slow in awarding the throw-in close to the dug-out area. It was a Derby throw but the referee delayed, then changed his mind and awarded it to Forest. Players and staff from both teams became embroiled in a pushing contest as the flashpoint erupted.

As in August at the City Ground, Forest players provoked the incident. Davies and Clough came together briefly to the right of the Pride Park melee but evidence of deliberate action by Clough seems dubious at least, as he was certainly too close and too hemmed in to aim any deliberate kick at Davies or anyone else.

Clough was not even directly behind Davies during the incident and was possibly only adjusting his balance in the middle of all the buffeting. Rams’ forward Steve Davies, who was close to Davies, may have accidentally come into contact with the Forest manager - who then turned and confronted the Derby manager.

Both managers were initially trying to quell the situation but it seemed that as soon as Clough was adjacent to Davies, the Forest manager turned and paid direct attention to Clough instead of the general fracas.

Various individuals made incidental contact with Davies (and Clough) amidst the jostling but claiming an assault on Billy Davies is tenuous indeed; I would have thought a dozen people could have claimed the same - not least, Jay McEveley - but the police were not involved.

The FA is conducting an investigation into the incident - and has charged both clubs with failing to control their players. The clubs have until 17th February to answer the charges. Davies elected to escalate the claim by filing a complaint to the LMA. I’d say that virtually guarantees that a suspended FA fine of £10,000 on each club from a previous disciplinary case will now be invoked.

The FA had already inflicted punishment on both clubs after controversy at the end of the previous Championship meeting between them in August 2009. Then, Forest forward Nathan Tyson stupidly uprooted a corner flag and paraded it in celebration in front of Derby fans and adjacent to where the Derby County players had come across the pitch to thank their travelling fans.

A melee had then erupted between players and staff and both clubs were subsequently disciplined, Forest being fined £25,000 and Derby County £20,000 by the FA respectively with £10,000 of each fine being suspended with a warning as to their future conduct.

Tyson had incited the August incident and was also suspended for his indiscipline. Nottingham Forest issued an apology to Derby County regarding the incident and Tyson’s conduct.

Tyson was (wisely) omitted from the Forest squad for the return fixture at Derby but it seems that his manager took the art of controversy and manufactured conflict a stage further with his reaction to alleged events in the latest melee.

During the game, I had not seen such gamesmanship, simulation and spoiling tactics that Forest indulged themselves in since the bad old days of Don Revie’s Leeds United! Derby did not rise to the bait and won the game deservedly.

Whilst Davies encouraged the controversy to unfold, the Derby manager busied himself in transfer dealings on behalf of his club on the last day of the January 2010 transfer window, signing two players on loan. Clough also sold a junior striker to a Swiss club and made progress on some other intended incoming deals, ready for the loan ‘window’ that opens shortly.

 Derby County FC also donated some 2,000 garments to the Haiti appeal on deadline day.

Perhaps Mr Davies found his controversy a useful distraction to deflect for the lack of transfer activity at the City Ground? His club’s ‘acquisitions committee’ failed to provide him with any squad reinforcements during the transfer window. Everything soon gets centred on Billy, as we know!

He’s grumbled that a permanent deal for influential Polish midfielder Radoslaw Majewski hasn’t been advanced, even (strangely) leaving the player out of his squad last Saturday, saying ‘his head wasn’t right’. Forest say that they have to live within their means.

Forest are big spenders in Championship terms and Billy’s desire to sign such as Spurs’ Gareth Bale and highly-rated Crystal Palace striker Victor Moses were a bridge or two too far.

So the ‘acquisitions committee’ now have to cut Billy’s corns a little and Billy doesn’t like that. Then by turn, Davies was busy reassuring Forest fans that his own future still lies at Forest.

Sounds familiar? Make a noise in adversity, plant some doubts about patience or ambition, and then expect the bargaining stakes to rise. Funny, Mr Davies was doing that at Derby almost as soon as the final whistle sounded at Wembley! Will history repeat itself?

An unintended consequence of Davies’ allegations was to unite Rams fans behind their manager, even those who were critical of the slow progress that the Rams are making on the field.

Forest’s defeat at Derby also allowed WBA to replace them in 2nd spot in the Championship, after Albion won in midweek at Blackpool.  Derby certainly showed that Forest are not unbeatable.

Nigel Clough at first made no comment about Davies’ accusations and later said that if any contact was made by him with Davies, it was certainly unintentional. "There were that many bodies in there, it was very difficult. We were just trying to get our players out of it. If in the melee contact was made, it was accidental." According to the Guardian, Clough will not face any FA charges.

Who benefits from the ‘assault’ situation? Financially, Billy Davies’ lawyers, Ross-Harper Associates, who can levy their charges for formally issuing the accusations. Easy money for some! The tabloids of course will love to run with the story for as long as it generates sensational headlines. The two clubs and the fans certainly don’t; like me, they probably find it tiresome.

The FA may profit by invoking the existing (suspended) fines and imposing new ones on both football clubs, incurring yet more needless costs upon them. There are suggestions that the fines should be donated to the Haiti earthquake appeal fund!

It is interesting to note that Nottingham Forest themselves have yet to comment on the legal proceedings that Davies has chosen to initiate with any statement to back him up.

Clough says he has nothing to apologise for - and also commented that Billy Davies has not spoken one word to him after any of the five games that the clubs have met when facing each other with Davies and Clough in the managerial roles. So, it is Forest that have broken the post-match protocols between the clubs; now, that’s what you call ‘petty’, Billy!

One wonders if Davies wished to besmirch the reputation of his old employers; or if his claim diluted the taste of sour grapes after an unexpected (but deserved) defeat on the pitch (his third by Derby at the hands of Nigel Clough as Rams’ manager). Davies can be a very egoistic and caustic character in adversity, as his departures from Preston and Derby have demonstrated.

Quite what the great man, Old Big ‘Ead Brian Clough himself would have thought about it all most likely would be unprintable. I suspect it would be Billy Davies to whom he would issue his trademark admonishment: “Behave, young man!”

It seems a shame that the close rivalry and aftermath of the exciting recent clashes in League and Cup between the two sides have been unnecessarily tarnished. The conduct of the Forest manager (and his staff and players) at the end of both of this season’s Championship clashes certainly falls short of Clough senior’s standards.

One might suspect that many Forest fans also feel uneasy about Davies’ accusations about a man who after all remains a Forest hero. Davies has to live with the consequences of his all-or-nothing dramatic reaction to a seemingly innocuous, unintentional occurrence.

Dignity and decorum do not appear to be Davies’ strong points and it seemed a very long way to stoop, even for him.

After all the pre-match appeals from the police for fans to keep their heads, it was one of the managers that made the biggest headlines. The FA and LMA can act in mysterious ways but the evidence hardly seems as ‘compelling’ as Mr Davies would assert.

I would not be surprised if the allegations came to nothing. Perhaps in the end, Billy’s current club may yet again ultimately have to eat humble pie to repair damaged relations and issue yet another apology from Nottingham Forest to Derby County.

Photo: Action Images

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