Remembering Brian Clough ten years on

"I wouldn't say I was the best manager in the business, but i was in the top one."

Ten years has passed incredibly quickly since football lost one of its biggest ever characters and my club Nottingham Forest lost the man who undoubtedly put it on the map.

Many Forest supporters will probably be able to tell you exactly where they were at the moment they heard the news of Brian Clough's passing on the 20th September 2004. I certainly can. I had just started at university. I had been in Leeds a matter of days, and a fairly insignificant welcome session ended with me recieving a text message telling me the news. I remember nothing at all about the hour in the room which preceded it, but I will take that feeling of reading that text to the grave. I could take you to that room now. My biggest regret to this day as a Forest fan was that I couldn't get back to Nottingham for the game against West Ham, the first at the City Ground since Clough's death. I watched the game on television in a Horsforth pub, with tears in my eyes at the significance of the moment. We won that match, but just eight more wins all season meant that we were relegated at the end of the season. Those were dark days for the team but we seem to be finally back on track; top of the Sky Bet Championship on the tenth anniversary of that sad day.

Last Sunday the club began its period of marking the anniversary with the game against Derby County. It seemed fitting that the fixture gods had brought together the two clubs with which Clough will always be most associated. He is arguably the reason why the rivalry is so fierce between the two sides of the stretch of the A52 which now bears his name. The game itself wasn't particuarly memorable, they rarely are, apart from a few flashpoints, but the afternoon was never going to be about 90 minutes of football. The minute's applause after ten minutes was observed by fans of both the clubs which Clough loved so much, and save for the three idiots that invaded the pitch during the second half, all in attendance behaved themselves and respected the man and the occasion. It was a timely reminder that while Nottingham Forest and Derby are rivals, we're not enemies. I am glad I was there to pay my respects.

You don't need me to tell you about Clough. We all have our stories and memories of him, even those of us who never met him or even saw any of his Forest teams play. My Dad once asked him for a handshake at East Midlands Airport following a European away game. Clough replied "course you can, big fella". I must have heard the story a thousand times, but the enthusiasm is still there when my dad tells anyone who will listen as if it made his life.

There will never be another manager like him. There will certainly never be an opportunity for a club like Nottingham Forest to rule Europe twice, certainly not without billions of pounds of investment.

Stuart Pearce has led us to the top of the table, and although we're only seven games into the league season, it's difficult not to think of how fitting it would be to mark such a significant year - it's also the club's 150th anniversary in 2015 - with promotion back into the top flight. There's a long way to go, but you just never know.

TWIF 2.05: Moyes and Davies under Derby day pressure

This Week In Football I look at two managers facing battles to save their jobs following, or ahead of, derby day fixtures.

Manchester United's 3-0 home defeat to Liverpool was a shocking new low in what has been a horrendous season for the Barclays Premier League champions. Shocking in that Liverpool only managed to score three goals. Two penalties from captain Steven Gerrard and a goal from Luis Suarez gave Brendan Rodgers' side an unbelievably easy victory. Liverpool would have been disappointed it wasn't six or seven. What would have hurt the home fans the most would have been the players' lack of urgency, fight, and ultimately discipline. To concede three penalties is pretty shameful, and to be honest, referee Mark Clattenburg could, maybe even should, have given Liverpool five. United were getting overrun in midfield; it looked like 12 men against ten at times. Juan Mata was out of position again. If you don't play him in the No.10 role, you may as well put him in goal. The gulf between the two old rivals was apparent for all to see, and it proved that David Moyes, despite his defiance in press conferences before and since, is on borrowed time at Old Trafford. If United are knocked out of the Champions League by Olympiacos and then lose at home to Manchester City in the Premier League, I am reasonably confident that the United hierarchy will act. We all expected a transitional season, but 7th in the table is an absolute failure.

Speaking of managers who may be up against it, Billy Davies is allegedly facing a battle to hang on to the Nottingham Forest hot seat after a poor run of results and an FA charge, which has brought a touchline ban, subject to appeal. It gives me no pleasure as a fan of his and of the club to see his position brought under threat by an increasing band of supporters who have had enough of his antics and percieved lack of tactical nouse. In all fairness, find me another team in the Sky Bet Championship who wouldn't struggle to maintain a good run of results with almost their entire starting XI out with not insignificant injuries. The Billy Out Brigade will point to the fact that the club is in no better position now than a year ago, when they ultimately missed out on a play-off place on the final day, but he needs to be given the chance to see out the season. If Davies isn't the manager, who will be? Last time he left, he was followed by Steve McClaren, Steve Cotterill, Sean O'Driscoll and Alex McLeish, a glorious period in the club's history it wasn't. On Saturday Forest travel to the iPro Stadium to face local rivals Derby County. Needless to say, the Reds fans aren't all that confident, illustrated by their struggle to sell out their ticket allocation for the match. Following the reverse fixture at the City Ground in September in which Forest won 1-0, Derby sacked Nigel Clough. I am just hoping that the roles aren't reversed on Saturday afternoon.