Red saturation
As the 1980's began, depressing European Cup success over the river would soon taunt the Notts supporters as they walked to their own ground, Forest built a huge new modern stand that towered over buildings previously shielding the two opposing temples from making eye contact. From out of the bright red seats, white pews spelled out the name of the West Bridgeford denomination. All County fans could do was look away, but at the very end of both the 1978/79 and 1979/80 seasons Notts supporters could not avoid the spectacle of final day opponents deliriously celebrating promotion to join Forest in the old First Division, Notts needed to do the same... and fast.

1979/80
Notts trainer Jack Wheeler was the subject of a 10th November 1979 BBC report having set a football league record, being in action for the 1000th consecutive match. Shots of Wheeler refereeing a practice match, giving a player a massage and receiving a presentation on the pitch before a home league game with Preston North End were screened.

24/11/79 Notts County 2 (Hooks, O�Brien) Chelsea 3 (Walker 2, Britton)
               commentator: ? (probably Hugh Johns) for ATV
Notts slipped from 7th to 9th with this home defeat which was to be the beginning of an astonishingly poor home run, Notts would fail to win any of their remaining home matches this season. Extended highlights were broadcast to Midlands viewers by ATV on Star Soccer, LWT viewers in London got to see brief highlights on The Big Match after Arsenal v Liverpool.

22/12/79 Notts County 2 (O�Brien(2pen)) Newcastle United 2
commentator: John Motson for BBC1
This was the first time Meadow Lane staged the main match on the programme, it was followed by Liverpool's 3-1 win at Derby County.
Jimmy Hill's introduction to this night's Match of the day (which included clips of the two incidents that led to Notts getting two penalties converted by Ray O'Brien) turned up on the BBC�s "Match of the day - the 1970s" VHS video.
 
 

19/01/80 Notts County 0 Leicester City 1 (Strickland)
               commentator: ? (probably Hugh Johns) for ATV
Notts biggest crowd of the League campaign saw this one; 14,849.

02/02/80 Luton Town 2 (Saxby, Hatton) Notts County 1 (Donaghy(og))
commentator: Gerry Harrison for ANGLIA
Even with the gift of an opening own goal, 14th placed Notts lost yet again. Extended highlights were shown in the ANGLIA region only on Match of the Week. An edit was also included on GRANADA's highlights programme.
 
 
 

19/04/80 Chelsea 1 (Chivers) Notts County 0
               commentator: Brian Moore for LWT
Another appearance for Notts on LWT's The Big Match, this game being billed as the match of the two Yugoslav goalkeepers - Notts' Avramovic v Chelsea's Barota.

03/05/80 Birmingham City 3 (Birtchin, Curbishly, Dillon) Notts County 3 (Mair, Christie, Kilcline)
commentator: Hugh Johns for ATV
"They can't win at home, but they do pretty well away" said commentator Hugh Johns of Notts as Birmingham City were forced to work very hard to secure promotion on the final day of the season. Having come back from 2-0 down to 2-2, Notts equalised again to end the goal scoring feast at 3-3. Finishing a lowly 17th, Notts had at least signed off the season with a reminder of their potential. Extended highlights were screened on Star Soccer in the Midlands, brief edited highlights were also shown in at least two other regions and it is this truncated footage that made it onto Notts' 1990 Christmas VHS video.
 

20/09/80 Bristol City 0 Notts County 1 (Masson)
commentator: Tony Gubba for BBC1
Notts' first win on Match of the day at the 9th attempt! It was a bad tempered affair which saw Don Masson drive in the Notts winner 8 minutes from the end, by which time bottom of the table City were down to ten men. Iain McCulloch had been the victim of a stamping incident which went unnoticed by the referee, but a blatant body-check on McCulloch later in the match earned the same City defender David Rodgers a red card. County also had a man sent off at the very end when Rachid Harkouk (making his debut for the club) appeared to strike Gerry Gow, Notts fan 'Natty' recalls, "We wrote a terrace song in honour of that moment and sang it for some years afterwards." Harkouk was interviewed after the match by Tony Gubba, explaining that he was merely trying to prevent Gow from throttling Paul Hooks. Ray O'Brien was also involved in two major incidents, he was booked for blatantly tugging the shirt of a City forward who was clean through and later headed a goal bound strike off the line.
By now Match of the Day had expanded to showcase highlights from three matches, two generally being extended with another match serving as a brief interlude. This Bristol City v Notts game was sandwiched inbetween Southampton 2 Liverpool 2 and Derby County 0 Wrexham 1, the show was repeated by the Satellite channel ESPN Classic Sport in 2006.

Anglia news showed a report of 04/10/80 Luton Town 0 Notts 1 (Hunt) on their Monday Local News bulletin.
The goal, if not highlights of 21/10/80 Oldham Athletic 0 Notts County 1 (McCulloch) appears to have been shown in the Granada region.

25/10/80 Notts County 2 (McCulloch 2) Blackburn Rovers 0
commentator: Hugh Johns for ATV
Notts were top of the League going into this match and consolidated their position with this important victory over 3rd placed Rovers (who squandered the opportunity to move above the Magpies). McCulloch netted one of his two first half goals by striking the ball in mid-air with both feet off the ground (pictured). 23 years later, clips of the two goals were used to illustrate the Sirrel era on the local ITV 30 Minutes - "Notts Withstanding" documentary.
 

29/10/80 Manchester City 5 Notts County 1 (Christie) (League Cup 4th Round)
               commentator: Barry Davies for BBC1
To my knowledge, this was Notts sole appearance on the BBC midweek show Sportsnight regularly introduced by Boxing commentator Harry Carpenter. Notts fan Warren Davis remembers "Denis Tueart got four of City's goals, but should have been sent off for deliberate hand ball before he got the first, having punched the ball into the net - ref bottled it. I also recall being locked in afterwards, & drowning out John Bonds post-match interview with repeated chants of 'Johnny Bond, what a w*****,what a w*****' ". Highlights were also included on the BBC's Manchester City Match of the day video.

A report on the 01/11/80 1-1 draw at Wrexham appears to have been included on Granada's Football preview programme the following Friday.

08/11/80 Notts County 0 Derby County 0
               commentator: ? (probably Hugh Johns) for ATV
The 2nd successive home match to be covered by ATV as Notts remained top of the 2nd tier.

29/11/80 Notts County 1 (Harkouk) Chelsea 1
               commentator: Des Lynham for BBC1
Yet another televised Notts v Chelsea clash, the fourth since 1975. Brief Match of the day highlights of this one were shown between Liverpool's 4-2 victory at Sunderland and West Browich Albion's 3-2 win at Tottenham Hotspur. Both sides had a goal disallowed, Rachid Harkouk put Notts ahead after latching onto a through ball from Don Masson. The entire show was repeated on the cable and satellite channel UK gold in 1995 and again on ESPN Classic Sport in 2006. The screen grab depicts an example of BBC sport captions, this long used style would soon give way to computerised versions.

17/01/81 Notts County 1 (Hooks) West Ham United 1 (Holland)
               commentator: ? (probably Hugh Johns) for ATV
Honours even in this promotion with 5th placed Notts equalising in the 2nd half against the table topping Hammers. There were extended highlights of the match on ATV's Star Soccer and there was also a brief edit on GRANADA's Sunday highlights show.

A report on the 31/03/81 Anglo-Scottish Cup Final 2nd Leg at Meadow Lane v Chesterfield was included on the following day's edition of YORKSHIRE TV's local news programme "Calendar", Notts had lost the 1st leg at Saltergate 1-0 and could only manage a 1-1 draw in the home return.

18/04/81 Notts County 0 Preston North End 0
commentator: David Coleman for BBC1
The third and final Notts match to be screened on Match of the day in this promotion pushing season, opponents Preston North End were fighting against relegation. David Coleman's introduction from Meadow Lane typified the attitude of the media at the time, stating that Notts could gain promotion to the top flight virtually unnoticed! Notts dominated the match and Iain McCulloch caught the eye by setting up a series of near misses. County's match was shown after Ipswich Town 0 Arsenal 2, there was also a brief look at Manchester United 2 West Bromwich Albion 1, the programme was repeated on ESPN Classic Sport in 2006.

25/04/81 Notts County 1 (Goodwin) Watford 2 (Blissett 2)
               commentator: ? (probably Hugh Johns) for ATV
Just three games remaining and a win for 2nd placed Notts would have almost clinched promotion, but County had not read the script and, on the penultimate Saturday, left everybody biting their nails. Luther Blissett netted both Watford goals.

ITN news showed Notts 02/05/81 promotion sealing 2-0 victory at Chelsea, the 49 second report included scenes of crowd trouble as well as the goals by Christie and Harkouk. The film rushes survive in the ITN archive.

Notts still had one final league match to play at Meadow Lane and a TV camera captured footage of the celebratory 2-0 victory over Cambridge United on 05/05/81 (including fans running on to the pitch at the final whistle), this was probably used for a local news report on either "ATV Today" or BBC1's "Midlands Today".

29/08/81 Aston Villa 0 Notts County 1 (McCulloch)
commentator: Hugh Johns for ATV
One of the great Televised moments in Notts County history:- The Magpies first match back in the top flight for 55 years and they marked the occasion with a victory over the reigning league champions on their own patch! It was also the first time Notts collected 3 points for a win. Extended highlights were shown on ATV's Star Soccer, a brief edit was included on GRANADA's highlights programme
 

BBC news showed a report of Notts 2 Swansea City 3 on 12/09/81.

19/09/81 Notts County 1 (Osman(og)) Ipswich Town 4 (Wark, Brazil 2, Muhren)
               commentator: Hugh Johns for ATV
Notts had made a solid start to the season, but now came up against the UEFA Cup holders who brought Notts back down to Earth with a bump.
As well as extended highlights on Star Soccer, the goals were also shown on the London highlights programme The Big Match (who's main match was QPR v Crystal Palace).

03/10/81 Notts County 2 (Hunt,Kilcline) Arsenal 1
commentator: Alan Parry for BBC1
Extended highlights followed QPR 2 Blackburn Rovers 0 and Liverpool 2 Swansea City 2 (on the day Anfield mourned the passing of former boss Bill Shankly). Notts had suffered 4 straight defeats before this match and looked as though they were about to lose a 5th, but this Match of the day appearance was memorable for two very late County goals and it was included on the �Magpies Magic� VHS video released in 1989. The screen capture shows Brian Kilcline celebrating his winning goal.

08/11/81 Leeds United 1 (Butterworth) Notts County 0
               commentator: ? (probably John Helm) for YORKSHIRE
An appearance on Yorkshire Television's "The Big Game", extended highlights of this match were followed by Tottenham Hotspur v West Bromwich Albion. A brief edit of the Notts defeat was also shown on LWT's The Big Match.

05/12/81 Birmingham City 2 (Evans 2(1pen)) Notts County 1 (McCulloch)
               commentator: Hugh Johns for ATV
A potentially important result in terms of relegation, three points for the Blues (thanks to two goals from Tony Evans) lifted them above Notts who replaced the Blues in the drop zone. Brief highlights of Southampton 3 Manchester United 2 and Manchester City 1 Aston Villa 0 were also shown on this edition of Star Soccer. A brief edit of the Birmingham v Notts match also made it onto GRANADA's highlights programme.
 

ATV became Central television on January 1st 1982. For the purpose of news bulletins the new Midlands ITV franchise was required to split into East and West regions, this change was delayed by industrial action (incredibly for two years!) but it would eventually mean better news coverage of Derby County, Leicester City, Nottingham Forest and Notts who were all currently vying for airtime with the likes of Aston Villa, Birmingham City, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Coventry City, Stoke City and West Bromwich Albion.

05/01/82 Notts County 0 Aston Villa 6 (Richards(og),Shaw,Geddis 3,Cowans(pen)) FA Cup 3rd round
       commentator: Nick Owen for CENTRAL
Mick Leonard replaced Raddy Avramovic between the sticks for this one game during the 1981/82 season with disastrous results. It was a rare midweek televised exposure for Notts and an equally rare commentary from Nick Owen (better known for his presenting skills alongside Anne Diamond).

16/01/82 Notts County 1 (Christie) Aston Villa 0
               commentator: Hugh Johns for CENTRAL
Just 11 days after the FA Cup tie, Villa were back at Meadow Lane for a League fixture. A 1-0 win lifted Notts out of the drop zone and they remainded clear of it for rest the season. This victory also saw Notts claim an impressive league double over a team who would go on to lift the European Cup in May. Following the extended highlights from Meadow Lane on Star Soccer there were brief highlights of Leeds United v Swansea City and Bolton Wanderers v Chelsea.

30/01/82 Ipswich Town 1 (Thijssen) Notts County 3 (Mair, Kilcline, Hooks)
commentator: Gerry Harrison for ANGLIA
Gordon Mair�s finish to an incredible interchange of passing is perhaps the finest goal Notts have ever scored in front of the TV cameras. Ipswich would finish the season as league runners up. Extended highlights of the match were shown as the main match on Anglia's Match of the Week whilst brief highlights were seen on CENTRAL's Star Soccer who's main match was Aston Villa 0 Liverpool 3.
 

27/02/82 Sunderland 1 (Brown) Notts County 1 (McCulloch)
               commentator: Roger Tames for TYNE TEES
Following this away draw, Notts were a comfortable 12th, ten points clear of the drop.

20/03/82 Notts County 1 (Harkouk) Manchester United 3
               commentator: John Motson for BBC1
Despite achieving top flight status for the first time since the BBC began showing football on Television, this would be only Notts 2nd and final appearance on Match of the day this season*. The show had reverted back to screening two matches, the Notts highlights followed Tottenham Hotspur's 3-2 win over Southampton.
*Swansea City (who had been promoted with Notts) were featured no less than 8 times on Match of the day this term.

08/05/82 Stoke City 2 (Watson, Maguire) Notts County 2 (Christie(pen), Richards)
commentator: Hugh Johns for CENTRAL
Hugh �One - nothing� John�s penultimate commentary in the Midlands for Star Soccer before he left to join HTV WALES. On this occasion he had the pleasure of describing a particularly fine strike by Pedro Richards (pictured celebrating). An edit was also included on Granada's highlights programme.
 
 

04/09/82 Luton Town 5 (Walsh 3, Hill, Moss) Notts County 3 (Kilcline, Chiedozie, Goodwin)
               commentator: Gerry Harrison for ANGLIA
A fabulous strike from John Chiedozie was upstaged by a Paul Walsh hat-trick. Extended highlights were only shown in the ANGLIA region, a brief edit was shown in the Midlands following West Brom 3 Manchester United 1.

Notts were the focus of an ITN news report on the 10th September, Terry Lloyd* reported on Notts supporter Tony Green's dog 'Ragamuffin' who was a season ticket holder at the Lane and could be seen watching the team train and also showing off his own 'dribbling' skills. An interview with Jimmy Sirrel was also broadcast.
*Lloyd was later killed by US troops whilst reporting on the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

06/11/82 Norwich City 1 (Deehan) Notts County 2 (Mair, Christie)
commentator: Gerry Harrison for ANGLIA
Bizarre scenes were captured by the cameras towards the end of this match, the referee is seen marching over to the Norwich bench to order the Canaries manager Ken Brown to go and appeal to the Norwich supporters to cease throwing coins at Notts keeper Raddy Avramovic. Trevor Christie had just scored a late winner at the other end. The win lifted Notts to 15th.
 
 

04/12/82 Notts County 3 (McCulloch, Hooks, Christie) Nottingham Forest 2
commentator: Alan Parry for BBC1
The only Trentside derby yet to be televised by the BBC and Notts won in glorious fashion, overcoming two Forest equalisers as well as going down to 10 men following McCulloch�s sending off. Frustratingly, it was not selected as the main match, Notts fans had to patiently sit through Lincoln City's 3-1 victory over Millwall before re-living this splendid afternoon*. The footage was included on the 1989 �Magpies Magic� VHS video and earned a UK Gold repeat in 1996.
*This was Notts only appearance on Match Of The Day this season, Swansea City (who were relegated) were featured on 4 occasions.
 

11/12/82 Manchester United 4 (Whiteside,Stapleton,Robson,Duxbury) Notts County 0
               commentator: Martin Tyler for GRANADA
A rare appearance for Notts on Granada's "Match Time". The highlights were also aired on Central's Star Soccer.A brief clip from this match was included on Manchester United�s official history video produced in the 1990's.
 

29/01/83 Middlesbrough 2 (Hankin, Beattie(pen)) Notts County 0 FA Cup 4th Round
               commentator: ? (probably Roger Tames) for TYNE TEES
Notts left back Nigel Worthington was sent off in this one as 'Boro scored in each half.

05/03/83 Notts County 3 (Hunt, Chiedozie 2) Tottenham Hotspur 0
commentator: Peter Brackley for CENTRAL
Three first half goals that saw off the FA Cup holders including a fabulous effort by John Chiedozie. Notts assistant manager Howard Wilkinson was also interviewed for Star Soccer which was shown after the extended highlights of the game. This was the first match to be shown on TV that the author of this story also personally attended and I remember serious talk of Notts achieving a U.E.F.A cup place amongst the fans as they left the ground. Although such a feat proved to be beyond Notts, Spurs did gain a place in the competition and went on to win it the following year. Click the screen grab for the team line-ups. A brief edit of the highlights was also shown on The Big Match in the London region.

Claude Bishop, the Vice-Chairman of the supporters club at the time, was featured on Channel 4's "The Years Ahead" on 15th March (4:45pm) being interviewed by Brian Johnstone about his involvement in football and Notts County in particular. Some archive footage was also included.
 

23/04/83 Nottingham Forest 2 (Swain, Proctor) Notts County 1 (Lahtinen)
               commentator: Peter Brackley for CENTRAL
Forest fans greeted the final whistle with the type of celebration usually reserved for their greatest conquests. Notts had won all of their four previous league visits to the City Ground (the latest Meadow Lane clash had also gone the way of black & white) and so the pressure was on Forest to reinforce their claim to be Nottingham's number one club. Although this was to be Forest's day, their trophy winning days had deserted them. Notts still had plenty of catching up to do, but they were drawing ever closer.

Maximum Brightness
Finishing 15th for the 2nd season running (but with more points) this was Notts most successful League campaign in almost 60 years. However, change was in the air, during the close season Sirrel's right hand man Howard Wilkinson left for Sheffield Wednesday. Ex-Forest player, Larry Lloyd was brought in to take over team affairs. Another ex-Forest player, summer signing Martin O'Neil, was made captain. Jimmy Sirrel stayed on as "General Manager".

1983/84
This season saw the introduction of live league games and FA cup ties, the BBC and ITV shared 14 games, BBC chose a Friday night slot to screen theirs, ITV opted for Sunday afternoons which helped signal the swift demise of regular Sunday afternoon highlights shows, the networked coverage adopted the London Weekend moniker "The Big Match" for both live broadcasts and highlights. It was bad news for Notts. With regional coverage severely cut, national interest favoured the bigger clubs. The lesser teams inevitably found themselves with a smaller slice of TV revenue which co-incided with the away gate money percentage now being scrapped, the likes of Notts County suddenly found themselves at an increasing disadvantage.

Central News in the East Midlands
A much needed TV boost came in the form of "Central News East" which finally went on air in January 1984 from Nottingham's first ever Television studio in Lenton, this was to be the first season in which a single Central video camera would be set up in Notts TV gantry at selected matches to capture footage for match reports to be screened on the following Monday's 6pm hour long bulletin, in most cases the reporter was either Dennis Coath (pictured left) or Tony Francis.

National & Local TV News Reports
Central TV sent a camera along to the home match with Stoke City on 22/10/83 and a report on the 1-1 draw was shown on "Central News". The goals from County's incredible 3-3 draw at Manchester United were broadcast on an ITN news bulletin (courtesy of Granada's cameras) on 27/12/83 - trailing 3-1 Justin Fashanu scored two late goals to earn Notts an unlikely point. ITN had also covered the previous days' 3-0 home defeat to Luton Town. Paul Mariner's header that defeated Notts 1-0 at Ipswich made for another ITN appearance on New Years Eve. On 08/01/84, the BBC's evening News bulletin included a report on County's 3rd round FA Cup tie at home to Bristol City which ended in a 2-2 draw, CENTRAL also covered the drawn cup match with a report by Tony Francis. Two days later both the BBC and ITV (on 'News at Ten') reported on the replay which Notts won 2-0. A TV news camera was also at County's 4th round tie away to Huddersfield Town on 28/01/84 which saw Notts go through 2-1.

11/02/84 Notts County 3 (Harkouk, Christie 2(1pen)) Watford 5 (Hunt(og), Callaghan 2, Reilly, Johnston)
commentator: John Motson for BBC1
Notts had actually topped the entire world of English football after the first two games of the season, but a losing sequence immediately followed. A recovery period in November/December could not be maintained and Notts were now in the relegation zone.
The 23 minutes worth of highlights of this Saturday night Match of the day eight-goal feast was afforded a repeat screening on UK gold in 1995 and again on ESPN Classic Sport in 2006. Click the image of MOTD presenter Jimmy Hill for the team line-ups and further details. Sheffield Wednesday's 4-1 victory over Charlton Athletic was the 2nd feature.

John Chiedozie's fabulous solo effort that won County's 5th round FA Cup tie 1-0 on 18/02/84 was captured by a Central TV news camera.

10/03/84 Notts County 1 (Chiedozie) Everton 2 (Richardson, Gray) FA Cup Quarter Final
               commentator: John Motson for BBC1
Notts were one step away from reaching the FA Cup Semi-finals for the first time since 1922. Sadly it was not to be as County lost out to the eventual Cup winners thanks to a fluke 'header' by Andy Gray. See here for line-ups and further details. This game was the last of three Quarter finals shown that night, it followed Birmingham City 1 Watford 3, and Plymouth Argyle 0 Derby County 0.

Central TV sent a camera along to the 17/03/84 match v Coventry City for a report on Notts' 2-1 win which included a super goal by Martin O'Neill.

31/03/84 Notts County 0 Nottingham Forest 0
commentator: Martin Tyler for ITV
My first experience of a Trentside derby match turned out to be the last such occasion for seven years.
Star soccer had now been dropped, but with no live match on ITV this weekend the Notts v Forest recording went out as part of ITV's fully networked Sunday highlights show The Big Match presented by Brian Moore (pictured). The main match was West Ham United 2 QPR 2, followed by 6 minutes of action from the Nottingham derby. Notts were now 2nd bottom. Click the image for team line-ups and further details.

ITN showed Notts 1-0 win over Manchester United and the collision that ended Iain McCulloch's career on 14/04/84, reporter was Tony Francis. Desperately fighting an uphill battle against relegation, the loss of McCulloch was a bitter blow. County could only win one of the final seven games that followed, among those defeats was a 3-1 reverse at Aston Villa which was afforded a goals report on BBC News whilst the following match - a 4-0 win over Wolves - was video'd for a report on Central.

12/05/84 Notts County 0 Liverpool 0
commentator: John Motson for BBC1
Relegated the previous Monday, County bowed out of the top flight on national TV as Liverpool secured their 3rd successive League title. In six meetings with the all conquering red machine, this was the one encounter that Notts managed to avoid defeat.
Highlights were also included on the 1989 VHS video �Magpies Magic� and there was a repeat on UK Gold some 12 years later. The screen shot shows Jimmy Sirrel perched on his preferred vantage point in the TV Gantry.

"Central News East" showed a goals report of the re-arranged 17/05/84 home match with Southampton which the Saints won 3-1 to secure 2nd spot.
 

19/01/85 Leeds United 5 Notts County 0
Apparently ITV were meant to show the Watford v Man Utd game live on the Sunday afternoon but it was called off, so highlights of Liverpool v Norwich City were shown instead plus, in some form or other, clips or highlights from this match which went ahead, despite the weather, thanks to Leeds' new under soil heating system.

There were various Notts match reports shown on local news bulletins this season (among those definitely filmed were the 3-2 away win at Wolves, the 3-0 defeat at Norwich City in the League Cup, the 2-2 home FA Cup draw with Grimsby Town and the subsequent 4-2 defeat in the replay. The crushing 5-0 defeat at Leeds United was also shown as a report on an ITN national news bulletin). The goals from the 6-1 League Cup win over Bolton Wanderers made it onto Saint & Greavsie's segment of 'World of Sport' , Greaves was particularly shocked, and delighted, to see that Pedro Richards had scored.

Breakdown
Ritchie Barker became Notts 2nd managerial casualty of 1984/85 as a much troubled season for football in general drew to an apocalyptic close. A full scale riot at half time of Notts final home game with promotion chasing Manchester City held up proceedings for some 30 minutes with both Managers having to make tannoy appeals for calm, Jimmy Sirrel (now in sole charge of the team once more) was on the verge of pulling off a seemingly impossible relegation escape, Notts were 3-0 up and held on to win 3-2 on an unforgettable bank holiday afternoon, though perhaps, on this occasion, it was for the best that no TV cameras were present, but shocking images of hooligan warfare at other grounds could not be prevented from being broadcast to an increasingly disgusted public. On the final day of the League season, Notts were relegated with a defeat at Fulham, but any sense of tragedy was quickly put into perspective by YORKSHIRE television's John Helm on "World of Sport" describing shocking live pictures of Bradford City's typically antiquated wooden stand which had suddenly become a billowing furnace claiming the lives of 56 spectators. Just over two weeks later 39 people were killed at the European Cup final when a wall collapsed under pressure from fans trying to escape from rioting Liverpool and Juventus fans. English fans were blamed for the disaster and all English clubs were banned from European competitions for five years.

25/01/86 Notts County 1 (McParland) Tottenham Hotspur 1  FA Cup 4th Round
commentator: Tony Gubba for BBC1
Jimmy Sirrel had been the subject of a special report on Granstand�s Football focus at lunchtime before this high profile match (attended by 17,546) was screened that night on Match of the day, Notts first appearance on the show for almost 2 years did little to appease the home fans still reeling from the late disallowed �winner�. The replay, which was lost 5-0, was afforded a report on ITN's News at Ten.

In the week before the Spurs cup-ties, Notts had occupied a promotion a place, but having given their all against top flight opponents County were mentally drained for the long trek to Gillingham that followed, losing 4-0 Notts slipped to 6th and never recovered. Still, on the back of two successive relegation's with a largely young inexperienced squad, finishing 8th was every bit a testament to Jimmy Sirrel's greatness as any of his better remembered achievements.

On Sunday 07/12/86 Notts lost 1-0 at home to Middlesbrough in the 2nd round of the FA Cup, the BBC's North East version of the local news programme "Look North" ran a report the following day. Back in the League, Jimmy Sirrel continued to weave his magic and Notts were 2nd as late as mid-March, yet, save for the odd Central News report, this was - TV wise - another baron season for Notts which ended with a frustrating sequence of draws followed by a handful of key defeats that resulted in the Magpies narrowly missing out on taking part in the newly created end of season play off's. During the 2nd half of the final home game, Sirrel got up from his position in the Main Stand and took a lone anti-clockwise walk around the touchline, passing the County Road stand to a slow mournful chant of his name, he then disappeared into the glare of the sun which was setting behind the Kop. A new era was about to dawn.

19/03/88 Sunderland 1 Notts County 1 (Barnes)
commentator: Roger Tames for TYNE TEES
With Live coverage now in vogue, highlights were out of fashion, but this Saturday schedule bucked the trend. TYNE TEES had opted to cover their local top of the table clash (2nd v 1st) at Roker Park, CENTRAL (and some other regions) happened to be covering highlights of Nottingham Forest v Manchester United on the same night and so the goals and a near miss from this 3rd tier match were shown in the Midlands whilst viewers in the North East got to see extended highlights.
The afternoon's events had been witnessed by 24,071, an enormous crowd for lower leagues football at this time. Paul Barnes' equaliser in the 2nd half was accompanied by a thundering chorus of boo's as the home fans judged him to be off-side.

After securing a draw in the TV game at Sunderland (and thus retaining top spot), promotion seemed a forgone conclusion, but Notts were to be distracted by the prospect of a possible debut Wembley appearance by way of the Associate Members (Lower Leagues) Cup. Having lost their star player Adrian Thorpe to injury in the Quarter Finals (and he would never quite be the same again), a bruising and unsuccessful 2 leg encounter with Wolves for a place in the final had an unsettling effect on confidence. Having slumped to 4th, Notts continued to crumble in the play off's. For the author of this web-site, it was harder to take than any relegation, before or since.

Although Notts were now video-taping every home match (a self produced review of the season was later released as a VHS home video), Central TV would still bring along their own camera if they intended to make a news report which was now becoming an increasingly more regular occurrence, their 2 minute report on the mid-week Chesterfield home game included a post match interview with Notts popular winger Adrian Thorpe (pictured).

Not for the first time of late, a high profile cup-tie diverted Notts attention from more important long term issues, this time however it was to be an early season distraction, Tottenham Hotspur (including Paul Gascoigne) were back at Meadow Lane for a 1st leg League Cup tie and Central TV were there to film the 1-1 draw for an extended report. After the 2nd leg was lost, the bookies 3rd Division title favourites found themselves well adrift of the promotion shore, frustration turned to despair and Manager John Barnwell was thrown over board at the end of November.
With Notts now becoming entangled in the relegation zone, Neil Warnock was appointed Manager of Notts in January, he had recently guided Scarborough from non-league to the Fourth Division. Warnock's influence was immediate, prima donna household names gave way to single minded nobody's with awesome impact, Notts bulldozed their way to safety and finished 9th.

Hillsborough
The hooligan problem had not gone away but an atmosphere of camaraderie and good humour amongst rival supporters was developing in their need to pull together against those in power who sought to smother a national sport that had now become a political embarrassment.
Minds were focussed further in the worst of circumstances. Overpopulated terracing at a "Match of the Day" televised FA Cup Semi-final at Hillsborough between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest in April 1989 had resulted in a horrifying crush in the Liverpool end. Caged in by hooligan proof high fencing, the death toll rose to almost double that of the Bradford fire, 95 people died.
Whereas supporters or club negligence had been held responsible for the game's problems in the past, much finger pointing on this occasion was directed at public authorities, a government commissioned report would force a policy re-think.

The need for change
The 1980's had been a bitter sweet decade for Notts as well as for English football in general. Watching football in the 1980's (for those still brave enough to attend) had rarely been a dull experience, but football as a spectator sport would now have to change to survive. With increasing influence and power, Television would be right at the very heart of developments in the 1990's. For better or worse, the 100 year old Football League would never be the same again.
 
 

(C)2001 - 2008 Up the Maggies

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