Forest World Cup Connections - 1986

1986 was an interesting time for Connections for Forest. Although our team was flying high in those days, and that theer werethree home nations in the tournament, with a strong Forest, our at the time European ban meant a number of star Englishmen were heading abroad (ie Ray Wilkins, Mark Hately, Gary Lineker) and with the added fact it meant European players werent coming over in numbers either, it's a very UK centric list of players.


As always we will start with England

England
Peter Shilton
4 players in the squad had Forest links, though none were on the books of Forest at the time. Viv Anderson, ex right back and on Manchester United books at time, Goalkeepers Peter Shilton, Chris Woods at Southampton and Norwich respectively, and Steve Hodge, at the time at Aston Villa, but would return to Forest a couple of years later. Shilton and Hodge would feature whilst Anderson and Woods would not. Shilton and Hodge were both pivotal in that most infamous of goals, the "Hand of God," as it was Hodge who had kicked the ball airward, and Shilton who was beaten by it, in the quarter finals in Guadalajara. Shilton of course would also be first choice in 1990, as Hodge would be in the squad. Hodge had swapped shirts with Maradona that day and still has the infamous no10 shirt won by the mercurial Argentine,


Scotland
Richard Gough
 Two Scottish players can trace a link through to Forest from their 1986 squad (managed by a certain Alex Ferguson) both of whom would only arrive many many years later. Richard Gough came to the club on loan uder Ron Atkinson, playing aorund a dozen games. Alex McLeish of that squad would also end up at the City Ground as an ill-fated manager who had a very short stay which is still all too fresh in the memory.



Northern Ireland

Making it to consecutive World Cups, Northern Ireland in their squad selected the 20 year old midfielder David Campbell, who had just broken through at Forest. Campbell would feature for Northern Ireland as they went out at the first hurdle. Campbell would leave Forest a couple of years later. Northern Ireland have never made it to a major championships since.

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