4 October 1990 - The Death Of Peter Taylor

On 4 October 1990, Peter Taylor, who won a league title and two European Cups as an assistant to Brian Clough, passed away while on holiday in Spain. He was 62.

Although best known for his abilities as a manager and scout, Taylor enjoyed a lengthy playing career with Coventry City (1950-55), Middlesbrough (1955-61), and Port Vale (1961-62). Then, in 1962, he took his first managerial job as player-manager for Burton Albion and spent two seasons there before leaving to join Hartlepool as an assistant to his former Middlesbrough teammate, Brian Clough.

Taylor and Clough spent ten of the next twelve seasons together, including six and a half years at Derby County where they won the league title in 1972. Their only time apart was from 1974 to 1976, when Taylor took charge of Brighton & Hove after Clough left for his ill-fated spell at Leeds United. They reunited in 1976, when Taylor joined Clough at Nottingham Forest and the pair proceeded to win two European Cups (1979, 1980).

In 1982, Taylor left Clough and returned to Derby County, managing them for two seasons before retiring in 1984. During that second spell at Derby, Taylor signed winger John Robertson from Derby without telling Clough in advance. The signing created a rift between the two men, who never spoke to one another afterward, a fact deeply regretted by Clough after Taylor's death.

In 2010, Derby County commemorated Taylor and Clough with a statue of the pair outside the ground.

22 April 1978 - Forest Grows Into The Title

On 22 April 1978, Nottingham Forest won the league with a scoreless draw at Coventry City. They were the fifth (and to date last) team to win the English top flight as a newly-promoted team.

The rise was orchestrated by the managerial team of Brian Clough and Peter Taylor, who took charge of the club in January 1975. At the time, Forest were a mid-table Division Two team whose only major honors were the 1898 and 1959 FA Cups. Although they finished sixteenth out of twenty-two teams that first season under Clough and Taylor, they ended the 1975-76 season in eighth, then claimed the last promotion spot the following year with a third-place finish.

They got a strong start on their return to the top flight, winning seven of their first nine matches to take a firm grip on first place. They remained there for the rest of the season.

By the time they visited Coventry City, Forest were six points clear of second-place Everton, who had only three matches left to play (Forest had five remaining). At the time, teams earned two points for a win, so even a draw with Coventry would have put Forest out of Everton's reach. And a draw is what they got, as the match finished 0-0 to secure Forest's first top-flight title with four games left.

Before that, Liverpool (in 1906), Everton (1932), Tottenham (1951), and Ipswich Town (1962) each had won the league as newly-promoted teams, but Forest remain the last to do it. They were also the first to do it without being promoted as Division Two champions.

Their success continued under Clough and Taylor, with back-to-back European Cups in 1979 and 1980.