Nottingham Forest will be in the Premier League next season, the return of one of the great proletarian sides
Michael Rosen tweeted ‘Notts Forest’ & sparked Twitter outrage. It’s Nottingham Forest & Notts County.
One suspects that Arsenal fan Rosen knew what he was about. When Woolwich Arsenal were promoted to the First Division in 1904 they played Nottingham Forest at home and lost 0-3.
In Worlds of Labour looking at the rise of working class culture 1870-1914 Eric Hobsbawm notes ‘The worker identified with the local team against the rest of the world. In sufficiently large towns, City or United. Forest or County, defined a citizen’
Hobsbawm goes on to note that even so there was a national footballing culture, distinctly working rather than middle class. Over a century on judging by twitter it endures still
Yes, as a Forest fan I can understand the apoplexy. Lol. And the irony is that Firest are in the county, and Notts are in the city
Gill
Firist? I mean Forest. Eeek
Yes, football club names should be handled with care. As a Bristol City supporter I hate it when they are referred to as “Bristol”, which is the name of a rugby team.