About John Robertson
John Neilson Robertson (20 January 1953 – 25 December 2025) was a Scottish professional footballer who played as a left winger for Nottingham Forest, Derby County and the Scotland national team. He provided the assisting cross for Trevor Francis to score the only goal when Nottingham Forest won the 1979 European Cup final. A year later he scored in the final when Forest retained the European Cup, this time against Hamburger SV. At Forest he also won promotion from the 1976–77 Football League Second Division, the 1977–78 Football League First Division, the UEFA Super Cup, two Football League Cups, the 1978 FA Charity Shield and the Anglo-Scottish Cup. Robertson also played for Scotland, scoring the winning goal against England in 1981 and against New Zealand in the 1982 FIFA World Cup. He then moved into coaching, acting as an assistant to his former Nottingham Forest teammate Martin O'Neill at Wycombe Wanderers, Norwich City, Leicester City, Celtic, Aston Villa and Grantham Town. == Playing career == === Nottingham Forest (first spell) === Robertson represented Scotland at Schoolboy and Youth levels and played for Drumchapel Amateurs before joining Nottingham Forest in May 1970, making his first‑team debut later that year. Used mainly as a midfielder in his early seasons, he featured only sporadically and was on the transfer list when Brian Clough arrived in 1975. Under Clough, however, he was converted into a left winger and became a central figure in the side, putting together a run of 243 consecutive appearances between December 1976 and December 1980. He scored the decisive penalty in the replayed 1978 Football League Cup Final against Liverpool, set up Trevor Francis's winning goal in the 1979 European Cup Final, and struck the only goal of the 1980 European Cup Final against Hamburg. Brian Clough, Robertson's manager at Nottingham Forest, was quoted as saying "John Robertson was a very unattractive young man.
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