John Robertson (footballer, born 1953)

Robertson had played for Scotland at Schoolboy and Youth levels and for Drumchapel Amateurs before joining Forest in May 1970, making his debut for the team in October 1970. Although he was an infrequent member of the first team as a midfielder up to 1975, and was on the transfer list when Clough became manager, Robertson became a key player as a left winger under Clough and appeared in 243 consecutive games between December 1976 and December 1980. He scored the winning goal, a penalty, for Forest in the 1978 Football League Cup Final replay against Liverpool. He also scored the winner in the 1980 European Cup Final against Hamburg and provided the cross for the winning goal in the 1979 European Cup Final, scored by Trevor Francis, against Malmö FF.

Brian Clough, Robertson's manager at Nottingham Forest, was quoted as saying "John Robertson was a very unattractive young man. If one day, I felt a bit off colour, I would sit next to him. I was bloody Errol Flynn in comparison. But give him a ball and a yard of grass, and he was an artist, the Picasso of our game."[3] In his autobiography Clough noted that "Rarely could there have been a more unlikely looking professional athlete... [He was a] scruffy, unfit, uninterested waste of time...but something told me he was worth persevering with." but that "[He] became one of the finest deliverers of a football I have ever seen – in Britain or anywhere else in the world – as fine as the Brazilians or the supremely gifted Italians."[4] Robertson's captain at Forest, John McGovern, later said that "John Robertson was like Ryan Giggs but with two good feet, not one. He had more ability than Ryan Giggs, his ratio of creating goals was better and overall he was the superior footballer", whilst Forest coach Jimmy Gordon rated Robertson as a better player than Tom Finney and Stanley Matthews, saying that he "had something extra on top".[5]

Robertson was sold to Derby County in June 1983 on a contested transfer (the fee was set by a tribunal) that soured the relationship between Clough and his former assistant Peter Taylor, but was injured soon after joining the team and failed to reproduce the form he had shown when he played for Forest. Although he rejoined Forest on a free transfer in August 1985, he remained well below his former best and moved to non-league Corby Town at the end of the 1985/86 season. He also had stints with Stamford and Grantham Town.

Scores and results list Scotland's goal tally first

Goal	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1.	7 June 1979	Ullevaal Stadion, Oslo	Norway	3–0	4–0	ECQG2
2.	19 December 1979	Hampden Park, Glasgow	Belgium	1–3	1–3	ECQG2
3.	28 April 1981	Hampden Park, Glasgow	Israel	1–0	3–1	WCQG6
4.				2–0
5.	23 May 1981	Wembley Stadium, London	England	1–0	1–0	BHC
6.	9 September 1981	Hampden Park, Glasgow	Sweden	2–0	2–0	WCQG6
7.	15 June 1982	Estadio La Rosaleda, Málaga	New Zealand	4–2	5–2	WCG6
8.	21 September 1983	Hampden Park, Glasgow	Uruguay	1–0	2–0	Friendly