Was this the last-ever true breaking of the football mould?

1975 to 1985 was the last sustained period in which the hegemony of the major big-city football clubs was challenged, and at times usurped. These were days, surely now lost forever, when young fans could follow their teams and their dreams, a time when your local side might—just might—become a contender on the global stage.

In his new book, Too Good To Be Forgotten—Three Wise Men From Football’s Golden Era, Ben Dobson revisits that time in the company of ex-players and fans and examines the similarities and idiosyncrasies of the three remarkable sons of the north east who made it happen—Brian Clough, Lawrie McMenemy and Bobby Robson, and how, in the form of three unfashionable provincial clubs they made the ordinary extraordinary.

Their teams achieved remarkable things on the pitch, but this story is about more than the match statistics—it is about what this unprecedented and unfathomable success meant to the communities of two cities and one town, as the previously sleepy football locations of Nottingham, Southampton and Ipswich were put on the map as never before.

A bond was created between managers, players, fans and communities which simply cannot exist today. The three managers and many of the clubs’ players made their homes in these places long after their careers were done. They were part of the fabric.

On a good day you can travel from the Teesside town of Middlesbrough, through the village of Sacriston in County Durham, and on to Gateshead, Tyne & Wear in about an hour. Just 40 miles. These were the places where our three wise men grew up and which formed them, a place where football was in the blood. In the 1930s real life was hard and the values instilled in them here were never forgotten and were the basis for everything they were to go on to achieve.

Were they three of a kind? Their backgrounds and career records have enough synergy to suggest so. They were distinct however. Perhaps the best conclusion is that they shared beliefs and traits which would allow them to achieve similarly but differently brilliant things. They shared close friendships too.

If there was a formula what was it? Short answer: one of simplicity. Background and values, a strength of will to survive the toughest moments, establishing respect and authority, valued support networks, a simple playing philosophy, extraordinary gifts for man-management—making better players and better people, creating an unrivalled togetherness, all leading to the building and evolution of successful teams. All built on a belief in honesty and clarity of purpose and communication.

These are the qualities which navigate the book through the story of the three men and their communities leaving lessons in management which still resonate today. Alex Ferguson, Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola are amongst those who acknowledge the debt they owe to these men. And the resurrection of an England cricket team under the leadership of Ben Stokes, another man brought up in the north east, bears all the same hallmarks.

Moments matter. In any story of sustained success, an element of fate or good fortune is highly probable. Three apparently unremarkable matches in unremarkable settings, would contribute to the writing of a history that couldn’t have been the same without them. One in particular was the making of Nottingham Forest.

“Life is what happens to us while we’re busy making other plans,” John Lennon would sing in “Beautiful Boy” three years later. These weren’t actually his own words but those of the American writer Allen Saunders 20 years before, but anyway, it’s not believed they were penned to immortalise the manner of Nottingham Forest’s unlikely promotion to the First Division. However, had they been, nobody could have argued that they weren’t apposite.

Three minutes into injury time and the ball is launched into the Wolves penalty area for the fourth time in a frantic minute. Three Bolton players in the six-yard box are all millimetres from applying the touch that will draw the match, but goalkeeper Gary Pierce’s desperate grab for the ball succeeds and the full-time whistle puts an end to Bolton’s ten-minute Charge of the Light Brigade. The 1976/77 Second Division season is effectively over …with Clough and his team on their way to Mallorca.

Years later, Tony Woodcock is unequivocal: “That changed everything—that moment as we got off the plane. It allowed us to start strengthening in a way I’m pretty sure we wouldn’t have done otherwise—Shilton, Gemmill, Burns. The rest is history”. Indeed. Three years later Forest were English and double European champions. The sliding doors had opened for Clough, and he was about to charge right on through them…

Why did it matter? Because today our game is changed—for better or worse, depending on your point of view. This will not pass by this way again. It was about local clubs and peoples finally being something. About being the ones who broke the mould.

Too Good To Be Forgotten is therefore an unapologetically nostalgic thank you note. Lawrie, Brian and Bobby, thank you for those Elysian days—for the time of our lives.

Too Good To Be Forgotten—Three Wise Men From Football’s Golden Era (Pitch Publishing) by Ben Dobson is available now