First corner flags folklore
On this day in Nottingham Forest history in 1866 Forest may have first used corner flags in their opening match.
Nottingham Forest may have used corner flags in their first known football match, but the wider folklore around the club inventing them is probably not true.
Forest played their first official match against Notts County on 22 March 1866, drawing 0-0 at the Forest Recreation Ground. If flags were used to mark the playing area that day, it would be the earliest plausible Forest match connected to the corner-flag story.
Some pieces of Forest folklore link the club with the introduction of corner flags, but the Football Association’s first laws had already referred to marking the ground with flags in 1863, two years before Forest were founded. That makes the claim that Forest invented or first introduced corner flags very unlikely.
* Date note: 22 March 1866 is Forest’s first known match date, not a confirmed first use of corner flags. It is used here as the earliest plausible Forest match placement for the folklore, while the details explain why the stronger claim is probably not factual.
Sources
The City Ground; Nottingham Forest official history; National Football Museum
Forest timeline
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