FOREST HISTORY · Historic event
Clough dies after illness
On this day in 2004 Brian Clough dies aged 69 after illness.
Brian Clough’s death at the age of 69 brought Nottingham Forest face to face with the loss of the manager who had defined the club’s greatest years.
Clough’s Forest story remains one of the most extraordinary in English football. He took a club outside the top flight, won promotion, then led Forest to the First Division title and two European Cups in successive seasons.
His methods could be blunt and his personality impossible to ignore, but the results were beyond argument. Forest became champions of England, champions of Europe, and a club known across the football world because of the team he built with Peter Taylor and the players who trusted him.
For supporters, his death was not only the passing of a former manager. It was the loss of the central figure in the club’s modern identity, a man whose achievements still shape how Forest’s history is understood.
Sources
The Guardian; BBC Sport
Forest timeline
Explore more Nottingham Forest history
Browse the timeline to discover more events from this day and beyond:
0–2
3–0
1–1
1–2
4–1
1–0
1–0
2–1
2–0
0–1
0–2
2–2
0–0
1–2
0–1
14:00
16:30
20:00
15:00
17:30
15:00
20:00
20:00
15:00
15:00
15:00
16:30
19:30
15:00
19:30
15:00
15:00
15:00
15:00
20:00
15:00
15:00
20:00
15:00
15:00
15:00
15:00
15:00
15:00
15:00
15:00
15:00
16:00
Nottingham Forest earned their first win in European competition with a 1-0 away victory over Eintracht Frankfurt in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup. The match…
Nottingham Forest produced a spectacular away performance at Stamford Bridge, beating Chelsea 6-2 in the First Division. The match started at a fierce pace.…
Brian Clough’s death at the age of 69 brought Nottingham Forest face to face with the loss of the manager who had defined the…