“That lot play in red because of us,” Nottingham Forest manager Brian Clough explained to a supporter prior to a clash between us and his side in 1980. “They nabbed a set of shirts off us years back when they were strapped for cash.”
Clough’s anecdote gave further credence to a long-held urban myth which is almost as old as Arsenal Football Club.
The oft repeated story - which has popped up in numerous history books and website - stated that goalkeeper Fred Beardsley, one of the club’s founding fathers along with David Danskin, wrote to his former side Nottingham Forest in 1886 to see if they could assist in helping our fledgling club, which was in the process of changing its name from Dial Square to Royal Arsenal.