'Cloughie liked to play down the big games, but we arrived later than ever for the final.. he had sent Garry Birtles back to his hotel room for a shave' TREVOR FRANCIS ON WHAT IT'S LIKE TO BE A EUROPEAN CUP WINNER.

Byline: JAMES NURSEY

IT'S 30 years since Trevor Francis scored the winner in the European Cup final at the Olympic Stadium in Munich as Nottingham Forest beat Sweden's Malmo 1-0.

But for Francis, who joined Forest for pounds 1million from Birmingham earlier that season, the memories of Brian Clough's side's victory still remain vivid - including the extraordinary reason why the team were almost late for the game..

WHEN people recall my playing career, they remember me being the first pounds 1million player and then the man who scored to win the European Cup - in that order.

Scoring the goal and helping Nottingham Forest capture the European Cup the first time has ensured that from being a player who was well-known in England, I got worldwide status.

So certainly, my header at the far post from a superb John Robertson cross is something I will never ever forget.

In fact, it was my first-ever game in Europe and I felt there was huge pressure on me to try and justify my position in the team because Brian Clough gave me the opportunity to play by leaving out people such as Martin O'Neill and Archie Gemmill.

I felt I had to go and really do whatever I could possibly do to justify my selection.

I found out about 11am on the day of the match I would be playing.

I had absolutely no indication prior to that of what the team was going to be.

It was slightly inconvenient as I was keen to know because my parents Phyllis and Roy were living in Plymouth and thinking about making the long trip.

They actually came over by ferry and then coach to get to Munich, and I am sure they were pleased they made the trip.

I roomed with the captain John McGovern in Munich and I even asked him the day before if he had any indication whether I would be playing.

But Clough would never disclose with anyone what his thoughts were.

He kept his team very close to his chest until the Wednesday morning when we went down to have a look at the Olympic Stadium, where we were going to be playing that evening.

We didn't even have a training session there, we just walked around the field and got a little feel of the environment we were going to be in later.

Then Clough sat us down on the running track around the perimeter of the field.

He checked first on the availability of O'Neill and Gemmill, asking them whether they were fit.

They pronounced they were - and he preceded to name the team - with neither of them in it. We rested in the afternoon back at the hotel and had to report downstairs in the lobby to go to the game.

Clough didn't allow us to get to the stadium early because that was very much part of his thinking. He wanted us to relax and was leaving it very tight.

But our schedule became even tighter when the last man to come down before we got the coach was our striker Garry Birtles.

He actually made Garry go back up to his room to remove two or three days' worth of stubble from his chin.

Clough said: "You are not going to play for me tonight young man until you have shaved."

So we had a further delay until we got to the ground, and only arrived about an hour before the kick-off. There wasn't much time to hang about once we got there. But Clough did it on purpose to ensure we didn't get too uptight.

He wanted us to treat it like a normal game, which was part of his management.

The bigger the occasion, the more he played it down. I never was particularly nervous before matches.

There are always one or two nerves regardless of the occasion - that is natural. But I didn't feel any more nerves than usual for the final. I was looking forward to the challenge and Forest were very much the favourites.

It wasn't a particularly inspiring performance from us, we got the job done and won the trophy.

You look back and nobody remembers the performance, but I did. We were stifled by the offside tactics of Malmo under their English manager Bobby Houghton.

He had the Swedish team very well organised and that made it difficult for us.

We were undoubtedly deserved winners but Clough would have much preferred, with the world looking on, for us to have given a more entertaining display.

I can't remember his team talk or my pre-match meal but what I do remember, which was normal for Brian, was that there was no mention of the opposition. He wouldn't talk about the other team, he would talk about what we could do and was very positive about what he expected from our players.

After the game it was a very low-key celebration - not at all what you would have anticipated having just won the European Cup. In fact Cloughie and Peter Taylor were very subdued.

I felt they were slightly disappointed the team had not put on a performance. There was nothing arranged afterwards and we just had a get-together at the hotel with our families.

We flew home the next day - that was the Forest way of doing things.

'

THE UNLIKELY LADS.. FIVE FINAL HEROES

ALAN KENNEDY 

1981: LIVERPOOL 1 REAL MADRID 0 With a side that had won back-to-back trophies in 1977 and 1978, and stocked with talent like Dalglish, McDermott, Souness and Lee, it was full-back Kennedy who rifled home the only goal with nine minutes left.

NIGEL SPINK 

1982: VILLA 1 BAYERN MUNICH 0 Ten minutes into the game, Villa keeper Jimmy Rimmer succumbed to an injury sustained in training and 23-year-old Spink was thrown in for only his second first-team game. A series of great saves from an all-star line-up including Augenthaler, Breitner, Hoeness and Rummenigge brought the trophy to Birmingham.

FELIX MAGATH 

1983: HAMBURG 1 JUVENTUS 0 Ten months after winning the World Cup, Juventus featured Dino Zoff, Marco Tardelli and Paolo Rossi from that Italian team as well as Michel Platini. But it was Magath, with a strike rate of one every seven games, who scored the only goal.

HELMUTH DUCKADAM 1986: STEAUA BUCHAREST 0 BARCELONA 0 Following the first goalless 120 minutes in the final's history, Duckadam won the cup for Bucharest when he saved all four of Barca's penalties in the shoot-out while Bucharest scored two.

PAUL LAMBERT

1997: DORTMUND 3 JUVENTUS 1 The Scot made the opening goal but is best remembered for a man-marking job on Zinedine Zidane that made the Frenchman a spectator.

Champions League? You're having a LAUGH

More of the stranger facts in the chequered 53-year history of the European Cup

17 players have been sent off in Champions League games this season. Deco and Frank Lampard of Chelsea are the only English club players on the list. No player has been dismissed twice.

Torsten Frings (Bremen) Cris (Lyon) and Juninho (Lyon) each lead the way with five yellow cards this season. The most by an English club player is three for Deco, Ashley Cole, John Terry (all Chelsea) and Albert Riera, Alvaro Arbeloa, Javier Mascherano (all Liverpool).

This season's Champions League final will be played on May 27 at Rome's Olympic Stadium. Next season's competition will start just 34 days later on June 30. The final will take place next year the Santiago Bernabeu (above) in Madrid on May 22.

The first British club to take part in the European Cup was Hibernian in the inaugural competition in 1955-56. Hibs beat Essen 5-1 on aggregate in the first round, then saw off Djurgarden 4-1 in the quarter-final before falling to Stade Reims 3-0 in the semis. Reims were beaten by Real Madrid in the first final.

In 1986, the 31st final - between Steaua Bucharest and Barcelona - was the first one to end 0-0 after extra time. Barcelona also failed to find the net in the penalty shoot-out, losing 2-0 on spot-kicks.

There have been three finals since then which also ended goalless - PSV Eindhoven v Benfica (1988), Red Star Belgrade v Marseille (1991), and AC Milan v Juventus (2003).

Paolo Maldini scored the fastestever goal in a Champions League final - after just 52 seconds for AC Milan against Liverpool in 2005. Rafa Benitez's team famously came back to win the trophy on penalties.

Eight British teams have contested 17 of the 53 European Cup finals, winning 12 of them. Five of those (Celtic, Man Utd, Liverpool, Nottingham Forest and Aston Villa) have won it while Leeds, Arsenal and Chelsea have only been runners-up. Celtic and Liverpool are the only ones to have experienced victory and defeat in the final.

Celtic's clash with Feyenoord in 1970 was the first time in the competition's 15 years that the final was contested between two northern European teams.

We know all about the British winners... but a staggering 19 of our clubs have lost a European Cup semi-final. Here are the aggregate scores....

55-56 Hibernian 0 Reims 3 56-57 Man Utd 3 R Madrid 5 57-58 Man Utd 2 AC Milan 5 59-60 Rangers 4 E Frankfurt 12 61-62 Spurs 3 Benfica 4 62-63 Dundee 2 AC Milan 5 64-65 Liverpool 3 Inter Milan 4 65-66 Man Utd 1 P Belgrade 2 68-69 Man Utd 1 AC Milan 2 69-70 Leeds Utd 1 Celtic 3 71-72 Celtic 0 Inter Milan 0 (4-5 on pens) 72-73 Derby 1 Juventus 3 73-74 Celtic 0 At Madrid 2 83-84 Dundee Utd 3 Roma 4 96-97 Man U 0 B Dortmund 2 00-01 Leeds Utd 0 Valencia 3 01-02 Man Utd 3 Bayer Leverkusen 3 (Leverkusen on away goals) 03-04 Chelsea 3 Monaco 5 04-05 Chelsea 0 Liverpool 1 06-07 Chelsea 1 Liverpool 1 (1-4 on pens) 07-08 Liverpool 3 Chelsea 4 (aet)

CAPTION(S):

SILVER SERVICE Villa hero Nigel Spink (right) with Peter Withe and Tony Barton OFF NIGHT Frank Lampard in Bordeaux QUICK FIRE Maldini puts AC Milan ahead inside a minute LAMB TOP Paul Lambert lifts the European Cup YAWN LOSER A tense moment in the Steaua v Barca final of 1986 HE STOOPS TO CONQUER Trevor Francis heads home John Robertson's cross as Garry Birtles looks on