John Neilson Robertson (born 20 January 1953) is a Scottish former professional footballer. He provided the assisting cross for Trevor Francis to score the only goal when

Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest Football Club is a professional association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English football. Founde ...

won the 1979 European Cup Final. A year later he scored when Forest retained the trophy 1-0 this time against

Hamburger SV Hamburger Sport-Verein e.V. (), commonly known as Hamburger SV () or Hamburg (), or HSV (), is a German sports club based in Hamburg, with its largest branch being its Association football, football department. Though the current HSV was founde ...

. At Forest he also won promotion from the 1976–77 Football League Second Division, the 1977–78 Football League First Division, the

UEFA Super Cup The UEFA Super Cup is an annual super cup Association football, football match organised by UEFA and contested by the winners of the two main European club competitions: the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League. The competition's offic ...

, two Football League Cups, the 1978 FA Charity Shield and the Anglo-Scottish Cup. He also played for the full

Scotland national football team The Scotland national football team represents Scotland in men's international Association football, football and is controlled by the Scottish Football Association. They compete in three major professional tournaments: the FIFA World Cup, UEFA ...

, scoring the winning goal against

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in 1981 and against

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in the 1982 FIFA World Cup. He has since moved into coaching, acting as assistant to his former

teammate

Martin O'Neill Martin Hugh Michael O'Neill, (born 1 March 1952) is a Northern Irish professional Manager (association football), football manager and former Association football, player who played as a midfielder. After a brief early career in the Irish Leag ...

. Robertson's last role was assistant manager at Aston Villa between 2006 and 2010.

Playing career

Nottingham Forest (first spell)

Robertson had played for Scotland at Schoolboy and Youth levels and for Drumchapel Amateurs before joining Forest in May 1970, making his debut for the team in October 1970. Although he was an infrequent member of the first team as a midfielder up to 1975, and was on the transfer list when Clough became manager, Robertson became a key player as a left winger under Clough and appeared in 243 consecutive games between December 1976 and December 1980. He scored the winning goal, a penalty, for Forest in the 1978 Football League Cup Final replay against Liverpool. He also scored the winner in the 1980 European Cup Final against

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and provided the cross for the winning goal in the 1979 European Cup Final, scored by Trevor Francis, against

Malmö FF Malmö Fotbollförening (), commonly known simply as Malmö FF or MFF, is a Swedish professional football club based in Malmö, Scania. They compete in the Allsvenskan, the top division of Swedish football, and play home matches at the Eleda S ...

. Brian Clough, Robertson's manager at Nottingham Forest, was quoted as saying "John Robertson was a very unattractive young man. If one day, I felt a bit off colour, I would sit next to him. I was bloody

Errol Flynn Errol Leslie Thomson Flynn (20 June 1909 – 14 October 1959) was an Australian and American actor who achieved worldwide fame during the Golden Age of Hollywood. He was known for his romantic swashbuckler roles, frequent partnerships with Oliv ...

in comparison. But give him a ball and a yard of grass, and he was an artist, the Picasso of our game." In his autobiography Clough noted that "Rarely could there have been a more unlikely looking professional athlete... e was ascruffy, unfit, uninterested waste of time...but something told me he was worth persevering with." but that " ebecame one of the finest deliverers of a football I have ever seen – in Britain or anywhere else in the world – as fine as the Brazilians or the supremely gifted Italians." Robertson's captain at Forest, John McGovern, later said that "John Robertson was like Ryan Giggs but with two good feet, not one. He had more ability than Ryan Giggs, his ratio of creating goals was better and overall he was the superior footballer", whilst Forest coach Jimmy Gordon rated Robertson as a better player than Tom Finney and Stanley Matthews, saying that he "had something extra on top".

Later playing career

Robertson was sold to Derby County in June 1983 on a contested transfer (the fee was set by a tribunal) that soured the relationship between Clough and his former assistant Peter Taylor, but was injured soon after joining the team and failed to reproduce the form he had shown when he played for Forest. Although he rejoined Forest on a free transfer in August 1985, he remained well below his former best and moved to non-league Corby Town at the end of the 1985/86 season. He also had stints with Stamford and Grantham Town.

Coaching career

After retiring from playing, Robertson has been variously chief scout and assistant manager to former Nottingham Forest teammate Martin O'Neill at Wycombe Wanderers, Norwich City, Leicester City, Celtic and Aston Villa.

Legacy

Robertson was voted into first place in a 2015 poll by the ''Nottingham Post'' of favourite all-time Nottingham Forest players.

Personal life

Robertson's daughter, Jessica, was born in 1983 with

cerebral palsy Cerebral palsy (CP) is a group of movement disorders that appear in early childhood. Signs and symptoms vary among people and over time, but include poor coordination, spasticity, stiff muscles, Paresis, weak muscles, and tremors. There may b ...

, which left her

quadriplegic Tetraplegia, also known as quadriplegia, is defined as the dysfunction or loss of Motor control, motor and/or Sense, sensory function in the Cervical vertebrae, cervical area of the spinal cord. A loss of motor function can present as either weak ...

and unable to speak or control her movements. She had a short life expectancy. In 1994, Robertson and his former wife Sally challenged the hospital where Jessica was born for damages, claiming that they had caused her brain damage by a 12-hour delay to carry out a

Caesarean section Caesarean section, also known as C-section, cesarean, or caesarean delivery, is the Surgery, surgical procedure by which one or more babies are Childbirth, delivered through an incision in the mother's abdomen. It is often performed because va ...

. However, they lost their High Court case. Robertson's other daughter Liz appeared on the first ever episode of BBC's quiz show '' TNL: Who Dares Wins'' in 2007. Robertson released his autobiography ''Supertramp'' in September 2012. He supported Rangers as a boy, but describes his time at Celtic as assistant to

as the best years of his life in football. Robertson suffered a suspected heart attack while playing tennis with former Forest teammate Liam O'Kane on 23 August 2013. Fans of Celtic, Derby County, Leicester City and Nottingham Forest took to social network sites to wish him well.

Career statistics

Club

:A. The "Other" column constitutes appearances and goals in the FA Charity Shield, Anglo-Scottish Cup,

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, European Super Cup and Intercontinental Cup.

International

International goals

:''Scores and results list Scotland's goal tally first''

Honours

Nottingham Forest * First Division: 1977–78 * League Cup: 1977–78, 1978–79 * FA Charity Shield:

1978 Events January * January 1 – Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747 passenger jet, crashes off the coast of Bombay, killing 213. * January 5 – Bülent Ecevit, of Republican People's Party, CHP, forms the new government of Turkey (42nd ...

* European Cup: 1978–79, 1979–80 * European Super Cup:

1979 Events January * January 1 ** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the ''International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the ''Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the song ...

* Anglo-Scottish Cup: 1976–77 Individual * PFA First Division Team of the Year: 1977–78

References

External links

*
John Robertson international stats
LondonHearts.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Robertson, John 1953 births Living people Scottish men's footballers Scotland men's international footballers Derby County F.C. players Nottingham Forest F.C. players Stamford A.F.C. players Grantham Town F.C. managers Aston Villa F.C. non-playing staff Celtic F.C. non-playing staff Leicester City F.C. non-playing staff Norwich City F.C. non-playing staff Wycombe Wanderers F.C. non-playing staff 1978 FIFA World Cup players 1982 FIFA World Cup players English Football League players People from Uddingston Scottish Football Hall of Fame inductees English Football Hall of Fame inductees Drumchapel Amateur F.C. players Men's association football wingers Footballers from North Lanarkshire Scottish football managers UEFA Champions League–winning players