With the two European Cup winners preparing to meet in the Championship, we spoke to Forest and Villa fans about the glory days and where they are now

In one way Nottingham Forest v Aston Villa is just another fixture in the mammoth, 46-game long Championship season. Individual results can be brushed off in the second flight, where teams can afford to go months without playing well and still find themselves in the promotion reckoning due to the sheer number of matches played. But for some, especially supporters of a certain age, this match is always an evocative one that turns the clock back 40 years to when these two clubs ruled the continent.

You won’t find a second flight in which two former European champions come up against each. Is that damning indictment on the clubs or a testament to the strength in depth of English football? It depends on which way you look at it. Both teams find themselves a long way from previous glories, but it’s Forest, led to the summit of the European game under Brian Clough and Peter Taylor in 1979 and 1980, who have suffered the greater decline. They were relegated from the Premier League at just the wrong time, in 1999, and have missed out on the top flight’s economic boom.

Aston Villa’s relegation to the Championship in 2016 ended a spell of 29 years in the top flight. Having stuck around in the Premier League for so long – the first 24 seasons – they are in a far better position to compete in the second flight; it’s hard to see them playing at this level for much longer. But the European Cup – and football as a whole – are now unrecognisable from the two clubs’ heydays. You would be offered long odds on either of them emulating their proudest days any time soon, a reality that obvious to the people we spoke to in our film.

The memories of the late 1970s and early 1980s still burn brightly but, despite what Derby County or Birmingham City fans might tell you, we found two sets of supporters who are proud of their histories but not obsessed with them. They are looking forward even if the future might not hold the glory they experienced in the past.

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