Double European cup winner John McGovern talks to the Mail's Robbie Stelling at a tribute night.
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00:00 Now, John, back to really where it all began. A special night, tell me how it feels to be back, a lot of memories I guess.
00:09 Well obviously, I was 16 years of age when I first started playing for Hartlepool and then to go and win promotion for the first time in the club's history was a massive boost to start me on the right way on a career.
00:22 I was in the fourth division but then going into the third division, so I was making progress. I was a late starter, didn't play football at all until I was 11 years of age and then after that, just enjoyed it so much that I gave it the dedication that was required to make a success of it.
00:40 And that's the amazing thing, you really were a late starter and obviously throughout your career you started out playing on the right and then you moved inside, so you had a lot of changes as you progressed through your career.
00:52 Yeah, I think I was played at outside right at Hartlepool as a young player so I wouldn't come across the strong physical challenges that were apparent in the game.
01:01 But then eventually when I moved to Derby County, it was the suggestion of Peter Taylor that I move from a wide position to play central midfield.
01:08 I'm a little bit bigger then, a little bit stronger so I could cope with the challenges that came because obviously there's a midfield battle to be won by whatever side thinks they're going to win the game.
01:19 If you win the midfield battle, you've got a good chance of doing that.
01:22 And the great Brian Coffin and Peter Taylor as well, we've had some great stories tonight, what was it like to work with those two?
01:29 Obviously they were inspirational at times, the reason that they brought success to clubs is they were brilliant in different aspects of the game of football.
01:37 You have some great orator, he can talk behind the leg of the donkey, he can prove to you that if you do this it's going to help your teammates and we're going to have some success.
01:47 And Peter Taylor's the recruitment officer, they'd call him that in the modern game, but at the time he just went out and brought in all the players that the team needed.
01:58 And obviously you went on to have some incredible success at Derby and Forest and you've managed to win things wherever you were, of course European Cups and League titles.
02:10 But of course at Pools as well, promotion to the third division and that was the first time, like you said, that a heart in a pool, or a heart in a pool as it was then, had achieved promotion.
02:18 When you make progress and you are successful, you always think about where did it first start?
02:27 Sneaking through a hole in the fence at the ring, getting the articles ground together to see a match!
02:32 Yeah, absolutely.
02:33 Then you take that forward to winning European Cups, there's a lot of ground in between.
02:38 But because I dedicated myself to the sport, inside the drinking culture that was around at the time, but if everyone's drinking, nobody notices the difference.
02:50 So you dedicate yourself and hopefully you can get with a group of players that are similar minded, you've got a manager who's similar minded.
02:59 If the concentration's there and there is that bit of quality there, then you are going to be successful.
03:04 And just finally, you're still obviously very much involved in the game and an ambassadorial role with Nottingham Forest.
03:11 Tell me about that and tell me, are you sweating over relegation this year? Do you think they're going to be okay?
03:16 Well, the situation at Nottingham Forest, obviously we've been deducted points.
03:21 But I just wish whoever was in charge hadn't committed the offence and then we wouldn't be deducted any points.
03:28 We're down at the bottom of the league, it's going to be a struggle. But you have to again maintain that belief that you're going to get out of it.
03:35 We've got the players that are capable of doing it.
03:38 And then sometimes you maybe get a rub of the green in team matches, in individual matches if you're good enough you win.
03:45 In team matches occasionally you need a rub of the green and maybe Forest might just need a little rub of the green.
03:50 But there's enough games left and enough points to play for and you have to retain that belief that we're going to do it.
03:56 Fantastic. John, thank you so much for your time.
03:57 - Okay. - Appreciate it.
03:58 - Pleasure. - Thank you very much.