sport news Trevor Francis opens up on pain of losing his wife, his relationship with Brian ...

‘When I sit in my garden and close my eyes, I still see that goal in Munich. One-nil, pass me the European Cup. Thank you very much.’ - Brian Clough

The man who made his manager’s dreams come true that night in Bavaria sits quietly at a table in Leicester. Almost 40 years have passed since Trevor Francis, lean as a pipe cleaner and elusive as smoke, stretched at the far post to meet a cross from John Robertson and headed Nottingham Forest into football folklore.

He remembers how hard he had to run to meet that ball. He remembers how it felt to fall and bounce up off the rubber surface of the Olympic Stadium shot-put circle which was just off the pitch, beside the goal. He remembers the pressure he had felt as England’s first million-pound footballer; remembers the elation and relief as his goal gave Forest a 1-0 win over Malmo.

England's first million pound footballer Trevor Francis sits down to speak to Sportsmail

England's first million pound footballer Trevor Francis sits down to speak to Sportsmail

‘It was a magical moment,’ says Francis. ‘I used to write a column for the Roy of the Rovers comic and this was my own Roy of the Rovers moment. A European debut in a cup final and scoring the winning goal. Nobody had ever done that, had they? Maybe Roy Race did it, I don’t know.’

Francis is 64 now and carries a head full of football memories after more than 30 years in the game. He is also still carrying the ache of the two hardest years of his life. His wife Helen was lost to cancer in April 2017 and, by his own admission, Francis has not fully come to terms with it.

‘I have been knocked about a bit by it,’ Francis tells Sportsmail. ‘When you get in the first team as a footballer you don’t think football will ever stop. In the same way, I didn’t think Helen and I would ever stop. She was my best friend and I couldn’t have done any of what I did without her. We were married 43 years. You know, every day is difficult. I do get quite lonely. But I am trying to adapt. I have to.’

The day Trevor Francis joined Nottingham Forest for £1m from Birmingham in February 1979, he arrived at the City Ground in a Jaguar. His wife wore a fur coat.

Author Duncan Hamilton has described it as the day English football broke the sound barrier. Brian Clough, the Forest manager, arrived in shorts and carried a squash racket. He told everyone the fee — twice the previous British record — was a pound under the £1m mark. ‘That wasn’t true,’ smiles Francis. ‘It was £1,150,000. Cloughie was trying to take the pressure off me.’

Francis heads in the winning goal for Nottingham Forest in the 1979 European Cup final

Francis heads in the winning goal for Nottingham Forest in the 1979 European Cup final

Francis arrived at Forest as an England international with a history of fast beginnings. He joined Birmingham at 16 hoping to make the youth team and went straight into the first XI. A scorer on his first Birmingham start, he soon hit four against Bolton, prompting manager Nat Lofthouse to compare him to Jimmy Greaves.

Dubbed ‘Superboy’, the BBC’s Sports Report programme once began a broadcast with the pithy observation: ‘Trevor Francis did not score today’ yet the superstar who arrived at Forest eight years later was actually rather nervous.

‘It was no different to when I first got in the England squad,’ he says. ‘You try to look the part and I did when I arrived to sign. It was a huge occasion. I maybe didn’t realise quite how big it was.

‘The other lads were obviously looking at me. Is he a big time Charlie? What’s he like? But they didn’t have to worry. Cloughie had already knocked Kenny Burns into shape. If he could do that then he wasn’t gonna have any problems with me. All I worried about was how I was going to get into that team.’

Francis speaking to Ian Ladyman ahead of the launch of his new book on Monday

Francis speaking to Ian Ladyman ahead of the launch of his new book on Monday

The story of Francis’s first run-out in a Forest strip is known. With Forest’s first-team game postponed, Francis played that Saturday morning for the ‘A’ team on a parks pitch by the River Trent. His manager was only one of 20 spectators. Plus dogs.

‘You can’t keep anything quiet these days but back then you could,’ smiles Francis. ‘I just don’t think anybody knew. I don’t remember much other than it was cold and Brian told me off for not wearing shin pads.’

When Forest reached the European Cup final, Clough got his squad half-cut on white wine the night before the game and left out Martin O’Neill to squeeze his record signing into his team.

O’Neill reminds him of this every time they meet but for once is unable to have the final word. Francis, after all, won the game but concedes the real beauty was in Robertson’s run and cross.

‘Robbo was the best player in Europe but was probably never recognised as such because he was Scottish and not English,’ says Francis. ‘But we knew his worth. He would be just as good in the modern game today.

‘The boss favoured him but we accepted it because we knew Robbo was going to get us to where we all wanted to go.

‘Clough would just tell us to give the ball to Robbo. Stan Bowles was like: “Enough about Robbo. Give me the f****** ball”. Stan didn’t last long at Forest.’

For a while, Clough had a photograph of the Francis goal on his desk. For all that the great man achieved at the club — including two European Cups and the League title — that moment stands out.

Francis (second from left) celebrates with (L-R) Viv Anderson, Frank Clark and Garry Birtles

Francis (second from left) celebrates with (L-R) Viv Anderson, Frank Clark and Garry Birtles

For his part, the goalscorer claims he only really got to know Clough in the times they worked together in television once his playing career was over. ‘We could sit over a coffee and he was warm, caring and engaging,’ he says.

Not that Francis ever asked him about the strange way his short Forest career ended.

Injured before Forest’s appearance in the following season’s European Cup final against Hamburg, Francis was not even asked-after

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