1979 League Cup Final

The match programme cover
Event	1978–79 Football League Cup
Nottingham Forest Southampton 3 2
Date	17 March 1979
Venue	Wembley Stadium, London
Referee	Peter Reeves (Leicester)
Attendance	96,952
← 1978 1980 →

The 1979 Football League Cup Final took place on 17 March 1979 at Wembley Stadium. It was the nineteenth Football League Cup final and the thirteenth to be played at Wembley. It was contested between Nottingham Forest and Southampton. Forest were the hot favourites to win being the holders of the League Cup and the reigning First Division champions. The match finished 3–2 to Forest. Forest's goals came from Garry Birtles (2) and Tony Woodcock. Southampton's goals came from David Peach and Nick Holmes.^[1]

Match details

Nottingham Forest

Southampton

Nottingham Forest Red shirts/White shorts/Red socks	3–2 (final score after 90 minutes)	Southampton Yellow shirts/Blue shorts/Yellow socks
Manager: Brian Clough Team: 1 Peter Shilton (GK) 2 Colin Barrett 3 Frank Clark 4 John McGovern (c) 5 Larry Lloyd 6 David Needham 7 Martin O'Neill 8 Archie Gemmill 9 Garry Birtles 10 Tony Woodcock 11 John Robertson Substitute: 12 Ian Bowyer Scorers: Birtles 51', 79' Woodcock 83'	Half-time: 0–1 Competition: Football League Cup (Final) Date: 15.00 GMT Saturday 17 March 1979 Venue: Wembley Stadium, London Attendance: 96,952 Referee: Peter Reeves Match rules: 90 minutes. 30 minutes extra-time if necessary. Match replayed if scores still level. One named substitute.	Manager: Lawrie McMenemy Team: 1 Terry Gennoe (GK) 2 Ivan Golac 3 David Peach 4 Steve Williams 5 Chris Nicholl 6 Malcolm Waldron 7 Alan Ball (c) 8 Phil Boyer 9 Austin Hayes  83' 10 Nick Holmes 11 Terry Curran Substitute: 12 Tony Sealy  83' Scorers: Peach 16' Holmes 88'

Source for team line-ups:^[2]

Road to Wembley

Nottingham Forest

Forest began their defence of the competition with a replayed victory over Oldham Athletic, before a 5–0 win at Oxford United. That set up a clash with fellow First Division side Everton, and Forest won 3–2 at Goodison Park. A quarter-final win over Brighton & Hove Albion set up the semi-final with Third Division side Watford. Forest won the 1st leg at home 3–1, and the 2nd leg was scoreless, and thus Forest qualified for their second successive final.^[3]

Southampton

Southampton began their run with wins over First Division Birmingham City and Derby County. In the fourth round they needed a replay to beat Fourth Division side Reading; Southampton then defeated Manchester City 2–1 in the quarter-final. In the first leg of their semi-final with Leeds United they drew 2–2 away, before a 1–0 second leg victory.^[3]