European Cup-winning legends John McGovern and Peter Withe believe Nottingham Forest and Aston Villa

WHENEVER Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest meet, they turn the clock back to a golden era for English club football.

But today’s clash at Villa Park is the first time two former European Cup winners have met in the second tier of the game.

That includes anywhere in Europe, making it THE most prestigious match in Championship history in terms of their trophy cabinets.

Villa even have a former Champions League-winning manager in ex-Chelsea boss Roberto Di Matteo.

But that aside, their current situation is a world away from the glory years when British sides ruled Europe.

Forest recorded two famous European Cup wins in 1979 and 1980 under legendary manager Brian Clough.

A Trevor Francis goal saw them defeat Malmo 1-0 in Munich and, a year later, John Robertson bagged the only goal of the game as Hamburg were swatted aside at the Bernabeu.

In 1982 it was Villa’s turn to be crowned Euro champs when Peter Withe’s finish KO’d  Bayern Munich 1-0.

It meant that — with Liverpool winning four times — English teams lifted seven European Cups in eight years.

How times have changed for the Midlands rivals.

Forest slumped into League One in 2005 after losing their Premier League status six years earlier.

Villa had not been relegated from the top flight since 1987 but lost their place last term after years of mismanagement.

So how did it come to this after the glory days  of almost four decades ago?

To find out, SunSport spoke to Villa hero Withe and Forest’s European Cup-winning captain McGovern.

Withe, an ex-Forest player, said: “The decline at Forest set in much sooner than it did at Villa.

“It just goes to show you’re never too big to go down if you don’t keep your eye on the ball.

It happened to Forest but in reality they are more of a provincial club compared to Villa, who were founder members of the Football League and have more history.

Villa have probably been heading for this for five years  but now they have a new owner and a new manager so, hopefully, they should be capable of getting back.”

McGovern recalled: “It was a golden era for club football.

“English teams won the European Cup seven out of eight years, so think how much better we were than the rest of Europe at that time. They were jealous of us.

“Until English teams dominate like we did in the late 70s and early 80s, then I still say those teams were better than those we have now. My view is the players were physically stronger then.

“They were different times, we didn’t have any foreign players — us or Villa.

“And our squad was about 15 or 16 players compared to 25 now. We played 70 games a season for three years but never seemed to get tired!”

As for their current plight, McGovern says both sides can turn their fortunes around.

RELATED STORIES

But while Villa’s takeover by Chinese businessman Dr Tony Xia was done in the summer, Forest are waiting to complete a controversial takeover by Evangelos Marinakis, the owner of Olympiakos who Uefa is probing over match-fixing allegations.

McGovern added: “Villa have only been down a few months but we’ve been out of the top flight for a few years now because it’s not that easy to simply go back up.

“But both clubs have shown they have the ambition to get back up.

Villa have spent money and we’ve brought in Nicklas Bendtner who we hope will show the desire to be the player we know he can be.

“We each have a proud history — and the pride of lifting the European Cup means you’re representing your team and your country as well.”

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTErKynZpOke7a3jqynqKqkZLOwu9ObmKWkX2aEd36Xbm1onaWnvLGxwKdknK2gYsSqus2ipaBlnJq0prrDrGSjp5ijeq6vxqitnqqeYq6vsIypnK2domLEqsDHnmSbnZyesrexjKemrayZo7SprcxmnaiqlajBbq3NnWSaq6Sku27CyKWjmmWTlrturtGipaBlkpawrHnToZxmn5ykv7p5w5qwrGc%3D