Former Nottingham Forest star Tony Woodcock has finally received his winners’ medal from the 1980 European Cup final 46 years on.
Woodcock had been part of the Forest side which won the tournament the previous year.
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The ex-England international started that game against Malmo before making four appearances in the competition during the following campaign.
However, the winger had departed the club by the time they made it back-to-back victories at the Santiago Bernabeu which saw them get past Hamburg.
The manner of Woodcock’s City Ground exit created tension with legendary Forest boss Brian Clough.
Their strained relationship resulted in the forward being denied a medal after Forest lifted the trophy.
He claims his agent’s calls were ignored as he tried to get his medal after the final.
Medal eventually awarded
Woodcock has now finally receive it in a ceremony during Forest’s Europa League quarter-final second leg against Porto on Thursday night.
He was presented with his medal on the pitch at the City Ground at half time, which was greeted with cheers from fans at the game.
Speaking to The Times, the 70-year-old recalled what made him seek out his medal again after all these years.
Woodcock explained: “I had given up on it in the early days because we thought nothing’s going to happen.
“But then suddenly you get older and wiser and think, good God, you had a big part to play in that and you deserve it, because of the games I played.
“So I thought I’ll get back on to it. I don’t like them saying he’s not a European Cup winner.”
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Plans had originally been drawn up by the FA for Woodcock to be presented with the medal before an England match at Wembley Stadium.
He scored 16 goals in 42 caps for the Three Lions during his playing career.
However, it was decided he should instead receive the medal in front of the Forest fans.
Why did Woodcock not get his medal?
Woodcock came through the club’s academy before breaking into the first-team, where he won a league title in 1978.
Clough accused Woodcock of asking for too much money after looking to tie him down to a new deal, though.
Their strained relationship even saw Forest initially block his move to German side Koln.
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Woodcock was ultimately allowed to leave, though, with spells at Arsenal and Fortuna Koln also following later in his career.
He will now be honoured this week at the culmination of an 18-month process.
Former teammate Martin O’Neill lent his medal to create a mould for Woodcock’s replica, which has been forged by Swiss company Awardness.
The firm were forced to make another after the medal went missing when being shipped from Eindhoven.
Woodcock will now receive his medal at long last prior to Thursday’s match.
Forest went into the game level at 1-1 from the first leg in Portugal last week but are currently 2-1 up on aggregate thanks to Morgan Gibbs-White’s deflected effort.
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