“The player with the least likely cult hero status in our history?” proposes Grant on Twitter, in reference to birthday boy Brian Rice, who is 58 today. Quite possibly.
Bought from Hibs for £175,000 in 1985, Rice slotted into what is best described as a ‘transitional’ squad, still featuring the likes of Ian Bowyer, Garry Birtles, Robbo and Gary Mills along with the new generation of heroes including Psycho, Des, Nigel and Johnny Metgod. Transitional is all relative, of course. Transitional from Champions of Europe into a period of ‘merely’ finishing 3rd to 9th, UEFA Cup football and League Cup wins. It’d be regarded as a golden period now, by us and most other clubs. Forest finished 8th in Rice‘s first two seasons, 3rd in the next two.
He was a regular starter, but never managed more than 3 league goals in a season. 9 goals in 92 league appearances. 1 goal in 4 FA Cup matches. And it is that one that is such a huge part of the legend.
Rice made John McGovern look like Franz Carr, which is to say he was a plodder. He looked frail and far from athletic. Yet he was well-loved. Brian fanzine featured regular articles from the Brian Rice Appreciation Society and he was feted in our version of the Yellow Submarine, “Number one was…. Number 11 was… All the subs were…“ song, originally, I think an Arsenal thing for Perry Groves (?).
(Image credit Alan March, on Twitter)
That goal came away to Arsenal in the 6th round of the 87-88 FA Cup. We’d won 4-0 away at Halifax in the 3rd round, unconvincingly 2-1 at Leyton Orient in the 4th. Next up came an away trip to St Andrew’s a 1-0 win there on an afternoon more memorable to many for the horrific level of violence than the match itself. This one was a proper battle-zone with bricks, bottles, concrete blocks, and all-out war on the big stretch of wasteland behind the away end. Another afternoon on which my Dad’s penchant for hi-viz fluoro rally-jackets really didn’t help with going undercover on the hike back to New Street. See also previous West Ham/Cass Pennant/Cockney Rejects post for more on this fashion icon if you missed it!
And so to Highbury. I seem to remember a distinct lack of confidence about this one. Arsenal had finished 4th the year before and won the League Cup. They were decent and had won at the City Ground in September, 1-0 with an Alan Smith winter in front of just over 18,000. If I remember rightly, that was a very early live telly match, but I could be wrong. Different times, certainly - Wimbledon, Charlton, Cov, Luton, Portsmouth and Oxford all graced the top flight, while Citeh managed 9th in Division 2.
Forest won 2-0 at Highbury on Boxing Day and were en route to a 3rd place finish. Looking back, I’m not sure why I was so pessimistic about the cup match, other than perhaps it’s my default setting.
51,157 packed into Highbury, including a whopping 12,000 visitors, occupying half the Clock End and the entirety of the lower West Stand. The players looked well up for it, even Ricey looking highly pumped up and getting into Nigel Winterburn’s face. Psycho stung Lukic’s hands from a thunderous free kick and it was all looking good. Better to come as Nigel laid off a pass into the path of the oncoming Paul Wilkinson,who let leash a ferocious drive in off the left hand post in front of the North Bank.
Into the 2nd half at 1-0 up and a hesitant clean-through Gary Crosby was denied with a desperate last-gasp Winternburn sliding tackle and Wilko slid the loose ball a gnat‘s chuff wide of the post.
Then the Brian Rice moment. The longest ‘moment’ in history. it took forever. Nigel slid a Nigel-esque ball through from the right, springing the offside trap. Rice was onto it just into the centre circle. His first touch was a shocker, taking it almost to the ‘D’. Cue the slowest player ever in ‘hot’ pursuit. Surely he couldn’t make it. He did. There he got it back under control. A few touches. Go on Brian, hit it. Time passed, ice caps melted, Brian dinked it. Lukic got a hand to it. The ball bounced, bobbled goalwards. Time now went backwards whilst simultaneously we all aged about five years. Rice wheeled away as the ball dribbled into the back of the net. Carnage on the terraces and in the West Stand, Zagger’s right knee was smacked against the old iron seat in front, leaving a scar which remains to this day. My favourite scar. Everyone should have one! If you’ve not, you can enjoy mine below. The top right blob, not the bottom left - that’s a cycling battle-scar.
Arsenal threw everything at Forest and, almost inevitably, David Rocastle slotted one away at the end of a right scramble. Still Forest held on against relentless pressure. When the final whistle came, Cloughie slipped quietly away whilst we began celebrations that went long into the night. Our party ended up in a club in Soho (no, not that sort of club in Soho) and all I really recall is that I got the first tube back ’home’ to Balham where I was living at the time and wasn’t particularly well the next day, when I put in a ‘less than stellar‘ performance, including a brief vomit-break, for the mighty AFC Park against fierce rivals AC Martini (yep, all Italian waiters) in the Ealing Sunday League dIvision 3.
Brief highlights here - the match, not the night in Soho. Forest/Arsenal not AFC Park/AC Martini: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYjjcsG7TJE
Forest went on to lose in the first of the Hillsborough semis to Liverpool, who in turn went on to lose the final to Wimbledon - Crazy Gang beating the Culture Club all that. I’m sure Wimbledon would only have done the same to us anyway - they always did.
Brian Rice played 30 games that season, in a team that finished 3rd, lost the semi-final to Liverpool and played some fantastic football. Whatever the irony in his cult status, he clearly must’ve been able to play. The next season saw 20 more appearances, 18 the year after that. In 1991, after a loan period at Stoke, he returned to Scotland and played out much of the rest of his career at Falkirk.
In 2019, Brian Rice was appointed head coach of Hamilton Academical, but this post terminated in August 2021. In 2020, he opened up about serious gambling problems and was given a ten match touchline ban for betting on football matches. Hopefully, life will be kind to Brian Rice over the coming years - he deserves that for the pleasure and fun he gave us. Happy birthday, Brian!
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