WHEN Nick Holmes recalls his playing days, two games against Nottingham Forest remain vivid.

Most Saints fans will remember his brilliant strike in the 1979 League Cup final.

But the Salisbury City boss also has clear memories of scoring at the City Ground on a foggy night two years earlier.

In February 1977, midway through Brian Clough's second full season in charge, Saints travelled to Forest for a league match in the old second division.

Both sides harboured promotion ambitions and Holmes gave Saints a first-minute lead - before the fog descended.

The match was abandoned at the beginning of the second half and after winning the rescheduled game 2-1, Forest were promoted after clinching third place by a solitary point.

The rest is history.Within three years, Clough led Forest to the Championship and two European Cups.

Holmes would never suggest the fog by the River Trent changed the course of history that night.

But he could not help but reminisce about scoring against Clough's Forest in the build up to Salisbury's BBC-televised FA Cup second-round tie against the League One leaders on Sunday (1.10pm).

For pictures of that abandoned game at the City Ground and Nick Holmes's memories of playing against Brian Clough's Nottingham Forest in the late 1970s, read today's Southern Daily Echo.