Pitch Black by Emy Onuora Read Free Book Online Page B

of the West Indian response as blacks took their revenge on ‘local teddy boys’ and, over a period of several hours, fierce battles were fought in which there were several beatings and stabbings. The police finally gained some controland, over the following week, word of a massive once-and-for-all showdown between blacks and whites culminated in some 4,000 angry and up-for-it white people gathering in St Ann’s to put the blacks in their place and show them decisively who was in charge. Unfortunately for the racists, in all the excitement no one had bothered to invite the blacks to the battle and, fuelled by adrenalin and spoiling for a fight, the crowd turned on each other; dozens were arrested.
    Vivian Alexander Anderson was two years old during that long, tense Nottingham summer. He would go on to make history. Like most boys, black or white, Viv Anderson wanted to be a footballer. Eschewing support for Forest or Notts County, he was seduced by Best, Law and Charlton into supporting Manchester United. He’d attended the biggest secondary school in Nottingham and they dominated football in and around the Nottingham area. Included in his school side were Peter Wells, a future Forest and Southampton goalkeeper, and Glyn Saunders, who would later also play for Forest.
    Nottingham has produced its fair share of black footballers. As well as Viv Anderson, pioneering football manager Keith Alexander was born in the city. Record-breaking goal scorer Andy Cole hails from Nottingham, as well as Calvin Plummer, Michael Johnson, Chris Fairclough, Ian Benjamin, Tristan Benjamin, Jermaine Jenas, Jermaine Pennant, Leon Best, Wes Morgan, Tom Huddlestone, Martin Carruthers, Julian Bennett and Devon White, all of whom began their footballing journeys in the streets and parks around Nottingham.
    In the 1960s, the city went through a process of slum clearances. The West Indian community were dispersed to council estates in and around the city itself. With fewalternatives, many boys and young men gravitated towards football, and a network of teams and clubs sprang up around the Nottingham area. It became something of a rite of passage for black boys to join clubs and teams in the area, and the early success of Anderson and others like Tristan Benjamin and his brother Ian provided the role models for the tight-knit community. Anderson’s father was well known in the city as a swimming instructor and was a popular figure both in the local area and within the black community. Jermaine Jenas’s father was a well-known footballer and coach who helped nurture the career of his son and others, working as a coach at Nottingham Forest.
    At fourteen, Anderson was signed on schoolboy forms by Manchester United. On a separate pitch, yards from where he trained, he would see Best, Law and Charlton, as well as the rest of the first team, being put through their paces. He spent a year at United before being released. Devastated, he returned to Nottingham to play local football and found work as an apprentice silk-screen printer. The job lasted some five weeks before he was offered a chance to sign for Forest as an apprentice. At the time, he was the only black player or indeed employee at the club. However, his school friends Saunders and Wells, who also lived on the same council estate as Anderson, helped him settle in.
    While still an apprentice, he made his first-team debut in a pre-season friendly in August 1974 and made further sporadic appearances as the season progressed. Results that season were poor. The Forest side was a mediocre outfit, languishing in the lower reaches of the Second Division and embroiled in a relegation battle. In January 1975, manager Allan Brown was sacked, to be replaced the following month by Brian Clough. As the saying goes, the rest is history.
    As a young player, the worst racist abuse Anderson received was at Newcastle, which he remembered vividly because it was the first time he’d been subjected to such hatred.