Nottingham Forest League Cup history is the part of the trophy cabinet that tends to get talked about last, and that is only because of what sits next to it. Two European Cups will do that to a club. But four League Cups is a haul that most sides in England have never come close to, and all four were won inside 13 seasons by a club that had spent the previous half-century as a provincial afterthought. Here is how the Reds won it, and lost it, at Wembley.
Nottingham Forest League Cup wins: the full record
- Winners: 1977-78, 1978-79, 1988-89, 1989-90 — four in total
- Runners-up: 1979-80, 1991-92
- Manager for all four wins: Brian Clough
Four wins from six finals is a return bettered by only a small group of English clubs, and it means Forest have won the League Cup more times than they have won the league title. The full list of what the Reds have lifted, in every competition, is set out in our guide to every major trophy Nottingham Forest have won.
1978: the teenager in goal and Robertson’s penalty
The first one arrived in the middle of the most improbable season in the club’s history. Forest were on their way to the First Division title as a promoted side, and they reached the League Cup final to face Liverpool, the reigning European champions.
Peter Shilton was ineligible for the final, so Clough handed the shirt to 18-year-old Chris Woods, who kept a clean sheet at Wembley in a 0-0 draw and then did it again in the replay at Old Trafford. The only goal there came from the penalty spot, struck by John Robertson — the left-sided genius whose influence on that side is impossible to overstate, as covered in our full account of the Brian Clough era. A first major trophy of the modern era, won against the best team in Europe with a teenager between the posts.
1979: three goals in a spell against Southampton
The defence of it was harder work, and better theatre. Forest trailed Southampton at Wembley and looked flat. Then Garry Birtles and Tony Woodcock turned the thing over in a devastating spell, Birtles scoring twice and Woodcock adding the third. Southampton came back to make it 3-2, but Forest held on.
It was one part of a spring that ended in Munich with the European Cup, and it made Forest back-to-back League Cup winners. The rest of that story — two continental titles in two years — is told in our piece on how Forest won the European Cup twice.
1980: the one that got away
A third consecutive final, and the first defeat. Wolverhampton Wanderers won it 1-0, Andy Gray scoring after a hesitation between Shilton and David Needham left the ball loose. Forest have never lost a League Cup final by more than a single goal, which is small comfort for a squad that had just spent three years beating everybody.
1989: Nigel Clough’s two penalties
Nine years later, with a rebuilt and far younger team, Clough won it again. Luton Town led at Wembley through Mick Harford before Nigel Clough scored twice from the penalty spot and Neil Webb finished it off for a 3-1 win.
That side — Stuart Pearce, Des Walker, Steve Hodge, Nigel Clough — is the reason plenty of supporters of a certain age argue about the balance of our all-time Forest XI. It also began the club’s second era of cup football, one built more on flair in the final third than on the relentless control of the late 1970s.
1990: Jemson settles it
Back-to-back again. Oldham Athletic, who had beaten most of the country on their plastic pitch that season, were the opponents, and the final was settled 1-0 by Nigel Jemson. It remains the last major trophy Nottingham Forest have won, and it means Clough achieved something at the City Ground that almost nobody manages: he retained the League Cup twice, a decade apart, with two entirely different teams.
The 1992 final, a 1-0 defeat by Manchester United decided by a Brian McClair goal, was the last time Forest appeared at that stage of the competition.
Where the Reds stand now
The competition, now the Carabao Cup and still run by the EFL, has not been kind to Forest lately. The 2026/27 run lasted one match: a 0-2 home defeat by Leeds United on 25 August, three days after the same opponents had won a Premier League fixture at the City Ground, put the Reds out at the second-round stage.
That leaves Oliver Glasner, appointed in July 2026, with the league and the FA Cup as his routes to a first trophy since Jemson’s goal. It is a long wait, and it explains why Forest supporters treat the Carabao Cup with rather more respect than the fans of clubs who have won things more recently. The four the Reds already have were the foundation of everything that followed — and, in 1978, the first silverware the club had won in decades.
Records, honours and the ground itself are all covered in our City Ground guide. For the club’s official honours list, see Nottingham Forest’s official website.
