John Prescott McGovern (born 28 October 1949) is a Scottish former association football midfielder and manager. McGovern is most famous for captaining the Nottingham Forest side that won the European Cup twice under the management of Brian Clough, whom he played under at four clubs, and Peter Taylor.
At the age of 19 he became the youngest player to play in all four divisions of the Football League. During his playing career he won promotion with Hartlepools United / Hartlepool, Derby County and Nottingham Forest. He won titles as English League champions with both Derby and Forest. At Forest he also won the European Super Cup, two Football League Cups, the FA Charity Shield and the Anglo-Scottish Cup. He was Forest's club captain throughout this period of success.
A hard working central midfield team-player, McGovern passed the ball comfortably with either foot. John Robertson said, "As far as I'm concerned John McGovern is what epitomises what every good side needs." McGovern played over 650 senior first team games during his playing career spanning 19 seasons.
McGovern won two Scottish under-23 caps. He is one of only two Scots players to win UEFA's premier club trophy to never win a full international cap. He was a 2017 Scottish Football Hall of Fame inductee.
McGovern has player-managed Bolton Wanderers and joint-managed Rotherham United with Archie Gemmill, with whom he won the Football League Trophy. He has served as assistant manager for Plymouth Argyle and Hull City. He has also worked in media punditry.
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Early years
McGovern was born in Montrose, Angus, in north east Scotland. He lived in Montrose until he was seven years old before moving to Hartlepool when his family relocated when his father needed to find work. McGovern's father subsequently moving to work on the Kariba Dam meant he and McGovern would never see each other again. McGovern's father was killed in an accident on the last day of his 2 years working in Africa before he was scheduled to return home. His father died when McGovern was aged 11. The young McGovern attended Henry Smith's Grammar School, a rugby-playing school. However, during school holidays his mother sent him to stay with his grandmother in Bo'ness. It was in Bo'ness that McGovern started to play football with a band of friends he made there. Despite being captain of the school teams at rugby and cricket, football became his preferred sport. Back in Hartlepool he played for his first team when he was 15. His football heroes were both strikers, Denis Law and Jimmy Greaves, and as a boy McGovern also wanted to become a striker. Central Park FC then sent him for a trial with local senior club, Hartlepool United.
Career
Hartlepools United / Hartlepool
The young McGovern initially wanted to play as a striker for the glory that came with scoring goals but was unsuited to that role. He then played as a winger. He began his senior career in English football's fourth tier with local club Hartlepools United in 1965–66. 'Pools were under the management of Brian Clough and Peter Taylor. It was Taylor who advocated they get McGovern on the books. His senior debut was aged 16 on 21 May 1966 in a 1–1 draw v Bradford City in Pools' last home league game of the season. He became a first team regular the season after. On 3 September 1966, he signed a pro contract on apprentice terms. In the 1966–67 season the club finished on a decent 8th spot, however, the following campaign 1967/68, Hartlepool finished third earning promotion to the Third Division. His last game for Pools was on 6 September 1968 in a 2–1 defeat at Bristol Rovers. After playing six games in that 1968/69 season he moved up a division by transferring to Derby County.
Derby County
Clough and Taylor moved to Derby County in May 1967. They signed 18-year old McGovern to Derby for a fee of £7,500 in September 1968. For the 1968–69 season his mother and brother relocated with him to Derby (his sister had already moved to California). Shortly after arriving at Derby, on 2 October 1968 while in the reserves he watched the first team 3-1 replay win v Chelsea in the 1968–69 Football League Cup. On seeing Dave Mackay play, McGovern realised the level he had been playing at was a long way short of what was needed to be a footballer. He responded with dedication and hard work. His first team debut arrived in a game for which there was an opening to play on the right side of midfield. It was at Derby during the 1969–70 season that Taylor then moved McGovern to central midfield to capitalise on McGovern's playing strengths of vision and being able to pass and control the ball with both feet. He allied this by learning how to tackle. By January 1969 he had established himself in the Derby side that won promotion to the First Division at the end of his first season there. Within an 18-month period and by the age of 19 he had played in all four divisions of the Football League.
After a disappointing 1970–71 season, Liverpool contesting a 1971–72 four-way league title fight lost 1–0 in their penultimate game to McGovern's 62nd-minute goal at Derby County. Derby had now completed their fixtures with that win. On Monday 8 May 1972, Leeds' 2–1 loss at Wolverhampton Wanderers gave Liverpool their bite at the title. Needing to win the same evening if Leeds lost, Liverpool drew 0–0 at Arsenal with Shankly furious an 88th minute Toshack goal was disallowed. Derby stayed top. to win that 1971–72 First Division title. McGovern played in 40 matches in that league winning campaign scoring 3 goals. He was 22 when they lifted the title. In the following 1972–73 season, during the European Cup McGovern scored in a 3–0 home win against Benfica. Derby were eliminated in the semi-finals in controversial circumstances to Juventus.
Clough resigned on 15 October 1973 in his ongoing dispute with Derby Chairman Sam Longson leading to uproar among Derby fans. Longson appointed another crowd favourite as manager, Dave Mackay. The saga continued so MacKay decided to bring matters to a head. Mackay gave the players a piece of paper stating those who wanted to play for him should sign it. McGovern was first to sign and when challenged by other players he said "I want to play football. I'm not interested in politics." Calm was restored and Derby finished the 1973–74 season third in the league behind Liverpool and Leeds.
Leeds United
During the 1973–74 season Clough had tried to sign McGovern for Brighton and Hove Albion but McGovern found the prospect of Third Division football unpalatable. Clough replaced Don Revie as Leeds manager in August 1974 and again made an approach for McGovern. Leeds paid £125,000 for the double transfer of McGovern (now aged 24) and John O'Hare. McGovern was not selected to play when Billy Bremner and Johnny Giles were available. McGovern made four first team appearances all when Bremner was suspended after his sending off for fighting in the 1974 FA Charity Shield with Kevin Keegan. Leeds won one, drew two and lost one of McGovern's four games in August and September 1974. He otherwise played no higher than the reserves in his seven months at Elland Road. He later said of his time at Leeds:
"When I arrived at Elland Road after leaving Derby County, I found out I was unwanted by anybody at the club, and it was a very difficult time for me. And I spent about six months at Leeds not being involved in the squad, and even in those days they used to have the players names on the back of the squad tracksuits. Well I was there six months and I never got a track suit with my name on the back of it. I think that was a big hint from the club that I didn't really belong there."
Clough's reign was only 44 days but even after his departure, McGovern, O'Hare and trainer Jimmy Gordon were tarred with being part of the Clough regime. McGovern declined offers Leeds accepted for him to join Carlisle United and Norwich City. Clough did not forget any of the three men and soon returned to take all three in early 1975 to his new club, Nottingham Forest.
Nottingham Forest
Brian Clough became manager of Nottingham Forest on 6 January 1975 twelve weeks after the end of his 44-day tenure as manager of Leeds United. Clough brought Jimmy Gordon to be his club trainer as Gordon had been for him at Derby County and Leeds United. McGovern was aged 25 at the time.
Clough signed McGovern and O'Hare in February with McGovern debuting on 22 February 1975 in a 0–0 home league draw v Cardiff City. Forest were 13th in English football's second tier when Clough joined. They finished that season 16th. The season after Forest finished eighth in Clough's 1975–76 Football League first full season in charge. It was in this season McGovern became long standing club captain taking over from a game in which Bob 'Sammy' Chapman and Liam O'Kane were both injured.
Peter Taylor on 16 July 1976 rejoined Clough becoming his Assistant Manager as he had been when winning the league at Derby. Taylor included being the club's talent spotter in his role. After assessing the players Taylor told Clough "that was a feat by you to finish eighth in the Second Division because some of them are only Third Division players".
Together Clough and Taylor took Forest to new heights with McGovern the club captain throughout the success the two brought to Forest. Their first trophy at Forest was the 1976–77 Anglo-Scottish Cup. Forest beat Orient 5–1 on aggregate in the two-legged final played in December 1976. Clough valued winning a derided trophy as the club's first silverware since 1959. He said, "Those who said it was a nothing trophy were absolutely crackers. We'd won something, and it made all the difference."
On 7 May Alan Moore's own goal meant Forest in their last league game of the season beat Millwall 1–0 at the City Ground. This kept Forest in the third promotion spot in the league table and dependent on Bolton Wanderers dropping points in three games in hand in the fight for third place. On 14 May Kenny Hibbitt's goal from his rehearsed free kick routine with Willie Carr gave Wolves a 1–0 win at Bolton. McGovern later said Bolton's defeat reached the Forest team mid-air en route to an end of season break in Mallorca. Forest's third place promotion from the 1976–77 Football League Second Division was the fifth-lowest points tally of any promoted team in history, 52 (two points for a win in England until 1981).
Scotland
McGovern played twice for Scotland at under-23 level, both against Wales while at Derby County. The first was on 26 January 1972 in a 2–0 win at Pittodrie. He was substituted by Denis McQuade of Partick Thistle, who direct from a corner scored the second goal. McGovern's second and final international game was on 14 March 1973 at the Vetch Field in Swansea. He was again substituted this time by Pat McCluskey of Celtic as Scotland won 2–1.
McGovern and Ken McNaught are the only two Scottish players to win Europe's premier club trophy to never have gained a full international cap. He later said, "I would have walked up the M74 over broken glass to get one cap for Scotland. I just wish I'd have got one cap because that would have been the proudest moment of my life."
Bolton Wanderers
McGovern joined Bolton Wanderers as player-manager in July 1982. He initially made a total of 16 League appearances for Bolton before retiring as a player to focus on the demands of management. He remained there until January 1985 when he lost his job after a new chairman wanted to bring in his own manager.
Later career
He ended his playing days with non-league Horwich RMI. He was later assistant manager of Chorley and Plymouth Argyle before being appointed joint manager of Rotherham United for two years alongside Archie Gemmill in 1994. They beat Shrewsbury Town 2–1 in the 1996 Football League Trophy final. Another ex-Forest player, Nigel Jemson, scored both their goals.
McGovern was subsequently hired as manager of Woking and had a spell as assistant at Hull City before joining Ilkeston Town to replace Keith Alexander as manager in November 2000. He was sacked by the club in March of the following year after an eight-game winless run.
He has since worked as a club ambassador for Forest, as a pundit on Radio Nottingham and as an after dinner speaker.
Style of play
Brian Clough said of him, "He never stopped going, never stopped running, and he was a reasonably intelligent young man." John Robertson said of McGovern, "As far as I'm concerned John McGovern is what epitomises what every good side needs."
A profile of the young McGovern on Sporting Heroes states, "John's ability to do the simple things well, allied to his work ethic and willingness to act as a man marker saw him return a series of solid displays; often against much older and experienced opponents."
The same article closes by stating of his time at Derby, "He scored twenty goals and at his best demonstrated ball control and passing skills of the highest level, a talent that frequently allowed others to shine."
Legacy
McGovern was a 2017 inductee to the Scottish Football Hall of Fame. He said, "It is a fantastic feeling that I have to be inducted into the Scottish Hall of Fame. Although I may not sound Scottish having left there when I was seven-years-old, I am a proud Scotsman having been born and bred in Montrose and any honour that you get in football is very well received."
Career statistics
Honours
As a player
Hartlepools United
Football League Fourth Division promoted: 1967–68
Derby County
Football League First Division: 1971–72
Football League Second Division: 1968–69
Nottingham Forest
Football League First Division: 1977–78
Football League Cup: 1977–78, 1978–79
FA Charity Shield: 1978
European Cup: 1978–79, 1979–80
European Super Cup: 1979
As a manager
Rotherham United
Football League Trophy: 1995–96