Gary Lineker had a successful scoring career, but there was one Nottingham Forest icon that always gave him a difficult time.
Lineker has been in the headlines surrounding Forest this season, with Nuno Espirito Santo’s side making the pundit look silly week after week for his early prediction on the Reds.
Forest were predicted to be relegated by Lineker at the start of the season in a clip that has haunted the 64-year-old ever since, especially when Forest beat Lineker’s Leicester City.
From that moment, he has tracked back. First, Lineker called himself an idiot for predicting Forest to go down. It was then revealed that Lineker only picked Forest to avoid saying Leicester would go down, which got him off the hook, not before some justified ridiculing from Forest fans, though.
It turns out that the Reds have never been a side that Lineker has a good track record with, as he revealed that a Forest legend’s defensive performances against him certainly left an impression, leading to a plan to avoid him at the 1991 FA Cup final.
Gary Lineker had a plan not to face up against Des Walker in the FA Cup final
Looking at Espirito Santo’s squad, iconic Forest defender Des Walker picked out Murillo for praise, but the Brazilian still has a bit to go to reach the same level of fear that the ex-England international used to put into opposition attackers.
This fear was clearly apparent in Lineker, as he detailed the lengths he went to to try and ensure Walker wouldn’t mark him in the FA Cup final.
He said: “About three weeks to go before the end of the season, we played a game against Forest at White Hart Lane. […] I went out on the pitch and started playing, and Des Walker wasn’t there – he was playing, but he wasn’t marking me – he [Clough] put Steve Chettle on me.
“This is genuinely true, it is the one game in the entirety of my career where I genuinely did not try a leg – I let him get in front of me, I let him win every ball. […] Anyway, three weeks later, FA Cup final at Wembley – the two teams are in the tunnel and Des Walker looks over to me and says, it worked.
“I thought to myself, ‘hmmm.’ Does he mean what I hope he means? The game starts, and Steve Chettle is on me. […] The first half, I was absolutely flying in the game. I was turning him inside out.
“Then they scored a free-kick at the other end. Despite the fact we battered them, we went in 1-0 down at half-time. We were playing well enough, we were the better team, and Terry Venables said just keep going.
“We come out of the tunnel, and I get a little tap on the shoulder. I looked round and it was Des Walker, and he goes, ‘I’m back!’ So he marked for the rest of the game.”
Nottingham Forest legend Des Walker gave Gary Lineker nightmares
Stuart Pearce named Walker as his favourite ever Forest player, and it’s clear to see why, given how much respect the centre-back has garnered from opposition strikers under the supervision of Brian Clough.
Lineker is no exception, taking time on The Rest is Football podcast to discuss how difficult Walker was to come up against.
He said: “When I was at Tottenham, we played Nottingham Forest in the [FA Cup] final in 1991. Whenever we played Forest, Cloughie would always put Des Walker on me, man to man.”
“Des was so hard to play against. You know that song, ‘you’ll never beat Des Walker!’ and he was hard to beat when he was on you.
“We won it in extra time with an own goal from Des, which was a shame because I’d have much preferred it if I had scored the goal! But Des was a great guy and a brilliant defender.
“They [Forest fans] used to sing that annoying song all the time when you played against him, ‘You’ll never beat Des Walker!’”
Lineker was so desperate to get away from Walker for the 1991 cup final that he revealed a clever plan he set in motion a number of weeks before.
Gary Lineker once went to extreme lengths to avoid facing ‘brilliant’ Forest legend who gave him nightmares
