10th March 1974 was an amazing date as Nottingham Forest launched an appeal against their dramatic FA Cup Quarter Final defeat by Newcastle United.
Forest were leading the match 2-1 when they were awarded a penalty. Newcastle’s Pat Howard is sent off for his verhement protests. Forest’s George Lyall scores to put the away side 3-1 in front. This leads to a pitch invasion and the referee Gordon Kew taking the players from the field. Play resumes after a ten minute delay and Newcastle fight back to win 4-3 with three late goals.
The draw for the next round is made and Newcastle draw Burnley. The protest is successful and the FA order a replay to be played at Goodison Park, a neutral ground. The match and extra time fail to produce any goals and a replay is needed.
The FA order the replay to take place at Goodison Park again and not at The City Ground. Newcastle win the match 1-0 to go into the Semi Finals. As a result of the pitch invasion Newcastle are banned from staging home FA Cup ties for a year.