John Robertson (footballer, born 1953)

**John Neilson Robertson** (20 January 1953 – 25 December 2025) was a Scottish professional footballer. He played as a left winger for Nottingham Forest and Derby County. With Nottingham Forest, he notably assisted Trevor Francis's goal in the 1979 European Cup final against Malmö FF, and scored in the 1980 European Cup final against Hamburger SV. His transfer to Derby County in June 1983 was consider controversal, and helped worsen relations between Brian Clough and his former assistant Peter Taylor. He was also capped 28 times for Scotland, scoring eight goals, and playing for them at the 1978 and 1982 FIFA World Cups.

After retiring from football, he became an assistant manager under his former Nottingham Forest teammate Martin O'Neill at Wycombe Wanderers, Norwich City, Leicester City, Celtic and Aston Villa.

Robertson died on 25 December 2025, at the age of 72, following a long illness. He had previously had a suspected heart attack while playing tennis with former teammate Liam O'Kane in August 2013.

## Personal life

Robertson's daughter Jessica was born in 1983 with cerebral palsy, which left her quadriplegic and not able to speak or control her movements. In 1994, Robertson and his former wife Sally challenged the hospital where Jessica was born for damages, and claimed that they had caused her brain damage by a 12-hour delay to carry out a Caesarean section. They lost their High Court case.

He released his autobiography, _Supertramp_, in September 2012. He supported Rangers as a boy, but described his time at Celtic as assistant to Martin O'Neill as the best years of his life in football.

In 2015, Robertson was voted first place in a poll by the _Nottingham Post_ of favourite all-time Nottingham Forest players.

### Club

|rowspan="2"|Club|rowspan="2"|Season|colspan="3"|League|colspan="2"|FA Cup|colspan="2"|League Cup|colspan="2"|Europe|colspan="2"|Other|colspan="2"|Total|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|rowspan="14"|Nottingham Forest|1970–71|First Division|2|0|0|0|0|0|—|—|2|0|||
|1971–72|First Division|13|0|0|0|0|0|—|—|13|0|||||
|1972–73|Second Division|32|4|3|0|0|0|—|—|35|4|||||
|1973–74|Second Division|5|0|2|0|0|0|—|—|5|0|||||
|1974–75|Second Division|20|0|4|1|1|0|—|—|25|1|||||
|1975–76|Second Division|39|5|2|0|4|0|—|—|45|5|||||
|1976–77|Second Division|41|6|5|3|2|0|—|9|2|57|11||||
|1977–78|First Division|42|12|6|3|8|3|—|—|56|18|||||
|1978–79|First Division|42|9|3|0|8|4|9|2|1|1|63|16|||
|1979–80|First Division|42|11|2|1|10|4|9|3|2|0|65|19|||
|1980–81|First Division|38|6|6|2|4|1|2|0|2|0|52|9|||
|1981–82|First Division|36|2|1|0|5|1|—|—|42|3|||||
|1982–83|First Division|34|6|1|0|5|3|—|—|40|9|||||
|rowspan="3"|Derby County|1983–84|Second Division|31|2|4|0|2|0|—|—|37|2|||
|1984–85|Third Division|41|1|1|0|4|1|—|2|0|48|2||||
|rowspan="1"|Nottingham Forest|1985–86|First Division|11|0|1|0|0|0|—|—|12|0|||

- A.  The "Other" column constitutes appearances and goals in the FA Charity Shield, Anglo-Scottish Cup, Football League Trophy, European Super Cup and Intercontinental Cup.

### International

|colspan=3|Scotland national team||
| --- | --- | --- |
|1978|4|0|
|1979|5|2|
|1980|3|0|
|1981|7|4|
|1982|7|1|
|1983|2|1|

### International goals

- _Scores and results list Scotland's goal tally first_
|Goal|Date|Venue|Opponent|Score|Result|Competition|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1.|7 June 1979|Ullevaal Stadion, Oslo||**3**–0|4–0|UEFA Euro 1980 qualifying|
|2.|19 December 1979|Hampden Park, Glasgow||**1**–3|1–3|UEFA Euro 1980 qualifying|
|3.|28 April 1981|Hampden Park, Glasgow||**1**–0|3–1|1982 FIFA World Cup qualification|
|4.|**2**–0||||||
|5.|23 May 1981|Wembley Stadium, London||**1**–0|1–0|1981 British Home Championship|
|6.|9 September 1981|Hampden Park, Glasgow||**2**–0|2–0|1982 FIFA World Cup qualification|
|7.|15 June 1982|Estadio La Rosaleda, Málaga||**4**–2|5–2|1982 FIFA World Cup|
|8.|21 September 1983|Hampden Park, Glasgow||**1**–0|2–0|Friendly|

## Honours

- Nottingham Forest
- First Division: 1977–78
- League Cup: 1977–78, 1978–79
- FA Charity Shield: 1978
- European Cup: 1978–79, 1979–80
- European Super Cup: 1979
- Anglo-Scottish Cup: 1976–77

- Individual
- PFA Second Division Team of the Year: 1976–77
- PFA First Division Team of the Year: 1977–78

## Other websites

- John Robertson international stats LondonHearts.com

## Infobox (football biography)

- **name**: John Robertson
- **image**: John Robertson (1980).jpg
- **caption**: Robertson in 1980
- **fullname**: John Neilson Robertson
- **birth place**: Viewpark, Lanarkshire, Scotland
- **position**: Midfielder#Winger, Left winger
- **years1**: 1970–1983
- **years2**: 1983–1985
- **years3**: 1985–1986
- **clubs1**: Nottingham Forest F.C., Nottingham Forest
- **clubs2**: Derby County F.C., Derby County
- **clubs3**: Nottingham Forest F.C., Nottingham Forest
- **caps1**: 386
- **caps2**: 72
- **caps3**: 11
- **totalcaps**: 469
- **goals1**: 61
- **goals2**: 3
- **goals3**: 0
- **totalgoals**: 64
- **nationalyears1**: 1978–1983
- **nationalteam1**: Scotland national football team, Scotland
- **nationalcaps1**: 28
- **nationalgoals1**: 8