Gary Neville has been forced to apologise to Nottingham Forest on his latest Sky Sports podcast after an annoying faux pas. The former Manchester United man was pulled up on his error by host Martin Tyler after referring to the club as ‘Notts Forest’.
It’s a regional thing that often bugs the Reds fan base. Because Notts County play in the city too, the Forest faithful hate it when pundits refer to the red half of Nottingham as ‘Notts’. Yet, it happens all the time!
Neville has been the first to admit that he does it a lot. Harry Redknapp and Neil Warnock have also been guilty of doing it over the years; although in the case of Warnock, he probably does it on purpose!
At least the former England right-back accepted he was wrong. In a comical moment on his latest Sky Sports podcast, he was quick to apologise to the Forest fan base after being corrected by Tyler.
He said: “Did I say Notts Forest again? I’ve said Notts Forest now about the last three times. I’m not sure I’m going to get out of Nottingham when I go there for the Carabao Cup in a few weeks. I apologise to you, Nottingham Forest fans, it’s an insult to you, I know. I actually feel the same way when teams say Man U and stuff. So I do apologise and I know it’s important to you.”
Neville apologises to Nottingham Forest fans
Fair play to Neville, he took this in good jest. He’s one of the best pundits around and fans would be hard-pushed not to accept his apology.
It’s interesting that he says he feels the same about United being called Man U. To people in the East Midlands Man U is commonplace so perhaps Notts is somewhat common in other parts of the country.
Forest fans do occasionally get a little too irritated with the whole Notts situation. It’s usually a slip of the tongue and perhaps given that they play in the National League, it’s not worth getting too beat up about.
Gary, we accept your apology.
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