They won promotion to the top division at the end of the 1976-77 season after finishing third in the Second Division, but no-one could have predicted how successful Clough's side would be over the next three years.

Nottingham Forest became one of the few teams (and the last team to date) to win the English First Division Championship 1977-78 season, a year after winning promotion from the English Second Division. In 1978-79, Forest went on to win the European Cup by beating Malmö FF [1-0] in Munich's Olympic Stadium and won the trophy in 1979-80, beating Hamburger SV [1-0] in Madrid due to a great performance by goalkeeper Peter Shilton. They also won the European Super Cup and two League Cups. Beside Shilton, key players of that era included right-back Viv Anderson (the first black player to wear the England jersey), midfielder Martin O'Neill,striker Trevor Francis and a trio of Scottish International stars: winger John Robertson, midfielder Archie Gemmill and defender Kenny Burns.