| Club: | Nottingham Forest |
| Season: | 1986–87 |
| Manager: | Brian Clough |
| Chairman: | Maurice Roworth |
| Stadium: | The City Ground |
| League: | First Division |
| Cup1: | FA Cup |
| Cup1 Result: | Second round |
| Cup2: | League Cup |
| Cup2 Result: | Third round |
| Pattern La1: | _left |
| Pattern B1: | _snalchik11a |
| Pattern Ra1: | _right |
| Pattern Sh1: | _shorts |
| Pattern So1: | _southampton1415h2 |
| Leftarm1: | FF0000 |
| Body1: | 77DDFF |
| Rightarm1: | FF0000 |
| Shorts1: | FFFFFF |
| Socks1: | FFFFFF |
| Pattern La2: | _redborder |
| Pattern B2: | _redcollarplain |
| Pattern Ra2: | _redborder |
| Socks2: | DD0000 |
| League Topscorer: | Clough (14) Birtles Webb |
| Season Topscorer: | Clough (16) |
| Prevseason: | 1985–86 |
| Nextseason: | 1987–88 |
The 1986–87 season was Nottingham Forest's 122nd year in existence and eleventh consecutive season in the First Division. Also the club competed in the FA Cup and League Cup.
During summer manager Clough continued the squad rebuilding without notable transfers. Central back defender Chris Fairclough returned after a year injured, the same situation happened with veteran Forward Garry Birtles[1] "reinforcing" the strikers line. Meanwhile, Dutch Goalkeeper Hans Segers[2] lost his spot as starter to Steve Sutton and left the club to sign with Stoke City. The defensive line lined up Gary Fleming as right back, Walker and Metgod as Central backs and Pearce as left back. Fairclough left the squad during summer of 1987. In the midfield veteran Ian Bowyer was aided by Neil Webb, Gary Mills and Franz Carr, the line was exhausted after some bright matches (included a 6–2 at Chelsea) [3] due to loss of form through spring and the team collapsed to 8th spot in League. Veteran Garry Birtles and Nigel Clough[4] completed the starters squad not being aided by an already weaker midfield. The club opted out of Full Members' Cup in its 1986–87 edition.
| In | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| width=3% | Pos. | width=33% | Name | width=28% | from | width=36% | Type |
| MF | Kjetil Osvold | Lillestrøm SK | £80,000 | ||||
| DF | Colin Foster | Leyton Orient F.C. | £50,000 | ||||
| MF | Calvin Plummer | Barnsley F.C. | |||||
| DF | Darren Wassall | ||||||
| FW | Phil Starbuck | ||||||
| FW | Lee Glover | ||||||
| GK | Paul Crichton | ||||||
| DF | Gary Andrews | ||||||
| MF | Ray Campbell | ||||||
| Out | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| width=3% | Pos. | width=33% | Name | width=28% | To | width=36% | Type |
| MF | Colin Walsh | ||||||
| DF | Jim McInally | £112,000 | |||||
| DF | Ian Butterworth | £160,000 | |||||
| MF | John Robertson | ||||||
| MF | Steve Wigley | ||||||
| MF | Steve Hodge | ||||||
| MF | Steven Murray | ||||||
| MF | Leigh Palin | ||||||
| FW | Mick Perry | ||||||
| GK | Darren Heyes | ||||||
| Out | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| width=3% | Pos. | width=33% | Name | width=28% | To | width=36% | Type |
| FW | David Riley | £40,000 | |||||
| GK | Hans Segers | loan | |||||
| MF | Calvin Plummer | Lahden Reipas | loan | ||||
| DF | Ian Butterworth | ||||||
| In | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| width=3% | Pos. | width=33% | Name | width=28% | from | width=36% | Type |
| FW | Paul Wilkinson | ||||||
| Out | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| width=3% | Pos. | width=33% | Name | width=28% | To | width=36% | Type |
| FW | David Riley | loan | |||||
See main article: 1985–86 Football League.
See main article: 1986-87 Football League Cup.
See main article: 1986-87 FA Cup.