Need to clear this up before going Back To Plough Lane.

“It was a dump but it was ours”.

Shorthand for “we out grew a non league ground” and a way to accept there were away fans who were used to something more to their taste.

It was no dump. (Except when it literally was a council dump before we built a ground there).

The pitch was one of the best even in the top flight.

The views from the home end before the fences went up across the country were perfect - I’ve had worse views in the EPL.

My little brother got slung out on his second ever visit when Vinnie scored against Man Utd. “For jumping up and down”. The old Bill have never really needed much of an excuse have they? On his first trip I pushed him into a barrier and cut his nut open.

We had a bar INSIDE the ground where I once saw a mate throw a perfectly timed and delivered sausage roll onto the forehead of a Forest fan gobbing off in there. Oliver Reed once went in and did his bar-based hand stand routine. Midweek with no game.

It didn’t have Arsenal’s marble hall - but then they never had Nelsons did they?

We drank there with the players. That early 80s interaction stayed with many who fought to keep the club alive in the mid to late 80s. I’d make a case it was and should remain part of who we are.

I took my missus to Nelsons when it was a real challenger to other South London hot spots like Cinatras. If somewhat smaller. I once got ironed out in there as well. Also had a cabbie refuse to drop a mate and me off when they made the entrance a dark side road round the ground.

Shout out to anyone who remembers Phyllis Nelson’s erection section Move Closer ending the night. No way that wasn’t a nod to the name of the place. 80s DJs were clever like that.

When we won the FA Cup we went into Nelsons with the players and again there was that opportunity to get close (not in a Phyllis Nelson way). Unthinkable elsewhere even then.

I miss the West Bank and it’s particular zones and areas. Safe at the sides. Noisy in the middle and sometimes gladiatorial in the not big or clever sense.

The food wasn’t great. But nowhere in the mid 80s was. Pizzaland was as continental as it got. Here’s me (with my pal Ian who the cabby wouldn’t drop me off with) enjoying the veggie option - a roll with ketchup.

I made friends for life there. I bust in before they smashed it down with my eldest kid so he could say he’d been there. He will now sit in front of me in the new stadium.

If it gets ANYWHERE near Plough Lane for memories, love, laughs, tears and good times it will do well.

It was home and it was no dump.