Football fans are hoping to raise �60,000 for the memorial

Collectors were outside Nottingham Forest's City Ground on Saturday ahead of the match against Hartlepool United.

The fund aims to raise �60,000 for a statue for Nottingham. Clough, who died last year, had his most successful spell at Nottingham Forest.

Saturday saw �4,000 raised, taking the fund to �17,000.

The chairman of the Brian Clough Statue Fund, Paul Ellis, said: "We are absolutely delighted with the response from supporters.

'Thumbs-up'

"We would like to thank fans of Nottingham Forest and Hartlepool for being so generous.

"This has given the fund a big boost. The fine weather helped the collection and I'd like to think that Cloughie himself was looking down on us and giving us his famous thumbs-up."

Clough, who played for Middlesbrough and managed Derby County and Nottingham Forest to League championship wins in the 1970s, died in September 2004 from cancer, aged 69.

He won two European Cups with Nottingham Forest in 1979 and 1980.

Clough also won two England caps and scored 251 goals in 274 games as a striker for Middlesbrough and Sunderland.