Derby County Memories

Milburn Shanks, deputy sports editor of the Derby Evening Telegraph, wrote the following in his match report for the 0-0 Division Two draw at home to Luton on 3 March 1955: “‘Just what more has a team to do to earn two points?’ was a question I heard asked several times by Rams’ supporters after the game at the Baseball Ground yesterday, bewildered because relegation-haunted Derby County, after attacking for a good 90 per cent of the time against promotion-challengers Luton Town, could…

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By the end of the 1950s, most (though not all) Football League clubs had installed floodlights (Southampton, in 1950, being the first) but it had taken until 1956 for the FA to agree to clubs using them to play competitive matches. Up until then, it had been exclusively used for friendly fixtures. There were various reasons put forward as to why it was not a good idea, ranging from cost of installation, players being ‘blinded’ by the lights when the…

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Derby travelled to Lincoln on Wednesday May 3, 1939, to play in a benefit game arranged for the Imps’ Scottish striker Johnny Campbell. Campbell, the second highest goalscorer in Lincoln City’s history, and only one of two players to have scored over 100 Football League goals for the club, was due to retire from professional football that summer due to injury. Derby finished the 1938/1939 season in 6th place in Division One and had already played their final league game…

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Despite having competed for the FA Cup in 130 of its 144 years, Derby have had comparatively few ties against clubs referred to in modern parlance as “non-league”. Season 1955/56 however, the Rams’ first-ever in the third tier of English football, saw no fewer than three of those ties take place. In the 1940s and 1950s, the North-East of England could lay genuine claim to the title of “hotbed of football”. Newcastle and Sunderland were giants of the professional game…

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Derby’s game at home to Liverpool on Saturday 23 March 1991 was memorable for all the wrong reasons – the Rams lost 7-1 on their way to relegation from Division 1 along with Sunderland and Luton. Dean Saunders scored the only goal for the Rams. Liverpool’s scorers were Molby, Rush, Houghton and two from Barnes and Nicol. Derby won only one league game after 1 December, a 6-2 win against Southampton at the Baseball Ground in May, Paul Williams scoring…

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Derby’s ongoing attempt to finally win the FA Cup had seen several near misses down the years and season 1932/33 would turn out to be another of those, the club eventually reaching the semi-final where they would lose out to Manchester City. An eventful third round tie at Molineux ended in a 6-3 victory for the Rams and the fourth round draw sent them to the Essex coast and a meeting with Southend United who were sitting mid-table in the…

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Tomorrow Derby travel to Holker Street, Barrow-in-Furness, to play Barrow AFC in the second round of the Carabao Cup. It is the first time the Rams will have played in Barrow for 67 years, a 2-2 draw in a Division Three North fixture. That season saw Derby gain promotion to Division 2 as champions scoring 111 goals on the way. More recently, Derby played Barrow in early September 2020 at Pride Park in the Carabao Cup first round. Although the…

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Rams fans unable to attend games this season will have more opportunities to watch Paul Warne’s team on TV than ever before. From 2024/2025, over 1000 of the 1891 games across the EFL, Carabao Cup and Bristol Street Motors Trophy will be broadcast on Sky Sports with every EFL club guaranteed to be featured live at least 20 times this season. This got me thinking: when did a Derby County game first feature on TV? Although there is footage of…

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Derby County’s first Christmas game was at home to Bolton Wanderers at the County Ground on Boxing Day 1888. Until Bolton were relegated in 1899 they provided the Christmas opposition every year; in 11 meetings, the Rams won six to Bolton’s one. Derby’s first league game on Christmas Day was in 1894, a 4-1 win at Sheffield United. Two years later, the first Christmas Day fixture at the Baseball Ground saw Steve Bloomer hit a hat-trick in an 8-1 win…

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Every summer hundreds of thousands of tourists visit the Channel Islands, an archipelago in the English Channel off the French coast of Normandy. The Rams have had their own excursions there to play in friendly matches, visiting Guernsey in 1969 and 1970, and Jersey in 2001. After Kevin Hector’s brace in a 2-0 win at home to Cardiff City on 1 February 1969, Derby did not play another league game until 1 March due to poor weather across the country. To keep fit, the Rams…

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