Derby County Memories

Long before festive television schedules became the norm, football provided one of the few escapes from the Christmas routine. In the Victorian era, matches were commonly played on Christmas Day, when supporters enjoyed rare time off work and clubs were keen to take advantage of bank holidays to maximise attendances. The tradition gradually faded with the last Christmas Day match in England taking place in 1965. However, Derby County’s final fixture on the day came eight years earlier, away at…

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In the multi-million pound Premier League era, the idea of Liverpool being involved in an end-of-season relegation battle sounds ridiculous but, in the spring of 1953, this was very much the case. The Reds were 17th in the table, just three points outside the relegation zone, those spots occupied by Chelsea and that day’s visitors to Anfield, Derby County. The Rams had been a top-flight club since 1926 and, during that time, had rarely flirted with relegation. However there had…

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The Rams travelled to St James’s Park to face Newcastle United on Saturday, 9 September 1933, still searching for their first victory of the season. Derby were the only Division One side yet to record a win, while Newcastle had just secured their first league success a few days earlier at home to Blackburn Rovers. In his manager’s message in the official match programme, Newcastle boss Andy Cunningham welcomed Derby, writing: “Today we have our friends from Derby, who invariably…

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Season 1951/52 had seen the Rams start off with three wins and three defeats in their opening six games and this inconsistency continued as the season progressed. By the turn of the year, the club’s ten victories had been mirrored by ten defeats and, though the club had won more than half their matches at the Baseball Ground, a poor away record, as well as a run of four straight defeats since Boxing Day (coupled with an early exit from…

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To mark the founding of the world’s first professional football league by William McGregor in 1888, which began with 12 clubs including Derby County, the Football League celebrated its Golden Jubilee in 1938 with a series of events and matches featuring all 88 member clubs. Ahead of the 1938/1939 season, a series of friendly fixtures were arranged to raise money for the Football League Jubilee Benevolent Fund. At the time, professional footballers’ wages were capped at just £8 a week,…

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Having joined the Football League in 1920 as founder members of the newly-created third tier of the professional game, Brentford spent most of that decade in the lower reaches of the Third Division (South) without ever looking like challenging for promotion. The advent of the 30s, however, saw the Bees achieve two promotions in three seasons under manager Harry Curtis whose long tenure as manager covered the years between 1926 and 1949. Derby’s first visit to Griffin Park would conclude…

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In preparation for the 1976/77 season, Derby County manager Dave Mackay and assistant Des Anderson took their team to northern Spain to participate in the Bilbao Tournament. The competition featured hosts Athletic Bilbao, along with Standard Liège of the Belgian First Division and Dutch top flight side Feyenoord. Following a 2–0 defeat to Schalke in Germany the previous week, the Rams were eager to find form ahead of the new campaign with their opening match, on 9 August, against Feyenoord….

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The promotion season of 1968/69 has gone down in history as laying the foundation for the club’s run of success in the early/mid 1970s, however it’s often forgotten that the season had actually started in highly unconvincing fashion. The Rams failed to win any of their opening five games and, when Oxford arrived at the Baseball Ground on August 31st, the league table made for grim reading – 19th place and only a point ahead of bottom club Carlisle. The…

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The second half of the 1930s saw some of the most celebrated names in the club’s long history wear the shirt but without ever managing to get their hands on either of the two major trophies on offer. Generally the club finished top half of the table – but the real inconsistency was to be found in the attendance figures which could vary wildly and never was this more apparent than in season 1937/38 where, for instance, in September alone…

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After the conclusion of the 1966/1967 season, a disappointing campaign where the Rams finished 17th in Division Two, the Rams embarked on a post-season tour of Germany to play a series of friendly fixtures against Leipzig, Karl Marx Stadt and Halle. The Derby County directors had decided not to renew Tim Ward’s contract and prior to the tour commencing it was announced that Brian Clough and Peter Taylor would take charge of the club on 1 June. The first friendly…

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