I was a little surprised to note that the 25th anniversary of Derby County’s promotion in the 1995/96 season is upon us. A whole quarter of a century since that great day against Crystal Palace – time genuinely flies. The previous few years had marked a period of change for the club following relegation from the old First Division under Arthur Cox in 1991. The Robert Maxwell era had come to an end, Cox and then Roy McFarland had both…
It took until the second year of the new millennium for Derby County to play an FA Cup tie. They had actually been the first side in English football to score a goal in the year 2000 when Branko Strupar netted in a Premier League fixture against Watford. But they were already out of the 1999/2000 FA Cup having been beaten at home to Second Division side Burnley just a few weeks previously. So it wasn’t until January 2001 that…
It started from somewhere deep inside, or rather, it had never gone away. A feeling or a memory that was stored in my mind from being 7 or 8 years old. It was the feeling of happiness, the kind of feeling that you can only really get when you are a kid as once you are an adult you take most things for granted. I was born in the 70s, quite literally just four days into the seventies. It was…
How it all started In all honesty I didn’t intentionally plan on building a collection at all. It all materialised from a birthday present from my older brother. The story starts, and my collection started, on 6th September 2017 when my brother bought me the Derby County 1995-1997 Puma home shirt for my birthday. I opened it up and I loved the classic look and the memories it brought back of following Derby at the time. My brother and I…
The 1970s remains Derby County’s most glorious decade with two First Division championships and those great European nights. And it arguably contains their most consistent sequence of results in the FA Cup since formation, albeit without going all the way to the final – but they went so, so close. Brian Clough’s Rams team had adapted well to life in the First Division having won promotion at the end of the 1968/69 campaign. Marshalled by the icon that was Dave…
Geoffrey Publications is delighted to announce the imminent availability of a new book, ‘Triumph and Tragedy: The Alan Hinton Story’, by Alan Hinton (with Charlie Bamforth). Few indeed are the people who can claim to have been intimately involved in professional football for more than 60 years. Fewer still are those who can justly say that they reached the very top as a player, a coach and as an ambassador for the game. And surely nobody else can say that…
It took Derby until three years into the 1980s to win an FA Cup match – and what a memorable encounter that one was. We’ll come to it soon, however, as their first two attempts to progress in the competition during the decade both ended at the hands of the same opponent. By the 1979/80 season, such was the Rams’ decline that the glory days of the ’70s were fast becoming a distant memory, even though they weren’t actually too…
Derby County’s FA Cup story of the 1990s is book-ended by home upsets – but in between came three quarter-finals, two abandonments and one of the greatest games ever seen at the Baseball Ground. Under Arthur Cox, the Rams had looked like they were on the up at the end of the previous decade having finished fifth in the old First Division. Even as the ’90s dawned, Derby were sitting comfortably in ninth and there was little indication of what…
It remains a stark fact that the 1988/89 season represents the high point of the last 45 years for Derby County. Finishing fifth in the old First Division was the Rams’ best position since ending up fourth under Dave Mackay in 1975/76. Only twice since 1989 have they even finished in the top ten of the top flight – Jim Smith’s exciting teams coming ninth and then eighth in the Premier League 1998 and 1999 respectively. Arthur Cox’s side, including…
In today’s game of football all players at elite level are expected to be comfortable in possession. Having the confidence and ability to start attacks by ‘bringing the ball out from the back’ is an essential quality in a modern day centre back, shown by the £80 million transfer of England international Harry Maguire from Leicester City to Manchester United in 2019, a world-record fee for a defender. On 31 October 1995 Derby County signed Igor Stimac, a 28 year…