Derby County Memories

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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The Rams have visited Ireland and Northern Ireland eight times since 1950, winning six, drawing two and scoring 31 goals in the process. A few days after the conclusion of the 1949/50 season, a 4-0 victory over Bolton Wanderers at the Baseball Ground, Stuart McMillan’s Derby departed for a close-season tour of Ireland. The first game was at Dalymount Park in Dublin against Bohemians on Wednesday 10 May. The cover of the 8-page programme issued for the friendly shows that…

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Jack Parry played for Derby Boys and signed for the Rams in July 1948, a time when Raich Carter and Billy Steel were at the club. A one-club man, Parry remained at the Baseball Ground for 20 years and set a club record 482 League appearances in the 1965/66 season (517 appearances in total) until Kevin Hector overtook it. Parry is also the Rams ninth highest goalscorer in all competitions with 110 goals, and his 105 goals makes him Derby…

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In December 1976 the Sex Pistols were about to begin a 19-date UK tour to promote their first single Anarchy in the UK. The tour was to become one of the most famous in rock ‘n’ roll history as before it even began, the band had already gained notoriety due to their profanity on a live TV interview with Bill Grundy on Thames Television’s Today programme. The ensuing national newspaper headlines and public outcry led most venues to cancel or…

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Most recent postponements of football fixtures have been due to players or coaching staff isolating due to testing positive for Covid-19, including the Rams’ game at Cardiff City on 18 December. The 1980s saw a total of 25 postponements that involved Derby County. The first of these was in 1980/81, a Division 2 away game at Bolton Wanderers on 17 January 1981, with the original programme reissued for the rearranged game on 24 January (30p, 24 pages). Inside the FA…

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David looks back at the Ram newspaper matchday programme introduced by Derby County in August 1971. What was undoubtedly a brave and risky experiment turned out to be a huge success and the format continued virtually un-interrupted for 13 seasons despite reservations from certain quarters, particularly programme dealers and collectors. Almost everything at Derby County had changed out of all recognition in the first four years of Brian Clough’s reign at the Baseball Ground but there was one exception and…

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Planning is underway on a new Derby County book, provisionally titled ‘A Definitive History of Derby County Football Programmes’. The aim is to include a cover image of all Derby County home and away league, cup and European programmes from the 1945/46 season to date, along with many friendly and testimonial issues. There will also be some additional chapters that will cover areas such as pirate programmes and the 1950s floodlight games. If you have any suggestions or ideas for…

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