In the summer of 1951 a national exhibition and fair was held throughout the UK known as the Festival of Britain. Its objective was to give British citizens a feeling of successful recovery after World War Two and to promote British science, technology, culture and sport. As part of the festival, the FA organised friendly games which mostly involved English teams playing against Scottish, Irish and European clubs. Derby County took part in the competition and played Borussia Dortmund on Wednesday 9 May, the game kicking off at 6pm.

Dortmund had been Champions of the West German League for the previous three seasons and at the time were fourth in their league. The Rams had concluded their season a few days earlier by beating Charlton Athletic 2-0 at The Valley and had finished mid-table in 11^th place in Division One, 20 points behind champions Tottenham.

The 8 page programme gives a short introduction to the visitors. Other than team lineups, the rest of the programme gives a general introduction to the European clubs visiting Britain which included teams from Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Holland, Luxembourg, Malta and Yugoslavia. Unusually, there is no advertising and the inside front cover is left blank.

The game ended in a 1-1 draw with an official attendance of 7,251 and gate receipts listed as £574 69s 6d. The match report headline in the Derby Evening Telegraph was ‘Speedy Germans Test the Rams’. In what must have been a new experience for many of the Derby players, Dortmund moved the ball quickly on the floor ‘and from wing to wing’ interchanging ‘with bewildering rapidity and shot at every opportunity.’

Although the Dortmund forwards were ‘extremely fast and tricky’ this meant that they were often caught offside. The German defence was described as disorganised and ‘inclined to panic’ with the exception of ‘the balding Schanko and the lanky Michallek.’ The programme picks out Michallek as a player to look out for as the 6’ 3” wing-half was nicknamed the spider due to having ‘unusually long legs with which he seems to gather the ball like a magnet attracts iron filings.’

Derby took the lead when Bert Mozley lobbed a ball into the goalmouth but the Dortmund goalkeeper Gunter Rau allowed the ball to run between his legs leaving Jack Stamps a simple task of tapping into an empty net. On 39 minutes Dortmund equalised when the German outside-right Erdmann ran through the Derby defence and placed a shot into the corner past Harry Brown.

Despite his error for Derby’s goal, Dortmund goalkeeper Rau had a good game and showed ‘the agility and daring of a trapeze artist’ as well as making ‘some hair-raising saves.’

The Dortmund players received a great reception from the crowd and the game ‘was played in true Festival spirit with the Germans displaying fine sportsmanship – handshakes and smiles followed every foul – and often some tip-top football.’

Derby County: Brown, Mozeley, Revell, Mays, Oliver, Musson, Harrison, Morris, Stamps, Parry, Mynard

Borussia Dortmund: Rau, Michallek, Mikuda, Sahm, Wielding, Schanko (captain), Erdmann, Ibel, Limmerweber, Kasperski, Fluegel