The FA Cup hadn’t been overly kind to Derby in the years since they lifted the trophy in 1946. There was a semi-final in 1948 and quarter-final appearances in 1949 and 1950 but, in the subsequent 14 years, the 4^th round was the best the Rams could boast. There hadn’t been too many “plum” draws either but when the 3^rd round draw for the 1965/66 competition was made, and the Rams landed perhaps THE “plum” tie – at home to current league champions Manchester United – the club were, once again, front-page news.

United, even then, were a huge draw due in part due to the post-Munich respect Matt Busby commanded and the fact that they possessed genuine household names such as Bobby Charlton, George Best and Denis Law in their line-up and, having won the trophy in 1963, followed that up with semi-final appearances in each of the next two seasons.

Going into the tie, Derby, under manager Tim Ward, were on a good run of form, unbeaten in six and lying 7^th in the Second Division table, 7 points behind leaders Manchester City. United, however, were on an even better run having lost only one league game since mid-October and already through to a meeting with Benfica in the European Cup quarter-finals.

The match was deemed to be all-ticket and, upon going on sale, were quickly snapped up with United also selling out their allocation. As the Derby Evening Telegraph noted, when 250 further tickets went on sale 48 hours before the match, a queue of 2,000 formed and the tickets themselves were snapped up within 18 minutes.

As the DET also noted, however, a broken wrist might result in centre-back Frank Upton, a key member of the team, missing the tie. The magnitude of the tie was perhaps best reflected by the fact that the DET even printed a special morning edition to bring fans up to date with the latest team news and just how likely was a shock result?

And so to the match itself and a crowd of 33,627 (paying receipts of £8,851) packed into the Baseball Ground – the club’s highest gate in 14 years. The club programme issued was the standard 16 page issue for that season, costing 6d, the only concession to the importance of the occasion being a United team photo on page 7 and a brief welcome to one and all from chairman Sam Longson on page 3.

Any doubts the visitors may have had about the quality of the Rams team were soon dispelled as Derby went straight on to the attack. Ron Webster forced a great save from Harry Gregg and Bill Foulkes’s mistimed clearance from a corner hit the crossbar. However, as the DET’s George Edwards wrote in his post-match report, “United are not a typical First Division side” and, having ridden the storm, they hit Derby with a blitz of 3 goals in 11 minutes to silence the home crowd.

Bobby Charlton’s 12^th minute shot was parried by Reg Matthews to Denis Law who netted, three minutes later George Best outran the Derby defence to score a second and, eight minutes after that, Best put United three up with a shot which beat Matthews and went in off the post. Game over many would assume but, to their credit, back came the Rams.

On 27 minutes, Harry Gregg was adjudged by referee Maurice Fussey to have bundled Ian Buxton over and John Richardson reduced the arrears from the resultant penalty and, 4 minutes from the break, Frank Upton (deemed fit to play) forced home after a scramble in the United area. The second half, however, saw the Rams struggle to put any concerted pressure on the United defence and, on 70 minutes, Law and Best beat the offside trap resulting in the former being brought down by Matthews. Law himself got up to convert the penalty. United finally put the game to bed when David Herd’s challenge on Matthews saw the keeper drop the ball and Herd tap home. 5-2 to United in the end, then.

The much-lauded Manchester journalist David Meek, a regular contributor to the United programme, noted that “United (have) had much easier tasks against First Division sides in the last few seasons”.

As it turned out, United would experience semi-final defeat not just in the FA Cup (to eventual winners Everton) but also in the European Cup (to Partizan Belgrade) and Derby would finish 8^th, 11 points off a promotion place.