One of the rarest post war Derby home programmes is from the game against arch rivals Nottingham Forest on Saturday 30 January 1971. At the time the Rams had been struggling to establish a consistent run of form, winning only four league games since the end of August. The previous game, however, had seen the team beat Ipswich 1-0 at Portman Road thanks to a goal from John O’Hare.

According to Andy Ellis’s The Derby County Programme Guide (2021), bad weather on the morning of the game turned the Baseball Ground pitch into an unplayable surface and the game was called off at around midday. Most of the programmes were destroyed or recycled with much of the content reused in the next home game programme against Crystal Palace. The covers for both the postponed and rearranged issues feature Derby’s John O’Hare and Alex Stepney of Manchester United on a green background. This design was used for most of the season although some issues have a white background.

‘Everton – that’s tough’ is the headline of Brian Clough’s editorial notes in the postponed Forest issue. He discusses the Rams last minute winner scored by John O’Hare against Wolves in the FA Cup fourth round at the Baseball Ground. Derby had been paired with Everton away in the next round and would narrowly lose 1-0 to the current league champions who were in mid-table at the time. In other news, Clough reported that Derby had decided to opt out of the Anglo-Italian Tournament because he felt mid-June was too late for football with the players not having a long enough break. That turned out to be rather a good decision as the Rams were to win their first league championship the following May. Archie Gemmill had been called up to the Scotland squad that week and won his first senior cap against Belgium, the same day as Roy McFarland became the first Derby player to represent England since 1950 when he played in the 1-0 away win against Malta at the Empire Stadium, Gzira.

The player profile in the postponed Forest programme was John Robson. It is reported that Peter Taylor spotted Robson’s potential in a junior game on Tyneside when Robson was taking a throw in, although Taylor had been there to look at another player. Robson had a trial part-way through the 1967/68 season, then was ever-present at left back gaining experience playing with Dave Mackay in the 1968/69 Division Two title winning season. He went on to become a key member of the 1972 Division One winning side, missing only one match. Robson was sold to Aston Villa for £90,000 in 1972 but was forced to retire in 1978 due to multiple sclerosis, and sadly died in 2004 aged 53.

Programme editor David Moore comments that Derby’s FA Cup form against Everton was poor, having lost five out of six ties (although the last loss was in the 1949/50 season). Chairman Sam Longson would not be at the game on 13 February at Goodison Park as he would be on a winter break in Antigua though it was reported that he would fly back for a replay at the Baseball Ground, at the cost of £200, if the game ended in a draw. Gambian trialist Biri, pictured with Colin Bouton and John Richardson, was due to return to Gambia on the Monday.

‘On the move with the Rams’ gives maps and directions for away games at West Ham and Everton in the FA Cup. A full page advert titled ‘Derby County and Texaco – a unique link’ describe the linkup between the Rams and the second largest oil company in the world as ‘the most lucrative sponsorship deal set up by any football club in Britain’. In quite a contrast to today’s huge sponsorship deals with top flight clubs, the three-year contract saw the Rams receive ‘hard cash’ as well as the Baseball Ground being completely repainted with jackets for programme sellers and other club personnel.

The programme from the rearranged game at home to Forest on 31 March 1971 contained new editorial notes from Brian Clough, slightly amended comments about the opponents and updated statistics, fixtures and attendances pages. The centre pages contain photos from the previous home game against Manchester City, a 0-0 draw. One photo shows City defender Derek Jeffries heading off the line from an Archie Gemmill header. There are also two photos from Ron Webster’s testimonial match against Coventry which was won 2-1, including one of Dave Mackay celebrating after scoring the winning goal from a free kick.

The player profile is Colin Boulton. A police cadet in Cheltenham as a teenager, Boulton only made 25 appearances in seven years for the Rams as understudy to Reg Matthews and Les Green. He was given his chance in the first team after the 4-4 draw with Manchester United on Boxing Day 1970 and went on to keep 23 clean sheets in the 1971/72 championship season. He was the only Rams player to be ever present in both the 1971/72 and 1974/75 title winning teams.

David Moore reported that England manager Sir Alf Ramsey said ‘Roy McFarland got in more tackles than I can remember from a representative centre-half, and he can also play the ball about’ after the recent Scottish League against Football League match at Hampden (Colin Todd and Kevin Hector were reserves). In other news, Bill Shankly called the Rams ‘the hardest team in the country to beat’ after Derby lost 2-0 at Anfield. There was an 11,000 attendance for a Central League 1-0 win between Rams and Liverpool, and Colin Todd and Archie Gemmill were to be neighbours in new houses in Littleover.

Despite the Rams losing this one 2-1 (Hector scoring for the Rams), results improved in the second half of the season with Derby eventually finishing in ninth place having won and lost 16 games and drawing the other 10. Colin Todd joined from Sunderland in February for a club record £170,000 and Dave Mackay ended his three years with the Rams with his first ever-present season of his career before moving to Swindon Town in the summer.