Though they weren’t to lift the actual trophy itself until 1946, Derby’s Cup record in the 1930s was more than respectable. Although they had been on the receiving end of a giant-killing act at Exeter City in January of 1931, the Rams had reached at least the 5th Round in the four subsequent seasons and had been handed a 3rd Round home draw against non-league Dartford in January of 1936. That tie proved more problematic than expected and, though Derby eventually won 3-2, it was the Kent club who took all the plaudits on the day. The 4^th Round draw set up another home tie but this time against local rivals Nottingham Forest who hadn’t played the Rams since another 4^th Round meeting back in January of 1928.

Forest were, at the time, a Second Division club and had been at that level since being relegated in 1925. They had never finished higher than 5^th in the subsequent ten years and were struggling in the lower half of the table once again. A 2-1 win at Doncaster in Round 3, however, set up the tie at the Baseball Ground which was scheduled for January 25^th.

Derby went into the game in good form, the previous week’s 2-0 win over Huddersfield meaning they overtook the Yorkshire club in the table to rise to 2^nd place, though still 7 points adrift of leaders Sunderland. Forest, on the other hand, had lost both games since the turn of the year (against West Ham and Swansea) and had slipped to a mid-table position.

For the match, Derby issued their usual 16 page programme (Volume 6 issue 27) costing 2d. As ever, team line-ups were on the front cover with players numbered 1 to 24 as was standard for the era. The Derby line-up on the day was as per the programme listing and the Forest line-up included Tom Peacock who had been their top scorer the previous season and was also leading the way this season as well as Johnny Dent who would score 122 goals for the club in his 8 years at the City Ground.

Page 3 included a short tribute penned by club chairman Bendle Moore in memory of King George V who had died 5 days earlier at the age of 70, the wording suggesting that there may have been a minute’s silence prior to kick-off. What editorial there was could be found on pages 5, 8 and 10 and merely covered what might be termed “gossip” from various clubs round the country. The only mention of Derby’s progress for the season is contained within the fixture list, league tables (the reserves were lying 3^rd in the Central League just behind West Brom) and players’ appearances sections. No mention is made of any of the opposition players on show.

As ever for me, the adverts provide a glimpse of a world very different from today. The pantomime is still running at the Grand Theatre and Hopalong Cassidy is the main event at the Coliseum cinema. If dancing is more your thing, Saturday night at the Plaza Ballroom was Gala Night, entry fee 1/- or you could play one of the 24 full-size billiard tables at the Regent Salon. Page 6 includes an ad concerning the “LMS Football Trip” with train departures and prices for the upcoming home game with Aston Villa. I’m not too up on my railway history but I imagine a number of these stations were axed by Beeching in the early 60s.

On to the match itself and it certainly attracted the public’s attention with the highest crowd of the season – 37,830 – squeezing in to witness a 2-0 win for the Rams courtesy of goals from ‘Spider’ Halford and Jack Bowers. Derby would go on to beat Bradford City in the 5^th Round before falling 0-3 at Fulham in the Quarter-Finals. In the league, they would maintain that position of 2^nd, finishing 8 points behind champions Sunderland. Forest, on the other hand, would slump to 19^th place in Division Two, only avoiding relegation by 3 points.