Derby County Memories

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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I will be having a stall at the Derby Football Memorabilia & Programme Fair on Sunday 6 September 2021 from 10:30am. All Ram newspapers from 1971/72 – 1976/77 will be for sale as well as all away programmes since the start of the first lockdown in March 2020. Hope to see you there.

The Derby County v Derby County Legends match in March 2016, for Shaun Barker’s testimonial, was the latest of many home games involving the Rams to pay tribute to a loyal player, or to one whose career was ended by injury. One of the first examples of this type of fixture was Derby’s home league match against Everton on 9 December 1905 where Steve Bloomer and Ben Warren split the gate money between them, amounting to around £100 each. Bloomer…

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Derby County’s FA Cup story of the 2010s ranged from the lows of defeat to non-league opposition to the highs of beating Premier League sides. And it was all played out against a backdrop of big changes that saw the Rams move from mid-table anonymity to become regular challengers for a return to the Premier League – only to suffer consistent heartbreak. The decade began with Nigel Clough a year into his job having taken over in January 2009 following…

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I was a little surprised to note that the 25th anniversary of Derby County’s promotion in the 1995/96 season is upon us. A whole quarter of a century since that great day against Crystal Palace – time genuinely flies. The previous few years had marked a period of change for the club following relegation from the old First Division under Arthur Cox in 1991. The Robert Maxwell era had come to an end, Cox and then Roy McFarland had both…

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It took until the second year of the new millennium for Derby County to play an FA Cup tie. They had actually been the first side in English football to score a goal in the year 2000 when Branko Strupar netted in a Premier League fixture against Watford. But they were already out of the 1999/2000 FA Cup having been beaten at home to Second Division side Burnley just a few weeks previously. So it wasn’t until January 2001 that…

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It started from somewhere deep inside, or rather, it had never gone away. A feeling or a memory that was stored in my mind from being 7 or 8 years old. It was the feeling of happiness, the kind of feeling that you can only really get when you are a kid as once you are an adult you take most things for granted. I was born in the 70s, quite literally just four days into the seventies. It was…

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How it all started In all honesty I didn’t intentionally plan on building a collection at all. It all materialised from a birthday present from my older brother. The story starts, and my collection started, on 6th September 2017 when my brother bought me the Derby County 1995-1997 Puma home shirt for my birthday. I opened it up and I loved the classic look and the memories it brought back of following Derby at the time. My brother and I…

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The 1970s remains Derby County’s most glorious decade with two First Division championships and those great European nights. And it arguably contains their most consistent sequence of results in the FA Cup since formation, albeit without going all the way to the final – but they went so, so close. Brian Clough’s Rams team had adapted well to life in the First Division having won promotion at the end of the 1968/69 campaign. Marshalled by the icon that was Dave…

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