Derby County Memories

Season 1951/52 had seen the Rams start off with three wins and three defeats in their opening six games and this inconsistency continued as the season progressed. By the turn of the year, the club’s ten victories had been mirrored by ten defeats and, though the club had won more than half their matches at the Baseball Ground, a poor away record, as well as a run of four straight defeats since Boxing Day (coupled with an early exit from…

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To mark the founding of the world’s first professional football league by William McGregor in 1888, which began with 12 clubs including Derby County, the Football League celebrated its Golden Jubilee in 1938 with a series of events and matches featuring all 88 member clubs. Ahead of the 1938/1939 season, a series of friendly fixtures were arranged to raise money for the Football League Jubilee Benevolent Fund. At the time, professional footballers’ wages were capped at just £8 a week,…

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Having joined the Football League in 1920 as founder members of the newly-created third tier of the professional game, Brentford spent most of that decade in the lower reaches of the Third Division (South) without ever looking like challenging for promotion. The advent of the 30s, however, saw the Bees achieve two promotions in three seasons under manager Harry Curtis whose long tenure as manager covered the years between 1926 and 1949. Derby’s first visit to Griffin Park would conclude…

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In preparation for the 1976/77 season, Derby County manager Dave Mackay and assistant Des Anderson took their team to northern Spain to participate in the Bilbao Tournament. The competition featured hosts Athletic Bilbao, along with Standard Liège of the Belgian First Division and Dutch top flight side Feyenoord. Following a 2–0 defeat to Schalke in Germany the previous week, the Rams were eager to find form ahead of the new campaign with their opening match, on 9 August, against Feyenoord….

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The promotion season of 1968/69 has gone down in history as laying the foundation for the club’s run of success in the early/mid 1970s, however it’s often forgotten that the season had actually started in highly unconvincing fashion. The Rams failed to win any of their opening five games and, when Oxford arrived at the Baseball Ground on August 31st, the league table made for grim reading – 19th place and only a point ahead of bottom club Carlisle. The…

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The second half of the 1930s saw some of the most celebrated names in the club’s long history wear the shirt but without ever managing to get their hands on either of the two major trophies on offer. Generally the club finished top half of the table – but the real inconsistency was to be found in the attendance figures which could vary wildly and never was this more apparent than in season 1937/38 where, for instance, in September alone…

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After the conclusion of the 1966/1967 season, a disappointing campaign where the Rams finished 17th in Division Two, the Rams embarked on a post-season tour of Germany to play a series of friendly fixtures against Leipzig, Karl Marx Stadt and Halle. The Derby County directors had decided not to renew Tim Ward’s contract and prior to the tour commencing it was announced that Brian Clough and Peter Taylor would take charge of the club on 1 June. The first friendly…

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The end of the current season saw League football bid farewell to one of its most iconic stadiums when Everton, who had called it home since 1892, played their final match there before moving across the city to the Hill Dickinson Stadium. It’s a stadium Derby have visited many times down the years (69 times, I make it), most of which were in the First Division or the FA Cup but there was one solitary Second Division fixture in there…

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After a 0-0 draw against VfL Bochum in Germany, manager Dave Mackay and assistant Des Anderson took their Derby County side to Spain to compete in the Costa del Sol tournament as part of their preparations for the 1974/75 campaign. The trip was no holiday for the players though as Malaga’s intense summer heat made conditions particularly testing, with daytime temperatures soaring into the high 90s Fahrenheit. Even with late evening kick-offs, the air remained hot and humid. The tournament…

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When we read about yet another manager or top player criticising the number of fixtures scheduled, one of the most common ripostes is that players and managers “have it easy compared to how football used to be”. This is undoubtedly the case, however even a cursory skim through the pages of Football Monthly of the 1950s and 1960s shows there were many concerns from managers, players and media about just that, especially over the Christmas and Easter periods. The Easter…

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