This Saturday sees the mighty Nottingham Forest take on an unheard of local team called Derby County, after checking local web sites to find if Alfreton Town or Burton Albion had changed their name, it turned out DCFC are in fact a team in their own right & a semi-professional one at that. What is more, this fixture isn't a charity fund raiser as I'd first thought, it is in fact a competitive Championship league fixture. Intrigued as i was, i then decided to scour the interweb for some details of this backwater club so that you may amaze your friends down the pub with your in-depth knowledge of our opponents with this handy “Print Out And Keep” guide.
So, here we go then
Derby County we officially formed in 1884 by William Morley when a group of incensed locals rebelled at being charged to see the local Cricket Club, it wasn't though until 1898 that they bought their first player when gate receipt totals had reached 3 & sixpence and they used the lot to buy Dolly who is to this day the clubs record signing, the club badge still depicts his image. Their first competitive game was played in 1885 against Walsall Town in the F.A Cup which Derby lost by a familiar score line of 0 - 7 but they won their first ever league fixture 6 - 3 at Bolton. They ended this 1st season in a disappointing 10th place from 12 teams, the fact there where only 12 professional teams & one league then saved them from relegation, but they wouldn't be able to rely on that for long.
Their most Famous manager is Brian Clough, a name that will sound familiar to many, as we all know he honed his skills in the lower leagues with Brighton & Hartlepools but a much forgotten period of his rise to being the best manager ever saw him take this ickle club to the 1st division championship, on realising he had taken the club as far as he could he then handed in his notice to become a back to back European Champion in Nottingham, he kept his home in Derby though, where property prices were so low he used his big city wages to buy three quarters of the Shire.
Moving to a new stadium under a trio of South American bandits referred to only as the '3 Amigos' their new ground was officially unveiled as the Estadio de Basura due to the site it was built on, ironically losing the name of their previous home the 'baseball ground' just in time to be taken over by American sport tycoon & Disney World enthusiasts GSE. With Tom Glicks love of theme parks it was renamed Ride Park but confusion was rife when the sign was installed in the car park where a big blue P sign comically made it look like PRide Park & the nickname stuck. This is in keeping with their with their tradition of their ground having nothing to do with football with their original home called the Racecourse. Now of course they play at the Ipoo standium, which is much closer to the truth.
Their highest attendance at their new home is 33,378 against Liverpool, something they are rightly proud of, the lowest attendance was for an F.A Cup third round replay against Millwall with just 7,183 but the game is available on DVD for the many who missed it.
Although little information is available on the subject, i did find reference's to this club holding several records, one of which seems to relate to not only holding the record for points taken in a season, but that they hold this record by an impressive margin, although not able to discover that actual points total, i think we can all agree this is an impressive record to hold. They also hold the record for most goals witnessed in a season, which must have been awfully entertaining.
Towards the end of the 19th century Derby entered a golden era in their history reaching 3 F.A Cup finals in 6 years, losing all three to, well, Nottingham Forest actually, but also Sheffield United & the power house of British football that is Bury (when they set a record for the worst ever F.A Cup final defeat of 6 goals to none). They did though win the F.A Cup in 1946 but this was mainly due to the second World War having just ended & the only other team to enter was Charlton Athletic Ladies whom Derby beat in the final.
Derby’s most celebrated former player & all time top goal scorer is Steve Bloomer, he scored 238 goals in 375 appearances in his 1st stint with the club when he was promptly sold to Middlesbrough for a whopping £750 (still a club record transfer fee received) & when to old to continue playing the game at professional level, he returned to Derby & scored a further 53 goals in 98 games.
In the late 1980's the club was taken over by Robert Maxwell & like Mr Maxwell, their hopes & dreams sank like a stone never to be seen again.
So there you are, go & amaze your friends with your now superb knowledge of footballs unheard of minows.
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