With no money to spend, Burley played the markets and made two key free signings in Iigo Idiakez and Grzegorz Rasiak. 32 of 81. A run of three consecutive defeats in mid April meant that survival wasn't guaranteed until the penultimate game of the season when Player of the Year Rob Hulse scored the winner in a 10 win over Charlton Athletic at Pride Park. survival) in the Premier League and when this was not achieved the club was once again plunged into financial crisis. Overview; News; Fixtures & Results; Record against. One of the innovations Clough and Taylor brought about was a simplification of what was now considered a very old fashioned club crest. All this was temporarily overshadowed by controversy surrounding the signing of Fuertes who, after scoring twice, including the winner against Everton, was refused entry back into Britain after a club training break in Portugal when immigration officials discovered that his Italian passport was forged; Derby were able to recoup his fee by transferring him to French side Lens for 2.8m. However, the club entered the Playoffs without the presence of key duo Rasiak and Idiakez both unavailable through injury and a 20 defeat in the first leg away to Preston North End proved impossible to overturn in the second leg at Pride Park, which finished 00 in front of a crowd of over 31,000. [19] He was replaced by Academy Coach Terry Westley who made key captures in Alan Wright, Kevin Lisbie and Michael McIndoe as well as introduced youngsters such as Lewin Nyatanga and Giles Barnes into regular first team action. [33] Despite this however, Derby made a disastrous start to the Premier League 2007-08 season and following their 60 defeat by Liverpool on 1 September 2007, Irish bookmakers Paddy Power decided to pay out on the club to be relegated after just five games of the new season. When Derby County ascended to the top of English soccer in the early 1970s the game was a lot more meritocratic than it is today. [89] Having invested "in excess of 200m" in the club, owner Mel Morris apologised to fans and staff about the administration. The Baseball Ground's location in residential area meant that after all alternatives had been explored, including the renovating the Baseball Ground to a 26,000 all-seater arena, it was decided it would be of more benefit for the club to move instead, with it being announced that the stadium would be completed for the start of the 19971998 season. In one of the greatest nights in the club's history, Derby swept aside Benfica 30 in front of 38,100 fans and then held their nerve in the return leg to record a 00 draw at the Estdio da Luz in front of 75,000 (becoming only the second club in European football history, after Ajax, to keep a clean sheet against Benfica over two legs) to win 30 on aggregate and advance to the quarter finals. 1. Derby's home since 1894, The Baseball Ground had been reduced to just 18,000 seat due to the legal requirement for all seater stadia, and the club's revenue opportunities were held back by limited attendances and the move to a purpose built, 30,000 seater stadium, later name Pride Park Stadium, on the Pride Park business park just outside Derby city centre, was born more of necessity then desire. The move was received with widespread uproar from the Derby support, with the formation of a protest group, the holding of public meetings and even the backing of respected local M.P. Players weren't paid on time (resulting in Danny Higginbotham going on strike), with high earning players such as Georgi Kinkladze and Fabrizio Ravanelli underperforming, and the club was trading insolvent. Maxwell, who appeared to have vast wealth at his disposal, helped the directors raise the 220,000 necessary to lift the petitions and Derby survived off the pitch. [51] However, the club were knocked out of the first round of League Cup against League Two opposition for the third season in a row against Shrewsbury Town. Out of a final two of Smith and Brian Horton. County Chairs. In this sequence the club won 13 of its fixtures, scoring three or more goals on 8 occasions and recorded a 41 win at Birmingham City, their first win at St. Andrews since 1948, and catapulted themselves from the bottom five to the top of the table in the space of four months, at one point finding themselves 7 points clear at the top of the table. Despite raising over 7m in transfers, the club could no longer attract such quality of player to the club for affordable fees and only Seth Johnson and Esteban Fuertes were signed, the former for a club record 3m. The season started very strongly, with just two defeats in the opening half of the season seeing Derby sitting at the top of the table with 47 points after 23 games. The eight match of this run was a 03 defeat by Nottingham Forest and Gregory was suspended the next day, the club alleging serious misconduct. To maintain the momentum of winning the Championship, Mackay added more firepower to his side with the 100,000 capture of Charlie George from Arsenal. The club's reserve side had a less successful year than in the two previous seasons, with the club missing out on the Central League title by one point from Sheffield United, as well as being beaten in the Derbyshire Senior Cup final by Buxton. Derby County: Season 1970/1971: 22 Players/Coaches: Derby County: Season 1969/1970: 21 Players/Coaches: Derby County: Season 1968/1969: 22 Players/Coaches: Derby County: . Although shorn of the star names of the previous decade, Derby had the ever consistent Steve Buckley in the ranks, alongside a striking combination of Alan Biley and Dave Swindlehurst, who both broke double figures for the season, as well as the experience of McFarland and Steve Powell. Either they were wrong to appoint (Todd) or wrong to dismiss him Pickering's Chairmanship was pointing the club towards disaster. The club also finished League runners-up twice in the 1930s, and won the FA Cup in 1946 . [8] The run ended with a 03 defeat by title rivals Sunderland at Roker Park but the club recovered to take 12 points from their next 8 fixtures, including revenge on Tranmere with a 62 win at The Baseball Ground. (Music director for Bette Midler) October 16, 1973 Dane County Coliseum, Madison, WI (Music director for Bette Midler . The club recorded an average attendance of 26,020, 3 down previous campaign but still the third highest in the Championship behind West Ham United and Southampton. However, a Steve Howard header in a 10 win at Wolves on 12 September 2006 proved a catalyst as the club lost only 4 of its next 27 fixtures (a run which included winning all 6 league fixtures in November 2006 and an 8 match winning streak, 6 league, 2 FA Cup, from 30 December 2006 up until 10 February 2007). [70] Derby once again broke their transfer record, with Czech international Matj Vydra joining for 8,000,000 from Watford,[71] while Jeff Hendrick became the club's highest ever outgoing transfer with a 10,500,000 move to Burnley. With money tight, Clough was forced to cobble together a team from free transfers and loan deals ahead of the 200910 season, with 14 players signing temporary deals over the season and only Shaun Barker and Dean Moxey of the nine permanent signings arriving for fees, despite almost 3m being made in player sales (including 1.5m for Emanuel Villa). Although the season ended with a 62 victory over Ipswich Town at Portman Road, with Francis Lee grabbing 2 goals in the final game of his career, unbeknown to Derby County and its fans, the club's peak was passing. John Kirkland, who ran Derbyshire construction giant Bowmer and Kirkland and was Derby County's longest-serving director, has passed away. The club announced on Friday that they had been . [43] and equalled Loughborough's 108-year Football League record of going through an entire season with only one win. On the pitch however, things fell to a new low. However, neither the club nor Clough would back down and, after being turned down by Ipswich Town boss Bobby Robson, the club approached former player Dave Mackay, then Nottingham Forest manager, who took over at the end of October 1973. Nothing specific was ever offered and the next board had to pay Gregory a seven figure settlement. The plans were scaled down from the planned 20 million pound development proposed in 2007. A poor start, just 3 wins from 20 matches, put any hopes of a repeat of the previous campaign to bed and Brown was under intense pressure almost straight away. Since Taylor had left the club 9 years previously he had won two European Cups and the League with Nottingham Forest, before retiring. Alonso, 29, has high hopes for Derby. . On 29 October 2007 Pearson was named as the executive chairman of Derby County after buying the majority share holding from Peter Gadsby. Republican Party. However, this proved a false dawn and a 10 defeat away to Gillingham in the next game signalled what was to come as the club won just 10 of its opening 29 fixtures and suffered embarrassing cup exits to lower league teams Brentford (FA Cup) and Oldham Athletic (League Cup). He lost in the Republican primary on June 28, 2022. Newman managed just 5 wins during the remainder of the campaign as Derby finished a lowly 16th and where only saved from relegation by the return of the mercurial Charlie George on non-contract terms from Bournemouth. A refinancing scheme was put in place which saw Pride Park sold to the "mysterious"[18] Panama-based ABC Corporation and the club paying rent of 1m a year to play there, which local journalist Gerald Mortimer described as "an affront.. to those who put everything into building (the ground)."[18]. Phillip Whitehead. He eventually put the club up for sale in September 1990, putting it into limbo as it was unable to buy players or even bring any in on loan. Application Process. [15] In an attempt to bounce back to the top flight at the first time of asking the club rejected offers for their better players over the summer -such as Malcolm Christie, Mart Poom, Danny Higginbotham and Chris Riggott and an opening day 30 win over Reading seemed to have justified the decision. "[14] Another former Rams hero. Although results did not improve dramatically (most games ended in draws, taking the club to a record 20 draws in a single campaign) Derby managed to take 18 points from their final 16 games and avoided relegation, finishing 20th. Dino Zoff in goal for Juventus. The club paid the price, earning only 3 wins from their first 17 fixtures. For all his faults, however, Docherty had kept an increasingly ailing Derby County side in the top flight and this proved impossible for Colin Addison the following season. 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. The club settled into mid-table mediocrity until Brian Clough and Peter Taylor arrived in 1967 and transformed the club. After a 00 draw at Broomfield Park, Derby overcame their Scottish opponents 21 at the Baseball Ground, with Roger Davies, signed for 12,000 the previous summer from non-league Worcester City and who scored many a crucial goal in the successful reserve team, grabbing the winner in a 21 victory to give Derby their second cup win in as many season. Derby had budgeted for a fourth bottom finish (i.e. Although there were two Derby players, Mark Wright and Peter Shilton (who became Derby's most capped player that campaign) in the England team that reached the 1990 World Cup semi-finals the club could only manage a 16th-place finish in 198990 and endured an even worse campaign the following year. Maxwell was replaced first by Brian Fearn and then by Lionel Pickering, who made his fortune through the founding and running of a free newspaper, and brought majority shareholdings and invested 12m in the form of a loan. The club had also reached the FA Cup semi finals for the first time since winning the competition in 1946, but without the inspiration of George they crashed 20 against Manchester United at Hillsborough and any talk of "The Double", not a fanciful notion given the club's form, disappeared. Dave Mackay ended his three-year tenure at the club with his first ever ever-present campaign, a personal goal, and won the club's Player of the Year award. Injuries also played a significant role; one match, away to Ipswich Town in October, came at the height of the club's injury problems and saw them unable to even name a full complement of substitutes such was the lack of players available. Whilst several players, such as Malcolm Christie, bought from Nuneaton Borough for 50,000 and eventually registering 30 goals in 129 appearances for the club over 5 years, Richard Jackson and Paul Boertien (both of whom spent nearly a decade at the club), were successfully captured from lower league sides, Smith's previous golden touch in the transfer market had appeared to desert him, as players such as Bjorn Otto Bragstad, Con Blatsis, and Daniele Daino where bought and barely registered on the field, with safety only guaranteed on the penultimate day of the 200001 FA Premier League season; Malcolm Christie's goal the difference in a 10 win away to Manchester United. With the goals of front three Kevin Hector, Francis Lee (a 100,000 capture from Manchester City in August 1974), and Roger Davies, all of whom hit 12 or more league goals, supplemented by midfielder Bruce Rioch, whose 15 strikes helped me finish the club's top league scorer, Derby hit Q.P.R. Paul Simpson also came in from big money (800k from Oxford United) as did Marco Gabbiadini (1.3m from Sunderland) and even Bobby Davison (who had left for Leeds United three years earlier), returned for a spell on loan and reached a century of goals for Derby, only the 7th player and most recent to do so, when he netted in a 22 draw with Newcastle United. With a more settled side than he was previously allowed Burley only used 24 players, 7 of whom were involved in 10 or less games and a strong mix of academy graduates (Lee Grant, Pablo Mills, Tom Huddlestone, Marcus Tudgay) and inspired purchases (Rasiak, Idiakez, Tommy Smith) Derby enjoyed a splendid second half to the season, recording just 6 defeats in their final 24 fixtures, including a run of 1 defeat in 14, and equalled the club record for away wins in a season and setting a club record of 6 consecutive away victories. During this period the club was managed by its greatest ever manager, Brian Clough, and was represented by players such as Kevin Hector, Roy McFarland, Archie Gemmill, Stefano Eranio and Igor timac, all of whom where voted into the club's All Time First Eleven in 2010. Tom Naylor also earned praise from Nigel Clough for his development and impressed when standing in for John Brayford at right-back. Form declined badly and key players departed Paul Goddard was sold to Millwall for 800,000 whilst injuries bit into a squad increasingly short of depth. However, results fell off in equally spectacular fashion after the New Year, as only 12 points from a possible 36 saw the Rams spiral down to 10th place, 10 points away from a play-off position. Derby County, champions of England twice in the 1970s, Championship play-off finalists in 2014 and 2019, the club of Brian Clough, Dave Mackay and Roy McFarland, have gone into. Wayne Rooney's valiant attempt to keep Derby County in the Championship despite a 21-point deduction came to an end on Monday as a 1-0 defeat at QPR saw the Rams relegated.. Derby County chairman Mel Morris (Photo: Getty Images) In keeping with the entire saga, which started in 2018 when Derby's owner Mel Morris exploited the legal loophole of selling Pride Park to . From the start of April to mid march, Derby picked up 14 points out a possible 21 which lifted Derby to 11th in the table, 5 points off the play-offs with 4 games remaining, Derby manager Nigel Clough however ruled out a play-off place, wishing there was more the 4 games left as the club were showing great form. Todd won just four of his fifteen league games in charge and recorded heavy defeat by Fulham (25), Manchester United (05), Middlesbrough (15) and West Ham United (04) but, as Gerald Mortimer stated, "Derby could not have it both ways. Despite the headline grabbing capture of Italian international Fabrizio Ravanelli from Lazio, who scored on his debut in a 21 win over Blackburn Rovers, Derby's first opening day win since beating Sunderland 50 at the start of the 199394 season, Derby only took five points from their opening seven games of the 200001 season and Smith left his position in early October 2001, rejecting the position of Director of Football. [63] McClaren also saw The Rams beat their record for most goals scored in one season (84 goals). Some of their responsibilities include overseeing the Primary, Candidate Filing, and other elections; chairing County Executive Committee Meetings; organizing and leading the local party; as well as overseeing and/or assisting with precinct and . When this was not granted, Mackay's position became essentially untenable and he was sacked on 25 November 1976. A second tilt at European football was made in the 199899 season, the Rams peaking in 2nd place after 6 games with a 20 home win over Leicester City, eventually finishing one place better off in 8th.