JJs dms

Wayne please do not shake his hand, think of through his actions our academy players have been sold cheap, even the 16 year old Derby lad crying for did not wish to go to Villa, wanting to stay and play for his club.
Duck Gibson

Gibson will always be known as the c**t who tried his best to shaft our club. We can blame him for the delay in takeover that meant we lost some of our players before we could extend their contracts. 

never forget or forgive

I had the privilege and the pleasure on Monday to meet up at Seven restaurant in Derby with some DCFC royalty.
I had been approached by a national newspaper (not the sun) sports reporter to ask if i could assist him in inviting some of the legends of the 1971/72 team, they are not just legends of Derby County but 1970s football in general, household names in the footballing world until this day and men of god for those who follow Derby County and forever revered in these parts.
What he wanted to do was to something that nobody else in the press seems bothered about and that is to bring the story of what those players did under the auspices and guidance of Brian Clough & Peter Taylor into the headlines and to freshen up and relive the story.
It has been such bad timing that the club is in such a mess that it can not honour these fine gentleman (another victim of the poor management of our club) so i was more than happy to get them together and sit in on what was a great three hours spent over lunch and a couple of drinks in a private room reliving not just that season but the seasons that followed.
its not for me to tell the stories as that honour falls to the reporter and in should be in print a little nearer the end of the season but needless to say there were some funny moments, some very honest and truthful moments and some sad moments.
Kevin was supposed to join us but had to pull out at the last minute but he was ably covered by the others, Messrs Mcfarland, Durban, Gemmill and O'Hare !
50 years ago they were Champions of England and will be forever Champions of Derby !

Keep it going .... We will take all the help we can 

Very true. Carried in a holdall from the train station and thrown over the roof of the old turnstiles to a waiting accomplice before being launched towards Robbo as he came down their left wing. Allegedly ?

Well predicted 3-1. Wish I’d had a bet now!
Excellent performance. First time in a while we played with some real verve and swagger at times, alongside high energy and high intensity, we out ran them in the first 50-60 mins. Rooney won’t have been happy with some of our play at 3-0, we were pushing for the 4th and gave the ball away a lot lost control of the game and conceded a poor goal, then we regained some composure and saw out the game ok in the end. 
 
Can’t think of anyone who played badly. I really like Allsop in goal at the moment, he’s playing really well. Byrne was outstanding, Foz had a good 60 mins then iffy finish, Buchanan excellent at centre half Davies doing what he’s done all season. Lawrence excellent, Ebosele given MOM which I probably agree with, electric performance, Knight excellent, but Bird and Bielik make a huge difference in the middle of the park, thought the latter got better and better as the game went on before he started to tire. He gives us the platform to play. He’s vital. 
 
The fans were also amazing tonight. Special atmosphere. This season could be one of the most memorable in our history. The great escape is on!

If you think scenes will be like outside that night. . . . . . . . you were not there!!  Boro and Derby today,  pussycats compared to Millwalls knuckledraggers that night

You'd want Knighty with you in a scrap. Worked his socks off from the first minute to the last. Top man.

Festy will deservedly get all the plaudits tonight, but Jason Knight was absolutely outstanding. 

Hull had been doing very well before playing us. They were relegation fodder at Christmas. 
 
I don’t think they were bad, we was just bloody brilliant. 

Do you need any help with postage costs? 
 
 

My recollections of the Leicester play off.
Paul Williams was paralysed by a ray gun from outer space for one goal and their other goal would have been ruled out and a red card issued by VAR
Got back to a multi-storey car park near Wembley and witnessed 10 or 12 Leicester fans getting kicked to duck by a rabid bunch of Derby fans. My mate and I had 11 and 12 year old lads with us and they saw a bit of nasty violence that day.
Following day, me and the lad were at Alton Towers wearing Derby shirts, a family of Leicester fans came over to us and were very decent, saying that Derby were the better team but they had the luck on the day.
It was a painful feeling losing to them as we were a far better team, same as QPR, but we were probably a tad lucky to beat West Brom even though we finished 8 points above them!

Possibly the worst thing about all those playoff finals was that we were in good shape to do well in the Prem if we'd got promoted.
Had we gone up in 1994 we would surely have kicked on with a young, talented squad & a fantastic owner. Blackburn showed a bit of money went a long way in the mid 90s & we could have joined them. Instead a bunch of long ball cloggers went up in our place & came straight back down. At least we made it back 2 years later albeit with a very different feel to the squad.
The team in 2014 would also have done well...midfield of Hughes, Thorne & Hendrick as a very capable core & given the division was at its weakest (Leics winning title in 15/16), we could have been in European contention had we bought shrewdly. I accept the 2018/19 side was largely dependant on loans but there was still a decent core of players & think Harry Wilson & possibly Tomori would have come back on loan. Morris would surely have bought big also.
Instead the only final we won was with by far the weakest squad in terms of quality, promoted into an historically strong division (2 English CL finalists that year) & a manager in open warfare with the owners. We were always going to finish bottom even if 11 points wasnt inevitable. Typical Derby.

Was at a & b….QPR for me, shattering as we were so dominant in the second half…didn’t ever see them scoring..

One of the reasons I detest Man Utd - they were one of the main clubs behind the change (could it possibly have been because they had the largest ground?!!) - completely broke the competitive nature of the game by lettting the bigger clubs get bigger while the smaller clubs floundered.....

I don't know if it's just that I'm getting older or if football has changed so much over the past few years, but there's such a huge gap between where we are and the top of the PL that I'm really not that fussed about getting promoted to the so called 'promised land'. As long as I can support my local team, see plenty of effort, a bit of skill and a few goals (preferably winning more games than we lose) then that will do for me - I'm not sure I even actually care that much about which league we're in....

What ruined football was the marketing machine. 
I think owners have always been the same. But now thanks to the commercial titan that is the Premier League/Champions League the game attracts all kinds of snake oil salesman and billionaire hipsters. As well as naive businessman who think on pitch results can be controlled by practices they implemented in their other ventures
With the Internet and streaming services etc etc football is able to draw in an audience like never before. And in England the Premier League has been packaged and sold to the mainstream audience. To the casual fan. 
It's like Boxing. 2 YouTubers fight and the viewing figures are insane. 2 top super lightweights fight for a UK record breaking undisputed title fight and its not even televised in the UK.
The way the Premier League works isn't for the purists. It casts its net over a wider audience and knows the real money doesn't come from match tickets. But it comes from subscriptions, from advertising, from getting bums on seats in living rooms as much as stadiums. It's packaged for TV audiences as an experience. 
But it was the Premier League and Sky that forged that path. The rest of football has been playing catch up ever since. 
Clubs like Derby are irrelevant. They're an undercard on a boxing show. They're not part of the marketing machine. 
Derby can die because they are "protected" by the EFL. A pathetic organisation that can't stand on its own 2 feet, can't protect its clubs and can't offer them a way to compete with the top clubs. 
Leicester can't die. They're protected by the Premier League. An organisation that draws money and interest from all the globe. A League that offers clubs everything possible to bounce back even if relegated. A league that will tell the world that Leicester are far far more exciting and interesting than Derby, Forest, Ipswich, Sheffield Wednesday, Sheffield United etc. 
And people drink it in. Bournemouth v Fulham or Burnley v Leicester? What's going to sell? Which one is packaged with those legendary pundits, theatrical music and whatever bells and whistles attached.
If you think "I've been going to Derby for 50 years" matters then you're deluded. 
You matter if you press the red button on your remote, if you subscribe to watch Gilette offer the closest shave ever, if you're 1m Chinese kids who's views attract 1bn pounds worth of advertising from Chinese companies.
The Premier League setting itself apart was a death and rebirth of football. And we see to a lesser extent the Champions League. 
The greed almost reached a new level when the PPV clubs decided they could go off and do it all again without minor inconveniences such as relegation and being kicked by Burnley

Whatever the eventual outcome of all this we should never forgive or forget

Whatever the eventual outcome of all this we should never forgive or forget

Whatever the eventual outcome of all this we should never forgive or forget

Whatever the eventual outcome of all this we should never forgive or forget

Whatever the eventual outcome of all this we should never forgive or forget

Whatever the eventual outcome of all this we should never forgive or forget

Whatever the eventual outcome of all this we should never forgive or forget

I'm not sure why anyone would be surprised at the brum fans today. Always been the same. Yes all teams have some nutters but generally, most tend to only target like minded fans.
Brum, Millwall, Leeds and Stoke to name a few, have a long history of attacking ordinary fans and families.
Massive bankers, always have been, always will be.