Old Sawley Popside

This would be late seventies - under the grey iron fence below the scoreboard adjacent to the Ossie End. Upon reflection a stupid thing to do but they certainly were interesting times...I recall being on the Colombo corner at the start of the Tottenham Hotspur 8-2 win before being moved by the Old Bill along with a few dozen others into the Ossie End, Boro 4-1 (great Billy Hughes goal as I recall); Man City 2-1 home win, Everton 0-1 defeat on Bonfire Night weekend c. 1977 and ditto the previous season 1-3 defeat and Rod Thomas had a nightmare and the staying-up final game of the season v Ipswich Town 1977...a definite buzz and a rite of passage for a young-ish teenager but basically playing at being little big men.

Yes, as a 7 year old - I stood very near the front of the Normanton End with my dad - I also still have the programme.

Sheffield United 0 -1 Derby County 

FRS Bird

Derby County 2 - 0 Stoke City

FRGS own goal

I could write reams and reams on this topic but less is more in this instance. A complete and utter shambles - an absolute disgrace to our great club. An embarrassment. Total incompetence and tragically a prime example of how not to run a football club. The sooner that the buffoon Mr Candy Crush Saga is away from having anything to do with Derby County FC the better!

Birmingham City 0 - 1 Derby County

FRGS Baldock

Derby County 2 - 0 Huddersfield Town

FRGS Lawrence

Nope, there are, for me, three even worse occasions. Norwich City away (May 1980); Cambridge United away (August 1980) & Shrewsbury Town away (May 1984)…although the latter was a good day out bar the game. Oddly enough, last Sunday's friendly match v. Manchester United left me with a slight feeling of optimism for the forthcoming season.

Roy McFarland; Kevin Hector and Willie Carlin.

MASSIVE RELIEF - nothing more and nothing less.

I wish that Waggy would perform like this every week!

The road ahead is obviously going to be long and rocky.

COYR!!

Rabid - "Jubilee City" - obviously about the jewel of the Midlands and Sadler Gate is named checked in the song's lyrics.

As I recall Martin Roper of Anti-Pasti wrote the song then gave it to Rabid.

He did promise to take us out of the Championship...

Definitely give Rooney a chance. It's fair to say that Lampard and Morris galvanised the Rams in that one season but we saw some poor performances and I share Dean "Hick" Saunders comments about what would have happened without the loanees.

To quote a CFC supporting and season ticket holder pal of mine (old Chelsea), Lampard (and Morris) managing Chelsea ended up a bit like Delboy and Rodney running Amazon.