Old Sawley Popside

Buy at the bottom, sell at the top.

Sick of hearing that the EFL are the enemy. They did not start this - our owner tried to game the FFP system and got caught out. It is Mel Morris’ fault we are where we are - he is an arrogant egotistical individual who isn’t used to being told no and can’t bear the thought that he is being held to account despite his best efforts. 
 

Agreed but we created the situation. We should not be surprised at the EFL stance. His ego got the better of him and now he is getting shafted. 

It's not necessarily Mel's money per se (in the abstract sense in that the investments are mostly loans, etc). He is obviously looking to get as much money back as he can. He may write some of it off but I don't believe he's in the Lionel Pickering 'ah fk it' camp and is prepared to write it all off! Let's say he's invested £50m - I'd imagine he wants at least £25m back.Obviously it's not as simple as that because of who owns what and I've no doubt that he'll link some of his investment to long-term results from the academy (i.e. perhaps a percentage for the next 10 years of all transfer fees from academy players) but anyway, the point of it is, if we truly went into administration then he'd be a creditor so would get 20p in the £ or whatever the agreement is that (even preferential) creditors get. 
With regard to protesting against the EFL - to be sure that your feelings are not just frustration at the (awful) situation then perhaps you have to ask what their motivation is. If you believe them to be corrupt then fair enough, protest away. However, they strike me as inept and a bit naive but they're ultimately trying to stop people like Mel doing what he's done to DCFC...
So we might not like it as we're the 'target' but ultimately, it looks like we've cheated (repeatedly) and as such, their focus should be on getting Mel out and more... stable owners in. I don't think they have a vendetta against DCFC (why would they) but perhaps (and with some merit) believe Mel isn't good for the league or DCFC.

Mel has let he club, the team and the fans down badly. I won’t protest I will support the team and do so long after he has gone, regardless of the division. He has given up on Derby and is the only person who can resolve this today. Sadly his ego prevents him doing so. Thanks for your efforts and thanks for the scarf. 

I'm sorry but Morris put the bullets in the gun. 100% his fault. 

If we're going to do this we should do it properly. Let's try and rack up the biggest points deduction in a single season in football league history.
-12 for admin
-3 for unpaid wages
-12 for ffp
What else can we do?

So covid gets mentioned how many times !!! So no other club have had covid implications no ….go …… yourself Mel you’re a disgrace 

I lived in Leeds when they went into administration. People with small businesses who had very little lost everything. Same in Leicester I imagine. Look at those clubs now, both paying wages of over £100k a week and sod the little people.
It’s these people I feel sorry for and those decent people who work within the club who won’t know if they will be paying their mortgages in the next few months. Meanwhile the likes of Sam Rush, bang average players like Ikechi Anya and so many agents we probably couldn’t count them will all be sitting in their mansions no doubt not giving a poo. Football is completely broken and I am sick of it. Thanks Mel, thanks Steven, thanks Keogh- super work. 

Feel most sad for the non-playing staff. Ticket office, chefs, cleaners, receptionists etc.
Hope they get treated right.
Not to mention any small business creditors we owe as they are always the ones shafted - See Kevin Bridges Rangers' face painting company bit.
 

Take the season ticket money, own the stadium, then calls in the administrator.
Any last sympathies and respect for Mel have gone.
Without being crass, I'm glad my Dad isn't witnessing this. 

That evening picture is iconic. Dark and then suddenly seeing the floodlights and hearing the crowd...great memories.

Etched into our DNA

I was fortunate enough to watch our second title win as a youth on the 'pop side' I'll always remember a midweek game towards the end of that season against man city, which we won 2-0 (I think) with Rioch scoring an absolute screamer! The other game that always stands out is our FA Cup quarter final victory over Newcastle...... The goals..... What a game, Charlie George, Kevin Hector, never reach those heights again, I consider myself very fortunate to have witnessed that era........ You Raaaaaaaaams!! 

Regardless of what you think of that song it really does sum up what being Derby County is all about, be it as a supporter or as a player. Gary Rowett could do a lot worse than put that video up on a large screen and make the players read the words. Every single successful side we've had in my memory, the principal attribute it has had is pride in wearing the badge. I remember perfectly the Brian Clough, Dave Mackay, Arthur Cox and Jim Smith teams. First and foremost they played 100% every game. They gave their all. They won their personal battles. After that their class shone through, but they worked hard and with pride to allow that to happen. Nigel Clough was also big on that aspect (but that's for another, hopefully long ago written, thread). If Rowett can get his team playing with pride in the badge, something which he always did, then that bit of class which these players supposedly have should be more than enough to make them serious contenders for promotion. Derby Pride, let's start showing it EVERY game. After that que sera, sera. What will be, will be! For me this is the "Derby Way".

I know we've done this before but its sort of compulsory when it pops up again!
First game 1970 v Everton who were Champions at the time. Walking up to the ground as a 10 year old with the crowds, the smell of cigarette smoke, walking past pubs with that old stale beer smell wafting through the doors, being scared when grown men are shouting and threatening each other across the street, coppers keeping order with clips round the ear.
Get into the ground, feel the buzz, the sheer excitement and electricity of thousands packed in like sardines, swaying and singing, being lifted up by complete strangers and passed down to the front to sit legs crossed at the side of the pitch.....
I remember playing Leicester at home after Clough and Taylor had been sacked/resigned in 1973, it was the first game i went to with mates rather than with an adult. I was on the Popside, i thought i was a proper grown up, its hard to explain, but  i was a skinny little lad who took confidence from being old enough to get the train into Derby, walk up to the ground and be part of the masses singing their hearts out every game. I turned from a timid lad to "one of the boys" at a school that was mainly Stoke fans. Never did get bullied or picked on after that point and have always worn my Rams colours/badges etc since. Still do now.
!974-75 season was unbelieveable, we took on every club with total football. Colin Boulton in goal (got to be the best ever English keeper not to get a cap), Toddy, Nish, Thomas and Peter Daniel (standing in for the injured Roy Mac) at the back, Bruce Rioch, Henry Newton and Archie Gemmill in midfield, Gladys, Zak, Big Rog and Frannie Lee smashing the goals in......went every game, home and away. The Vulcan Street Popside was the place to be back then. Away fans would try and "take" it,  never happened....Tottenham, West Ham, Man City, Arsenal.....all got a good kicking a few seconds after the initial gap opened up on an already packed terrace.....fair play to them, can't remember any other fans trying to take the Popside, How those gaps opened up is amazing but once the bloke with the cap (from Ilson), or the big Dutch lad, Johann, piled in, it was all over for the away lads who thought little Derby were an easy touch. This was 7 or 8 years before the DLF were even heard of.
We are the Derby, the Midlands we rule....
 
 

It's 50 years this month since I first went to the Baseball Ground and I remember the Beatles Strawberry Fields Forever and Penny Lane being played repeatedly on the tannoy system. Every time I hear either of those songs it takes me straight back to standing in the 'Boy' s Corner' and being totally enthralled by attending my first Ram's game. 
I think the game I most enjoyed was the record attendance game two years later in September 1969 when we beat Spurs 5-0. It was unbelievable that a newly promoted club could do that. 

When I think back now to my childhood and going to those DCFC games at the Baseball Ground in the 70's ... The old guys I used to see ... All looooong gone I bet ... but they would've been around in the 40's watching our FA cup win ect ... 
 
I did'nt appreciate this then . 

Ahhhhhh where to start. Read this post yesterday and decided to have a good think first.....
Opening match for me is 1970 freezing cold 4-4 draw with Law; Best n Charlton...Les Green in goal for us and Ive read in later years that this was the game that Peter Taylor decided Les had to go..... I dont remember this day in colour at all. Me and my grandad on the corporation bus from Breadsall Hilltop into town....my grandad with his park drives non filter smoking on the bus.... fish cake and batter bits on Shaftsbury Street for the first time but most certainly not the last.
Another one sticks crazy in the mind is the fog v Burnley..night game...Mark Patterson scores a screamer, goal of his career...then he breaks his leg, the fog descends and the game is called off. Poor lad cant even claim the goal.
Gazza kicking the buckets of water all over....
Penalty spot being re painted v Citeh..Big Joe Corrigan trying to argue the length with the ref....
In sheer awe of the class of David Nish.... Just about every game. 
Being REALLY REALLY glad that I never had to play v Mick Harford.
But I think the game that stays with me as one of the most amazing was a loss actually.... 89 or 90 Im sure... Derby 4 - Chelsea 6. And if my memory serves me correctly we were 1-4 down with 15 mins to go. Never for get that one.... 
Wouldnt sway my memories or supporting this club alongside you lot for owt.... its not being boring has it.
 

my first experience of the BBG , was fight night , Franny versus Hunter , totally hooked after that (as was Hunter) other memories include being on the pop side when 33000 packed in the BBG , for a cup tie with Man Utd , and the pop side moving as one every time The Rams got the ball , the clough versus taylor fa cup tie and Mark Wright running from one side of the pitch to the other to sort out Trevor Putney of Norwich after a nasty skirmish with the Tin Man

You can almost feel the hairs on the back of your neck start to tingle !!!

The last season at the BBG, we made so many good sides look very ordinary. The following two seasons at PP was even better, but we put in some pretty decent performances for a newly promoted side. These three games stick out the most from 96/97. I only properly started going the season before, so the Tranmere performance (Simmo hat trick), having got hammered at their place and the Palace promotion game also stand out.
 

This day was special !