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Your favourite season

petersimple

By petersimple
in Derby County Forum

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petersimple

petersimple

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My favourite season would either be 1968-69 or 1975-76.

 

The first season ended with great promise and expectation as we were promoted to the first division. I can remember listening to some Bristol City fans in the Normanton Stand at the final game when we beat them 5-0 at home.  Despite the result they were said they were pleased at the chance to have watched such an exciting Derby team.

 

Some of those games that season seem to be stuck in my mind. The win over Chelsea in the League Cup was probably the highlight of the season. Everyone who was at that game will remember the atmosphere. I don't think any other game has topped that for me. My clearest memories of that season are from the away game at Bury. After that game I really believed that we could go up. For some reason I can remember the conversations on the train coming back. Someone was saying that Revie had offered Lorimer for Hector and a few in our carriage thought that would be a good swap for Derby. One fan shouted out with great excitement that Swindon had scored 9 against some team. He then realised he was reading the rugby league score for Swinton. Another person started talking about some jazz show on the radio. I don't know why these conversations have remained in my skull and you are probably wondering why I am bothering to share them with you. I don't know.

The 1975-76 season started with a shock home defeat 1-5 home defeat by QPR and it ended with disappointment but in between I saw some of the best football I have witnessed at Derby. The famous game against Leeds with the Hunter-Lee fight came close to matching the atmosphere at the 1968 Chelsea game. With the early November darkness it felt like a night game and smoke from the half-time entertainment seemed to me to be swirling around for much of the second half. The game was very even and I thought Leeds might win. I can still hear the Leeds fan behind me shouting “Come on Duncan (McKenzie). Give us some magic.” The brilliant last gasp goal by Roger Davies capped a great game.

No one who was at the Real Madrid game that season will forget it. I was on the Popside level with Charlie George when he scored that great goal. It happened so quickly that it seemed to take ages for anyone to respond. We were stunned. What a player he was. Half way through that season I had no doubt that we would win everything. But then we had injury to Charlie and the lack of depth in the club let us down. That 6-2 win at Ipswich at the end of the season was very strange. It just seemed to show that they could crush any team when they were on form.

The decline over the following seasons hit us all very hard. I suppose it was like finding out that your spouse had cheated on you. You can still live together but it will never be the same. You feel let down. Those of us who followed Derby through the great years still support Derby but because of that sudden decline many of us don't love them anymore.

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eddie

eddie

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Great memories, petersimple.

 

I too remember the Chelsea game as if it was yesterday, and the noise was unbelievable as Dave Mackay drove the team on. Then a couple of weeks later we got to do it all over again against Everton.

 

Re the 'Battle of the Baseball Ground', that was 4 days before the second leg of the European Cup tie against Real Madrid - I am convinced to this day that Dirty Leeds set out to nobble Derby because they were terrified that we would beat them to the 'big prize', even though Revie and Clough had both departed for pastures new. It's probably just my paranoia, but my hatred of them has continued to fester.

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ilkleyram

ilkleyram

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1975/76 WAS a great season for the reasons petersimple describes but it tailed away in the end, after Charlie was injured, and also included the single worst football experience of my life, losing the FA Cup semi final.  I hate Hillsborough and no number of Bamford rockets will ever change my mind.

 

But the season before - 1974/75 - when we won the first division title and played some sublime football was my favourite, only nearly matched by 1995/96, the Jim Smith promotion year.  In 74/75 we went to matches, home and away, not wondering whether or not we would win but by how many. Happy days and happy memories. 

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ossieram

ossieram

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I was only a youngster when we won our league titles, Although i've got some great memories from that time.

But i really enjoyed the seasons under Cox as we climbed back up the leagues, The away days with the lads and some fantastic football to watch.

I remember us going into town after beating Rotherham and getting loads out of the pub lined up along Victoria st and a huge pissed up Mexican wave going up and down.

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King Kevin

King Kevin

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I am lucky enough [if being an old ****] is lucky, to have seen the great sides . But despite winning the old first division twice and having the great European nights my favourite season was 1968-9 .We finished on 63 points which I think is still the record for two points for a win [if my memory serves me right].

  We were very much on an upward trend and it was all relatively  new and exciting ,brilliant brilliant days and me and my mates were the right age to enjoy it .Need to invent a time machine.

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Tombo

Tombo

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This one.

 

I am old enough to remember some of the Premier League moments under Jim Smith, but not old enough to say that they were the seasons that excited me more than this one because I was just a wee young'un not even started school yet at the time.

 

Could also say perhaps 06/07 because we went up but I wasn't in love with the football we were playing. Maybe that's just hindsight because of what happened in 07/08.

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nfb

nfb

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Has to be 68/69 Old Big Head was in charge, and i went to every game except 3 including friendlies...... (one at St Johnstone, now that was a day out ! ) we didnt start well but by the end we were unbeatable, and the joy at going to the promised land was amazing, after the Brizzle game which we won 5-0, i nicked a corner flag as a souvenir and got caught leaving the ground with it sadly or i'd still have it... b4 u judge, I was just a foolish yoof who was intoxicated with our success , :wub:

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