RoyMac5 Posted December 3, 2020 Share Posted December 3, 2020 I'm trying to get to the heart of the matter. I'm trying to recall what Derby and football means to me. So as we are entering a period of festivals celebrating birth, rededication, new beginnings I'd like to hear your Derby stories, Small stories about how one moment is memorable and sticks with you and helps you stay committed to the faith. Come on you Mighty Rams! Mine is a recent one, well not that recent - Mac's Play Off Final. Waiting for the train at Paddington Station after the game. Talking to a younger bloke, new to the faith. He was about to throw his scarf in the bin. I told him that when you'd been supporting the club as long as I had that there would be better days, we'd be back. I asked for the scarf and he handed it over. I've still got it, it makes me smile when I see it folded up in the spare room - waiting to come out again! I hope the young bloke still has the faith. #COYR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
66DegreesNorth Posted December 3, 2020 Share Posted December 3, 2020 April 95 v Tranmere, My first time watching Derby. Walking up the steps on the Toyota stand and seeing the pitch. Couldn't believe how close we were to it. I had been to a couple matches before, two at wembley, one at the Dell and another at Filbert St, but the Baseball Ground had it's own little bit of special about it. I remember there were still terraces in the corner of the Toyota stand and the Ossie Park Rd stand. Tranmere get a corner and Pat Nevin comes over to take it, Derby 3-0 up at this stage. My Uncle bellows '' Whats the score baldie..?'' and duly gets a muttered ''duck Off'' response. Must have been a thousand people laughing at this. We went on to win 5-0 that day. July of that year, I bought my first season ticket and every year after that until I moved to Iceland 2005. Great comradery with complete strangers is the thing I miss the most, the match itself is second best if I am honest and any trip back home to Derby is organised around the fixture list. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premier ram Posted December 3, 2020 Share Posted December 3, 2020 My first ever game was the infamous Derby v Leeds game , otherwise known as the British heavyweight boxing match , our Franny against Bite your legs Hunter , always destined to be a Ram after that memorable start COYR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ram1964 Posted December 3, 2020 Share Posted December 3, 2020 At the age of 6 moved from Derby ,sunny hill to warrington. Everyone at my new school were all man utd fans and wanted to be George Best or Bobby Charlton and I just made a conscious decision that I didn't want to follow the crowd. Anyone can support utd or Liverpool but I had a identity with Derby and that binding loyalty was forged their and then in the play ground.. Half the kids had never heard of Derby but within a few years beyond all expectation we were a top club ,winning the league and performing admirably in europe.They all new who the rams were after that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StarterForTen Posted December 3, 2020 Share Posted December 3, 2020 I became a Derby fan because my Gran didn't know the difference between 'Old Gold' and 'Tangerine'.... I was five years old and asked for a Blackpool FC football shirt for Christmas. I lived in Crewe and visited Blackpool for days out - and loved the colour of the club's football shirts - simple as that. Sadly, my Gran couldn't get hold of a Blackpool shirt, so picked a Wolves shirt instead; close enough she thought. My Dad was a railways man and darted between Crewe Works and Derby Technical Centre for his job. He was given two tickets to see Derby vs Wolves in the FA Cup (circa 1971?) and took me along, thinking I would like to see Wolves. Instead I fell in love with Derby - not because of the players but because I found the BBG utterly intoxicating. Standing ankle deep in piss in the bogs behind B Stand clearly had its charms... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RoyMac5 Posted December 3, 2020 Author Share Posted December 3, 2020 9 minutes ago, StarterForTen said: I became a Derby fan because my Gran didn't know the difference between 'Old Gold' and 'Tangerine'.... Lol. Thanks Gran! #COYR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Trav Posted December 3, 2020 Share Posted December 3, 2020 First game that I went to was Bristol city at home in 2008 I want to say. I was a Derby fan then but not as religious after I went to that game. Think we won 2-1 if I recall but the one moment I remember was 2 seconds after the kickoff Robbie savage 2 footed some poor lad ?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YorkshireRam Posted December 3, 2020 Share Posted December 3, 2020 3 hours ago, RoyMac5 said: I'm trying to get to the heart of the matter. I'm trying to recall what Derby and football means to me. So as we are entering a period of festivals celebrating birth, rededication, new beginnings I'd like to hear your Derby stories, Small stories about how one moment is memorable and sticks with you and helps you stay committed to the faith. Come on you Mighty Rams! Mine is a recent one, well not that recent - Mac's Play Off Final. Waiting for the train at Paddington Station after the game. Talking to a younger bloke, new to the faith. He was about to throw his scarf in the bin. I told him that when you'd been supporting the club as long as I had that there would be better days, we'd be back. I asked for the scarf and he handed it over. I've still got it, it makes me smile when I see it folded up in the spare room - waiting to come out again! I hope the young bloke still has the faith. #COYR If this is a church, you've spent the last 6 months slagging off the pastor... not very religious of you ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RoyMac5 Posted December 3, 2020 Author Share Posted December 3, 2020 7 minutes ago, YorkshireRam said: If this is a church, you've spent the last 6 months slagging off the pastor... not very religious of you ? The church is the Club itself. #COYR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellafella Posted December 3, 2020 Share Posted December 3, 2020 3 hours ago, RoyMac5 said: I'm trying to get to the heart of the matter. I'm trying to recall what Derby and football means to me. So as we are entering a period of festivals celebrating birth, rededication, new beginnings I'd like to hear your Derby stories, Small stories about how one moment is memorable and sticks with you and helps you stay committed to the faith. Come on you Mighty Rams! Mine is a recent one, well not that recent - Mac's Play Off Final. Waiting for the train at Paddington Station after the game. Talking to a younger bloke, new to the faith. He was about to throw his scarf in the bin. I told him that when you'd been supporting the club as long as I had that there would be better days, we'd be back. I asked for the scarf and he handed it over. I've still got it, it makes me smile when I see it folded up in the spare room - waiting to come out again! I hope the young bloke still has the faith. #COYR Can I have it back now @RoyMac5 please ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RoyMac5 Posted December 3, 2020 Author Share Posted December 3, 2020 Just now, Ellafella said: Can I have it back now @RoyMac5 please ? Do you still believe? #weareallDerby What colour was it? ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leeds Ram Posted December 3, 2020 Share Posted December 3, 2020 Two of mine are recent memories- the match in 2017 when we played Cardiff at home after snow gate and the Wembley final of 2019. The atmosphere was crackling in that Cardiff game and I still remember when Vydra slammed home the goal that took us into a 2-1 lead, the place erupted. Singing white christmas to the Cardiff fans and thinking we might just get promoted this year with a hard working rowett team. The second one was going down to Wembley. It had been the first time I'd seen Derby since our 2007 victory as I had to miss the QPR final due to having an exam the next day. So, I actually hadn't been to wembley to see Derby since i was like 13. I loved it; going down on the early train with my mum, drinking in Covent garden and bouncing up and down on the tube with every other Derby fan was a great experience. We had great seats and apart from the result, it really was one of the best days I'd had as a Derby fan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RadioactiveWaste Posted December 3, 2020 Share Posted December 3, 2020 I think I'll forward two stories in this thread, both matches against forest at Pride Park. Not so much for the games themselves, but for the context to me personally. After all, as @RoyMac5 said, for many of us, this is more a faith than an entertainment or pasttime. The first, is the Coffee Cup game. We all remember that. I was going through a bad time, chanced it and got a train back up to Derby and when the ticket office opened, asked if they had anything at all, they said if i wait they might get a return i could have, and luckily enough, they did. It gave me hope that things would get better for me that, it'll be alright. There's always the ups and downs of DCFC. The second was the Knees up Billy Davies game, i was living on my own in nottingham at the time, in work place full of forest fans, going through redunancies, so a bit miserable. That game served as a blessed release of a lot of pent up frustration. The goal coming very late, commons free kick headed in by hulse past lee camp. Brilliant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kingpin Posted December 3, 2020 Share Posted December 3, 2020 3 hours ago, RoyMac5 said: Small stories about how one moment is memorable and sticks with you and helps you stay committed to the faith. Not so much one story, but more the reason I’m Derby. It was more or less literally my life through childhood. (Early 80’s- mid 90’s.) Home and away with Dad as will be the case for many. Along with it our adventures in unfamiliar places, hearing strange accents for the first time and so on. Also witnessing the ugly (and yet as a kid strangely fascinating) violence of the time. Plus crowd congestion where i didn’t think I’d get out in one piece. As above , the piss, crumbling terraces, fencing, barbed wire and the rest of it. All this had a lifetime effect on me. Bizarrely for the better I think. ? Still now it’s a big part of me today. I’m Just more cynical with age. I’d love to go back to my youth where everyone pulling on the Ram shirt seemed a hero, all playing their hearts out for the badge and battling for the fans. Ah.. innocence and youthful naivety?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mucker1884 Posted December 3, 2020 Share Posted December 3, 2020 My first game, as a 12 year old, was a bit pants, if I'm honest. Surrounded by the boring old farts in the Normo wing of The Ley Stand, tagging along with my smelly fish-monger neighbour and his fuddy-duddy missus. Ended 0-0... against bloody Carlisle, of all teams! Everyone moaning about how drunk/hungover our players were. Not one single player on the pitch looked remotely interested, and clearly wanted to be away on their holibobs somewhere exotic (Probably Majorca. How the other half live, eh?) ...And then... shortly after the final whistle... the sun shone brighter than ever before, almost blinding me for life, as it reflected back from the Daz-White Tracky tops, as the players returned to the pitch, and for some inexplicable reason, which I still haven't truly fathomed to this day, they were gifted the biggest, shiniest silver goblet I had ever set eyes on! Well... You can imagine my thoughts... "If they get a trophy for being this crap, etc, etc", "This could get interesting... very interesting" and my particular favourite thought at the time "This is such perfect timing"! It's been one trophy after another, ever since! NOT! The deceitful bar stewards! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevinhectoring Posted December 3, 2020 Share Posted December 3, 2020 4 hours ago, RoyMac5 said: Mac's Play Off Final. Waiting for the train at Paddington Station after the game. Talking to a younger bloke, new to the faith. He was about to throw his scarf in the bin. It was awful, all those QPR fans singing "Oh Bobby Zamora". Anyway my son's asking if he can have his scarf back please Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StarterForTen Posted December 3, 2020 Share Posted December 3, 2020 Who else thinks that by tonight RM5's magical scarf is going to have more ownership claims than a found winning Lottery ticket? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RoyMac5 Posted December 3, 2020 Author Share Posted December 3, 2020 8 minutes ago, kevinhectoring said: It was awful, all those QPR fans singing "Oh Bobby Zamora". Anyway my son's asking if he can have his scarf back please Nice try but he was on his own. #COYR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RoyMac5 Posted December 3, 2020 Author Share Posted December 3, 2020 8 minutes ago, StarterForTen said: Who else thinks that by tonight RM5's magical scarf is going to have more ownership claims than a found winning Lottery ticket? Just so you know it's true. #COYR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kathcairns Posted December 3, 2020 Share Posted December 3, 2020 My first match was the chelsea cup match replay 1968. Jam packed baseball ground behind the ossie end goal, damp and smoke swirling around from Leighs castings. The atmosphere was electrifying ,won 3 1, was hooked after that. Saw the Cloughie and Mackay days, those were the days to be a rams fan, but that first match remains in my mind. Just to say our generation were lucky enough to see England win the world cup and the Rams glory days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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