DCFC is our church and we are it's people!

[Sith Happens]

Sadly @angierammy first experience wasnt positive  either. My first game (1980) was Derby vs Man Utd, Derby took the lead but Utd won 3-1.

There was a lot of violence after the game with bricks being thrown. I was only young so my memory could be wrong but it certainly seemed to be the Derby fans who were the aggresors. I do very much remember a group of Man Utd fans came up to my Dad and made sure we got to wherever it was we needed to get to by walking with us and surrounding us to keep us safe. It did very much put me off attending for a long whle after though.

Always had a soft spot for Man Utd since then.

Was another 8 years before i would attend a match again when i started to go on my own and stand on the pop side. Started to take my Dad again once Pride Park was built.

 

[Nuwtfly]

6 minutes ago, RoyMac5 said:

Come on @NuwtflyI put this up yesterday cos you made me realise how heavy a load it can be sometimes. You must have a small story? #COYR

I was too busy enjoying all the great stories that have already been put on here, Roy!

It's difficult for me to pick one without getting a bit emotional, and that's mostly because a lot of my stories involve my Grandad. I was born in Derby, but haven't lived there since I was very young as my father (who played for Derbyshire CCC) moved to Somerset to play for them. However, family trips to Derby, for me, always included going to the football with my Grandad.

We'd have a good fry up before we went, then took a walk to the pub in Swanwick and caught the bus opposite the Gate. (It's moved now, up the hill by the Church). Then we'd meet my Grandad's friends and take the tour through Derby until we got to the stadium. Always got there two hours early. The first hour we'd get a cone of chips, ketchup, read a programme, have a look in the shop, and then just after 2pm we'd sit in our seat. I don't know why we would always sit in our seat that early, but we always did. I used to enjoy watching the players train and things like that. It was wonderful.

Grandad and his mates took me all over the place, away days up and down the country, it was fantastic. Despite living about 200 miles away, I even had a season ticket for a few years, because I was coming up so regularly. I was in love with Derby County by that point. I'd caught the bug.

Sadly though, my Grandad was struck by that awful illness that seems to affect so many: Alzheimer's. So, my story really would just be the memories I have of his final games. He was struggling to walk by the end of it. He didn't really knew who we were playing or who played for us. In fact, I'm pretty sure he thought Nigel Clough was Brian for most of his final season, but he still smiled and cheered when we scored and it was so good to just be with him for that last season. He had been going for 60 years, and it was nice to be a part of it.

What he would make of our current side, I've no idea, but he'd probably just smile and say we'd "be rate in the end."

[RamNut]

Just now, Sith Happens said:

Sadly @angierammy first experience wasnt positive  either. My first game (1980) was Derby vs Man Utd, Derby took the lead but Utd won 3-1.

There was a lot of violence after the game with bricks being thrown. I was only young so my memory could be wrong but it certainly seemed to be the Derby fans who were the aggresors. I do very much remember a group of Man Utd fans came up to my Dad and made sure we got to wherever it was we needed to get to by walking with us and surrounding us to keep us safe. It did very much put me off attending for a long whle after though.

Always had a soft spot for Man Utd since then.

Was another 8 years before i would attend a match again when i started to go on my own and stand on the pop side. Started to take my Dad again once Pride Park was built.

 

I got hit in the face by a coin thrown by United fans at that game. They also threw beer all over the Derby fans in the Ley Stand when we scored. 

still......I was 2p better off.

 

[Sith Happens]

5 minutes ago, RamNut said:

I got hit in the face by a coin thrown by United fans at that game. They also threw beer all over the Derby fans in the Ley Stand when we scored. 

still......I was 2p better off.

 

What is it with coin throwing? Not really related but it is football a (Forest fan) mate of mine was a ball boy when he was young and they played Liverpool. Grobbelar was in goal and pelted with coins through the game. My mate says at the end of the game Grobbelar went round and picked loads of them up and handed them to him.

Said he felt like a millionaire ha.

[i-Ram]

A memorable day for me in the early 80s was an away trip to a Elm Park, vs Reading. I think we lost two nil, but I remember it for being kicked to buggery by Derby fans for the fun of it. 

[Allanthediver]

21 hours ago, Premier ram said:

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

This was my first match...exactly how I was indoctrinated into the faith!

[WestLondonRam]

8 hours ago, uttoxram75 said:

Although I saw us be champions of England twice at the age of 11 and 15, the reason I will always be a Ram and worship at the altar of all things Derby is because of the cameradie of the fans during the bad times.

Its hard to imagine going from the best team in the land to see the duckers down the road have their moment of glory under the very manager who'd set us on our way. Tough times. 

We ended up dropping out the league, down to Division 3, miserable does not describe it.

One game, in 1983 ish? Chelsea at home, there was about 8,000 there, the lads around me on the Vulcan Street Popside sang their hearts out all match. We were rock bottom, yet for some reason, we sang and sang. Hairs on the back of the neck moment....there is a very special bond amongst Derby fans when you've shared such moments.

You have to live the bad times to truly appreciate the good.

Great thread @RoyMac5

Not the same I’m sure, but at Fulham in the FA cup..

A lad turns round and says duck this I’m going home at half time.

I said why we’re going to win this in the second half.. he stayed and we beat them 4-2 I believe..

Exactly the same there the whole end was bouncing all game and when we scored to take the lead was amazing..

even though we were losing we sung and stuck together.

300 of us at Ipswich on a Tuesday night with Nigel Clough at the helm. Singing all night..

Even now if we were in the grounds we would keep singing and supporting. This is just a blip it will change..

someone is going to take a hiding soon and we will go unbeaten for 6 games or so.. 

COYR

[Wistaston Ram]

I grew up on a small dairy farm near Lichfield and due to work, my dad could only take me to night games. He was a Wolves fan, so I saw my first football as a 9 year old standing on a milk crate on the south bank at molineux. Despite being bought a old gold shirt, my allegiances were with Derby due to my glory hunting older brother who followed them briefly after they won the league in '75. My uncle (a villa fan) took me to my first Derby match at Villa Park on a cold winter night, we lost 4.0 and all I remember was that fantastic blue and white Umbro kit with the red numbers on the back and my uncle saying what a class player Colin Todd was in spite of the thrashing. I was hooked and my dad started taking me to the BBG all through the decline of the late 70s and early 80s - I loved it!

By 15, I went to my first away game at Cambridge in the FAC. By now my older brother was no longer into football, but very much into trains, so l left him to his own devices while I made the 3 mile walk from the train station to what I thought was the Abbey Stadium. I arrived at a very deserted ground (Cambridge City!) and was wondering what to do when a Vauxhall Viva full of some scary looking youths pulled up next to me. They spotted my blue and white scarf which normally would be keep well hidden and shouted 'he's a Derby fan, jump in, we'll give you lift'. It turned out they were a bunch of squaddies from Whittington barracks and I just managed to get into the ground for kick off. We won 3.0 and went on a cup run that ended with the infamous Plymouth defeat in the quarter finals.

My favourite game has to be the Rotherham win in the old third division which secured promotion on a wet Friday night. It was my first taste of success after a decade of decline. I stood on the Normanton terrace and remember the sound of the ball rattling the net for the Rotherham equaliser, deathly silence and then of the course the penalty and bedlam!

 

[angieram]

1 hour ago, Wistaston Ram said:

I grew up on a small dairy farm near Lichfield and due to work, my dad could only take me to night games. He was a Wolves fan, so I saw my first football as a 9 year old standing on a milk crate on the south bank at molineux. Despite being bought a old gold shirt, my allegiances were with Derby due to my glory hunting older brother who followed them briefly after they won the league in '75. My uncle (a villa fan) took me to my first Derby match at Villa Park on a cold winter night, we lost 4.0 and all I remember was that fantastic blue and white Umbro kit with the red numbers on the back and my uncle saying what a class player Colin Todd was in spite of the thrashing. I was hooked and my dad started taking me to the BBG all through the decline of the late 70s and early 80s - I loved it!

By 15, I went to my first away game at Cambridge in the FAC. By now my older brother was no longer into football, but very much into trains, so l left him to his own devices while I made the 3 mile walk from the train station to what I thought was the Abbey Stadium. I arrived at a very deserted ground (Cambridge City!) and was wondering what to do when a Vauxhall Viva full of some scary looking youths pulled up next to me. They spotted my blue and white scarf which normally would be keep well hidden and shouted 'he's a Derby fan, jump in, we'll give you lift'. It turned out they were a bunch of squaddies from Whittington barracks and I just managed to get into the ground for kick off. We won 3.0 and went on a cup run that ended with the infamous Plymouth defeat in the quarter finals.

My favourite game has to be the Rotherham win in the old third division which secured promotion on a wet Friday night. It was my first taste of success after a decade of decline. I stood on the Normanton terrace and remember the sound of the ball rattling the net for the Rotherham equaliser, deathly silence and then of the course the penalty and bedlam!

 

Great story. You should post more. 

[Wistaston Ram]

13 minutes ago, angieram said:

Great story. You should post more. 

Thanks, I have been a regular visitor to this forum for many years and thought it was time I contributed. Easier to talk about the past than the present at the moment!

[Dethorn]

Seriously I cannot remember starting to support the mighty Rams.

Apparently I was hooked on Brian Clough as on Midlands TV as a 2 or 3 year old

Early memories are vague

I loved Charlie George, Billy Hughes and Alan Biley

I knew that Tommy Doc was Damien from that filmed as a grown up.

I felt we had a dream team with Saunders Wright Shilton - Europe here we come....

Later what a side we were building with Kitson, Johnson, Pembridge, Short, Charles et al

Then this old bald geezer turns up and starts dismantling it all

then Igor, Acer, Paulo, Branko Stefano even the white feather, bring it on - Europe here we come again .....

Very recently being in the bounce led by Frank away at Bristol and then the next couple of weeks as an armchair fan, I was starting to dream again

I cannot remember our European nights, for me the second half has already started but I really want to see European football for Derby again before full time.

 

 

[jono]

12 hours ago, uttoxram75 said:

Although I saw us be champions of England twice at the age of 11 and 15, the reason I will always be a Ram and worship at the altar of all things Derby is because of the cameradie of the fans during the bad times.

Its hard to imagine going from the best team in the land to see the duckers down the road have their moment of glory under the very manager who'd set us on our way. Tough times. 

We ended up dropping out the league, down to Division 3, miserable does not describe it.

One game, in 1983 ish? Chelsea at home, there was about 8,000 there, the lads around me on the Vulcan Street Popside sang their hearts out all match. We were rock bottom, yet for some reason, we sang and sang. Hairs on the back of the neck moment....there is a very special bond amongst Derby fans when you've shared such moments.

You have to live the bad times to truly appreciate the good.

Great thread @RoyMac5

Oh that is so true. Something I never really appreciated about Football .. The hurt is continuous, the sorrow in bad days like these but I absolutely know we will turn a corner at some point and there will be days of joy that are a hundred times more intense when you share it with others who have felt the pain.

I have always been a dreamer .. today’s is that Rooney gives Ibe a go in the next game and that road runner we saw when he first came will conjure something special and we can have a mad few moments on here 

[leroyoftherovers]

Been supporting Derby County for just over 40 years, spent my youth watching the rams in the eighties can't really pick a match to remember, but what I can remember are the dulcet tones of Graham Richards ,whether that be in the car after a game or getting full match commentary from a game you could not attend, Commentary Genius. 

[jono]

9 hours ago, angieram said:

Strangely, it's a negative experience that always sticks in my mind.

When we went to the FA Cup semifinal at Hillsborough in 1976 we had a very unfortunate encounter with the Manchester United team bus and Tommy Docherty.

Arriving at precisely the wrong moment, we got caught in the crush at the side of the bus. I was struggling to breathe and at the same time trying to ensure my duffel coat remained secure as I was very aware of the Derby County scarf hidden underneath. Show those colours at that moment amidst the chanting Manchester United fans and I fear we would have been lynched! 

I ended up pushed right up against the side of the bus and Tommy Docherty was leering down at us, waving and putting his thumbs up as if everyone in the world was on his side.

Luckily the bus continued to edge on past the throngs of supporters and we quickly made our way to safer territory and into the ground. It was a miserable afternoon with a match we should have won lost through a combination of unjust refereeing decisions and Gordon Hill goals! 

I hated Tommy Docherty then and couldn't believe it when he was appointed manager - the start of a real downturn in the fortunes of the club.

Why do I mention this on a positive thread? Because if you remember those moments, you enjoy the good times when they came along all the more.

Oh Angie .. the funny thing is I was at that match with my Granddad. He was a red from pre war and right through the Babes days. He got me interested in football. I’m from the North West, 

less than 10 miles from OT before anyone chips in. My view of that day was so different. I guess I was 15-16 .. I thought, despite Docs young athletic team, there was no way United were going to beat the mighty Derby County. Hill was my hero, but in those days there was an unwritten rule .. unless it was Man City (or Forest for Derby Fans ) you supported the English team in European adventures ..so I’d grown up with a crackly radio and black and white TV listening to “Hector - O’Hare .. yes .. Goal ! ( with all the fizz and crackle that you used to get especially in away matches in Europe ) ... Derby were special even then. The Docs shenanigans at Derby embarrass me to this day. I wonder what went on and why. Was it just money ? Greed ? Lack of ethics, corruption ? .. it makes me sad that someone who was a football man, who’s team at United played the right way could so lose his personal way to the extent that, as someone said .. made him Damian, of Omen fame with us. Tragic, and the bile directed at him is deserved. 
 

Anyway .. Ibe and Joz are going to be fighting to be my new Merlin ... new memories and magic moments coming to this space soon. We will win the next match ... certain of it. COYR

[IslandExile]

I've already told my favourite story of going to a Clough led training session at the BBG in 1970 a couple of times, so I'll let you off that again.

My early matches, early to mid 70s, I only got to go occasionally when our neighbours had a spare season ticket in the Ley Stand. My memories are pretty vague, one game that sticks in my mind, I think 75, against Man Utd when Alex Stepney attempted to throw the ball out. It hit Charlie George in the back who just turned around and put it in.

The same season, my folks deemed me old enough to start going on my own so I saw the Lee-Hunter game and other matches from the Ossie End.

I then graduated to a Popside Pen season ticket, just as the dark days were accelerating.

One thing in those days was the trip back to the bus station could be as "exciting" as the football. It was the days when violence was at its height. It seemed almost every match would involve legging it down the side streets near the ground (given a choice of fight or flight, I run off every time). I remember one horrific confrontation with Chelsea fans, in particular, where there was a huge standoff.

I also remember a 3-0 away loss at Liverpool because one guy on our coach ended up with a broken jaw.

In a 1-1 draw at Birmingham, I remember at New Street, the station staff insisting on checking our train tickets while the home fans just kicked us as we went through the barriers.

Then of course, I was at the testimonial match against Forest when Paul Scarrott was thrown out of the ground three times.

Happy days. I do not miss the hooliganism aspect of football at all.

[Kingpin]

22 minutes ago, IslandExile said:

I was at the testimonial match against Forest when Paul Scarrott was thrown out of the ground three times.

Now there’s a blast from the past. 

Haven’t heard that name for years, been dead a while I hear.

 

[IslandExile]

18 minutes ago, Kingpin said:

Now there’s a blast from the past. 

Haven’t heard that name for years, been dead a while I hear.

 

Yeah so I understand.

I was once at a Forest-Derby League game on their ground, stood not far from him. Not in the Trent End but down the side in front of the main stand. I confess I was somewhat distracted all night and must have missed most of the game.

I remember being on the popside at the BBG for the testimonial, the second time he was led out, someone shouted "he's been past here before". The third time, it took half a dozen police and stewards to carry him out. At his trial, his defence argued "my client agrees that he should not have kept going  back into the ground but he felt hard done by".

[uttoxram75]

Turning into a history thread, bloody fascinating reading others memories from so long ago of matches I would have been at as well.

 

Sort of going back to the op....another "bonding" match was a Tuesday night League Cup 2nd round replay at Brighton.

Went on the Ramaway football special train down to Brighton, after the game my mate got smacked in the mouth as we turned a corner walking back to station, a group of youths were bouncing in front of us giving it "come on you southern bar stewards". We politely explained we were Derby and after a few choice words everything was ok.....

On the way home the train broke down or there was trouble with the track, whatever, we didn't get back to Derby til 5am. We cadged a lift on the Royal Mail train back to Utch and went straight to work for a 6-2 shift.

My mate who I shared that journey with moved away and we lost touch for 30 years but when we bumped into each other recently we had a good old reminisce about it. He was jealous that I never stopped going whereas he's only been a handful of games in that time.

I was jealous that he's retired and I'm still working shifts.....?

[uttoxram75]

21 hours ago, uttoxram75 said:

Although I saw us be champions of England twice at the age of 11 and 15, the reason I will always be a Ram and worship at the altar of all things Derby is because of the cameradie of the fans during the bad times.

Its hard to imagine going from the best team in the land to see the duckers down the road have their moment of glory under the very manager who'd set us on our way. Tough times. 

We ended up dropping out the league, down to Division 3, miserable does not describe it.

One game, in 1983 ish? Chelsea at home, there was about 8,000 there, the lads around me on the Vulcan Street Popside sang their hearts out all match. We were rock bottom, yet for some reason, we sang and sang. Hairs on the back of the neck moment....there is a very special bond amongst Derby fans when you've shared such moments.

You have to live the bad times to truly appreciate the good.

Great thread @RoyMac5

Found it, it was 1982! Just look at that team....Steve Buckley was the Jake Buxton of his day but not much to shout about amongst the others,,,,

https://www.11v11.com/matches/Derby-county-v-chelsea-08-september-1982-120329/

[Chester40]

Said similar before...but my Dad wasn't a big fan so unless a cousin took me, until I was a teenager and could go on my own with mates, I only went to a handful of games a season. 

Therefore, by far and away my biggest influence was Graham Richards.  I lay on my bed and listened to him on an old radio that I can still picture now. He made it all come alive, his voice just made me feel so involved even if I couldn't go. Even as I got older I still loved listening to him...him berating Gazza when he came with Spurs was a particular favourite. 

I remember little from occasional early games tbh. More about the crowd and how it felt. Think I started going up to the top for the seating, then moved to stand on a pop bottle crate at the front of the Columbo and then onto to standing swaying on the Pop Side... Christ that makes me sound 100.