Arthur Cox’s Reign

[ilkleyram]

12 hours ago, loweman2 said:

Cox took over the club when we were literally at rock bottom and made up of mainly of journeymen, he was our ninth manager in eleven years, he did have a couple of gems in the team, Bobby Davison who he switched from number 8 to number 9 whose goals dragged us through those years and solid reliable ever present defender Steve Buckley, in the January window he added Williams, micklewhite, Christie, Sutton and had introduced Harbey and Blades from the reserve team and finished in 7th place at the end of that first season the centenary 84/85 and had stopped the free fall, the following season he added hindmarch and the two McClarens, gregory and Phil Gee and his team got out of division three, the final two pieces of that jigsaw  cally and Brucie Forsyth were added and the took division two by storming the 86/87 season as champions ! Put together pretty much on a shoestring, that’s why he deserves the credit, Dave McKay was good but had a great team of internationals and at the top of their game, eight of them had played in the previous championship team, he had money to add the likes of Charlie George and Francis Lee to strengthen but instead the team fell apart, some may say he should have done better ? Cox was a genuine old school motivator and team builder, he had some quirks but so do most successful managers ! Great days !

Dave's teams finished 3rd (after a tumultuous first few weeks), 1st and 4th before he was sacked in the November of the following season. We also got to the semi-final of the FA cup and were well in the running for the double (in the days when it meant something) before Dennis Smith clattered Charlie George, in Dave's last full season.

I'm not sure that he could have done what Arthur did but then I’m not sure Arthur could have done what Dave did either, but I do think that to suggest that Dave could have done much better would be an exceptionally harsh criticism of the man who created the best footballing rams team that I have seen in 60 years.

[derbydaz22]

20 hours ago, ziggyram59 said:

Best Derby manager we had after Clough and Taylor, the man is a legend in my book. 

Totally agree a man of principles and great times during the 80s. If Maxwell didn’t pull the team apart we could have been a top 6 team for years. ????

[Jayram]

Definitely my favourite time as a Rams fan. I just remember being very proud of my team as they tore through the division. Oddly my favourite memory of the season was when we beat Oldham 4-1 away in the January. They had beaten us at home on the opening day (our only home defeat of the season) and were a strong side yet we absolutely battered them, and that was when I really started to believe we had what it took to go all the way to Division 1. Brilliant days.

[StarterForTen]

Arthur is up there with the very best. I loved the football Jim Smith brought, but Arthur was a far better manager.

He signed Rob Hindmarsh on a free by knowing that Sunderland had failed to offer him a club car in his new deal - thereby making it lesser terms than existing. Only Arthur would know that kind of detail!

Gerraint Williams for £40k; Gary Micklewhite for £70k; Phil Gee for a set of kit.... then able to attract Peter Shilton, Mark Wright and Dean Saunders to the club to complete the journey.

The man was a football genius.

[Addingham Ram]

12 hours ago, Derby blood said:

Cracking time to be a rams supporter, in division 2 we won more away games than ever before, going to Oldham, on the plastic pich and winning 4-1, was the day i knew we was going up, and Sheff United away 10000 seeing Gee put the ball through the keepers legs the away end went metal, that was one of the best away days of my life, then when we went up, Mr Cox bought in players like Mcminn, Shilton, Wright, Goddard and Saunders, now they where the best days of my footballing life watching that team play. Hope these times come back soon. 

Remember that game like it was yesterday. Sheffield United had no idea what was coming. We got to the ground early, to find they had only opened up a couple of turnstiles for away fans. The away following that day sent the stewards into a right frenzy, they had to scramble round to open up every away end turnstile, and even then the queues were mad!

The scenes when Gee scored were amongst the best ever - and there were some good ones that season.

We didn't quite clinch promotion that day, but any neutral looking on would have thought we had!

[Tyler Durden]

1 hour ago, StarterForTen said:

Arthur is up there with the very best. I loved the football Jim Smith brought, but Arthur was a far better manager.

He signed Rob Hindmarsh on a free by knowing that Sunderland had failed to offer him a club car in his new deal - thereby making it lesser terms than existing. Only Arthur would know that kind of detail!

Gerraint Williams for £40k; Gary Micklewhite for £70k; Phil Gee for a set of kit.... then able to attract Peter Shilton, Mark Wright and Dean Saunders to the club to complete the journey.

The man was a football genius.

To add some balance to your post I totally agree that you would be hard pushed to pick up players of that calibre nowadays for the nominal sums mentioned.

However....let's be honest about Shilton and Saunders, Shilton was attracted by the pay packet on offer and Robert Maxwell basically told his son at Oxford to flog us Saunders. 

[Premier ram]

4 hours ago, Jayram said:

Definitely my favourite time as a Rams fan. I just remember being very proud of my team as they tore through the division. Oddly my favourite memory of the season was when we beat Oldham 4-1 away in the January. They had beaten us at home on the opening day (our only home defeat of the season) and were a strong side yet we absolutely battered them, and that was when I really started to believe we had what it took to go all the way to Division 1. Brilliant days.

was that on the plastic pitch ?

[Robert Earnshaws Workrate]

24 minutes ago, Tyler Durden said:

To add some balance to your post I totally agree that you would be hard pushed to pick up players of that calibre nowadays for the nominal sums mentioned.

However....let's be honest about Shilton and Saunders, Shilton was attracted by the pay packet on offer and Robert Maxwell basically told his son at Oxford to flog us Saunders. 

Shilton was well worth the money away vs Newcastle in that first season. Kept everything out.

[Tyler Durden]

1 minute ago, Robert Earnshaws Workrate said:

Shilton was well worth the money away vs Newcastle in that first season. Kept everything out.

I agree and remember that game am sure Arthur Cox grabbed Shiltons shirt off him at the end.

Original point being that Shilton was attracted by the cash.

[Curtains]

Phil Gee goal at Sheff U is imprinted in my memory 

Ecstasy in the stands with my son and the Derby fans going crazy ?  

[Curtains]

 

[We'll be back in 81]

I believe when we finished fifth under Arthur that we would have had a good chance of becoming champions again the next season if Kubic and Knoflecheck had joined us. Anyway great to have lived in Derby during the eighties, what with going to the baseball ground, the pink coconut, pubs and clubs and the music. Even the cricket was great with Derbyshire winning the Nat West cup, what a great day at Lords that was and the sunday league games with the crowd singing from the granstand end, what a great era. Bring back the eighties.

I would put Arthur up there along side the best managers we have ever had.

[StarterForTen]

1 hour ago, Tyler Durden said:

To add some balance to your post I totally agree that you would be hard pushed to pick up players of that calibre nowadays for the nominal sums mentioned.

However....let's be honest about Shilton and Saunders, Shilton was attracted by the pay packet on offer and Robert Maxwell basically told his son at Oxford to flog us Saunders. 

I'm sorry but I'm going to have to pull you up there. I worked for the club at that time and can assure you that Shilton, while very well paid of course, earned no more at Derby than he had at Southampton. His signing on fee was a top-of-the-range BMW 7-series - the equivalent of about £100k today. It is true that he had a family home in North Leicestershire, and that may have been a factor in picking Derby ahead of any other suitors, but his pay was just the going rate. After all, he was the incumbent record-breaking England goalkeeper and did play magnificently well for at least the first three years of his stay with Derby. His season before the 1990 World Cup (where he was a semi-finalist) was exceptionally good.

Derby outbid two other clubs to sign Saunders; no other club was prepared to pay a seven-figure sum for him and Oxford were touting him around to all and sundry.

[MuespachRam]

1 hour ago, Premier ram said:

was that on the plastic pitch ?

Yep, we got there nice and early for the game after a coach journey that consisted of the people on the bus maybe stopping at a service centre and maybe relieving the service centre of lots of confectionary and drink....and also randomly a couple of yellow pages, that we passed around the coach and ripped it up producing a huge bag of yellow "confetti" that we took into the ground and threw around every time we scored..... the other thing that sticks in my mind about this day is that one of the lads on the bus somehow and for god knows what reason, managed to get hold of a roll of the paper used to make the bus tickets.... and throughout the game he pushed it from the middle upwards to make a kind of tower of bus ticket paper, it got higher and higher and all the away end was cheering it, he managed to get it probably 10 feet tall before it eventually toppled over.... Wag, you were a star that day!! i know you are reading this!

[Spanish]

2 hours ago, hiltonram said:

I believe when we finished fifth under Arthur that we would have had a good chance of becoming champions again the next season if Kubic and Knoflecheck had joined us. Anyway great to have lived in Derby during the eighties, what with going to the baseball ground, the pink coconut, pubs and clubs and the music. Even the cricket was great with Derbyshire winning the Nat West cup, what a great day at Lords that was and the sunday league games with the crowd singing from the granstand end, what a great era. Bring back the eighties.

I would put Arthur up there along side the best managers we have ever had.

what happened at the end?  Maybe wrong but didn't he have back problems and then not get involved in the club until he resigned due to ill health.  Went on to be #2 for Keegan with a London club and England.  I might be wrong but there is something niggling at me that it was all a bit suspicious

[TimRam]

But for losing to Wimbledon (4-0), Luton (3-0) and Charlton (3-0) we would have probably finished higher. Those 3 results stick out as being very unexpected at the time.

[MuespachRam]

33 minutes ago, Spanish said:

what happened at the end?  Maybe wrong but didn't he have back problems and then not get involved in the club until he resigned due to ill health.  Went on to be #2 for Keegan with a London club and England.  I might be wrong but there is something niggling at me that it was all a bit suspicious

yeah he had a back issue that played into Lionels hands and they parted company.....I dont think anyone wanted him sacked so it was an easy get out for everyone in the end.

[MuespachRam]

35 minutes ago, TimRam said:

But for losing to Wimbledon (4-0), Luton (3-0) and Charlton (3-0) we would have probably finished higher. Those 3 results stick out as being very unexpected at the time.

and remind me....why didn't we get to play in Europe the season after.......whose fault was that..?

[Premier ram]

2 hours ago, MuespachRam said:

Yep, we got there nice and early for the game after a coach journey that consisted of the people on the bus maybe stopping at a service centre and maybe relieving the service centre of lots of confectionary and drink....and also randomly a couple of yellow pages, that we passed around the coach and ripped it up producing a huge bag of yellow "confetti" that we took into the ground and threw around every time we scored..... the other thing that sticks in my mind about this day is that one of the lads on the bus somehow and for god knows what reason, managed to get hold of a roll of the paper used to make the bus tickets.... and throughout the game he pushed it from the middle upwards to make a kind of tower of bus ticket paper, it got higher and higher and all the away end was cheering it, he managed to get it probably 10 feet tall before it eventually toppled over.... Wag, you were a star that day!! i know you are reading this!

that pitch was awful , our lads handled it really well that day

[Eatonram]

The away turnouts in the 86/7 season were awesome. Remember driving to Brighton and once again, the away terrace in a corner was rammed. Think we won 1 0. Was back in Derbyshire by 8.00, not sure quite how. Also remember missing so many kick offs for away games, for the misguided "I think we've got time for one more pint" problem. We never learned.

 

Great season.