Anon Posted April 27, 2022 Share Posted April 27, 2022 1988/89 - Derby finish 5th on 58 points 1990/91 - Derby finish 20th on 24 points I'd be interested to know from fans what exactly happened to cause such a catastrophic drop off. From what I can see the squad in 1990 is largely the same as the one that finished 5th. Arthur Cox was still the manager. Yes, the troubles with Maxwell were causing chaos off the field and the narrative is that his decreased investment caused relegation, but which players actually left? There's so many things that don't make sense. Deano scored 17 goals in the relegation season. We shipped an average of 2 goals/game despite having 2 England internationals in the defence. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mick Harford Posted April 27, 2022 Share Posted April 27, 2022 Deano missed loads of penalties that season which didn't help, including one saved by Nial Quinn for Manchester City after Tony Coton was sent off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OoooMarkWright Posted April 27, 2022 Share Posted April 27, 2022 27 minutes ago, Anon said: 1988/89 - Derby finish 5th on 58 points 1990/91 - Derby finish 20th on 24 points I'd be interested to know from fans what exactly happened to cause such a catastrophic drop off. From what I can see the squad in 1990 is largely the same as the one that finished 5th. Arthur Cox was still the manager. Yes, the troubles with Maxwell were causing chaos off the field and the narrative is that his decreased investment caused relegation, but which players actually left? There's so many things that don't make sense. Deano scored 17 goals in the relegation season. We shipped an average of 2 goals/game despite having 2 England internationals in the defence. Arthur Cox worked miracles getting us to 5th in 1989. A couple of years later things fell apart: Paul Goddard left, he was brilliant with Saunders. Harford came in but wasn’t as good. Injuries : We had loads of ACL injuries. McMinn being a big one. Mark Wright never had a regular partner. The squad was tiny, Jason Kavanagh, Mark Patterson etc covering whereas before it was players like Hindmarch or Blades. This coupled with the unrest off the pitch, players like Hebberd were past it by then too. What could have been, if we’d built on the team that finished 5th. Cox wanted players like Dennis Wise, Andy Townsend to boost the team but wasn’t allowed. Mick Harford, Rammy03, therealhantsram and 6 others 8 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeedsCityRam Posted April 27, 2022 Share Posted April 27, 2022 (edited) 40 minutes ago, enachops said: Arthur Cox worked miracles getting us to 5th in 1989. A couple of years later things fell apart: Paul Goddard left, he was brilliant with Saunders. Harford came in but wasn’t as good. Injuries : We had loads of ACL injuries. McMinn being a big one. Mark Wright never had a regular partner. The squad was tiny, Jason Kavanagh, Mark Patterson etc covering whereas before it was players like Hindmarch or Blades. This coupled with the unrest off the pitch, players like Hebberd were past it by then too. What could have been, if we’d built on the team that finished 5th. Cox wanted players like Dennis Wise, Andy Townsend to boost the team but wasn’t allowed. What was the story with Pickering trying to buy Derby from Maxwell? I know he took over eventually but I seem to remember Maxwell was not a willing seller initially & declared Pickering 'persona non grata' at the Baseball Ground. Seems odd in retrospect as Maxwell was desperate for cash to prop up other businesses by 1990/91 (which is why he was plundering from the pension funds) & had stopped funding the first team squad. Edited April 27, 2022 by LeedsCityRam Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mwram1973 Posted April 27, 2022 Share Posted April 27, 2022 1 hour ago, Mick Harford said: Deano missed loads of penalties that season which didn't help, including one saved by Nial Quinn for Manchester City after Tony Coton was sent off. Remember that, think that was the game that sent us down too wasn't it ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skin em Ted Posted April 27, 2022 Share Posted April 27, 2022 Losing Goddard would be the key factor in the difference between 1988/89 and 1989/90. We were still a lot more competitive in 1989/90 though compared to 1990/91. I think knowing the chairman had lost interest and wasn't going to invest would have affected the players mindset... knowing the clubs immediate prospects with Maxwell around had peaked and were going fast in the wrong direction. Despite a brief spell of form mid-season from Xmas on the wheels seemed to have truly come off. Still some great players though and a couple of memorable highlights. Premier ram, R@M and therealhantsram 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crewton Posted April 27, 2022 Share Posted April 27, 2022 Sold Cally to Villa too and with Mcminn injury prone, we lost allot of creativity. Premier ram and therealhantsram 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMC Posted April 27, 2022 Share Posted April 27, 2022 The 88/89 team was brilliant.. With a few more players that team was going places. In 89/90 they started well then but there was little investment in the team. Goddard left to go to Millwall. That was the catalyst. Mick Harford joined and the end of the season was awful, just had enough points to stay up. The lack of new players continued in to 90/91 and then relegation.. therealhantsram 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tyler Durden Posted April 27, 2022 Share Posted April 27, 2022 After the Scousers ensured that despite us finishing 5th we wouldn't be able to play in Europe then Maxwell lost a lot of interest in the club and the investment in the team over the next couple of seasons was minimal if not none and we ended up having to rely on an aging squad of players. Arthur Cox said at the time that Division 1 was the hardest league in Europe and without any form of investment its just an impossible task to even survive never mind be competitive to paraphrase him. I was at Maine Road when Saunders missed the pen against Niall Quinn, you just knew it was going to happen as we were a train wreck by then just asking to be put out of our miseries, Carl Sagan 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PistoldPete Posted April 27, 2022 Share Posted April 27, 2022 Think we lost 6-4 to Chelsea, after being 4-3 up. Not sure how, but I think Shilton was past it by then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OoooMarkWright Posted April 27, 2022 Share Posted April 27, 2022 (edited) 10 minutes ago, PistoldPete said: Think we lost 6-4 to Chelsea, after being 4-3 up. Not sure how, but I think Shilton was past it by then. What a game this was! 3-1 down to then going 4-3 up. Absolute scenes in The PopSide and C Stand to then an almost immediate complete collapse and losing 6-4. Edited April 27, 2022 by enachops Skin em Ted 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skin em Ted Posted April 28, 2022 Share Posted April 28, 2022 16 hours ago, enachops said: What a game this was! 3-1 down to then going 4-3 up. Absolute scenes in The PopSide and C Stand to then an almost immediate complete collapse and losing 6-4. Bonkers Game! Listened on the Radio for this one... Graham Richards going berserk! If I had to pick one match to sum up the emotions of a lifetime supporting Derby County, this would be it. ariotofmyown 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ilsonram12 Posted April 30, 2022 Share Posted April 30, 2022 Robert maxwell, Saunders peno misses, not replacing forwards, however mick Harford should of been sufficient As mentioned injuries to key players Hated Liverpool ever since that 7-1 home defeat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boycie Posted April 30, 2022 Share Posted April 30, 2022 Maxwell withdrew his investment in new signings. I think it was around the time he was syphoning money out the Mirror Group pension fund. It probably paid for Shilton, Wright and Saunders tbh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crewton Posted May 2, 2022 Share Posted May 2, 2022 On 30/04/2022 at 20:56, Boycie said: Maxwell withdrew his investment in new signings. I think it was around the time he was syphoning money out the Mirror Group pension fund. It probably paid for Shilton, Wright and Saunders tbh. He also lent money to Spurs so that they could buy Lineker... who scored the winning goal at the BBG in the "Maxwell Out" televised protest match... you couldn't make it up.. ? Boycie 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carl Sagan Posted May 2, 2022 Share Posted May 2, 2022 It was selling off players and lack of investment. Maxwell was always trying to do things on the cheap and attempted to bring in Kubik and Knoflicek for nothing in 1989, as refugees fleeing Czechoslovakia. Why didn't he simply buy them as he could have got them inexpensively and they'd have been wonderful additions? And Cox always seemed to work miracles in terms of increasing the value of players Maxwell signed, so we looked (at least to the outside) as highly profitable in t when looking at transfer dealings. But as others have said, Maxwell had lost interest. He wanted to own a "more glamorous" club at this point, instead of weeing us punch above our weight. Not helped by the fans hating him and singing derogatory songs about him, so he stopped coming to watch games and the money dried up. Losing Goddard after that one season really, really hurt us. Saunders and Goddard together were described as "the thinking man's striking partnership". By the bitter end, Mark Wright was still magnificent but Shilts was well passed it. uttoxram75 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyinLiverpool Posted May 2, 2022 Share Posted May 2, 2022 On 27/04/2022 at 21:11, enachops said: What a game this was! 3-1 down to then going 4-3 up. Absolute scenes in The PopSide and C Stand to then an almost immediate complete collapse and losing 6-4. Black socks with white turnovers. Classy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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