Tell your Derby County stories

[Carl Sagan]

Apparently Writing East Midlands are creating an archive of "We. Are. Derby" stories by fans and anyone can contribute, either in person or online.

https://writingeastmidlands.co.uk/projects/we-are-derby/

Led by Jamie Thrasivoulou and Sophie Sparham. If you're not much of a "writer" then they also want photos and audio. There are in-person creative sessions and also an online portal to upload stuff to.

[Ellafella]

24 minutes ago, Carl Sagan said:

Apparently Writing East Midlands are creating an archive of "We. Are. Derby" stories by fans and anyone can contribute, either in person or online.

https://writingeastmidlands.co.uk/projects/we-are-derby/

Led by Jamie Thrasivoulou and Sophie Sparham. If you're not much of a "writer" then they also want photos and audio. There are in-person creative sessions and also an online portal to upload stuff to.

I’m going along to the session on Monday at 2 prior to West Ham. Looking forward to it. 

[SKRam]

I’ll email them with my tale. Great idea ?

[angieram]

Just a reminder that the Zoom session for all you armchair fans -  take note@i-Ram and @Boycie  ? -  to share your memories is next Monday evening. 

If the threads on here are anything to go by, you all have some wonderful recollections to share. Now's your opportunity!

 

[Boycie]

3 hours ago, angieram said:

Just a reminder that the Zoom session for all you armchair fans -  take note@i-Ram and @Boycie  ? -  to share your memories is next Monday evening. 

If the threads on here are anything to go by, you all have some wonderful recollections to share. Now's your opportunity!

 

How very dare you! I’m a season ticket holder!  
 

 

 

I do have an eye on the weather, I’ll give you that.

[Minneapolis Town Tractor]

I got a great article from the last ever Cup game to be played at the Baseball Ground, 3/8/97, but thought it better to include it here.    Don't want to do no wrong or nothing, you can submit it to the link provided, but thought as a non-derby fan didn't want to intrude on the privilege.    In any event, this is it:     Hope this works.

Derby vs Middlesbrough

March 8 1997, Baseball Ground, Derby

 

Nobody gets far in the cup without a little luck. So what better way for the superstitious Derby fan to kick off quarter-final day than by buying a lottery ticket from Henry Newton ?

Newton runs a post office just a stones throw from the Baseball Ground, but back in 1976 he was a goalscorer as the Rams won through to the semi-finals, a feat they have not repeated since. That afternoon Derby beat Newcastle 4 - 2 thanks to two goals from Bruce Rioch, one from Charlie George and the volley Newton smacked in from the edge of the area. They lost to Manchester United at the penultimate hurdle. Today Newton's looking forward to cheering his team on against Middlesbrough. "I always close up about 12:30pm before a game so I get along in plenty of time. Of course I remember the Newcastle game really well. This is going to be a big afternoon for everybody"

 

He's not wrong. The last ever Cup tie at the Baseball ground and Saturdays only sixth-round tie, the rest having been shifted to Sunday for the armchair army, it all adds up to a sense of occasion. By the time supporters begin to arrive, crews from Match of the Day and Sky have already made themselves at home. The game's being screened live all over the world.

 

Over at Pride Park, where Derby are building a new home for next season, Rams fans stop by to check progress on the new stadium, which is modelled, ironically, on the Riverside at Middlesbrough. This is something of a pre-match ritual these days, season ticket holders pointing up to their prospective seats on the steel and concrete skeletons of the new stands. As regards this afternoon's game, though, it's more cold dread than Cup fever.

 

"We've got to win today, After Wednesday night, we've got to"

 

Ah yes, Wednesday night, when Derby lost 6 - 1 to Boro thanks to a Ravanelli hat-trick. Not the perfect warm-up for Boro's visit in the Cup four days later. Derby boss Jim Smith, for one, is still a little shell-shocked, but he's putting a determined face on things - "Well I can't say there's much of a buzz about the game after we got beat 6 - 1 in midweek" "It's all about personal pride now. You can't ask for much better chance to get your own back on a team that's just turned you over"

 

Smith, of course, took Portsmouth to a semi-final (which they lost on penalties to Liverpool) in 1992. That year, Nottingham Forest were beaten 1 - 0 in the sixth round in front of a delirious Fratton Park crowd. Tantalisingly, Portsmouth are in this season's quarter-finals, too. Smith has fond memories of his old teams giant-killing exploits. But Derby are a different club with different priorities.

 

"Beating Forest was such a big occasion for the crowd. We couldn't get them off the pitch after the game, it meant that much to get to a semi. Today would be a bigger day for me if Derby were completely safe in the Premiership. But the Cup games have given us a lift in the League this season. I thought we were the better side for an hour last Wednesday. We think Boro are beatable"

 

Beating them, though, won't be made easier by the absences of top scorer Dean Sturridge, through suspension, and regulars Jacob Laursen and Robin Van der Laan, as a result of injuries picked up at the Riverside. The midweek game also means there's been no time to take the team away for the short break that's traditionally part of a build-up to a big tie. In terms of preparation this is just another game. But as the Baseball Ground's cramped stands begin to fill up - and things get frantic around the dressing rooms and tunnel as kick-off approaches - it's pretty obvious that today anything is but routine. Club director Stuart Webb was here when Newton's goal helped beat Newcastle and he understands what a game like this means 20 years on. "Back then we had a team full of internationals. We were playing big games week after week. This club's been dormant and it's great to be back. We've got a history as a big club and we want a future, too. So big time occasions like this mean a great deal. I can tell you, everybody's up for it"

 

The Baseball Ground is the quintessential old English football stadium. A hotch-potch of more or less dilapidated grandstands are squeezed up tight around a threadbare playing surface. Away teams aren't supposed to feel welcome. At three o' clock the atmosphere's very intense - as well as very noisy - with a combative edge that's picked up out on the pitch straight from kick-off.

 

Within five minutes, Derby have given notice that Boro's expensive stars are going to have to fight if they want to play. Lee Carsley clatters Mikkel Beck, Paul Trollope does the same to Ravanelli. It's a bit lively: after a dreadful challenge by Ravanelli on Chris Powell, Carsley and Flynn are both booked for kicking Craig Hignett up in the air.

 

By the time the dust settles it's Boro who seem to be rising to the occasion. Ravanelli and Beck are pulling holes in the home defence for Juninho and Hignett to tip-tap their way through. The Brazilian has already missed a sitter before Hignett finds him in space on the edge of the Derby area. Little 'Un skips past a Stimac challenge and lifts the ball over goal-keeper Taylor to give his team the half-time lead they deserve.

 

For most of the second half Derby do little than flirt with the idea of an equaliser. They are badly missing Sturridge. Trollope, man-to-man on Juninho, helps keep Boro on the back foot, but with Asanovic out of sorts the Rams do little more than hit and hope. Only for a moment, just after the hour, when Ward wriggles free in the area onto an Asanovic pass, does a goal look like coming. But Festa stretches into a saving tackle and the chance is gone. It's not t be Derby's day.

 

And to rub it in, just on full-time, Juninho at last escapes in midfield before slipping a pass left to Ravanelli. A powerful shot swerves across Taylor and into the far corner to take Boro into their first ever FA Cup semi-final. Derby fans slip away, while the visitors end celebrates in what's left of the afternoon sunshine.

 

Jim Smith shrugs and smiles : "Quarter-finals are always going to be hard. You need a little bit of quality and they had it : Juninho and Ravanelli. We might have lacked a little quality today but at least if we work hard as we did today we won't have any problems staying in the Premiership this season"

 

Smith's pretty clear about his, and Derby's priorities. A moment of Baseball Ground history may have passed with a whimper instead of a bang. What matters now, though, isn't what's happened in the past. County have two months in which to say their farewells to their old gaff, and in which they have to secure the handful of points needed to ensure that the next chapter begins with the new stadium home to a Premiership team. The process starts here.