
A half-season review by Ollie Wright
One of my favourite Christmas presents this year was from my mum. It’s a copy of the Ram Magazine from the nearest Derby County game to the day I was born. It’s fair to say that the Rams were in serious decline at the time, so it’s surprising to learn that Derby actually beat Arsenal 3-2 at the Baseball Ground in September 1979, with goals from Dave Langan, Aidan McCaffery and John Duncan. Alan Sunderland and future loanee Ram, Frank Stapleton scored for the Gunners, whose line-up boasted Pat Jennings, David O’Leary and Liam Brady.

On the front page is an article about declining attendances across the English Football League. Derby’s gates had dropped south of 18,000, but the club magazine’s editor was keen to show that there was a national context for this, pointing the finger at culprits including ‘too much television, higher prices, bad publicity, hooliganism, entertainment alternatives, the bad winter weather, or whatever’.
Of course, the editorial doesn’t dwell on the fact that Derby were enduring a dismal descent from the pinnacle of the English game and that with Brian Clough long gone – replaced by a series of people who had no chance of matching his achievements, on account of being mere mortals – a strong sense of disillusion was no doubt creeping through the city and county. Even so, Ram Magazine gleefully point out that the fall in Derby’s gate for the previous season had been 7.66%, while ‘European Champions Forest lost 8.9%… and Manchester United 10.4%’.
That tremendous Derbyshire loyalty persists to this day, despite the Ram’s dire warnings that ‘the overall League attendance figures indicate that the decline could become imminently serious’, especially if the team weren’t able to pull their fingers out. Hooliganism may be (touch wood) largely regarded as a thing of the past, but the other factors they listed have by now, in the mid 2020s, had rockets placed under them by technology and inflation. Nevertheless, Derby’s gates remain strong.
Throughout the magazine, there are phrases and little articles that wouldn’t look out of place if they were published today. Here’s a sample quote from the manager – “I give a high priority to character, in the fullest meaning of the word. With it, you can mould a player and a team. Without it, you struggle, no matter what the talent at your disposal.” Was that Colin Addison, or Paul Warne? Elsewhere, Steve ‘Bucko’ Buckley points out that “We are better than our league position indicates. If we believe in that, then we’ll start to climb.” A modern-day Derby player made a similar comment recently. Mike Wilson’s programme column details the lack of goals which was holding Derby back in 1979, despite ‘the fifth best defensive record of the 92’. Yes, stats and ‘anorak’ stattos have always been a part of the game.
Elsewhere, Colin Addison blames a combination of ‘bad finishing, bad luck and circumstances’ for his team’s poor results, while the programme moans that it’s about time that ‘Lady Luck’ stopped ‘frowning on the Baseball Ground… Three years is way above soccer’s average period without a rub of the green’. One woman, we are told, ‘consigned a silver Rams’ brooch to the dustbin, “because we haven’t had any luck since I first pinned it on”‘.
Despite the incessant march of commercialism, the wholesale purchase of the game by TV, the internet, in short, everything about the culture we live in today… what has really changed from the month I was born until now? There’s still no justice, we all do rain dances and practice our own personal variants of voodoo to summon better fortunes. Derby are still denied their rightful place at the top of the table by fickle fate and we all still turn up to the games whenever we can. It may no longer be legal to advertise Rothmans King Size, but other than that, it’s really a case of plus ça change. Despite the commercial and social forces ranged against them, the Rams play on, in their especially maddening, eccentric, variably competent way.
At this point, though, we should yet again pause to tip our hats to the owner, because the persistence of the club’s great legacy is solely down to him. Without David Clowes, there would be no historical continuity for us to whimsically, fondly look back on in this way, because Derby County as established in 1884 would no longer exist. This is why a statue of Clowes will eventually have to be built outside Pride Park and why he will be remembered by the club’s supporters for just as long as Brian Clough, or Steve Bloomer. In terms of his sheer impact, this quiet, unassuming man, who never wanted to be anything other than another ordinary fan, is one of the greatest individuals ever to have been associated with the club.
*
At the halfway mark of the season Derby County were 14th, eight points clear of the relegation zone, with neutral goal difference acting effectively as a ninth point. Had any of us been offered that before a ball was kicked, we would – if sane – have snapped the metaphorical hand off.
This promoted team have not taken a proper kicking from anybody at the higher level. True, they were embarrassed in a 15 minute collapse at Ewood Park on the opening day, but nobody else has looked like drowning the Rams in a goal flood yet, not even the financially advantaged teams at the top. Norwich City are the only other team to put more than two goals past us – and two of those shouldn’t have counted. We are, in short, stubbornly competitive.
Going one better than competitive in this division costs millions, money that we don’t have. Clowes has already underwritten losses that should be staggering, but are pretty much par for the course in this through-the-looking-glass age. Competitive just means you win some, you lose some. Derby have now won two of their last three, which is good enough for us to move past the coulda-woulda-shoulda that surrounded so many games in the barren run which preceded December’s brace of victories at Pride Park.
In a lot of games, it has felt like a draw would have been a fair result and in a lot of games, we have won or lost by the odd goal.
Wins by >1 goal – 3
Wins by 1 goal – 4
Draws – 6
Losses by 1 goal – 8
Losses by >1 goal – 3
At the halfway mark we were well ahead of the other two promoted teams. Ahead of parachute payment club Luton, despite losing to them. Only two points short of Norwich and three points behind Bristol City, who have signed our best two young midfielders in recent times.
It’s tight. It’s gritty. It’s not always a good watch. But even in a season where plenty of club-branded brooches or other paraphernalia have doubtless been launched into the bin as a sacrifice to the cruel fates, our heads remain resolutely above water. We’re halfway to getting the job done.
To read more from Ollie, please visit www.patreon.com/derbycountyblog.