The final game of the season is a trip to the side who helped make things a bit less fraught for us than they would have been without their twenty one point deduction – Derby would be five points above us now were it not for the sanctions imposed on them by the Football League for their financial misdemeanours. Therefore, you can see what a big goal it was by Uche Ikpeazu late on in the first meeting between the clubs in March to give us a precious three points which, more or less, confirmed our place in the Championship for 22/23.
With a new owner seemingly on the point of taking over, you’d think that Derby’s stay in the third tier would not be that long, but there are some very big clubs in League One these days and the likes of Ipswich, Charlton and Portsmouth are now preparing for another campaign in the lower divisions with at least one of Sheffield Wednesday and Sunderland sure to be there with them and Derby.
Here’s seven Derby related questions dating back to the sixties – I’ll post the answers on here on Sunday.
60s. This defender started his career at Derby and made exactly two hundred league appearances for them over a period of nine years before a move back to his roots for a couple of seasons in the middle of this decade to end his career in the full time game. Appointed Player Manager of one of the most famous non league sides in the game, the club he had left to join them from then paid them £1,250 to bring him back as their manager. Being boss of his home town club did not go to plan though despite him securing a place in Europe and he never got to experience what managing in the continental competitions was like because he was let go after just the one season, which was spent in a lower mid table position. This was the cue for him to start playing again as he accepted a job as player/coach at a west coast club which now plays in the Third Division of a County League according to its Wikipedia page, but at the time he was there, you might well have seen them playing at Corinthian Park. Who am I describing?
70s. This forward, who had two spells at Derby, played for, among others, clubs whose homes are/were at the following grounds, Crown Meadow, The New Eyrie, Claines Lane, the Jan Breydel Stadium, Skelly Stadium, Turf Moor and Feethams, who is he?
80s. Scores of vets had a connection with him!(5,5)
90s. Ship packer’s turn?
00s. His surname sounds like it should feature in the Periodic Table to me, but he was one of those players who were worth a punt on Football Manager as a teenage signing which might just develop into something special. In real life, his career reads like someone who has talent, but never really reached his potential. Loaned to Derby by London giants, all of the first team football he played in the UK was as a Ram, including a game against City at Pride Park which finished all square. Some of his subsequent clubs (e.g Monaco and Austria Wien) and the fact he won Under 21 caps for his, internationally strong, country indicate his talent, but recently he’s played for Al Jazira in the UAE and Buriram United in Thailand before he’d reached thirty, can you name him?
10s. This midfielder’s last two transfers have seen him go from Luton to Melbourne, to Perth, but time was he was considered quite a prospect. However, I think I’m right in saying that the only Premier League football he’s played in his career was while on loan at Palace for a short spell nearly ten years ago. Apart from that his career has seen a succession of moves to fancied Championship teams where he could never really establish himself. He played eighty league games for Derby in his four years with them following a big money move and came out level in his four encounters with City while at Pride Park with two wins and two defeats – he currently has a City player for a team mate as well, do you know who he is?
20s. Only five of this players forty three Championship appearances for two clubs (Derby was the first of them) have been as a starter, yet he has got a first team hat trick for one of them to his name – he was also sent off at the Valley last month, who is he?
answers.
60s. Swansea born Glyn Davies was at Derby County between 1953 and 1962 during which he became a regular in their side. He then spent a couple of seasons at what was then Swansea Town before he was appointed Player Manager at Yeovil Town. Swansea were so impressed by the job he did there, that they appointed him their manager for the 1965/66 season , but despite qualifying for the European Cup Winners Cup, Davies was sacked at the end of the campaign and then had a brief spell as a Player Coach with Pembroke Borough who were quite a strong Welsh League side at that time.
70s. Among the clubs Roger Davies played for were AFC Bridgenorth, Bedford Town, Worcester City, Club Brugge, Tulsa Roughnecks, Burnley and Darlington.
80s. Steve Cross.
90s. Steve Round.
00s. Nacer Barazite played thirty times for Derby in 08/09, including a 1-1 draw with City early in that season, while on loan for Arsenal. He won nine Under 21 caps for the Netherlands.
10s.Jacob Butterfield is at St Johnstone, along with City loanee Mark Sang, these days, but was a Derby player between 2015 and 2019.
20s. Swansea City’s Morgan Whittaker scored a hat trick for them in a League Cup game with Plymouth early in this season before he was loaned to Lincoln City for whom he was sent off at Charlton last month.
