Scouring the sports pages of newspapers, my eyes are often drawn to an article I then discover is nothing to do with my team. The adjective that describes Derby will turn out to be to ‘local’ rather than ‘mighty’. I suspect it means my club nominally has more mentions in more papers around the world than any other.
Last weekend saw several Derbies. In Glasgow the ‘Old Firm’ did battle for the first time this season, Rangers coming out on top in a six-goal thriller. Derby matches are rarely so free-scoring – in London’s East End where I live, Millwall and West Ham drew blanks in their first head-to-head for a while. And in my East Midlands home town, Steve McClaren’s Nottingham Forest entertained Nigel Clough’s Derby County.
In my part of the world the term ‘local Derby’ is presumed to originate from the ancient ‘football’ matches held either between different parishes of the city (apparently All Saints and St Peter) or perhaps between towns in the county. Back as far as the twelfth century in Ashbourne there are records of hundreds-a-side games with one set of locals trying to kick/throw/carry a ball into the goal belonging to the other half of the town. Others say the term somehow originates from the Derby horse race, but that’s named after the Earl of Derby who’s named after the city so I think we can safely claim the etymology.
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| Tom writes about the dirty Leeds |
Curiously, growing up in Nottingham and first going to football in 1970 (age four or five!), I wasn’t aware Derby actually had our own local rivals. At the time our big rivals were (so I was taught) Tom Palmer’s Leeds (or Damned) United. It was only when Notts Forest appointed Brian Clough that the rivalry (for me at least) began. Forest have a penchant for picking ex-Derby people to run their club, hence today it’s ex-England brolly-bearing Steve McClaren (a Derby midfielder and highly successful first-team coach) who was immediately preceded by the country’s prickliest manager, Billy Davies.
Some football commentators who don’t know better believe certain Derbies are bigger than others. That’s nonsense. Try telling the people of East Anglia that the Ipswich vs Norwich match isn’t as hotly contested as Arsenal vs Spurs or the good folk of Burnley and Preston that their northwest Derby is less important than a game between the two halves of Manchester.
Nowadays Derby and Nottingham are separated by the Brian Clough Way (formerly the A52) and every time the sides meet the contest the Brian Clough Trophy. In the very first minute of Saturday’s game, Forest striker Ishmael Miller seized on a ball in a crowded six-yard area to poke it past Derby and England goalkeeper Frankie Fielding. The shot was cleared but the players collided and referee Scott Mathieson Pointed to the penalty spot. There was absolutely nothing Fielding could do to get out of the way so it seemed harsh to say the least.
I’m sure the great Clough would have been far from happy with what happened next, as three Forest players immediately surrounded Mathieson, hounding him around the penalty area and clamouring for a red card. The intimidation worked. The penalty was scored and after a minute we were 1-0 down, our best player (from the current England squad) of the pitch and having to play the entire match with ten men!
That’s what I call a test of character. Last year I’d watched from the City Ground’s Bridgford End as the black and white half of the East Midlands was humiliated – at this point it was hard to envisage anything other than the same thing happening again, but this season’s Derby are proving to be made of sterner stuff.
We controlled the game - not as flamboyantly as with eleven players, but comfortably keeping the opposition at arm’s length. Some claimed our equalizer was controversial. With the Rams surging forward a Forest player went down (by himself and in full sight of the referee) behind the play, back in the Derby half. The ref waved play on. Had the roles been reversed the Nottingham faithful would have been incensed to see their team waste a scoring opportunity and kick the ball out, but the partisan nature of football meant a chorus of boos rang round the stadium. Happily the Derby players were not to be diverted and Jamie Ward scored a magnificent goal.
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| Young Jeff Hendrick |
One of the special things about this season is the number of youth team players breaking through into the Rams first team. As a supporter you feel a special bond with players who’ve grown up locally and who, in this mercenary era, might just still feel something of the sense of loyalty and passion for the club that you do. An example is teenage midfielder Jeff Hendrick. With an our gone he somehow contrived a miss worthy of Torres, heading wide of an open goal from two yards out and with no one anywhere close. You had to wonder if it was going to be our day and if this might be a turning point. It was, but only that it drove Derby to redouble their efforts and take the game by the scruff of the neck.
Having missed his sitter, Hendrick didn’t hide and, ten minutes later, rifled home a shot from outside the area reminiscent of a young Steven Gerrard. Forest couldn’t respond. The Brian Clough trophy travelled back along the Brian Clough Way, to the city in which the family has called home for nearly fifty years; the Rams sit prettily in the Championship table with more than two points a game and two home games to come.
Football is partly the beautiful game because of the passion of the fans – nothing beats a noisy stadium with one set of supporters attempting to out-sing the others, or the brilliant banter between the fans. The problem often is that not everyone remembers it is only a game – there are far more important things happening in the world every single day than any football match.
In my new book, Johnny Mackintosh: Battle for Earth, the future of the entire planet is at stake, but Johnny is still able to play an inter-county tournament where his Essex school travels up to meet the teams from Nottingham and Derby (amongst others). It’s great that you can have a light-hearted play when writing a book, and I confess I had the team from Derby (my dad’s old school) beating the team from Nottingham (my old school!) in the opening match.
Back in the real world, Saturday’s local Derby might briefly have felt like the battle for Earth, but happily no blood was shed and the Rams remain well placed as the season continues. For me it was an epic encounter. Tomorrow, the game between Crewe Alexandra and Port Vale will feel just as important to fans of both teams.
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