Derby County (away)

[Redalert1970]

To my knowledge this will be our first ever visit to Derby County - Baseball Ground or Pride Park

How many fans does everyone think we will take ????

I would be disappointed with less than 500

[Keith]

For those of us who grew up following Morecambe to Goole, Oswestry & Colwyn Bay, to now be visiting Ipswich, Sheffield Wednesday & Derby County is incredible!

With a bit of luck, and continued good form, we could be going to Birmingham & Cardiff too!

[P/T Indie]

Only one official coach going from the club and that is sold out, thought they would have put on more.

[TamworthRam]

Good evening all. Rams fan in peace here.

I don’t know how you know about Derby and Pride Park so, here goes.

The stadium is just out of town but a healthy walking distance from the city centre. Coaches will park right next to the visiting supporters entrance.

After allowing for segregation the capacity is just over 31,000. I expect the attendance to be around 25-26,000. A fairly safe guess given we have 20,000 season ticket holders.

You’ll be located in the South East corner (I’m afraid the stands aren’t very imaginatively named). Although it’s in the corner I think the view is still pretty good.

The visitors section can accommodate upto about 3,000.

You’ll be sandwiched between the main Derby singing section in the South Stand (although there will probably be a fairly wide area of segregation) and a smaller section of singers at the end of the East Stand (I sit half way along the East Stand) so expect the usual level of “banter” but please don’t take it seriously.

Although you’ll obviously be heavily outnumbered, the acoustics are quite good where you are so you should be able to make a decent amount of noise if you choose.

You’ll get a friendly welcome and, unless you go out of your way looking for it, you won’t find any trouble. You’ll be perfectly safe (in my experience of other visiting supporters) making your way to the ground or indeed anywhere around the ground if you choose to explore.

In terms of the game, obviously Derby will start as favourites but we all know anything can happen in football and I’m sure the Rams won’t be taking your team lightly. You can probably figure out who our danger men are: Mendez Lang, Hourihane, Barkhuizen and McGoldrick (if fit). Collins is our number 9. He works very hard and will make life difficult for your defenders but he’s having a lean spell when it comes to scoring.

Cashin should be back at centre back which would be a major boost for us. Our other centre back Forsyth, is also our longest serving player (10 years) and remarkably is our most expensive player at £100,000.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the game (but obviously not the result) and good luck for the rest of the season.

[Keith]

Barkhuizen? I recognise that name!

[Redalert1970]

Thanks for the info Tamworth Ram

[Wild Bill]

700+ tickets sold already. Should be a great day out

[Keith]

In the 1988/89 season, Morecambe finished 16th in the Northern Premier League, three points behind Buxton and three points ahead of Shepshed Charterhouse. We played Matlock, Frickley, South Liverpool and Goole, who all finished above us. We did manage to finish above Horwich RMI. 'Horwich', a town of 20,000 people, famously has two football clubs, Horwich RMI and Bolton Wanderers. If Bolton had stuck with the MK Dons approach to renaming clubs that move towns, they'd now be 'H Trotters', or perhaps 'H Whites' which sounds like the less successful lemonade maker.

R Whites.jpeg (43.56 KiB) Viewed 751 times

But I digress.

Returning to the 1988/89 season, Derby County finished 5th in the top flight of English football. Had it not been for Liverpool hooligans, killing 39 people in the Heysel Stadium disaster, leading to a ban on English teams in Europe, Derby County would have qualified for Europe the following season. Arsenal & Liverpool finished top, with Arsenal winning on goals scored. They finished one place, and one point ahead of Spurs, while Manchester United were seven points, and six places, behind the Rams.

Yet here we are.

[P/T Indie]

Frickley and Goole are now in the North East Counties League along with Emley just shows how different things could have turned out.

[Gone_Shrimping]

Frickley and Goole are now in the North East Counties League along with Emley just shows how different things could have turned out.

And didn't South Liverpool wrap up due to the Liverpool hooligans repeatedly vandalising their ground at Holly Park ?

[Keith]

And didn't South Liverpool wrap up due to the Liverpool hooligans repeatedly vandalising their ground at Holly Park ?

Last time I was there, the terrace was covered in broken glass, from bottles the local morons threw over the wall.

[Wild Bill]

Poor Matlock now have to play Lancaster City. We will have to make do with Derby