derby county chairman 1970s
Recently it has come to my attention that meetings have been held, important decisions taken and documents signed without my knowledge. [3] Derby's European adventure came at the expense of their league campaign, with a run of just 3 wins in 11 towards the end of the season contributing to a disappointing seventh-placed finish in the club's first ever title defence, as they finished the 197273 First Division, 14 points behind eventual winners Liverpool. Unlike the flair of Burley's playoff team, Davies side was built on a strong defence with more than 1 goal conceded in a match on just 4 occasions as a tightly knit defence of Marc Edworthy, Dean Leacock, Darren Moore and Mo Camara helped Bywater to keep 12 clean sheets, including 5 on the trot through January. One memorable match came in the club's run to the FA Cup quarter finals, in a fourth round FA Cup tie against Tottenham Hotspur. Derby County chairman Mel Morris (Photo: Getty Images) In keeping with the entire saga, which started in 2018 when Derby's owner Mel Morris exploited the legal loophole of selling Pride Park to . The 1970s remains Derby County's most glorious decade with two First Division championships and those great European nights. They reached the FA Cup Quarter finals for the third time in seven years, losing out only to late Nwankwo Kanu goal in a 01 away defeat by Arsenal, and recorded some memorable victories, including a league double over Liverpool 21 at Anfield and 32 at Pride Park and a 10 win over Nottingham Forest in the teams' first ever meeting at Pride Park. During his spell, the backbone of Derby's glory era departed, as Colin Boulton, Colin Todd, Archie Gemmill, Kevin Hector Charlie George and Leighton James either retired or were sold and on and not adequately replaced, with Docherty's "three Van Goghs" midfield trio of Bruce Rioch, Gerry Daly and Don Masson flopped in particular. As well as they have played in spells, notably in a wonderful purple patch earlier this season, the bottom line is that at other times they have not been good enough, as their position in the table indicates. Derby entered the 198182 season expecting promotion, but just 6 wins from their opening 20 games put paid to any ambitions and Colin Addison was sacked in January 1982, to be replaced by his assistant John Newman. "[20] A group of local businessmen, dubbed "The League of Gentlemen" by the local press, and led by former board member Peter Gadsby, emerged to take over the club at the end of April 2006, although Jeremy Keith, with the back of London venture capital company SISU, fought hard to retain control. [90] Relegated in May 2021, former Championship club Wycombe Wanderers considered legal action against Derby County following the administration announcement. It was also higher than the average gate of seven Premier League clubs. Clough had built a balanced team at Derby, one in which every player knew his job. However, a slump in performances and a poor run of form towards the end of the season in which Derby only picked up two wins in thirteen matches saw them slide down to eighth, not only missing out on automatic promotion, but the play-off positions as well. Form declined badly and key players departed Paul Goddard was sold to Millwall for 800,000 whilst injuries bit into a squad increasingly short of depth. [53] However defeats to Middlesbrough and Cardiff City in 4 days ended the Derby's play-off chances. and Burnley 52 and Luton Town 50 (with Davies becoming the first Derby player to hit 5 goals in a match since Hughie Gallacher in 1934) to finish the season as the league's leading scorers. His remit was simple: avoid relegation. A second tilt at European football was made in the 199899 season, the Rams peaking in 2nd place after 6 games with a 20 home win over Leicester City, eventually finishing one place better off in 8th. With promise that any money raised in player sales would be given to him for purchases, Smith began restructuring his squad with the signing of Robin Van Der Laan (475,000 and Lee Mills) from Port Vale, Sean Flynn (a 250,000 makeweight in the Paul Williams deal), Gary Rowett (another makeweight, this time in exchange for Craig Short), Darryl Powell for 750,000 from Portsmouth and Ron Willems for 280,000 from Swiss champions Grasshopper Zrich. The County Chair is the leader of the local party in each county throughout the state. He eventually put the club up for sale in September 1990, putting it into limbo as it was unable to buy players or even bring any in on loan. The club's reserve side had a less successful year than in the two previous seasons, with the club missing out on the Central League title by one point from Sheffield United, as well as being beaten in the Derbyshire Senior Cup final by Buxton. Behind the scenes circumstances were deteriorating, and Burley left his position, citing interference from football agent turned Director of Football Murdo Mackay, and the sale of Huddlestone, to Tottenham Hotspur, against his wishes. [69] Derby finished fifth in the league, qualifying for the play-offs, but lost 32 on aggregate to eventual winners Hull in semi finals. Between December 1990 and April 1991 the club went a club record 20 games without a win and equalled the worst ever home league defeat when they crashed 71 at home to Liverpool. A 21 win over Norwich City in Burley's first match got his reign off to the perfect start, and although only 6 points were taken from the next 6 games, it was enough to finish 18th in the league with 52 points, 6 clear of relegated Sheffield Wednesday in 22nd. The club also had another notable League Cup run, reaching the quarter finals and beating top-flight Everton and Chelsea in successive rounds, before again being knocked out by the competition's eventual winners, falling 10 away to Swindon Town in a replay. Although they rarely swept away the opposition, instead building on the foundations of a strong defence as record signing defender Colin Todd claimed the club's Player of the Year, there were some memorable performances; 40 humblings of rivals Nottingham Forest and Stoke City at the Baseball Ground and away to Sheffield United. Paul Simpson also came in from big money (800k from Oxford United) as did Marco Gabbiadini (1.3m from Sunderland) and even Bobby Davison (who had left for Leeds United three years earlier), returned for a spell on loan and reached a century of goals for Derby, only the 7th player and most recent to do so, when he netted in a 22 draw with Newcastle United. Colin Todd was awarded the PFA Players' Player of the Year award for the 197475 season, the only Derby County player to do so. One of these matches, a 52 victory over Sheffield Wednesday in which Baiano scored twice, was the club's first victory at Hillsborough since September 1936. Smith sold them all, to Everton, Sheffield Wednesday and Coventry City respectively, raising 4.5m in the process. Gregory immediately bought in Newcastle pair Warren Barton and Rob Lee, and recorded three wins and a creditable 22 draw with Manchester United in his first seven games. Players weren't paid on time (resulting in Danny Higginbotham going on strike), with high earning players such as Georgi Kinkladze and Fabrizio Ravanelli underperforming, and the club was trading insolvent. [34][35] The poor start saw fans accuse Gadsby and the board of failing to invest properly in players for the club and, on 29 October 2007, Gadsby stepped down as chairman to be replaced by former Hull City owner Adam Pearson. The true extent of the club's financial woes were born out when they could not afford to pay Telford United their share of the gate receipts after and FA Cup 4th Round tie (the club eventually reached the Quarter finals, their best run for seven years) and Stuart Webb was appointed a director and set about acquiring shares and striving to attract investors to the club and cottoned onto media proprietor Robert Maxwell, who was owner of Oxford United. However, a Steve Howard header in a 10 win at Wolves on 12 September 2006 proved a catalyst as the club lost only 4 of its next 27 fixtures (a run which included winning all 6 league fixtures in November 2006 and an 8 match winning streak, 6 league, 2 FA Cup, from 30 December 2006 up until 10 February 2007). Derby had built a side which seemed to be consistently achieving less than the sum of its parts, with Gary Charles, a former England international, Craig Short, Paul Williams, Mark Pembridge, Paul Kitson and Tommy Johnson all keen to test themselves at a higher level. When the European Cup was launched in 1955, Derby had been in the Third Division and now stood as English football's sole representatives in Europe's premiere club competition. Although results did not improve dramatically (most games ended in draws, taking the club to a record 20 draws in a single campaign) Derby managed to take 18 points from their final 16 games and avoided relegation, finishing 20th. The season started in worrying fashion, with just one win in the club's opening seven fixtures, and despite a brief rally of 6 wins in 10 over September to November, a 01 defeat at Luton Town on 21 December 1974 left the idea of a title charge as the last things on the club's mind. Strupar in particular adapted well to English football after arriving from Genk, netting 5 goals in 13 starts including the first Premier League goal of the new 2000 millennium with a 3rd-minute strike in a 20 win over Watford. After an opening day home defeat by Oldham Athletic the club went unbeaten at The Baseball Ground in the league for the rest of the season. Despite the headline grabbing capture of Italian international Fabrizio Ravanelli from Lazio, who scored on his debut in a 21 win over Blackburn Rovers, Derby's first opening day win since beating Sunderland 50 at the start of the 199394 season, Derby only took five points from their opening seven games of the 200001 season and Smith left his position in early October 2001, rejecting the position of Director of Football. The club were 3rd in the table at the time. Again, however, the season was overshadowed by confusion off the pitch. He left with a record of just 13 wins in 58 matches, though he did take the club to their first major cup semi-final in over 30 years when the club reached the League Cup final four, where they lost 43 on aggregate to eventual winners Manchester United. His most memorable strikes, and arguably the greatest single 90 minutes in Derby County's history, came in the 2nd Round of the European Cup where, on 22 October 1975, Derby hit 4 goals past Read Madrid, George claiming a hat-trick, in a 41 victory at The Baseball Ground. The 29-year-old signed for the Rams on a free transfer from Wycombe Wanderers last August on a one-year contract. League Fixtures (1970-1979) [7] Smith, who appointed former Derby player Steve McClaren as his number two, joined a club with 15 out of contract players on high wages and players such as Craig Short, Mark Pembridge and Paul Williams intent on leaving. As a result, Derby entered the Football League playoffs for the first time since they had been introduced in 1987. Taylor brought McFarland back to the club as his assistant manager, earning the club a fine when Bradford City complained of an illegal approach, and brought back Archie Gemmill to provide leadership, but the key signing was Halifax Town forward Bobby Davison for 80,000. John Gregory, was Todd's replacement, signing a three-and-a-half-year contract and becoming Derby's third manager of an increasingly troubled campaign, and initial seemed to have the force of personality to keep the Rams up. However, the club entered the Playoffs without the presence of key duo Rasiak and Idiakez both unavailable through injury and a 20 defeat in the first leg away to Preston North End proved impossible to overturn in the second leg at Pride Park, which finished 00 in front of a crowd of over 31,000. The club announced on Friday that they had been . The 29-year-old and his family have . This wasn't apparent from the off, however, and a return of just 5 points from the club's opening 6 fixtures did not hint at instant success for Davies, leaving influential and creative players such as Tommy Smith and Iigo Idiakez to depart the club prior to the closing of the August transfer window.