There’s a chance we could play dodgy Derby in the third tier next season still, but, realistically, you have to think that if we meet in 22/23, it will be in the Championship which would represent some achievement by the team which started this season with such a big points deduction. The table’s not looking as good for Derby now as it was around the beginning of this month and they, and us, have been lucky in that Barnsley and Peterborough have struggled so much and that Reading have that smaller points deduction of their own – with the points needed to stay up looking like being a fair bit lower than normal this season, Derby can still entertain thoughts of survival even if they lose tomorrow.
Here’s seven Derby related questions.
60s. What made Peter Hooper’s eighty ninth minute goal in a 1-0 win against Derby at Ninian Park in 62/63 so unusual from their point of view?
70s. Morgan, Best, Kidd and Law ended which Derby player’s career during this decade?
80s. Apart from a few games for Portsmouth on loan, this Morpeth born defender spent his whole career wearing black shorts, although the shirts he wore were different colours. Born on Guy Fawkes night, he started off close to home before a move to Derby and then on to wild animals to the south for a season to finish- unfortunately, he was a victim of Motor Neurone disease and died in 2002 at the age of just forty one, who am I describing?
90s. Ralls wanders East and becomes a defender? (6,7)
00s. Husbandman based at Boat Race bridge perhaps?
10s. This centreback made his debut for his current club against us in 2020. He made his debut for the club he signed for from Liverpool when he came on for Anthony Pilkington following the sending off of Leon Barnett, but before all of that, while he was on ,loan to Derby, he had been in their defence for one of the matches where they conceded a total of fourteen goals in three visits to Cardiff between 2009 and 2011, who am I describing?
20s. The club he was with before Derby are nicknamed the Gophers and the one before that the (Red) Sharks. One of his seventeen clubs were nicknamed the Green Crocodiles and another the Shakers, who is it?
Answers:
60s. The game took place on 22 December and the goal was the last one in a Derby league match for over two months because the “big freeze” that winter meant they weren’t in action again until 23 February when they drew 2-2 with Sunderland. City were able to play on Boxing Day, losing 4-2 at Plymouth, but the weather than prevented them playing a Second Division match until the same 23 February date when they beat Chelsea 1-0.
70s. Derby’s five foot eight inch goalkeeper Les Green never played for the club again after a 4-4 draw against Manchester United on Boxing Day 1970 – Willie Morgan, George Best, Dennis Law and Brian Kidd were the goalscorers for United with Green generally reckoned to have been at fault with at least a couple of them.
80s. Rob Hindmarch played over a hundred matches for Sunderland in his seven years with the club, before moving to Derby in 1984 where he played around one hundred fifty games before finishing with a season with Wolves.
90s.Darren Wassell.
00s. Giles Barnes.
10s.Daniel Ayala, currently at Blackburn, was in the Derby side beaten 4-1 at Cardiff City Stadium in April 2011. A few months later, he signed for Norwich and made his debut for them when he came on for Anthony Pilkington at Stoke following the sending off of Leon Barnett.
20s.Colin Kazim-Richards started his career with the Shakers of Bury, he’s also played for Bursaspor (the Green Crocodiles) and Mexican clubs Veracruz and Pachuca, (the Red Sharks and the Gophers).