“I’m more interested in being good than being famous.” Annie Leibowitz
As disappointments go, I’ve had worse but, having expected a passionate, exciting, dramatic game, this one was hardly that. If damp squib wasn’t a cliché, I would use the phrase to describe a game which never really got going. An old friend of mine had warned me that, under Rooney and Rosenior, Derby had played tippy tappy football, which gets no one anywhere in our league. Under new manager, Warne who had steered Rotherham to promotion to the championship, they would do better. They would be physical, direct and make better use of the quality players they have at their disposal. No one like Kevin Hector, Alan Hinton or even Francis Lee of course but pretty good nonetheless. Derby have had a torrid time financially and had very few players under contract until shortly before the season began. They got to keep their stadium but, more crucially, they survived and got to keep their fans.
My many years in the Midlands left me very friendly with Derby fans, indeed my last school was more or less on the borderline between Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire. Forest and Derby supporters have always resented each other’s success and enjoyed some very hard times too. Like us Derby fans remain optimistic in the face of stubborn facts but nothing really prepared them for the last couple of seasons. The prospect of bankruptcy frightens the most hardened of fans who find it hard to imagine what life without their beloved team might be like. We know this. We have never won the FA Cup or First Division Championship but we have had our moments and oblivion was never something we envisaged when we entered the Football League in 1970.
As if to confuse us, Derby turned up in what appeared to be West Ham shirts as if they were somehow worried that white looked too much like surrender. They began the match as if they really didn’t expect to win. They were neat and tidy but not exactly incisive. Trouble is, so did we. I waited what seemed a long time for something to happen but somehow it never did. There were a lot of Derby fans but they were more or less silent. The Habbin applauded our moves politely without getting carried away, apart from a large gentleman behind me who appeared to be furious about everything .”Look, they haven’t even bothered to turn the lights on!” he bellowed a little later in the piece.
Our Referee was a fussy chap who seemed inclined to blow up for a foul every time a Derby player went down, which was quite often. He was perhaps more impressed by Derby’s history than we were. It seemed so. More puzzling was has refusal to see Smith flattened just outside the box. Worse still, shortly afterwards he thought that Joe Ironside had flattened himself in the Derby box by a player who appeared to be the last man. He was not the first Ref to give Joe nothing all game because he has the temerity to be tall and competitive. He is far more sinned against than sinning according to Habbin North. We aren’t biased I can assure you. Just as I was drinking my coffee and realising that I was watching an unremarkable nil- nil draw, Derby scored. It was unfortunate. Collins chased gamely after a pass which Ibsen Rossi could and should have cleared. The big chap bellowed that it was Rossi’s fault, a statement of the bleedin’ obvious. Our young centre half looked stricken. He knew what he’d done, or not done and it was frustrating. It didn’t help that some of our fans gave him pointless grief. Even the best players make mistakes and , apart from that, Zeno looked really good. Some of the women in the crowd thought so too. At least I think they were referring to his play. I can’t stand sexist behaviour. Anyway, things weren’t looking great for us and they really didn’t change.
Derby gained in confidence. We worried them at times but our final ball wasn’t good, Smith looked a bit wasted on the wing, Shillow wasn’t really quite at his best, Williams didn’t look quite fit and Derby were keeping possession well. The subs made a real difference, particularly Brophy who looked assured and very strong. Knibbs always causes problems and Okenabirhie is going to be some player when fully fit. We all began to hope. Just as we seemed to be mounting some effective attacks , Derby broke away and Collins scored again. He is a very good player but it looked to me as if he’d miskicked it and fooled Mitov. Not that it mattered. The game had gone and we’d been beaten by a good side.
Unusually I didn’t feel at all despondent going home. Mark Bonner had decided to stay, we own our ground again, there are no divisions in the club and we were playing Derby County whose fans were suddenly very loud. Just as I remember them in fact. We are doing very well and I would much rather be playing Derby than St Albans or Boston. We have a team and a club to be proud of. Even the Habbin knows that.
Andrew Stephen