troadoes: English Leagues the 70s: Derby County Manchester United Division One 1970 1971

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

English Leagues the 70s: Derby County Manchester United Division One 1970 1971

26 December 1970
The Baseball Ground,
Derby
Attendance : 34,068

At the begining of the 1970-71 season, Clough had already made one major dip into the transfer market when, in September, he paid well over £50,000 for Preston's Scottish Under-23 international midfielder, Archie Gemmill. Meanwhile, Willie Carlin moved to Leicester City for £40,000 immediately after the Rams home defeat by Chelsea on 17 October. The Rams had begun the League season with one trophy already in the cabinet, after beating Manchester United in the Watney Cup Final in front of 32,049 at the Baseball Ground. The 4-1 hammering of United seemed 10 herald another successful season for the Rams. Instead they drifted to a mid-table position and finished ninth, due partly to setbacks through injuries. Terry Hennessey must rank as the unluckiest man of the season. He came into the side for the third match, againsi Stoke City, but was taken off afrer only 12 minutes with a cartilage injury. Then Roy McFarland was injured in a 2-1 Baseball Ground defeat at the hands of Newcastle. The Rams' already desperately limited first-team pool was seriously weakened.

McFarland missed six matches, returning for the 1-1 draw at Everton on 10 October. Three days earlier, Millwall, bottom of the Second Division and without a League win, had gone two up at the Baseball Ground in a League Cup match before the Rams came back to win 4-2. By the middle of November, the Rams were 19th and Brian Clough's early-season remark about the players drinking champagne after the Watney Cup win 'when we hadn't played one real match' began to look justified. Wins at home to Blackpool and at Forest eased things slightly, but they were followed by a 4-2 home defeat at the hands of West Ham and a 4-4 draw against Manchester United ai the Baseball Ground on Boxing Day. That proved to be Les Green's last match for the Rams. For the FA Cup third-round tie at Chester a week later, Colin Boulton returned to the side for what was to be the start of a record-breaking run of goalkeeping appearances. Again the Rams reached the fifth round, and again that was as far as they went, losing to Everton 1 -0 at Goodison Park. But with McFarland now playing brilliantly alongside Todd, Derby launched something of a revival. Five successive victories at the end of January and right through February lifted them to the middle of the table; then followed a grisly spell of four defeats in five games which left the Rams 14th, with 30 points from 34 matches, culminating in a 2-1 home defeat by Forest. After that, the Rams lost only one more match. In their last eight games they won five and drew two, taking 12 points from a possible 16. Derby finished ninth, disappointing after the promise of the previous season, but satisfactory enough after some of the darker episodes of the current campaign.