Festive cheer for Rams in these crackers
Derby County’s festive fixtures this year see them take on West Bromwich Albion at Pride Park Stadium on Monday before they make the short trip down the A50 to face Stoke City. Here are five festive fixtures for Rams fans to recall and enjoy: we look back
Derby County made the Championship sit up and take notice by beating promotion favourites Wigan Athletic 2-1 with a stylish secondhalf show on boxing Day 2004.
Grzegorz rasiak and substitute Tommy Smith struck to complete a tremendous fightback after Jason roberts had given the home side an interval lead.
The win completed a treble of victories against the top three – Ipswich Town, Wigan Athletic and reading – and put Derby in the chase for a play-off spot.
Polish striker rasiak was the inspiration. He was a handful throughout and never gave the Wigan defenders a moment’s peace, bringing praise from his manager.
“Grzegorz was fantastic – the boy has a great appetite for the game and is getting better,” said George burley.
rasiak’s strike against Wigan was his ninth in 16 appearances.
WIGAN ATHLETIC: Filan; Eaden, Breckin, Jackson, Baines; Graham (Teale, 65), Bullard, Mahon, Mcculloch; Roberts, Ellington. Other subs: Walsh, Thome, Flynn, Wright.
DERBY COUNTY: Camp; Kenna, Huddlestone, Johnson, Jackson; Bisgaard, Idiakez, Taylor, Reich (Kaku, 89); Peschisolido (Smith, 79), Rasiak. Other subs: Grant, Mills, Tudgay. REFEREE: M Clattenburg (Tyne & Wear) ATTENDANCE: 12,420
SCORERS:
Roberts (27) 1-0
Rasiak (64) 1-1
Smith (82) 1-2
A FIRST clean clean sheet in 15 matches, a first win on boxing Day since 2004 and another victory over Leeds United, a sixth in a row.
boxing Day 2011 was a very good day for Derby County.
The two old rivals went toe-to-toe in front of a sell-out crowd at Pride Park Stadium and Jamie Ward’s strike brought a 1-0 win.
Derby could have scored more than one but they also had to dig deep for their win.
Leeds, promotion hopefuls and filling a play-off place going into the contest, pressed for an equaliser after Ward’s 67th-minute goal but found Derby in determined mood.
Marshalled superbly by skipper Shaun barker, the rams stood firm.
When Leeds had a sight of goal, frank fielding was there to make a number of fine saves. As team efforts go, this was a complete one.
DERBY COUNTY (4-4-2): Fielding; Brayford, Barker, Shackell, Roberts; Green, Bailey, Hendrick, Ward; Tyson (Robinson, 65), Ball (O’brien, 90). Other subs: Legzdins (gk), B Davies, Priskin.
LEEDS UNITED (4-4-2): Lonergan; Lees (Connolly, 43), Kisnorobo, O’dea, Pugh; Snodgrass, Brown, Clayton, White (Nunez, 74); Becchio (Keogh, 68) Mccormack. Others subs: Mccarthy (gk), Vayrynen. REFEREE: A Bates (Staffordshire) ATTENDANCE: 33,010 (4,172 away fans) SCORER:
Ward (67) 1-0
four goals, a clean sheet and three points. It was the perfct boxing Day tonic for Deby County in 2014 following a minor blip.
one win in five going into the Championship clash against inform birmingham City had raised a few concerns but they were extinguished by a comprehensive 4-0 win amid the falling snow at St Andrew’s.
Victory left Derby tucked nice and snugly in third place at the halfway stage of the season. They were three points behind leaders bournemouth and two drift of Ipswich Town.
An early goal from on-loan winger Jordon Ibe provided the platform from which to build the win and Chris Martin scored his 16th goal of the campaign to give head coach Steve Mcclaren’s side a two-goal lead at the break.
birmingham stepped up their tempo in the second half but Derby’s ability and pace on the counterattack always offered the hope of futher goals, and they arrived from Craig forsyth and Johnny russell.
This was the rams first win at St Andrew’s since 1995, and was fully deserved.
BIRMINGHAM CITY: Randolph; Caddis, Morrison, Robinson, Grounds, Davis, Gleeson, Cotterill (Thomas, 58), Shinnie (Zigic, 57), Gray, Donaldson (Novak, 88). Other subs: Doyle (gk), Moussa, Edgar, Reilly.
DERBY COUNTY: Grant; Christie, Keogh, Shotton, Forsyth; Hendrick (Coutts, 66), Eustace, Hughes; Russell, Martin (Best, 86), Ibe. Other subs: Roos (gk), Calero, Dawkins, Mascarell, L Naylor. REFEREE: C Foy (Merseyside) ATTENDANCE: 23,851 (2,907 Rams fans) SCORERS:
Ibe (9) 0-1
Martin (23) 0-2
Forsyth (77) 0-3
Russell (89) 0-4
DERBY County’s final game of 2018, on December 29, saw them leave Carrow Road with three points from a dramatic 4-3 victory over Norwich City on an afternoon when the Championship, a division often described a ‘crazy,’ reached new heights of craziness.
What unfurled was mad and magnificent, a contest of 43 goal attempts and seven goals in which hosts Norwich twice led only for Derby to emerge victors.
But that was only part of a bizarre storyline.
Teemu Pukki’s second goal of the afternoon put Norwich 3-2 up with only nine minutes of normal time remaining when floodlight failure resulted in referee David Webb taking both sets of players off the pitch.
The momentum was very much with Norwich at that moment but the break very much suited Derby.
They regrouped, made a few tweaks and a substitution, and roared back to stun the Canaries when play resumed after a 20-minute delay.
Florian Jozefzoon equalised before Jack Marriott pounced to score the Rams’ winner in the 90th minute and spark wild celebrations on the pitch, in the dugout and among the travelling Derby fans. NORWICH CITY: Krul; Aarons, Klose, Zimmermann, Godfrey; Tettey, Vrancic (Trybull, 83); Cantwell, Stiepermann (Srbeny, 89), Hernandez; Pukki (Rhodes, 90+5). Other subs: Mcgovern (gk), Pinto, Marshall, Hanley.
DERBY COUNTY: Carson; Bogle, Keogh, Tomori, Wisdom (Nugent, 81); Wilson, Evans, Mount; Waghorn (Holmes, 78), Marriott, Jozefzoon (Bird, 90+5). Other subs: Roos (gk), Pearce, Huddlestone, Bryson.
REFEREE: D Webb (Lancashire) ATTENDANCE: 26,886
SCORERS:
Godfrey (25) 1-0
Pukki (31) 2-0
Tomori (36) 2-1
Mount (45+2) 2-2
Pukki (81) 3-2
Jozefzoon (84) 3-3
Marriott (90) 3-4
DERBY County, who had failed to score in three of their previous four games, struck three times in the opening half an hour to take the
Championship contest away from Birmingham City and end 2020 on a high.
Goals from Krystian Bielik, Graeme Shinnie – a penalty – and Colin Kazim-richards put the Rams in complete control and had Birmingham at sixes and sevens, unable to find an answer to Derby’s dominance.
Jason Knight scored late on to complete a thoroughly deserved and comprehensive 4-0 victory at St Andrew’s in this December 29 fixture.
Interim manager Wayne Rooney would have wanted a reaction to the disappointing home defeat by Preston North End on Boxing Day and the players delivered.
In control, there was time for 16-year-old Kaide Gordon and 18-year-old Louie Watson to come on for their debuts. A special moment for both. Gordon became the fourth youngest player in the club’s history.
BIRMINGHAM CITY: Etheridge; Colin, Pedersen (Clarke-salter, 46), Friend, Clayton, Hogan (Jutkiewicz, 46), Bela (San Jose, 46), Dean, Sanchez, Gardner (Kieftenbeld, 61), Sunjic (Leko, 46). Subs: Prieto (gk), Mcgree, Toral, Dacrescogley
DERBY COUNTY: Marshall; Byrne, Wisdom, Clarke, Forsyth; Knight (Watson, 88), Bielik, Shinnie (Gordon, 88); Jozwiak, Kazim-richards (Hectoringram, 82), Sibley (Bird, 75).
Subs: Roos (gk), te Wierik, Evans, Holmes, Buchanan, Watson, Gordon.
REFEREE: T Harrington
SCORERS:
Bielik (15) 0-1
Shinnie (17, pen) 0-2 Kazim-richards (26) 0-3
Knight (77) 0-4