They both stared into the abyss. . . now two proud clubs are thriving
FALLEN GIANTS BRING THE PASSION AND NOISE AT PRIDE PARK
IT was around the 55-minute mark, as the contest finally opened up with Derby attacking and Bolton counter-thrusting, that Pride Park exploded with noise.
‘Derby are massive, everywhere we go,’ sang the home support with the chant rippling around all four of the packed stands.
‘Bolton are massive,’ replied the 3,000 from Lancashire in the corner and this stadium’s biggest crowd since December 2016 sang with one voice to the same beat.
Debates about how ‘massive’ particular clubs are will rage for eternity but, given both were founder members of the Football League in 1888, are former FA Cup winners and enjoyed decent Premier League stints, neither claim was invalid.
On a superb occasion like this, as these promotion contenders went toe- to- toe before a full house, it warmed the heart that it was happening at all.
Just a few years ago, it was a very different outlook for these two famous names of English football.
Indeed, instead of a League One summit meeting, this could well have ended up a clash between two phoenix clubs in the depths of non-League.
Derby reached for the stars under former owner Mel Morris but overstretched and ended up owing £29million to the taxman and £15m to their creditors, after failing to get back into the Premier League.
They were docked 21 points in a season by the EFL and struggled on under a transfer embargo with just a handful of senior professionals and a lot of kids. They were a week from extinction when local property developer David Clowes paid £55m to save them in June 2022, including £22m to buy Pride Park.
Then there’s Bolton, who spiralled down after dropping out of the Premier League in 2012 and, by the end of 2015, were £172.9m in debt.
The Trotters were then hit with so many winding-up petitions that HMRC had them on speed dial — from 2017 to 2018, there were four in 14 months.
Towards the end of that sorry campaign, they were unable to fulfil a game because the players had not been paid and the electricity at their training ground had been cut off. The 2019-20 campaign began with just three senior outfield players in the squad — and they had not been paid for five months.
When Covid forced the League One season to be curtailed, Bolton were rock bottom and no points-per-game formula was going to save them.
So these are two clubs who know how it feels to stare into the abyss. But, thankfully, their only concern now is getting results on the pitch.
In the week that Derby’s chief executive Stephen Pearce said the club has ‘never been in a better financial position’, they took a giant stride back towards the Championship.
Kane Wilson’s late header for the Rams won a match in which they had been second-best for the most part, opening up a handy four-point gap between themselves in second and their opponents in third.
But Bolton boss Ian Evatt, who led the club back up from League Two in 2021, is not about to give up on another promotion.
‘There are seven games to go and it can change in a heartbeat. We are the chasers — everyone will think it’s done but it’s definitely not, so we’ll keep pushing and striving,’ he said.
Derby manager Paul Warne knows these waters well, having led Rotherham United up into the Championship on three occasions. Hired on the basis of that record, Warne was under serious pressure when Derby sat 11th in late October, but they have slowly clawed their way into a strong position.
‘The pressure is insatiable to win every game. A defeat or even a draw can be seen as a disaster but it isn’t, you’ve just got to bounce to the next one,’ he said.
‘I’m not sleeping amazingly, it’s a stressful job, everyone’s got better answers than me. I run every day — that is my release. Oh, and I’m addicted to caffeine.
‘I just try to spend time with my wife and kids, or get away, read and listen to podcasts. I took the dog to the caravan at Wells- next- the- Sea in North Norfolk. Dogs are great, they live in the moment, wag their tail.
‘He doesn’t know I’ve got to pick a team for Northampton next weekend.’
Given what Derby — and Bolton — have been through, that’s not the worst problem to have.