Bigger turnout for win and promising signs for Rams under new boss...
FIFTY-FOUR years ago today, the Baseball Ground attendance for the first match of the new season was a big improvement on the previous year.
On August 19, 1967, a crowd of 19,412 for the visit of Charlton Athletic was more than 5,000 up on the opening day figure 12 months earlier, when Blackburn Rovers had dented the Rams’ early hopes by winning 3-2 at Derby.
The Rams neatly reversed that scoreline and as the fans made their way home for tea on that balmy late summer’s day over half a century ago, they began to think that the club’s new manager might just spring a few surprises.
There was also a new centre-forward who had caught their eye. It might be an interesting season.
And so it was, even though the Rams finished one place lower – 18th – than in the previous campaign, Derby’s last under Tim Ward.
For once, however, nobody really minded that a new manager had achieved slightly less than his predecessor.
An influx of exciting new players and a run to the semi-finals of the League Cup led to a general feeling that things were getting better, despite what the Second Division table said.
The Charlton game was the Rams’ first match under Brian Clough. That young centre-forward was John O’Hare. It may have been an unremarkable start. But it signalled the beginning of the greatest era in Derby County’s history.
Clough, a goalscoring machine with Middlesbrough and Sunderland before injury halted his playing career, had set Hartlepools United on the road to better things before coming to Derby with his assistant, Peter Taylor, already known in the area for his time managing Burton Albion.
Clough and Taylor were given the best possible start when Charlton centre-half, Ian King, himself later to manage Burton, put the Rams ahead with a spectacular seventh-minute own goal.
Eight minutes later, Bob Curtis put Charlton level, but in the 23rd minute, Kevin Hector restored Derby’s lead from Alan Durban’s free-kick.
Two minutes before half-time, O’Hare, a former Sunderland youth player under Clough, capped his Rams debut with a goal after Ron Webster set him up.
Hector was in superb form and twice in the later stages went close, as well as laying on a chance from which Durban might have given the scoreline a more emphatic look.
Four minutes from the end, Alan Campbell closed the gap to one goal but there was no shock equaliser and the Rams ended the day with the best possible start to their season.
In the Derby Evening Telegraph, George Edwards commented: “Nobody can fairly complain, although one would not have fancied the chances of the defence against a side with more power in front of goal.
“At times they were in utter confusion, with Saxton far from happy and both full-backs vulnerable on the outside, but, nonetheless, there was much to encourage Rams fans … ”
Edwards continued: “What was most encouraging, perhaps, was that the Rams got to grips with the game after letting it slide very much Charlton’s way. At one point the hardworking Campbell was doing what he liked in midfield, but the Rams, by sheer endeavour, regained the initiative.
“Clearly they were very nervous at the start, particularly new centreforward O’Hare, who also looked a little short of fitness and therefore mobility.
“In his case one must obviously reserve judgement and give him time to settle in and it is worth remembering that he rattled in the only chance that came his way without wasting much time.
“The hero of the day as far as the crowd was concerned was Hector, although Durban deserves all credit for forcing his way into the game after an uncertain start.
“The poise, calm and complete self-confidence that marks so much of Hector’s work was what delighted the fans and it was almost certainly his display as much as anything that sent them home happy.”
And happy they were. At the end of the season, few wanted to remind Brian Clough of his pre-season boast that, whatever else happened, the
Rams would finish higher than the previous season. Most could see the bigger picture.
One week later, in the small hours of August 26, Clough and Taylor completed one of Derby County’s best-ever bits of business when they roused the Tranmere Rovers centrehalf, Roy McFarland, from his bed and wouldn’t let him return to his slumber until he had signed for Derby County. The transfer fee was less than £25,000.
The great days were just around the corner …