Everything about Derby County FC, the passionate football town

Derby County Football Team is an English professional football club headquartered in Derby, Derbyshire. The club plays in the Championship, English football's second tier. Since 1997, Derby has played its home games at Pride Park Stadium.

Derby County is one of only ten clubs to have competed in every season of the English football league system, with all but four of those being in the top two levels. Derby County was one of the 12 founding members of the Football League in 1888.

William Morley started the club as an extension of Derbyshire County Cricket Club in 1884. Its competitive heyday was in the 1970s when it won the First Division twice and competed in four major European competitions, reaching the European Cup semi-finals on four occasions and winning a slew of smaller medals.

In addition, the club was a powerful force in the interwar years, coming second in the league thrice in the 1930s and winning the first FA Cup after the war in 1946.

Since the 1890s, the club's home colors have been black and white. The Rams is the team's moniker, which pays homage to the First Regiment of Derby Militia, who had a ram as its mascot. The song "The Derby Ram" was also selected as the club's regimental song. They have a long-running rivalry with

, who they play in the East Midlands derby against.

A complete article of everything about Derby County FC, the passionate football town

In this article, we will try to provide information about

everything about Derby County F.C.

, starting from its history to its crest and colors, supporters, and stadium. Thus, stay with us on this long ride of the Derby County tour.

Derby County history and formation

History is everything and everything about

has at least a speck of history in it.

Derby County F.C. was founded in 1884 as an offshoot of Derbyshire County Cricket Club in order to provide a winter interest for players and supporters while also providing additional cash to the cricket club.

The original plan was to call the team "Derbyshire County F.C." to emphasize the connection, but the Derbyshire FA, which was founded in 1883, protested because the name was too long and would confuse spectators who would mistake it for a Derbyshire FA team.

Playing its home fixtures at the Racecourse Ground, the club played a number of friendly matches in 1884–85, the first of which was a 6–0 defeat to Great Lever on September 13, 1884. The club's first competitive match was against Walsall Town in the 1885 FA Cup, in which they lost 7–0 at home.

The club's most important match, arguably, came in the FA Cup the following season, when a 2–0 win over Aston Villa, then an emerging force in English football, put Derby County on the map, allowing the club to attract better opposition for friendlies and, in 1888, an invitation to the inaugural Football League.

The first-ever league season began on September 8, 1888, when Derby fought back from a 3–0 deficit to beat

6–3, albeit the club finished 10th out of 12 clubs.

They absorbed another Derby team, Derby Midland, which had previously been a member of the Midland League, in 1891, making them Derby's only professional football club. In 1892, Steve Bloomer, widely regarded as Derby County's greatest ever player, joined the club.

The Golden years

The bright years of the club started as

was assigned as the manager of the club. This era is widely known as the best years of this club. Let us focus on these years in this part of

everything about Derby County

.

Brian Clough and

took control in 1967 and led Derby to its pinnacle of success. Clough and Taylor took over while the team was 18th in the Second Division in 1968, recruiting Alan Hinton, Roy McFarland, and John O'Hare, before securing the important signing of Dave Mackay, who led the club to first place in 1969 and promotion to the First Division.

Derby finished fourth in 1970, was barred from competing in Europe in 1971 owing to financial issues, and won the Football League Championship for the first time in 1972. Derby did not maintain their title the next season, but they did reach the European Cup semi-finals when they were defeated by Juventus.

Clough and Taylor departed the club in October 1973 after a falling out with the board of directors for his frequent outspoken comments against football's establishment. Their impact on the club was so great that a bronze statue of the couple was constructed outside Pride Park 37 years later to commemorate their legacy.

Derby's form began to deteriorate towards the end of the 1970s, and the club was relegated to the Second Division in 1980 after a succession of managers, including former Manchester United manager Tommy Docherty, unsettled the club, which was desperately trying to maintain its position at the top of the First Division.

Though they competed effectively in their debut season, Derby was soon beset by mounting debts, declining attendances, and poor results.

Derby County current stadium

As mentioned before in the previous parts of everything about Derby County, the club changed its main ground a few times.

Despite initially hoping to rebuild the Baseball Ground to hold 26,000 spectators and rejecting two other sites in Derby, then-chairman Lionel Pickering announced in February 1996 that the club would be moving to a new, purpose-built stadium at the newly regenerated Pride Park, with the last first-team game at the Baseball Ground taking place in May 1997, a 1–3 home defeat to

, though it continued to host reserve matches until 2003.

Derby's new stadium, Pride Park Stadium, was officially opened by the Queen on July 18th, followed by a friendly against Italian club Sampdoria on August 4th.

Derby County is the only club in the world to have three home grounds that have hosted full England internationals. In 1895, England defeated Ireland 9–0 at the Racecourse Ground; in 1911,

defeated Ireland 2–1 at the Baseball Ground; and, most recently, England defeated Mexico 4–0 at Pride Park in May 2001.

On December 7, 2013, Pride Park was renamed the iPro Stadium as part of a 10-year, £7 million sponsorship contract with iPro, a multinational sports drink business. It restored to its previous name of Pride Park Stadium at the start of 2017.

The next part of everything about Derby County will be all about its jersey colors and the infamous crest.

Derby County colors and crest

Derby County, like other old football clubs, did not have a badge on their shirts at first. In 1924, they debuted their first badge. In 1971, a new club badge was introduced, with a more modern design that is currently in use with minor changes.

Originally, the badge featured a stylized white ram looking left. In 1979, the badge was significantly altered to incorporate the text "Derby County FC" beneath the ram (though the ram remained on its own on away kits). The ram was turned to the right in 1982, and the writing beneath it was deleted.

The ram was turned left and the word "Est. 1884" was now in the midst of a circular frame bearing "Derby County Football Club" in gold letters a decade later, in 2007, with the colors being changed to the club colors of black and white in 2009.

In July 2012, the club declared that instead of the full club emblem, future shirts will feature simply the iconic ram, which is now merely an outline. In July 2013, the classic ram was reintroduced as the club's full logo.

Derby County's original colors were amber, chocolate, and blue, but by the 1890s, the club had settled on its now-famous black and white scheme, which is still in use today. White shirts with minor blue or red touches were worn for home matches in the 1970s and 1980s, along with blue shorts and socks in blue, red, white, or a combination of the three colors. 

Derby County fans

Derby is frequently referred to as a "passionate football town" by both opposing fans and the media. Despite the club's dismal season, Derby County fans were often acknowledged as the greatest in the country during the 2007–08 Premier League season.

Derby fans packed Pride Park Stadium for almost every home game, and the club also enjoyed a sizable following away from home.

They were awarded fans of the season in much national coverage of the season, won an award from Nuts magazine, and were selected the country's most devoted supporters in a 2008 survey by Sky Sports Magazine. Nick Webster, a Derby fan, was named Championship Fan of the Year in 2013.

Despite possessing the 15th-largest club ground and finishing 18th or below in their respective divisions, the club had the 12th-highest average attendance in the country in the 2007–08, 2008–09, and 2009–10 seasons.

They were the most well-supported club in the Championship in 2008–09, with an average attendance higher than that of nine Premier League clubs, and the Football League's single greatest league match attendance, with 33,079 against Wolverhampton Wanderers on April 13, 2009.

Despite spending most of their time in the second tier, Derby's average attendance has never dropped below 23,000 and they have finished in the top 20 for highest average attendances in 19 of their 23 seasons since moving to Pride Park Stadium in 1997.

Derby County rivalries

Nottingham Forest, Leicester City, and Leeds United are Derby's main rivals, and this is where we will talk about this bitter yet sweet relationship in this section of everything about derby county.

Forest, headquartered in Nottingham, 14 miles (23 km) east of Derby, is by far the most bitter rivals; a 2008 poll ranked the rivalry as the 11th-largest in English football, with nine out of ten fans from both teams naming the other as their biggest rival, while a 2020 poll ranked it joint-12th.

East Midlands derbies are held between the two teams, with the winner receiving the Brian Clough Trophy.

The rivalry as a whole began in the 1970s, when former Derby manager Brian Clough took over at Forest, much to the chagrin of Derby supporters. The rivalry has been viewed as being as much about which team owns Clough's heart as it is about their physical vicinity.

The rivalry with

is primarily based on geography rather than shared history.

Leeds United is disliked because of the long-standing rivalry between Derby County and Leeds United, which dates back to the early 1970s when both teams were among the best in England, and the open hostility between their respective managers, Brian Clough and Don Revie, as documented in the novel and film The Damned United.

This rivalry has traditionally been stronger on Derby's side: while Derby considers Leeds to be their second or third-biggest rivals, Leeds fans are more focused on their dislike of Manchester United and

. However, following the 'Spygate' scandal, a play-off semi-final, and increased animosity between the managers, staff, and fans of both clubs, the rivalry intensified once more in the 2018–19 season.

Derby County records

Numerous records have been broken by this club in its homefield. What records you may ask, well let us answer this question in this section of everything about Derby County.

Derby triumphed 5–0 against Tottenham Hotspur at the Baseball Ground on September 20, 1969, with a record attendance of 41,826. Derby's current home, Pride Park Stadium, has a capacity of 33,597 people, therefore the record is unlikely to be broken anytime soon.

A Premier League match versus Liverpool on March 18, 2000, attracted 33,378 people to Pride Park for a competitive Derby County contest. When Derby County met Real Madrid at the

in the 1975–76 European Cup, the greatest attendance to ever see a Derby County match was 120,000.

Derby County's historically dismal Premier League campaign in 2007–08 saw the club set and match a number of undesirable English football records.

The club matched Loughborough's all-time league record of one win in a season. They also tied for the fewest home wins in a season (1, with Sunderland), the fewest goals (20, with

), the fewest away victories (0, with five other clubs), and the most defeats in a season (1992–present) (29, joint with three other clubs).

With 11 points in a season (three points for a win), he holds the record for the fewest points in a season and the lowest goal difference (69). Between September 22, 2007, and September 13, 2008, the club and Macclesfield Town shared the record for most consecutive league games without a win, with 36 games played across two seasons.

Derby also holds the joint record for most lopsided defeat in an FA Cup final (together with Watford), a 6–0 loss to Bury in 1903.

Derby County academy and associated teams

For this last section of everything about Derby County, we will talk about the academy of this club and the associated teams of Derby County.

Moor Farm, Derby County's academy, is a purpose-built site near the city suburb of Oakwood. It was constructed for £5 million in 2003 to replace the club's former academy, The Ram-Arena, which was located in Raynesway. When the academy originally opened, Lionel Pickering, the club's then-Chairman, stated that the goal was to have "at least eight players from the Academy... in the first team within three years."

Despite not achieving this goal, the academy has produced a number of notable players, including England international midfielder Tom Huddlestone, Wales international defender Lewin Nyatanga, Northern Ireland international goalkeeper Lee Camp, England under-21s players Miles Addison and Lee Grant, and England under-19 player Giles Barnes.

The squad also contains a female component, which we will discuss in this last section of everything about Derby County.

Derby County Women is a women's football team in England that is connected with Derby County Football Club. The first team now competes in the North Division of the FA Women's National League.

After defeating Crewe 4–2 at Pride Park in 2008–09, the team was promoted to the league from the Midland Combination Women's Football League.

The club also has a reserve team that competes in the national reserve team pyramid, as well as nine academy teams that compete in the Derbyshire Girls League and the Central Warwickshire Girls League.

The club has a good working partnership with the Derby County Girls Regional Talent Centre, which allows for a specific player pathway from development football to the senior squads of Derby County Women.

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