The Baseball Ground was the scene of one of Albion’s worst-ever sequences without a win – if not the worst. The last time we won there in the League was in our Championship season – and I mean the old-fashioned Football League championship, when to win it meant you were Champions of England. In case you need reminding, that was in 1919-20.
We broke the sequence immediately following Derby's move to Pride Park. Our first League game there was in 2003-4, and we won 1-0 - more of which later.
Our home record over the same period is not too bad: Derby have won only five times in their last 26 visits to The Hawthorns, and only once in eleven since 1970.
The all-time League record currently looks like this:
P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | |
Home | 49 | 26 | 14 | 9 | 84 | 49 | 35 |
Away | 49 | 7 | 13 | 29 | 60 | 112 | -52 |
Total |
98 |
33 | 27 | 38 | 144 | 161 | -17 |
The return match at The Hawthorns in February will be our 100th League match against Derby.
Over the past fifteen years:
2006/7 | Championship | Albion | 1 | 0 | Derby |
Derby |
2 | 1 | Albion |
W |
L |
2003/4 | Division 1 | Albion | 1 | 1 | Derby |
Derby |
0 |
1 | Albion | D | W |
1995/6 | Division 1 | Albion | 3 | 2 | Derby |
Derby |
3 | 0 | Albion | W | L |
1994/5 | Division 1 | Albion | 0 | 0 | Derby |
Derby |
1 | 1 | Albion | D | D |
For the last two of those seasons, the away games have been at Pride Park; the first two were at the Baseball Ground.
Derby County FC was founded in 1884 as part of Derbyshire County Cricket Club, and their initial rise was meteoric. They entered the FA Cup in their first year, and in 1887/8 they reached the fifth round. They were then invited to become founder members of the Football League - just four years after their foundation.
In 1895/6 they finished runners-up in the League, to Aston Villa, and reached the semi-finals of the FA Cup. Two years later they reached the Cup Final, but were beaten 3-1 by their local rivals Nottingham Forest. They reached the final again the following year, losing 4-1 this time to Sheffield United, but even worse was to come in 1903 when they lost to Bury 6-0 – still a record.
Derby were relegated for the first time in 1907, and over the next 19 years they had three separate spells in the Second Division - with only four years in the First. But after promotion in 1926 they stayed in the First Division until 1953. It was immediately after the Second World War that they won their first major trophy, beating Charlton Athletic 4-1 after extra time in the 1946 FA Cup Final.
Two years after relegation in 1953 they found themselves in the Third Division for the first time. By 1967 they'd been back in the Second for ten years, but it was then that they appointed a young manager called Brian Clough. He was 32 years old, his playing career had ended through injury just three years earlier, and in the meantime he'd been cutting his management teeth at Hartlepool.
Two years later Derby were back in the First Division, and in 1972 they won the League Championship for the first time. Clough left a little over a year later, after falling out with just about everyone in and around the game of football, including Derby chairman Sam Longson; he was replaced by Dave Mackay, who took Derby to a second League title in 1975. The following year they finished in a respectable 4th place, but after 13 games of the 1976-7 season they were in 19th place and Mackay was sacked.
A succession of managers failed to bring back the success of the early 70s; Derby were relegated in 1980, and four years later they were back in the Third Division for the first time since 1956.
By now Derby were in dire financial straits, and they were rescued by Robert Maxwell. Arthur Cox was appointed as manager, with the previous incumbent Roy McFarland (one of the stars of the double championship winning side) as his assistant. Derby spent two years in the Third Division, but back-to-back promotions in 1986 and 1987 put them back in the First. They stayed there for four years, but were relegated in 1991 - and then the death of Robert Maxwell in bizarre circumstances left the club in financial trouble again.
With local businessman Lionel Pickering now in the chair, Cox stayed until 1993, and in 1995 Jim Smith – already a vastly experienced manager - was appointed. He led the Rams to the promised land of the Premiership in his first season.
This time they stayed for six years. They finished 12th in 1997, 9th in 1998 and 8th in 1999, but three less successful seasons ended in relegation in 2002. Over the next four years they flirted with relegation to the third level (again) three times, alleviated by a play-off spot in 2005; but in 2007, to everyone's surprise (including probably their own) they reached the play-offs again and - as every Albion fan will remember - won promotion again.
While Albion had started the 2006-7 season fairly strongly and were never far off the play-off places, Derby won only one of their first six games and at the end of October they were in 13th place. They then beat Barnsley, and Albion were their next visitors. Derby won 2-1 - more of which later. They went on to win 12 of their next 15 matches - making it 14 out of 17 altogether (including Barnsley and Albion). That run left them top of the table at the beginning of February - but they won only six of their last fifteen games, and ended up in third place.
Of those 14 wins, all but one were by the odd goal. There were eight one-nils, five two-ones and one two-nil.
It's arguable whether there's ever a bad time to get promoted, but Derby's results in 2007-8 surely proved that they were not ready for the Premiership. I hate to gloat (no, really!) but their record speaks for itself:
Home |
Away | |||||||||||
P | W | D | L | F | A | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts |
38 | 1 | 5 | 13 | 12 | 43 | 0 | 3 | 16 | 8 | 46 | -69 | 11 |
Last season Derby finished 18th in the Championship with 54 points. This season, so far, they're doing marginally better: 16th, with 20 points from 18 games. Their home form is impressive, with six wins and only three defeats.
As we've already seen, Derby County are historically a bogey team for the Albion - particularly at Derby. In recent years however, our record is not so bad.
Our last visit to Pride Park was in 2006-7 - the season in which we were also destined to play them in the play-off final. Richard Chaplow put the Baggies ahead in the 26th minute and we looked like holding on for three points, until Zoltan Gera was dispossessed on the edge of the Derby box and they went up the other end for Matthew Oakley to score. That was in the 69th minute, and Giles Barnes got the winner three minutes later. The return at The Hawthorns came just four weeks later (on 2nd December), and John Hartson scored the only goal of the game one minute from time.
That was our second League game at Pride Park. On the previous occasion we'd got our first League win at Derby for over 80 years. This was on 30th August 2003, when the only goal was scored by ... Rob Hulse. At The Hawthorns the following Boxing Day, both goals came late in the game - substitute Candido Costa scoring for Derby in the 86th minute and Tommy Gaardsoe equalising for the Baggies in injury time. Candido Who, I hear you ask? He was on loan from Porto, and is currently playing for Beleneses of Lisbon. That was the only goal he scored for the Rams in 34 appearances.
Our last game at the Baseball Ground was eight years earlier, in November 1995. Albion had started the season quite well under Alan Buckley, and in October we played Millwall with the chance to go top of the First Division. But we lost 2-1. We lost the next game as well, at home to Leicester, and Derby away was next up. We lost this one 3-0: two goals from Marco Gabbiadini and a penalty from Dean Sturridge. This was the third in a sequence of eleven consecutive defeats - Albion's worst ever losing streak.
Our first two games at Pride Park were in the cups: in 2000-1 Derby put us out of both the FA Cup and the League Cup. In the latter we won the first leg at Pride Park, 2-1, with goals from Neil Clement and Richard Sneekes; this was our first ever victory over a Premier League club. Derby came good in the second leg at The Hawthorns, though - winning 4-2 to take the tie 5-4 on aggregate. Jordao and Clement (again) scored for Albion.
In the FA Cup, in the same season, Derby went 3-0 up, Malcolm Christie scoring the third in the 75th minute. Five minutes later Albion had fought back to 3-2 with goals from Bob Taylor and Lee Hughes, but that was how it finished.
This was the seventh time we'd been drawn against Derby in the FA Cup. We have beaten them only twice; the first time was in 1907, and the second was in 1978, when we went on to lose to Ipswich in the semi-final. We played Derby in the fifth round and won 3-2, with two goals from Cyrille Regis and one from Willie Johnston. That was our first win at the Baseball Ground since 1919, and we never got another.
In the League Cup our record is even worse: we've played them three times, and lost all three. The first time was in 1986-7, when we lost 5-1 over two legs; the second was three years later, when the result was 2-0 to them. The third time was in 2000-1, with the result that we've already seen.
Our last game against Derby was of course in the 2007 play-off final. It was in the 61st minute that Stephen Pearson scored the only goal of the game. It was a bitter pill to swallow at the time - but the contrasting fortunes of the two clubs in the following season went some way towards making up for it.