As Cardiff City visit Derby County tonight, seeking the points that would lift them into the top six of the Championship, Dai Sport’s Terry Phillips recalls the 11 years he spent working for the Derby Evening Telegraph ahead of his own return to the club at Pride Park.
Colin Addison, Roy McFarland, Johnny Newman, Arthur Cox and Peter Taylor all had spells in charge of Derby County during the 1980s. The Rams played out of the Baseball Ground – and trained at the RamArena on Raynesway.
‘Addo’ even allowed me to travel on the team coach at times – and delivered a firm dressing down in front of the players when I turned up for one away trip without a tie.
Former Newport County and Merthyr Town manager Addison is a stickler for doing things the right way – and felt a tie for the manager and his guests was a must.
When Cox was appointed in 1984 he was their ninth manager in 11 years, taking over from McFarland after the former England international returned to his former assistant role.
Cox had left Newcastle United, took charge at Derby and led them back to the top flight with successive promotions including winning the Championship title.
The Derby club were owned by the Maxwell family with Ian chairman, while his father Robert, a publishing tycoon, stayed in charge at Oxford United.
The financial backing of Maxwell saw players like goalkeeper Peter Shilton, Mark Wright, Ted McMinn and Welshman Dean Saunders, a former Bluebirds and Swansea City striker join the club.
A lack of further investment from Maxwell led to a decline and Derby were relegated back to the second tier.
The Rams and the Bluebirds have played each other 63 times, once in the FA Cup when Derby won 2-1 during 1948-49.
Cardiff have won 28 times and lost 18 with 17 drawn. The Bluebirdfs go for win number 29 when they face Derby in a SkyBet Championship clash which is being shown live on Sky television.
John Charles scored his final goal for Cardiff City against Derby, heading the winner in a 2-1 success during 1965 with Terry Harkin the other scorer on his debut. City completed a League Two double that season by winning the return at Derby’s Baseball Ground 5-1.
Welshman Alan Durban was in the Derby team in 1965-66, having joined the Rams from Cardiff City.
He became Bluebirds manager during the mid-1980s, but that proved a disastrous spell with the club being relegated from the Second Division to Division Four.
Cardiff’s last visit to Derby came two seasons ago when Cameron Jerome, who had developed through City’s youth programme and scored 24 goals in 73 first team league appearances, netted twice for County in a 3-1 win.
That fixture followed a row over snow when the fixture was postponed earlier that season.
Manager Neil Warnock described the decision a ‘disgrace’ after the game at Pride Park was called off because areas surrounding the stadium were deemed unsafe because of snow.
“We arrived at the ground and the car park was clear, the pitch was perfect,” said Warnock. “Absolutely disgraceful really.
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Warnock suggested that Derby, who had been hit by an injury crisis in the build-up to the match, welcomed the postponement.
“All week I have listened to comments from Derby, they have all been negative, and that’s before the snow came down,” he said.
“They have been talking about the injury situation and manager Gary Rowett said they only had 10 players training and if they could get away with this weekend’s game, they would be fine.”
A Football League statement said: “The decision to postpone the fixture was made first thing in the morning following discussions between Derby County, Derbyshire Police and the local Safety Advisory Group.
“It was taken in the interests of spectator safety following heavy overnight snow falling in the Derby area which had built up on the roads surrounding the stadium.
“An announcement was made at 8.30am and the EFL is satisfied from the information shared that these were the reasons the match was postponed and will provide Cardiff City with the opportunity to provide any additional information they feel is relevant, before responding further.”
The Rams have Florian Jozefzoon and ex-Bluebirds full-back Scott Malone available after injuries, while Derby’s Dutch manager Phillip Cocu told RamsTV: “Their manager, Neil Warnock, has a lot of experience, he has had success in the Championship and it will be a difficult game.
“They have quite a direct game and t’s going to be tough, but it is down to us.
“We had a good international break, there is a good feeling and good work done so we are extremely positive about the game on Friday.”
Derby’s Krystian Bielik started for Poland on Monday, but Tom Lawrence (Wales) and Richard Keogh (Republic of Ireland) were rested.
Warnock was furious that Cardiff’s Leandro Bacuna did not arrive back in the UK until Thursday afternoon after playing for Curacao against Haiti in the Concacaf Nations League, by which time Warnock and his team had already set off for their hotel.
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Bacuna flew into East Midlands Airport, 10 miles from Derby, and linked up with the squad.
“Leandro Bacuna did not even flying back until Thursday afternoon,” said Warnock. “It’s scandalous really how countries can get away with things like that.
That gave midfield player Bacuna 24 hours to prepare for Friday’s match at Pride Park.
Junior Hoilett was released from international duty early, having captained Canada and scored a hat-trick in a 6-0 win against Cuba.
Warnock says: “He has a personal problem. One of the family is seriously ill and we will just have to keep in touch.
“What I’ve said to Junior is that family is more important than Derby County. So he will let me know if he is available or not.
“There is no pressure on him. We’d love him to play, but we are not going to push him to that.”
The Bluebirds, who are unbeaten in three Championship fixtures, will be without injured players Matt Connolly, Jazz Richards, goalkeeper Neil Etheridge, Danny Ward, Marlon Pack and Sol Bamba at Derby.
Cardiff City 4-4-1-1 (probable): Cardiff City: Alex Smithies, Lee Peltier, Sean Morrison (capt), Aden Flint, Joe Bennett, Leandro Bacuna, Joe Ralls, Lee Tomlin, Gavin Whyte, Josh Murphy, Robert Glatzel. Bench: Joe Day (gk), Junior Hoilett, Callum Paterson, Omar Bogle, Nathaniel Mendez-Laing, Will Vaulks, Curtis Nelson.