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An 1884 newspaper report of Derby County's first ever game - note it refers to the club as both 'Derbyshire County' and 'Derby County', as already the shortened appellation was being introduced

Derby County might well be considered a perfect name for Derbyshire's premier football club - the team represents both the city and the county in equal measure.

Yet their christening was no foregone conclusion - in fact the club were very privileged to be so called, since local authority approvals for the ‘county’ tag were rarely granted. It was considered presumptuous and politically incorrect for mere football teams to assume such grandeur.

This is borne out by the names of major clubs. Of those playing first-class English League football in 2007-08, only Notts County and Stockport County shared the same honour.

But there is no city called ‘Notts’ and no county called ‘Stockportshire’ – so as representatives of their domain and community, Derby County are the pre-eminent football club in the land. Q.E.D., as they don’t often say in football.

Yet it might never have been. They were formed in 1884 as an offshoot of Derbyshire County Cricket Club, and the football section simply adopted the most obvious name. So reports of their first ever game (a 6-0 defeat at Great Lever on 13 September 1884) referred to the team as Derbyshire County Football Club.

The ‘shire’ was dropped only after a pompous protest by the Derbyshire Football Association – ‘Only we can truly represent the county’ - thus the newly-shorn Derby County were born. The rest is history.

The above is extracted from The Little Book of Derby County by Peter Seddon - with thanks to the publisher Breedon Books.

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County:  Derbyshire

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