Derby County: On the slippery slope to Third Division

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"Anton Rippon looks back to the 1950s when Derby County slid into the Third Division for the first time in their history.

ON May 9, 1951, Derby County drew 1-1 with German side Borussia Dortmund, at the Baseball Ground, in one of a series of friendlies between British and foreign clubs to celebrate that year’s Festival of Britain.

For Derby County themselves, however, the festival years were over – for several years at least. By the end of the following campaign, after flirting dangerously with relegation from the top flight of English football, the Rams would finish in 17th place.

It was the start of a terrible decline that would result in Third Division football for the first time in the club’s history – and that only nine years after winning the FA Cup.

The basic problem was that the players who had seen the club through the golden days of the 1940s had now either left the club, or were past their peak.

The Rams had begun 1951-52 with a 4-3 defeat at the hands of Sunderland. Yet again – they had recently fought out a 6-5 game which ended in the Rams’ favour – these two sides produced a hatful of goals for Baseball Ground customers.

Making his Rams’ debut in August 1951 was Ray Middleton, Chesterfield’s long-serving goalkeeper, signed in the close season and one of several new faces on show.

Full-back Geoff Barrowcliffe, signed from Ilkeston Town in 1950, made his first team debut against Stoke City at the Baseball Ground on September 1, aged 19; and Norman Nielson, the burly South African defender formerly with Charlton, also played his first game.

Another new signing, centre-forward Ray Straw, also from Ilkeston and a coal miner, had a handful of reserve games.

This was a transitional period for the Rams. Tim Ward had left to join Barnsley the previous March and the right-half shirt was shared by Albert Mays and Steve McLachlan, signed from Scottish junior football in 1938. McLachlan made his debut a year later and was one of the Rams’ longest-serving players.

Of the 1946 Cup-winning side, Reg Harrison was still a regular, Jack Stamps played in about half the matches, and Chick Musson in a mere handful.

Bert Mozley, Johnny Morris and Ken Oliver followed Middleton and Harrison in the appearances table, and Hughie McLaren, Johnny Morris and Jack Parry led the scorers.

Teacher Ray Wilkins, signed from Moira United in 1950, found himself leading the attack when Jack Lee was injured; Wilkins played in just under half the League programme, averaging a goal every three games.

If Derby had just managed to stave off relegation the previous season, the 1952-53 campaign saw no escape for the Rams. They finished bottom of the table and faced Second Division soccer for the first time since 1926.

They took only three points from their first eight games, a spell which included successive defeats against Sunderland (away), Manchester United (home), Wolves (home) and Charlton (away). It was a run surprisingly ended by a 2-0 defeat of champions-elect, Arsenal, at the Baseball Ground, which was followed by a 2-1 victory at Burnley.

When Spurs drew 0-0 at the Baseball Ground on October 11, Harold Shentall, chairman of selectors, saw Bert Mozley overshadow the regular England right-back, Alf Ramsey.

But for the Rams’ dire position, Derby-born Mozley might have added to his three England caps.

In October, Johnny Morris left for Leicester City and the following month Derby paid Wolves £15,000 for inside-forward Jimmy Dunn. Dunn scored on his debut in the 3-2 win over Liverpool at the Baseball Ground, on November 22; but defeat at Maine Road a week later put Derby right back in trouble.

By the end of that month they had won only four matches, but a good December – seven points out of 10 – meant that there was hope, although Dunn needed a cartilage operation.

But Derby County were to win only four more matches, one of them a 5-0 Baseball Ground victory over fellow strugglers Manchester City. The last game of the season was against Preston North End, who needed to win to stand a chance of the title. Tom Finney scored the only goal of the game from the penalty spot, and the Rams finished with 32 points and went down with Stoke.

Preston’s victory, incidentally, was in vain; Arsenal won their last game and took the title by one-10th of a goal.

Before the Rams’ first Division Two season for 27 years, manager Stuart McMillan released goalkeeper Bill Townsend to Burton Albion, full-back Jack Parr to Shrewsbury Town and Steve McLachlan to Kilmarnock.

Derby began the season without one major signing. The only “new” face was likely to be Ray Straw, who was doing his National Service and had been posted to nearby Chilwell Ordnance Depot.

It was the centre-forward position which posed the Rams most problems as the season got under way.

Although Lee scored three goals against Brentford in the first home match – Derby’s first hat-trick since Lee’s four in the 11-goal Sunderland thriller of 1950 – the former England centre-forward was lacking his overall touch after much injury.

So when Lincoln City played their first League match at Derby for almost 40 years, McMillan gambled with Norman Nielson in the number nine shirt.

Although Derby beat a woefully inadequate Lincoln side, 2-0, Nielson looked sadly out of place.

But he then scored three goals in two games: the 2-2 draw at home to Blackburn and the 1-0 win over Notts County when the Rams played their first competitive game at Meadow Lane for 30 years.

A 2-0 win at Hull on September 19 put Derby in sixth place. McLaren, recalled after four goals in a mid-week reserve match, celebrated his return with a goal.

Then the rot set in. A week later the Rams lost 3-2 in front of 54,216 at Goodison Park. It was a baptism of fire for Rex Osman (21), a former Derby Boys wing-half who had been a regular in the Rams’ Central League side. Osman played only once more for the Rams.

In October, Fulham beat the Rams 5-2 at Craven Cottage. London was not a happy hunting ground for Derby, who had lost 6-2 at Highbury and 5-2 at White Hart Lane in the First Division relegation season.

On October 31, the Rams suffered their first home defeat when Birmingham City beat them 4-2. A week later, 31,347 saw Forest win 4-2 at the City Ground.

Derby had now conceded 11 goals in three matches and Middleton’s form, in particular, was giving concern. The following week, Derby brought in 17-year-old former Scottish schoolboy international goalkeeper, David Paul, for his first game.

Against Luton at the Baseball Ground, he was joined by another youngster. Right-back Roy Patrick’s previous game had been as a 16-year-old against Sunderland in 1951, Derby’s youngest first-teamer since Fred Flanders way back in 1910.

Luton won 2-1, the slide continued. In November 1953, Jack Barker, the former Rams’ and England centre-half, took over the managership from Stuart McMillan.

By January 23, 1954, when Notts County drew 0-0 on a waterlogged Baseball Ground, Derby had slipped to 15th place. A 3-0 defeat at Hull on February 6 meant that they had scored only two goals in 450 minutes of football.

A week later, Everton won 6-2 at the Baseball Ground to inflict the Rams’ biggest home defeat for 16 years. The only consolation was Derby’s first home goals in four games.

On March 20, with the Rams having lost seven of their previous 10 games, Nielson was again tried at centre-forward but Derby crashed 3-0 at Birmingham.

Seven days later, there were less than 10,000 to see another appalling display when the Rams were hammered 4-1 by Plymouth at the Baseball Ground.

They were now 17th and, when the Rams played at Swansea, Terry Webster replaced Middleton in goal.

It was Webster’s first senior game for three years and he was on the losing side, 2-1. On April 10, Derby lost 2-1 to Forest. It was the Rams’ fifth defeat on the trot and they had to look back to Boxing Day for their last win.

Relegation seemed certain. And yet, on Good Friday, the Rams scored a shock 3-1 win at Doncaster with goals from Rhodesian-born winger Cecil Law, Harrison and Wilkins.

A 2-1 defeat at Kenilworth Road the following day did nothing to ease things; but when Doncaster played at the Baseball Ground on Easter Monday, Derby won 2-0 and the drop had been temporarily postponed.

For the last game of the season, at home to Rotherham, Jack Barker persisted with the makeshift centre-forward who had scored both goals against Doncaster.

Full-back Geoff Barrowcliffe was ever cheerful, no matter what task was thrust upon him.

Ted Lowell, an 18-year-old from Cheadle, scored after six minutes of his debut, but a mistake by Webster allowed Rotherham to equalise. It was a fitting end to an awful season. Derby finished in 18th place, four points clear of relegation. They had conceded 82 goals.

If Derby County had postponed relegation, they could not put off the inevitable indefinitely. A dreadful run of seven successive defeats in the final run-in to 1954-55 doomed them to the bitter taste of Third Division soccer for the first time. The Rams’ season had started brightly enough with a 3-2 win at Meadow Lane; but it was to be their sole away success of the campaign. Indeed, they were to win only six home matches, and, until they beat Hull 3-0 on the final day of the season, they had to look back to the beginning of February for their previous victory.

Derby were always relegation favourites. By Christmas they had won only 15 points from 23 matches. And, after beating fellow strugglers, Port Vale, 6-1 on February 5, they went 14 games without a win, culminating in that awful seven-match run of defeats.

It began when the Rams lost 3-2 at Ipswich on March 26 and ended with the 3-0 defeat at Lincoln on April 23.

By the time they beat Hull in the last match, the Rams were in no mood to celebrate the victory, rare though it was, for they were already a Third Division North side.

Yet, Jack Barker had spent £40,000 on new players since the end of 1953-54.

In May 1954, Bury’s little Scottish winger, Stewart Imlach, arrived at the Baseball Ground, with Southern Africans, Nielson and Law, going to Gigg Lane; Frank Upton, a hard-tackling wing-half from Northampton Town, and George Hunter, who had played 80 games in Celtic’s goal, followed in June; and in October, veteran Jesse Pye, the former Wolves and England forward, was signed from Luton.

In February, with the Rams hurtling towards the Northern Section, Barker signed the Clyde forward Jock Buchanan.

And, on the same day in March, Hull City forwards Alf Ackerman and Ken Harrison came to Derby in a desperate bid to stave off relegation.

It was all too late and Hunter’s signing, in particular, solved no problems. By the August, he was on his way to Exeter City as the Rams began to navigate what was, for them, hitherto unchartered waters.

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