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Sporting Memories is a Derby County Community Trust programme which encourages over 50s to reminisce on their favourite Derby County moments.

OFFICIAL PROGRAMME Special Thanks Andy Ellis Official Club Historian 1995/96 SEASON Roy McFarland’s contract had not been renewed at the end of the 1995-96 season, leaving Derby Everything was gearing up for a crunch game in in search of another manager. At the same time they had lost three of their star players in Mark Derby’s last home game against Crystal Palace. Pembridge, Craig Short and Paul Williams who all moved to new Premier League clubs. A win and they would be promoted, anything else and the season would go down to the last match After much delay, Jim Smith was appointed ahead of Brian Horton and he brought in Oxford and the pendulum would swing in the Londoners’ United’s reserve team coach and former Derby player Steve McClaren as his assistant. Their first favour with a home game and Derby having to travel task was to recruit players to fill gaps so they signed Sean Flynn, Daryll Powell (who played for to WBA. The game was live on ITV and the Baseball Smith at Portsmouth), captain Robin van der Laan from Port Vale, Gary Rowett, David Preece and Ground given a fresh lick of black and white paint Dutchman Ron Willems. and branding of ‘Roar till you’re Raw’. Derby’s player of the year was Dean Yates, but he was injured for With so many changes on and off the field, a slow this game and young Matt Carbon, who had made start was inevitable and after four games (two just four substitute appearances before this point, defeats and two draws) they were down in 23rd was thrown in for his full debut. place in the league. Two wins in September pushed them up to 20th and an unbeaten October pushed An early goal by Derby through Dean Sturridge with his 19th goal of the season put The Rams in them up to 14th place. control at half-time. Crystal Palace had to throw everything at Derby and got their reward and drew level, before Van der Laan’s McFarland style header became the promotion-winning goal. The final Derby then stunned everyone by signing Igor whistle brought the usual pitch invasion and jubilant scenes on the terraces, in the stands and Stimac, the captain of the Croatia national team. Director’s Box, especially for Mr Lionel Pickering who had ploughed millions of pounds into the Everyone was then trying to find out about him – team since taking ownership at the beginning of the decade. his background, position and so on as he was an unknown player. It was an eventful first few days The final league table saw second-place Derby four points behind Sunderland and four points ahead for Stimac – not knowing where Derby was and of Crystal Palace in third place. Their season fell apart after our defeat and they were knocked out crashing his car by driving on the wrong side of the of the play-offs at the first stage by eventual play-off winners Leicester City. At the other end of the road. His debut came at Tranmere Rovers on 4th table Millwall, Watford and Luton Town were relegated. November and he scored Derby’s only goal in a 1-5 defeat. V S T I M A C G B S D S I I M A rearrangement of tactics at this point turned Derby’s season around dramatically. Wins against U A K J X G R N S G T P M X C WBA, Charlton and a stunning 4-1 win at Birmingham City on a very cold November evening pushed M L N Q J O U E O U W P U W F them into the top ten. P L F D S T D Q R O U T X I A Z E L W E O Q R I H J K X D R They then won the next seven league games in a row, although there was an FA Cup third round F W Y V X R I N E V N K T Q L defeat to Leeds United in January during that time. A 3-1 win at home to Sunderland two days L O N F S D L Y L W G T U Y A before Christmas saw Derby go top of the league. L P N N G M P A Y N E Y P O N Y F Q E E H I Q A W Y J P J D In all there were ten wins in that run of 11 league games and the unbeaten run was stretched to 20 U Q P G S R K T O N X R N B Y games before being beaten at second-placed Sunderland. This defeat saw Sunderland go top and V S Y G H N A R H C G Z I G J their strong finish to the season saw them win the Championship by four points in the end. G D D W H M A L T S N I A O F Derby’s form began to stutter, and although good enough to keep 5th and 6th place Charlton and V Z J B W G M X C V I Y X W D Leicester at arms’ length, Crystal Palace and Stoke City could not easily be shaken off and they G N I R E K C I P C B B A D V kept pace with Derby. Derby beat Stoke 3-1 at the end of March and had morale boosting wins over O K N D S W M M D N M E W X W Easter with a 1-0 win at Oldham Athletic and a 6-2 win on Easter Monday at home to Tranmere, in which Paul Simpson scored at hat-trick - the last one by a Derby player until Craig Bryson scored three in a 5-1 win at Millwall in September 2013. MCFARLAND • MCCLAREN • SMITH • POWELL • ROWETT STIMAC • STURRIDGE • FLYNN • VANDERLAAN • PICKERING