"It was Twenty Years ago today!"
article published January, 2018, but first written in 1998 by the late Brian Judson

Full Record of Derby County -v- Spurs

Premier       Pl   W   D   L   For-Ag  Pts

Home           2   1   1   0     2-1    4
Away           1   0   0   1     2-4    0
=========================================
Total (Prem)   3   1   1   1     4-5    4
=========================================
Football Lge
Home (Div 1)  24  13   4   7    41-25  31
Away (Div 1)  24   3   8  13    29-60  16
=========================================
Total (Div 1) 48  16  12  20    70-85  47
=========================================
Football Lge
Home (Div 2)   1   0   1   0     0-0    1
Away (Div 2)   1   0   1   0     1-1    1
=========================================
Total (Div 2)  2   0   2   0     1-1    2
=========================================
Total (Prem)   3   1   1   1     4-5    4
Total (Div 1) 48  16  12  20    70-85  47
Total (Div 2)  2   0   2   0     1-1    2
=========================================
Grand Total   53  17  15  21    75-91  53
=========================================

This week's match at Derby is a game we *MUST* win! We are beginning to run out of games to play and we *MUST* start climbing away from the bottom before the main pack create a gap between the bottom and themselves.

Jim Smith's Derby side have developed into a very useful outfit. No one who saw Derby knock us off the League Cup trail back in October will have illusions about how tough Tottenham's task is.

There are rumours that Chris Armstrong may be ready for a return to the squad but if Christian Gross has any sense, Armstrong will start on the bench. Although Armstrong played in a number of games in the Autumn, it was clear that he was not fit and has had to have a further operation on his troublesome ankle. The original injury occurred in a game in December 1996 so effectively we have been without Armstrong for over a year.

It is my view that a fit Armstrong will probably link up better with Klinsmann than Ferdinand. This is purely a gut instinct. For one thing, Armstrong is the younger player and more likely to listen to Klinsmann. Ferdinand is approaching the end of his career and possibly has the attitude of one who has seen and done it all.

One selection that I would like to see is the omission of Calderwood from the squad. Whatever the limitations of Ramon Vega and David Howells, I would always prefer to play either or both of those in preference to the pedestrian Calderwood.

Derby County's best days were in the 1970s. They had only won a major trophy once (in 1946 when they won the FA Cup) until Brian Clough scooped them up from the doldrums of Division 2 and took them into the European Cup for the first time.

Clough's Derby team was a very exciting one at its peak. It played football as it ought to be played. In its early days it was captained by Dave Mackay, who skippered the team from a sweeping role, completely different from the way he had played at Tottenham. I suspect Clough left Derby at just the right time because his team was starting to go over the hill. Mackay took Derby to a second championship in the middle 1970s but it was a vastly different side by then and it did not last as well as Clough's had done.

Over the last twenty years, Derby have bounced between the top two Divisions. I particularly remember a game Spurs and Derby played in September 1990 when Paul Gascoigne scored all three goals in a 3-0 win. The second and third goals came from free kicks, both from distances one did not expect anyone to score from. Shilton, in goal for Derby, didn't even move when Gazza's free kicks whistled past him.

From what I have seen of Pride Park on television, it looks a much better ground than the old Baseball Ground. The last time I saw the old Baseball Ground it was a wonder football was playable as it was a solid mudheap from one goalmouth to the other. It looked, in fact, more like Blackpool Sands than a football pitch!

Sadly, I think we're in for another defeat, particularly if we play as we did on Saturday. We were totally bereft of ideas in the second half, as I've reported elsewhere. I hope I'm wrong : I pray I'm wrong! But, sadly, I don't think I will be.

Cheers, Brian

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