Stuart Forsyth
My first game was a reserve match on the final day for the 1975 -76 season I can't remember the opposition or the result-in fact the only recollections of the game are that I went with my Dad and we sat in th 'B' Stand. What I do remember though is that on the same day ,the first team still managed by Dave Mackay, won 6-2 at Ipswich Town- it was Francis Lee's final appearance.
Something that day made me want to spend every single Saturday watching the RAMS. That's never changed ,despite the inevitable changes in situation in the intervening 25 years -schools ,girlfriends, colleges, friends all come and go but one constant is Derby County.
My Dad took me to most of the games in the Docherty and Adddison years and we made the odd trip to places like Bolton and ,memorably the c*ty ground fro the Boxing Day game which people still talk and sing about . Problem was my old man was a Baggies fan and he never actually encouraged me to support the Rams -during the late 70's early 80's when the Baggies had a very good side he still occasionally tried to convince me to follow them instead.....
Not a bloody chance ! By the time Addison, Biley , Swindlehurst were freefalling in to Division 2(we'll be back in '81) I was well and truly hooked .I started going to games with my friend, firstly standing in the Normanton Lower (it was from here I witnessed grown men crying after we'd gone out of the F.A.Cup to Plymouth and almost out of business and from here that I watched Trevor Christie start the revival with his promotion securing penalty in 1986.Then when they put seats in we moved to the Popside.
The Popside was just magical. The crush to get out the single exit from the Columbo-that little food hole in the back wall- that gap/path between the front and back sections of the terrace. Football was never the same again after they put seats on the Popside -in a way that was harder to take than actually leaving the Baseball Ground.
I feel sorry for people who only have Pride Park to remember Derby by.
c2001 Stuart Forsyth