Continuing RamZone's reviews of round ball reads, this week we re-live the Rams first Premiership campaign.

I bought and read this book when it was first published and recall using it with students during National Book Week to tempt the recalcitrant readers into enjoying the written word.

I very quickly re-read it again over the last week and enjoyed it so much more the second time around because it quite simply brought back happy memories of when we had a star team and were pushing for a place in Europe.

Ian Hall is the famously realistic, laid back and often seemingly negative former member of the Radio Derby commentary team, but his book focuses the mind on why we support football, the highs and the lows, the smells, the sounds, the joy and the tears.

It is the story of Derby’s first season in the Premiership, their last at the Baseball Ground. However, the book only deals very briefly with home games as it is a diary of the away trips, interspersed with interviews with key people of the time.

Is it only just over 13 years ago that the make or break first season in the Premiership ended and our hopes of staying there forever were high?

As early as page 35 in the book Hall comments:

“In defence, Igor Stimac was outstanding. What a thoroughbred player he looks when he is in this form” – this after an early away victory at Ewood Park.

Also in the team at that point were players of the calibre of Jacob Laursen, Chris Powell and that outstanding master of skill, Aljosa Asanovic.

Jim Smith was the apple of every supporter’s eye as he slowly but surely strengthened that team with good quality players throughout the season, culminating with the transfer deadline signings of two unknowns; Estonian Mart Poom and Costa Rican Paulo Wanchope.

How many Rams fans had to consult their atlases to discover the exact location of the homelands of these two signings?

Early in that season also, reference is made to the unveiling of the memorial to Steve Bloomer on Monday 28th October 1996 in Lock Up Yard, off the Cornmarket in Derby.

In November Hall takes us briefly through the game with Middlesbrough at the BBG which was also significant because on that day, Sunday 17th, Lionel Pickering laid the foundation stone for Pride Park. In Middlesbrough’s line up they had Juninho and one Fabrizio Ravanelli but they were missing their influential Brazilian Emerson who had seemingly returned home because of the harsh Teesside climate.

Hall recalls Brian Clough commenting “what did he expect, bloody palm trees’ in his usual forthright manner. Either way, Emerson’s absence permitted the Derby faithful to sing “Emerson’s going home, he’s going home” at several junctures during the afternoon.

2003 fans may wince to read Hall’s comments on team selection for the encounter against Arsenal at Highbury. Jim Smith’s problem was an unusual one; he had four star central defenders to fit into 3 places – should he drop Igor Stimac, Paul McGrath, Dean Yates or Gary Rowett. If only we had such a dilemma today….(oh, by the way, Yates missed out)

In the ‘Conversations’ section, Ian Hall talks to Paul McGrath about his very limited training sessions, and to Igor Stimac to whom he poses the question “How could you improve to become a better player?”  Anyone who knows and remembers the great man’s style will know exactly what answer was given!

Hall also speaks to Coach Steve McClaren, Manager Jim Smith and there is also a lengthy interview with Chairman & majority shareholder Lionel Pickering who understandably was in bullish mood about the early Premiership success.

Probably the highlight of the text is that relating to that auspicious date Saturday 5th April 1997 and the location, the Theatre of Dreams in Manchester.

Jim Smith has two new signings and throws both of them into the play in a squad decimated by injuries. Derby expected to get slaughtered. Instead, a miracle happens.

“What about Mr. One Chop?” asks Hall, “ The tall gangly Costa Rican international who has several other names, including Watson, is the stuff of which heroes were made. He scored a goal which will be talked about for years. Talked about by Rams supporters. Talked about by United supporters too, no doubt”.

Hall takes three quarters of a page to describe that supreme moment in DCFC history as the amazing Wanchope took on what was then effectively the England defence, leaving Phil Neville and Gary Pallister among others, trailing in his wake as he then faced the world’s massive number one goalkeeper – and calmly slid the ball past Peter Schmeichel.

One of the greatest moments in the life of a Rams fan, and certainly in recent years. Wanchope looked quite ridiculous because as Jim Smith admitted “we don’t have any socks long enough to fit him”, and Mart Poom couldn’t understand why his own fans kept booing him as he heroically kept goal with “Pooooooom” blasting out behind him.

Ah, those were the days, and Ian Hall takes us on a trip down a not too distant memory lane in a book that every Rams fan should read – if only to savour that Old Trafford moment – when we actually had a *really* good team that could compete and beat the best in the land.

Next Week:

The Ripple Effect

By

Dominic Holland

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