Derby County FC, founded by William Morley in 1884, is an offshoot of the County Cricket Club and their first pitch was at the cricket ground, known as the Racecourse Ground, where Derby played their league and FA Cup games till 1895. The ground also hosted an FA Cup final in 1886 and a full international.
Of course, Derby County FC is one of the founder members of the FLeague and one of only ten clubs to have competed in the FLeague for every year since its foundation.
The idea of playing football was to give the cricketers something to do during the winter and to attract a crowd with admission fees in their pockets, but this got out of hand!
Clashes for the ground at the beginning and end of seasons led the football club, in 1895, to move to the Sir Francis Ley's Baseball Ground, named as such because unsurprisingly, baseball was played there.
The original club colours were amber, chocolate and blue but thankfully they adopted black and white in the 1890s and adopted the First Regiment of the Derby militia's mascot, the Ram.
The club was originally going to be called Derbyshire County FC but the Derbyshire FA, formed in 1883, objected because of the likely confusion with them! Hence the shortened name.
Accepted into the FLeague, their first game on September 8th 1888, was against Bolton. 0-3 down away from home,the Rams fought back to win 6-3 but the club ended up 10th out of 12 in the one and only division. They absorbed Derby Midland FC, who were a local league club, in 1891, becoming the only professional club in the area.
So let's hope for a rain free day, otherwise I shall be looking for the ghost of Steve Bloomer, generally regarded as the club's best ever player. Eat your heart out Kevin Hector.
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