It is exactly 30 years ago today that Jim Smith was appointed as Derby County’s manager.
The masterstroke appointment paid off straight away as he oversaw promotion to the top-flight in his first season in the hotseat during the 1995/96 campaign.
It was an incredible feat for Smith to achieve, finishing in second place in the First Division to confirm top-tier football would be returning to Derbyshire after a number of failed attempts to get over the line in the years beforehand.
Derby went on to enjoy six full seasons in the Premiership between 1996/97 and 2001/02 before returning to the second tier - and there were plenty of enjoyable games, goals and moments to enjoy along the way.
We take a look at the Premiership Years under the Bald Eagle…
Derby’s First Year In The Premiership
The 1996/97 campaign was Derby’s first in the newly-formed Premiership (now the Premier League), while it coincided with the club’s final season at the Baseball Ground, too.
Everyone wanted to bow out on a high note. Make no bones about it, consolidation was the target. Derby could ill afford to go into the first year at Pride Park Stadium off the back of a relegation.
“We were confident in how we played,” former striker Dean Sturridge admitted. “A catalyst for that was Igor Stimac at the back; he was casual, elegant and confident and it spread to the rest of the team.”
The summer of 1996 saw the Bald Eagle bring in reinforcements, but changes to the squad were not wholesale. Two players from the European Championships that summer, staged in England, were their marquee additions in defender Jacob Laursen and midfielder Aljosa Asanovic.
Danish full-back Laursen arrived from Silkeborg IF for around £500,000, while Asanovic was recruited from Igor Stimac’s former club Hajduk Split for £950,000. Smart business for two international players.
Defender Christian Dailly joined from Scottish outfit Dundee United for £500,000 and veteran right-back Paul Parker arrived on a short-term deal after leaving Manchester United.
Another shrewd signing arrived in October 1996 as Paul McGrath arrived from Aston Villa. The veteran defender added valuable know-how and nous at the highest level, as well as a vast experience from a distinguished career for club and country. He was a magnificent signing, despite his ailing knees.
Jim’s signings were astute – and he knew how to handle them.
“Jim had such a good eye for a player and also the ability to manage the team so well,” Stimac explained.
Derby’s first game back in the big time was a thriller and a sign of things to come, too. While results did not always go the Rams’ way, they certainly entertained and you knew what you were getting from a Smith side.
A home fixture against Leeds United at the Baseball Ground on the opening day of the season got the juices flowing nicely and, as it turned out to be the case under Smith, Derby did not disappoint.
The game ended in a thrilling 3-3 draw with Dean Sturridge carrying on where he left off in the previous season with a couple of goals, while Paul Simpson came off the bench to get his name on the scoresheet.
Simpson admitted: “Playing Leeds first, at the Baseball Ground, was an exciting start.”
Smith placed trust in the vast majority of the players that had got Derby promoted in the previous season, although it was clear at times that he had to put sentimentality to one side and look at the bigger picture.
Derby took four points off champions Manchester United in the season. A 1-1 draw at the Baseball Ground early in the season, with Laursen on target, was impressive – but the 3-2 victory at Old Trafford in April 1997 was sensational.
Derby went on to finish the 1996/97 season in 12th place in the Premiership table with 46 points from 38 matches, six points away from the relegation zone. Job done and time to build again.
“Staying up in the last season at the Baseball Ground set us up perfectly for the move to our new home,” Stimac said.
Fellow defender Chris Powell added: “I think there was a bit of pressure on us to make sure that we survived.
“In the end, not only we did survive, but we also made our mark and laid the foundations for the next few years.”
Five more seasons at the highest level followed for the Rams before their relegation after Smith’s departure early in the 2001/02 season. While all good things come to an end eventually but, as Powell said, the foundations were laid in their first season in the Premiership for an exciting time in the club’s history.
The Theatre Of Derby’s Dreams
While they may not be the proposition they once were in the current climate, any visit to Old Trafford to take on Manchester United is an occasion to savour.
In the late 1990s and the early 2000s, United were a force to be reckoned with. If a team came away from the Theatre of Dreams with a point, it was considered as an outstanding result.
It would be fair to say the only thing opposing manager could look forward to would be the glass of red wine in Sir Alex Ferguson’s office after the final whistle.
To win there in those days was a rarity. To do it twice, unlikely.
It is probably an understatement to suggest that the red wine Smith drank with his old friend in both April 1997 and May 2001 in the inner sanctum of Old Trafford will have tasted a little bit sweeter.
On both occasions Derby went to the home of English football’s elite and won. United, comfortably, won the league title in those two seasons, by seven points and then ten points. But it was Derby who went and beat them in their own back yard.
The first of those victories came towards the end of the 1996/97 season. Derby went to Old Trafford buoyed by a 4-2 home victory over Tottenham Hotspur in their previous outing but went to take on the Red Devils in hope of a positive result more than expectation.
Ashley Ward’s looping effort, from debutant Paulo Wanchope’s knock-down, had Smith’s side in front early on.
Wanchope, very much a known quantity as he made his Rams bow, then took the game by the scruff of the neck to make it 2-0. From inside his own half he embarked on a lung-bursting run through their midfield. He advanced to the edge of the box, holding off the attentions of defenders Phil Neville and Gary Pallister, before calmy slotting the ball beyond the despairing dive of Peter Schmeichel.
A moment of true genius and magic. So much so, it was voted Derby’s greatest-ever goal in 2009 as part of the club’s 125th anniversary celebrations.
Reflecting on the goal, Wanchope said: “I just made a diagonal run with the ball. Mainly because they did not know about me, they let me go on and probably thought ‘maybe he will lose the ball’.
“I went straight through. It was a great run by Dean Sturridge which played a big part as he opened the space for me to keep going. Once I got right at the edge of the box I tried to shoot and get the ball down to the side of Peter Schmeichel.
“After that you could see my face and the big surprise of what I had done.”
Eric Cantona got one back for United after the break, but Dean Sturridge restored Derby’s two-goal cushion from close range after a moment of defensive calamity by Schmeichel and Pallister.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer did get one back late on for United, but the Rams - with another debutant in Mart Poom in goal - were not to be denied a momentous victory. The win, which came in a sequence of results which saw Derby take 10 points from a possible 12, proved to be vital in their fight against relegation.
Wanchope added: “It was a dream come true for me and it was down to Jim. When I was a child in Costa Rica, it was my dream to play with and against the best players. To be there was a special moment.”
The second of Derby’s famous wins, at the end of the 2000/2001 season was not as drama-filled, but it was equally as important. The campaign was a tough one as the Rams, who did not win a league game until mid-November, battled against the drop from the outset.
So good was the feeling of winning at Old Trafford, Smith wanted to taste it again. He knew what it took and, when the chips were down, he galvanised his side to produce the goods.
A win would preserve Derby’s top-flight status against the already-crowned champions, who received the trophy and their medals in a celebration parade after the game.
Maybe United’s minds were elsewhere. Derby’s were not. A superb first-half strike by Malcolm Christie was enough to give them all three points and while they had to survive a late onslaught, they were full value for their win.
Results elsewhere that day, in addition to a final day draw at home to fifth-placed Ipswich Town, saw Derby stay up by eight points.
“It was a celebratory mood in the crowd because they were picking up the trophy, but we had a job to do,” Christie commented. “I had gone through a baron run of not scoring and Jim stuck with me through a tough time.
“To be given the opportunity to play at Old Trafford and that be the game where if we won, we survived, we couldn’t have picked a better place to go.”
As it turned out, that win at Old Trafford would be Smith’s final away success with Derby. He left the Rams in October 2001 having recorded two further wins, both at Pride Park Stadium, against Blackburn Rovers in the league and Hull City in the League Cup.
Those two wins were magical and memorable. And masterminded by one great man.
“Jim was a brilliant character and a great manager too; he knew how to get results,” said Danny Higginbotham, who played in the latter of the two games at Old Trafford.
Derby’s Foreign Legion
The Bald Eagle had an eye for a player and a bargain. That, there is no doubt.
The world is a different place now and no sooner do you see Derby linked with a player, you can head online and onto various websites and get statistics, video clips, highlight reels and in-depth analysis on any player at the click of a button.
But it was not always that way.
Smith knew how to unearth a gem from abroad through his contacts and relationships, scouting ability and his gut instinct when he saw a rough diamond.
When he walked through the doors at the Baseball Ground in the summer of 1995, Derby’s squad was predominantly British. Smith was, however, ahead of the curve and was fully aware of the quality of player he could acquire at a reasonable price.
Igor Stimac and Ron Willems were recruited in Smith’s first season in charge, as was Dutch midfielder Robin van der Laan although he already had experience of English football after a spell at Port Vale. The trio were instrumental in getting the Rams promoted. Stimac was a revelation of a signing.
Stimac explained: “Jim was great. He knew what to do, how to do it and when to do it when it came to pushing players forward. I was a bit worried when I joined; I was playing for the Croatia national side and it was a bit of a gamble to come to a team in the First Division.
“I was desperate to experience it all. I didn’t need to have worried in the end as we had a wonderful journey together.”
More additions from outside the UK and Ireland, following a trend across the top division, were made as Derby stepped into the Premiership.
Jacob Laursen, Aljosa Asanovic, Mart Poom and Paulo Wanchope were all recruited from abroad and contributed in Derby’s retaining their top-flight status and the likes of Stefano Eranio, Francesco Baiano, Horacio Carbonari and Branko Strupar followed in the years after for their first tastes of English football.
Moving to Pride Park Stadium was a key factor, too. Having the plusher surroundings, compared to the rough-and-ready Baseball Ground provided a venue that new signings were excited to play in.
“At the Baseball Ground we managed to build a foundation and we gelled a bit as a group,” Laursen explained.
“Once we made the move to Pride Park the manager made a few signings, who helped raise our game quite a bit. We moved to a bigger pitch and showed we could make that transformation from being a hard and grinding team to play some really good football, and we did that.”
Some deals did not pay off, for whatever reason. For example, appearances were limited for Mauricio Solis as he failed to have the impact that Wanchope, his fellow Costa Rican international, made while Esteban Fuertes’ passport saga is an example of circumstances outside a manager’s control.
The aforementioned players a few paragraphs ago all hold a special place in the hearts of Derby fans to this day, demonstrating not only their ability as players but the uncanny knack that Smith had of getting his recruitment right more often than not.
Rams At Their Peak
Derby’s highest league finish in the last 30 years came under Smith and the only man to achieve a higher league finish since Dave Mackay in the 1970s is Arthur Cox.
The 1998/99 season saw the Rams finish eighth in the Premiership standings with 52 points from their 38 league matches.
After a year to get their feet under the table at Pride Park Stadium, Derby were well and truly at home in their new surroundings and improved on their ninth placed finish in the previous season.
They finished five points behind West Ham United in fifth spot, who qualified for the UEFA Intertoto Cup. The competition was a summer football competition for European clubs that had not qualified for one of the major UEFA competitions and therefore offered another route into Europe.
“At one stage we were called the entertainers because of our style of football,” Sturridge explained.
The campaign was one in which Derby hit their peak under Smith and included some impressive results.
This was all achieved, as well, without heavily splashing the cash. In fact, the only signing that season which fell into the millions was Horacio Carbonari from Rosario in Argentina.
Smith’s side started the season well; three straight draws were followed by three wins on the bounce. Ironically, after that, three defeats followed.
Derby, despite chopping and changing their team selection and not always free scoring, were consistent on the pitch and able to string together impressive runs of form to remain in the top half for much of the season.
It was only a dip in form at the end of the campaign, taking eight points from a possible 27, that denied them the chance of finishing higher. Despite that, it was another successful season. That statistic should not take the gloss off what was achieved.
Smith’s side defeated Liverpool twice in the campaign, winning 2-1 at Anfield in November 1998 as well as claiming a 3-2 victory at Pride Park Stadium in March 1999.
Another team Smith’s side took six points off were Leicester City, while champions Manchester United could only be held to a 1-1 draw at Pride Park Stadium early in the season.
The season also saw Carbonari plunder his way through the Nottingham Forest defence to lash home a dramatic late winner in a 1-0 victory over the Rams’ local rivals. It was a result that all-but condemned Forest to relegation.
