The Giant Killing Adventure - 2019/20 FA Cup : The FA Cup 5th Round Proper

Thursday 5^th March 2020, 19:45, - I’d like to welcome Derby County FC to our blog.

For the fourth time in this GKA campaign, we’ll be heading to one of the twelve founding members of the football league (we’ve already been welcomed by Notts County, Preston North End and Burnley FC).

Derby County FC was founded in 1884 and have competed in every season of the English Football League system since the league’s inception in 1888. They have played in black and white colours since the 1890s and are nicknamed the Rams.

During their long history, their most successful period began in 1967, when Brian Clough and Peter Taylor took over as Manager and Assistant Manager – being crowned as League Champions for the first time in 1972 (they won the title again in 1975) and reaching the semi-final of the European Cup in 1973.

Clough and Taylor left in 1973 and they went on to further success by winning league titles and two consecutive European Cups (1979 and 1980) with Nottingham Forest. Clough and Taylor’s impact on Derby County was recognised by a statue of the pair being erected outside Derby's home ground (Pride Park) in 2010.

Derby County have only won the FC Cup once, and this was in 1946.

From 1895, the club played at Sir Francis Ley’s Baseball Ground – In 1997 they moved to their current home at Pride Park.

Recent history has brought an interesting twist to this 2020 FA Cup clash as Derby County’s new club captain is Wayne Rooney. Wayne made 393 appearances for Manchester United (2004-2017) and he is their all-time record goal scorer – this will be the fist time that he has faced his old club since returning from a stint in the USA at D.C. United.

Speaking of which, the GKA welcomes Manchester United FC to our blog…

The two most successful clubs in English Football history are current Premiership leaders and Champions League holders Liverpool FC and their local rivals down the M62, Manchester United FC.

The GKA has already mentioned Manchester City, as they are the current holders of the FA Cup, and the Etihad is where our journey began. Now it’s time to talk about the other side of Manchester.

Manchester United where formed as Newton Heath in 1878 until they changed their name in 1902 – they’ve played at Old Trafford Stadium since 1910.

Since then, the club has had a rich and varied history and two highly successful managers in Matt Busby and Alex Ferguson. The club had to rebuild after the tragedy of the Munich Air Disaster in 1958, they were the first English team to win the European Cup in 1968, and the only English club to have won the treble of FA Cup, League Title and Champions League in 1999 – currently manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer scored the winner in that Champions League final.

Manchester United have 20 league titles, 5 league cups, 3 European cups, 1 Europa league and 1 Cup winners cup (amongst other honours).

For the purpose of this blog the GKA is more interested in their 12 FA Cup victories (only Arsenal have won more with 13). United first won the FA Cup in 1909 and their last success came in 2016 (Louis Van Gaal’s last game before he was replaced by Jose Mourinho, who was then replaced in 2018 by Oli).

Since Alex Ferguson’s retirement in 2013 the club has been through several re-building seasons and has struggled to keep up with Manchester City, Chelsea and Liverpool for English dominance (not forgetting Leicester City’s title winning season of 2016).

As Derby are in the Championship and Manchester United are in the Premiership, one would think that the Manchester side are favourites in this game. However, the last time these teams met in a Cup Competition (2018 Carabao Cup 3^rd Round) it was Derby who came out on top – maybe that memory could spare-them-on for another victory, especially as they are the home side.

Derby County are based in Derbyshire, bordering Greater Manchester, in the East Midlands. A large proportion of the Peak District sits within the County and so does the southern extremity of the Pennine Way.

Tickets for this game were made available to the general public on Tuesday 25^th February at 10am. Until that point, they had been kept aside for season ticket holders only. At 10am, the GKA had to register with Derby and purchase the tickets online – this was a relatively pain free experience and there were plenty of tickets still available. As the GKA has turned into a bit of football viewing snob, and only likes seats on the half-way line, I paid £31 for my seat.

Stadium costs so far – Men v Women

Men £145

£19.50 Women

The GKA will be travelling 121 miles from Burnley Football Club in the last round…