The game on Thursday 5th March 2020, Derby County V Manchester United FC

Sun 29^th February to Wednesday 4^th March

There had been a lot of back-to-back cup games on the telly-box in the run-up to this match. 

On Saturday 29^th February, the first domestic silverware (I don’t count the Charity/Community shield or whatever it is now called)  was up for grabs in the women’s game, as Chelsea beat Arsenal 2-1 in their league cup final – this game was live on BT Sports and was played at Notts County’s ground in front of a record crowd, for a league cup final, of 6,743 fans – things are moving in the right direction for the women’s game, but this crowd pales into insignificance when compared to the men’s final on the following day – 82,149 fans turned up at Wembley to see Manchester City beat Aston Villa 2-1, and lift the League Cup for the third year in a row.

FA Cup action started the following night as Arsenal beat Portsmouth 2-0 (BT Sports) and the BBC joined the party to broadcast Chelsea 2 – 0 Liverpool on Tuesday night, and Manchester City 1 -0 Sheffield Wednesday on Wednesday night.  This was followed by a live broadcast of the Quarter Final Draw (see further down blog).

Thursday 5^th March

The FA Cup was all-over the place (almost as if people cared about it), and Thursday’s final match of Derby County V Manchester United was back on BT Sport. 

As part of the GKAs promotion for this Pulitzer Prize Winning showcase of a blog, I always contact the featured teams to see if they will promote this journey to their fans.  Most teams ignore me, and the women appeared more engaged in the earlier rounds.  However, I’ve not had a response since Brighouse Town V Barnsley in the women’s 3^rd Round proper – in which both teams replied. For the men, the last team to respond was Ebbsfleet United, back in the 1^st Round Proper – until now as Ellie, from Manchester United, sent me an email to say that they would pass my blog information over to their social media team.  Nothing came of it, but at least it was a response – thank you Ellie of Manchester United.

Back to the actual game…

The trip to Derby was meant to take 2hrs 8mins.

With a 19.45 kick, I set off at 16.30 with the idea of a chilled drive and a service station stop off for 30mins for a coffee.  However, like most trips down the M6, the journey took much longer, due to slow moving traffic. At one point I passed a bus, pulled over on the hard shoulder, with around 20 fans urinating into a bush by the side of the road.  I only arrived at Pride Park at 19:00 (without a coffee stop off). 

Then came the fun of driving around in circles for 10 minutes, trying to find a parking space – I decided to pay £7.70 to stop in a car park directly opposite the ground – there where fans everywhere and two guys ran into this car park for more bush urination. It appears that: SUM=Football + alcohol = caught short!

I’d arrived...

And I was impressed by the magnificence of Pride Park.

This was the famous statue of Brian Clough and Peter Taylor as mentioned in the GKA’s previous report.

Right next to this statue was a burger stall and I bought an ‘average tasting’ double cheeseburger for £5.  A single cheeseburger was only £3.50, which is a good price, considering that it cost £6 for a single cheeseburger at a recent Everton Women’s home game I’d attended – I always thought that things were meant to be cheaper t’up North!

Whilst eating my burger, a crowd of noisy Manchester United fans, walked past, loudly asking the question ‘Why don’t City Fuck off home?’  They appeared intimidating and a Derby Fan next to me mumbled, ‘Why don’t you lot fuck off home?’

I took a little tour of the Stadium.

                           And noticed this Ram Est.1884 logo.

                    All sides of the ground looked impressive.

The GKA has seen many dogs in stadiums, but this is the first time that it’s come across a horse outside a stadium.

By the time I’d found my turnstile, it was rammed – lots of fans were saying, ‘Why is it so busy, we’ve been sold out before?’

It was slow moving and 10 queues seemed to be filtering into 5 possible turnstiles.

This was the home-end and there were a couple of guys in the queue wearing Manchester United scarfs and hats.  This was greeted by passive aggressive grumbles of disapproval by the Derby fans. It was difficult for me, as a lifelong-Manchester United Fan, as I was staying neutral for the purpose of the blog. Even I was thinking it was a bit disrespectful to blatantly show off your support when you are ‘in the wrong end.’

The queue took 15 minutes, followed by lots of stairs, and then even more stairs.  By the time I’d got to my seat; I’d already missed the first 6 minutes of the game.

However, I couldn’t get to my seat as it was too busy, so I sat in the first spare seat I could find on my row.

Inevitably, after a further 5 minutes, I was moved along and was forced to find my real seat.

Another cracking half-way line view.

Less than a third of the Stadium were United fans, but they were noisy – very noisy.  It was a tremendous amount of away support and for the first half, they out-sang and out-chanted the Derby Fans.  I am always fascinated by the tribal nature of human beings and as a United fan I felt detached from them – almost ‘as if’ they were the enemy, but at the same time, I was one of them, hiding amongst the Derby fans, undercover, the enemy within. 

The Derby fans where I was sat, watched the game in virtual silence, only making the add noise of ‘ooooh’ or an occasional applause. 

Briefly, after the United fans chanted ‘You’re only hear to see United,’ there was a loud Derby response of ‘You’re only hear to see Wayne Rooney.’ This made me smile…

The game itself was over after United’s first goal went in, and the United fans spent most of the second half singing Wayne Rooney’s name. 

When it went to 0-3 with 20 minutes to ago, the Derby fan next to me got up and left, ‘Where not coming back from this.’

I left on 85 minutes to try and beat the traffic, but when I got outside, it appears that I wasn’t the only one, as there were people and cars everywhere – 31,379 fans attended, but it seemed a lot more than this.

Attendances – Men V Women

Men 62,145

2,858 Women

Highest Number of Fans

Derby County FC	31, 379 (5th Round Proper)
Burnley FC	8071 (4th Round Proper)
PNE	7616 (3rd Round Proper)
Notts County	5,729 (4th Qualifying Round)
Blackpool FC	5,371 (1st Round Proper)
Oldham Athletic FC	2,858 (2nd Round Proper)
Manchester City Women FC	2,000 (5th Round Proper)
Belper Town FC	528 (3rd Qualifying Round)
Brighouse Town Women	321 (3rd Round Proper)
Rushall Olympic	259 (1st Qualifying Round)
Rushall Olympic	249 (2nd Qualifying Round)
Sheffield FC	184 (Preliminary Round)
Burnley FC Women	170 (4th Round Proper)
Avro FC	150 (Extra-Preliminary Round)
Liverpool Feds LFC	109 (1st Round Proper)
Stockport County Women	75 (3rd Qualifying Round)
Chorley FC Women	61 (2nd Round Proper)
Sunderland West End Ladies	54 (1st Qualifying Round)
Curzon Ashton Ladies	44 (Preliminary Round)
Mossley Hill Ladies	24 (2nd Qualifying Round)

There were 5 bookings during the game.

Penalties and Cards – Men v Women

Penalties - Men 2	3 Women
Yellow Cards – Men 35	5 Women
Red Cards – 1	0 Women

Manchester United won £360,000 in prize money.

Prize Money – Men V Women

Men £811,390

Women £16,085

Prize Money Leaders 

Manchester United FC	£360,000 (5th Round Proper)
Norwich City	£315,000 £180,000 (4th Round Proper) + £135,000 (3rd Round Proper)
Burton Albion FC	£54,000 (2nd Round Proper)
Blackpool FC	£36,000 (1st Round Proper)
Notts County FC	£18,750 (4th Qualifying Round)
Belper Town FC	£11,250 (3rd Qualifying Round)
Rushall Olympic	£11,250 (1st & 2nd Qualifying Rounds)
Manchester City Women FC	£3000 (5th Round Proper)
Sheffield FC	£2890 (Preliminary Round)
Brighouse Town Women	£2350 (2nd Round Proper +1st Round Proper +3rd Qualifying Round)
Litherland Remyca	£2250 (Extra-Preliminary Round)
Leicester City Women	£2000 (4th Round Proper)
Barnsley Women	£1250 (3rd Round Proper)
Mossley Hill Ladies	£1,035 (1st Qualifying Round+ Preliminary Round + Extra Preliminary Round)
Stockport County Ladies	£450 (2nd Qualifying Round)

Route Men’s

Avro Fc 3	4 Litherland Remyca
Sheffield FC 2	1 Litherland Remyca
Rushall Olympic 3	1 Sheffield FC
Rushall Olympic 2	0 Gainsborough Trinity
Belper Town FC 2	0 Rushall Olympic
Notts County 2	1 Belper Town
Blackpool FC 4	0 Morecombe FC
Oldham Athletic 0	1 Burton Albion FC
PNE 2	4 Norwich City
Burnley FC 1	2 Norwich City
Derby County FC 0	3 Manchester United FC

54.55% home win ratio.

Eventually I did get out, and I was home by 23:25.  Another great adventure….   

RIP Team and Stadium 

Avro FC	Vestacare Stadium
Burnley Belvedere Ladies	Belvedere & Calder Vale Sports Club
Litherland Remyca	Litherland Sports Park
Curzon Ashton Ladies	Failsworth Sports Campus
Sheffield FC	Home of Football Stadium
Gainsborough Trinity FC	The Northolme
Sunderland West End Ladies	Herrington Recreational Park
Rushall Olympic	Dales Lane
Mossley Hill Ladies	Field of Hope Stadium
Belper Town	Christchurch Meadows
Stockport County LFC	Stockport Sports Village
Liverpool Feds LFC	Jericho Lane Sports Hub
Oldham Athletic FC	Boundary Park
Chorley FC Women	Victory Park
PNE	Deepdale
Brighouse Town Women	The Yorkshire Payments Stadium
Burnley FC	Turf Moor
Burnley Women FC	The Ruby Civil Arena
Derby County FC	Pride Park

26^th February 1977 FC Cup 5^th Round Liverpool FC V Oldham Athletic

In 1977 Liverpool FC were hot – reds hot!  From 1964 onwards they had won 4 league titles, and the EUFA Cup twice (equivalent of the Europa League). They’d also lifted the FA Cup twice in that period as winning becomes a habit.

Things were different back in those days – there wasn’t as much money in football and Brain James (author of Journey to Wembley) tells a story about how Liverpool Club Captain Emlyn Hughes had to visit the club doctor on his way to training – the club doctor was simply a local GP, and team members had to go visit him at a local surgery along with all the other locals in the area.  

Diet wasn’t seen as important either – Liverpool did have a great training ground and state-of-the art gym facility, however after training they were often served Steak with mountains of Veg, followed by steamed pudding and custard. Not forgetting the copies amounts of alcohol consumed, during a 2-night celebration of their 4 th Round FC Cup victory against Carlisle.     

Despite their poor diets, they trained hard and in late February 1977 Liverpool FC were on course for an unprecedented treble – League, European Cup and FC Cup. They were the team to beat and many players argued that they were difficult to beat, simply because they hated losing – at anything – ‘This is Anfield’.

In 1977, the city that was depressed by high unemployment, urban decay, wasteland and knocked down slum areas – many had moved to the Wirral or surrounding new towns.  None of this affected the massive support of the football club and Liverpool home games often attracted crowds of up to 50,000.  Both Liverpool and Everton were 2 massively rich (for the time) football clubs in an area surrounded by poverty. 

Liverpool won this game 3-1, without playing particularity well, and Oldham were happy to get their share of the gate receipts, £13,500 (£84,430 in modern money, not much for playing a top Premiership side, but far more than the women are getting at this level in 2020).

Liverpool then had to shift their focus onto their next European Cup tie against St Etienne.

In the next round of the FA Cup they drew Middlesbrough at Anfield.

 

Route 1977

Hinckley Athletic 0	1 Tividale
Oldbury United 0	4 Tividale
Tividale 0	3 Telford United
Hednesford Town 0	0 Telford United
Telford United 3	0 Hednesford Town
Telford United 2	5 Matlock Town
Matlock Town 2	0 Wigan Athletic
Mansfield Town 2	5 Matlock Town
Carlisle United 5	1 Matlock Town
Liverpool 3	0 Carlisle United
Liverpool 3	1 Oldham Athletic

A 45.45% home field win ratio.

Next in 2020

Women’s QF Draw

1 Arsenal V Tottenham

2 Leicester City V Manchester City

3 Everton V Chelsea

4 Brighton & Hove Albion V Birmingham City

The GKA already has tickets for Everton v Chelsea.

Men’s QF Draw

1 Sheffield United v Arsenal

2 Newcastle United v Manchester City

3 Norwich City v Manchester United

4 Leicester City v Chelsea

Some interesting matchups above and the GKA will attend whatever game they can get tickets for (provided that the Corona virus doesn’t shut down the whole country). 

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