1974–75 Derby County F.C. season

Derby County
1974–75 season
Chairman	Sam Longson
Manager	Dave Mackay
Stadium	Baseball Ground
First Division	1st (Champions)
FA Cup	Fifth Round
League Cup	Third Round
UEFA Cup	Third Round
Top goalscorer	League: Bruce Rioch (15); All: Kevin Hector (21)
Highest home attendance	38,000 v Carlisle United (26 April 1975)
Lowest home attendance	17,716 v Servette FC (18 September 1974)
Average home league attendance	26,719
	Home colours
	Home colours

The 1974–75 season was Derby County's 75th in the Football League and their 48th season in the top flight. They won their second league title in four years to qualify for the 1975–76 European Cup.

Season review

Whereas Brian Clough built his 1971–72 Championship winning team on discipline and a solid defence, Dave Mackay's 1974–75 side relied on attacking power to overwhelm its opponents. Midfielder Bruce Rioch bagged 15 goals to finish as the club's top league scorer, and the front three of Kevin Hector, Francis Lee and Roger Davies all contributed 12 or more. In March, Davies scored all the goals in a 5–0 win over Luton Town, becoming the first Derby player to net five times in a match since Hughie Gallacher in 1934. The Rams also put five past Queens Park Rangers and Burnley to finish the season as the league's leading scorers, though such abandon often left the side defensively frail and there were several heavy defeats along the way.

The season started in worrying fashion, with just one win in the club's opening seven fixtures, and despite a brief rally of six wins in 10 between September and November, a 1–0 defeat at Luton just before Christmas 1974 left them in 10th place. However, a run of just three defeats in their last 20 games, which saw them take 30 points from a possible 40, helped Derby surge up the table. A 0–0 draw away to Leicester City on the penultimate Saturday, combined with Ipswich Town drawing at Manchester City a few days later, confirmed the Rams as champions for the second time in four years.

Although domestic cup progress was limited (reaching the third round of the League Cup and the fifth round of the FA Cup), Derby's UEFA Cup debut proved relatively fruitful. A 6–2 aggregate victory over Servette FC was followed by a 4–4 aggregate draw with Atlético Madrid in the Second Round, both ties finishing 2–2. As a result, Derby took part in the club's first ever penalty shootout and overcame their opponents, winning 7–6. However, that was to be as good as it got for the Rams as Velež Mostar were able to overturn a 3–1 first league deficit to win 5–4 on aggregate and reach the quarter-finals.

Peter Daniel won the club's Player of the Season award after stepping in for Roy McFarland, who suffered an Achilles tendon injury whilst on international duty and missed all but the last five matches. Ron Webster became only the fifth player to break 500 appearances for Derby during his appearance in the defeat at Luton, while Colin Boulton broke the club record for goalkeeping appearances during the campaign on his way to a total of 344 appearances for the club. Colin Todd received the PFA Players' Player of the Year award, the only Derby County player ever to do so.

Squad

Substitute appearances indicated in brackets

Pos.	Nat.	Name	League		League Cup		European Cup Winners' Cup		FA Cup		Total
Pos.	Nat.	Name	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
GK	ENG	Colin Boulton	42	0	2	0	6	0	4	0	54	0
GK	ENG	Graham Moseley	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
DF	ENG	Peter Daniel	37	3	2	0	6	1	4	0	49	4
DF	ENG	Roy McFarland	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	4	0
DF	ENG	David Nish	38	2	2	0	5	1	4	0	49	3
DF	WAL	Rod Thomas	22	0	0	0	1	0	2	0	25	0
DF	ENG	Colin Todd	39	0	2	0	5	0	4	2	50	2
DF	ENG	Ron Webster	24	1	2	0	6	0	2	0	34	1
MF	SCO	Archie Gemmill	41	0	2	0	6	0	3	0	52	0
MF	ENG	Alan Hinton	8(5)	2	0	0	0(4)	1	0(2)	0	8(11)	3
MF	SCO	Jeff King	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
MF	ENG	Henry Newton	35(1)	3	1(1)	0	6	0	4	0	46(2)	3
MF	ENG	Steve Powell	12(3)	2	1	0	1	0	1	0	15(3)	2
MF	SCO	Bruce Rioch	42	15	2	1	6	2	4	2	54	20
FW	ENG	Jeff Bourne	7(10)	2	0(1)	0	4(1)	2	3(1)	0	14(13)	4
FW	SCO	Eric Carruthers	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
FW	ENG	Roger Davies	39(1)	12	2	0	2(1)	0	3(1)	0	46(3)	12
FW	IRE	Chris Egan	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
FW	ENG	Kevin Hector	38	13	2	2	6	5	2	1	48	21
FW	ENG	Francis Lee	34	12	2	1	6	2	4	1	46	16
FW	ENG	John Sims	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

League table

		P	W	D	L	F	A	GA	Pts
1	Derby County	42	21	11	10	67	49	1.367	53
2	Liverpool	42	20	11	11	60	39	1.538	51
3	Ipswich Town	42	23	5	14	66	44	1.500	51
4	Everton	42	16	18	8	56	42	1.333	50
5	Stoke City	42	17	15	10	64	48	1.333	49
6	Sheffield United	42	18	13	11	58	51	1.137	49
7	Middlesbrough	42	18	12	12	54	40	1.350	48
8	Manchester City	42	18	10	14	54	54	1.000	46
9	Leeds United	42	16	13	13	57	49	1.163	45
10	Burnley	42	17	11	14	68	67	1.015	45
11	Queens Park Rangers	42	16	10	16	54	54	1.000	42
12	Wolverhampton Wanderers	42	14	11	17	57	54	1.056	39
13	West Ham United	42	13	13	16	58	59	0.983	39
14	Coventry City	42	12	15	15	51	62	0.823	39
15	Newcastle United	42	15	9	18	59	72	0.819	39
16	Arsenal	42	13	11	18	47	49	0.959	37
17	Birmingham City	42	14	9	19	53	61	0.869	37
18	Leicester City	42	12	12	18	46	60	0.767	36
19	Tottenham Hotspur	42	13	8	21	52	63	0.825	34
20	Luton Town	42	11	11	20	47	65	0.723	33
21	Chelsea	42	9	15	18	42	72	0.583	33
22	Carlisle United	42	12	5	25	43	59	0.729	29

Results

First Division

Date	Opponents	H / A	Result F – A	Scorers	Attendance
17 August 1974	Everton	A	0–0		42,193
21 August 1974	Coventry City	H	1–1	Lee	25,717
24 August 1974	Sheffield United	H	2–0	Hector, Davies	23,088
27 August 1974	Coventry City	A	1–1	Davies	18,586
31 August 1974	Tottenham Hotspur	A	0–2		20,770
7 September 1974	Newcastle United	H	2–2	Davies, Lee	21,197
14 September 1974	Birmingham City	A	2–3	Rioch, Davies	27,345
21 September 1974	Burnley	H	3–2	Hector, Rioch (pen), Lee	21,377
25 September 1974	Chelsea	H	4–1	Rioch, Webster, Daniel, Hector	22,036
28 September 1974	Stoke City	A	1–1	Lee	23,589
5 October 1974	West Ham United	A	2–2	Lee, Hector	32,900
12 October 1974	Leicester City	H	1–0	Rioch	24,753
15 October 1974	Sheffield United	A	2–1	Lee 2	21,882
19 October 1974	Carlisle United	A	0–3		13,353
26 October 1974	Middlesbrough	H	2–3	Hector, Hinton	24,036
2 November 1974	Leeds United	A	1–0	Lee	33,551
9 November 1974	Queens Park Rangers	H	5–2	Rioch, Lee, Hector 3	23,339
16 November 1974	Arsenal	A	1–3	Rioch (pen)	32,286
23 November 1974	Ipswich Town	H	2–0	Hector, Rioch	24,341
7 December 1974	Liverpool	A	2–2	Bourne, Davies	41,058
14 December 1974	Everton	H	0–1		24,991
21 December 1974	Luton Town	A	0–1		12,862
26 December 1974	Birmingham City	H	2–1	Bourne, Rioch	26,121
28 December 1974	Manchester City	A	2–1	Newton, Lee	40,188
11 January 1975	Liverpool	H	2–0	Newton, Lee	33,463
18 January 1975	Wolverhampton Wanderers	A	1–0	Newton	24,515
1 February 1975	Queens Park Rangers	A	1–4	Rioch	20,686
8 February 1975	Leeds United	H	0–0		33,641
22 February 1975	Arsenal	H	2–1	Powell 2	24,002
25 February 1975	Ipswich Town	A	0–3		23,078
1 March 1975	Tottenham Hotspur	H	3–1	Rioch, Daniel, Davies	23,000
8 March 1975	Chelsea	A	2–1	Daniel, Hinton	22,644
15 March 1975	Stoke City	H	1–2	Hector	29,985
22 March 1975	Newcastle United	A	2–0	Nish, Rioch	31,010
29 March 1975	Luton Town	H	5–0	Davies 5	24,619
31 March 1975	Burnley	A	5–2	Rioch, Nish, Davies, Hector 2	24.276
1 April 1975	Manchester City	H	2–1	Rioch 2	32,966
5 April 1975	Middlesbrough	A	1–1	Hector	30,066
9 April 1975	Wolverhampton Wanderers	H	1–0	Lee	30,109
12 April 1975	West Ham United	H	1–0	Rioch	31,336
19 April 1975	Leicester City	A	0–0		38,943
26 April 1975	Carlisle United	H	0–0		38,000

Football League Cup

Date	Round	Opponents	H / A	Result F – A	Scorers	Attendance
11 September 1974	Second Round	Portsmouth	A	5–1	Hector 2, Lee, Rioch, Roberts (og)	13,582
8 October 1974	Third Round	Southampton	A	0–5		14,911

FA Cup

Date	Round	Opponents	H / A	Result F – A	Scorers	Attendance
4 January 1975	Third Round	Orient	A	2–2	Todd 2	12,490
8 January 1975	Third Round Replay	Orient	H	2–1	Lee, Rioch	26,501
27 January 1975	Fourth Round	Bristol Rovers	H	2–0	Hector, Rioch (pen)	27,980
18 February 1975	Fifth Round	Leeds United	H	0–1		35,298

UEFA Cup

Date	Round	Opponents	H / A	Result F – A	Scorers	Attendance
18 September 1974	First Round 1st Leg	Servette FC	H	4–1	Hector 2, Daniel, Lee	17,716
2 October 1974	First Round 2nd Leg	Servette FC	A	2–1	Lee, Hector	9,600
Derby County win 6–2 on aggregate
23 October 1974	Second Round 1st Leg	Atlético Madrid	H	2–2	Nish, Rioch (pen)	29,347
6 November 1974	Second Round 2nd Leg	Atlético Madrid	A	2–2 (aet)	Rioch, Hector	35,000
4–4 on aggregate, Derby County win 7–6 on penalties
27 November 1974	Third Round 1st Leg	Velež Mostar	H	3–1	Bourne 2, Hinton	26,131
11 December 1974	Third Round 2nd Leg	Velež Mostar	A	1–4	Hector	15,000
Velež Mostar win 5–4 on aggregate

References

Results database from Soccerbase

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