The FA Cup restarted in the 1945-1946 season. Derby got to the final again, but this time they beat Charlton Athletic 4-1 to win the Cup. Some people had thought the reason Derby kept losing in the FA Cup was that they were cursed by gypsies, as the Baseball Ground was built on the site of a gypsy camp. Some players even thought so, and before the final they asked the gypsies to lift the curse.
The Football League began again the next season, but Derby did not play well and were relegated in 1953. Things went from bad to worse and in 1955 they were relegated to the Football League Third Division (North) for the first time in their history. Derby were too good for that league though, and finished second at the first try. Then they did even better next season by finishing first, and going back up to the top division.
In 1967, Brian Clough took over Derby County with Peter Taylor helping him. Derby were back in Division Two, but Clough got them promoted to the First Division in 1969. He led them to their first ever Championship in 1972. Derby could not win the title again the next season, but they did get to the semi-finals of the European Cup, but they lost to Juventus. A lot of people in England thought after the match that the Italian club had paid money to the referee as a bribe. This was never proved. Clough left the club after an argument with Derby's chairman Sam Longson. Clough later became manager of Nottingham Forest F.C., where he went on to win a First Division championship and two European Cups.
Derby won the league again in 1974-1975, this time with Dave Mackay as manager. He used to play for the club, as captain, under Clough. When Mackay left in 1976, Derby got slowly worse until they went down in 1980.
Derby's stay in the Second Division was not a happy one and they were relegated to the Football League Third Division in 1984. It was exactly 100 years since the club formed, and just nine years after their last Championship.
The club made Arthur Cox manager. After a two-year stay in the Third Division, they were promoted to the Second Division. They won that league the next year, going back up to the First Division in 1987.
The club managed to finish 5th in 1989, but it was owned by businessman Robert Maxwell, who was having money problems. He stopped spending money on new players, and sold the club not long before his death. The club was relegated back to the Second Division in 1991 (which changed its name to the First Division a year later when the First Division clubs left to form the FA Premier League).
Jim Smith became Derby's manager in 1995. Before the end of the season, Smith took the Rams up to the Premier League for the first time.
Derby County did well in the 1996-97 season, finishing 12th in the final table with international players like Aljosa Asanovic and Igor Stimac playing well. The club moved into the new 33,000-seat Pride Park Stadium for the 1997-98 season, and went on to finish ninth. Next year they did even better, finishing eighth, but the season after that Derby struggled, and finished 16th. Another bad season followed in 2000-01, as Derby finished 17th in the Premiership - just one place clear of going down.
Jim Smith left the club in October 2001 and his assistant manager Colin Todd took over. He kept his job for just 3 months before he was sacked. At the end of January 2002, John Gregory got the manager's job. Derby started well, but then lost seven of their last eight matches and were relegated again after six seasons in a row in the Premiership.
It was a bad time to go down. Money owed to the Football League teams by the TV company ITV Digital was never paid, and Derby were one of the clubs to suffer worst. They had to sell their best players and rebuild a team with mostly very young players. They finished 18th after a difficult season. In late March, Gregory was suspended and George Burley came in as a temporary manager. At the end of the season Gregory was sacked and Burley took over fully. Owner Lionel Pickering lost control of the club and a new board of John Sleightholme, Jeremy Keith and Steve Harding came in. Derby finished 20th in the 2003-2004 First Division campaign, but did much better in the 2004-05 season and finished 4th in the Division which was now called the Football League Championship. This meant they won a promotion play-off spot, but lost in the semi-finals to Preston North End. Soon after losing, Burley left. Derby then employed Phil Brown for a short period who was then replaced by the Academy Coach, Terry Westley, who kept the club up in the 2005-06 season.
Before the final game of the 2005-06 season a local consortium led by Peter Gadsby, took over the Rams and gave the manager's job to Billy Davies, who left Preston after compensation was agreed by both clubs for his services. The new changes and fresh activity in the transfer market promise a bright future for this founder member of the football league.
Following a poor start to the 2007-2008 season which saw Derby achieve just one win in 14 matches Billy Davies has left Derby County FC.
Many people think the best Rams player ever was Steve Bloomer, one of the highest scoring players in the history of English football. He played for Derby from the late 19th century to just before the First World War. Other top players include the FA Cup winners Peter Doherty, Jackie Stamps and Raich Carter. In more recent years players like Roy McFarland, Archie Gemmill, Colin Todd, Kevin Hector, Steve Powell, Ron Webster, Alan Hinton and Dave Mackay played in the championship winning sides. More recently, the England goalkeeper Peter Shilton, Stefano Eranio and Igor Stimac all played for the Rams. Bobby Davison was also a favourite of Rams fans. Recent famous players also include locally born Matthew Debyshire who has achieved some degree or recognition at Blackburn Rovers but has expressed desire to play a more successful clubs like Tottenham Hotspurs.
Derby County's main rivals are Nottingham Forest, who are based in Nottingham, a city just a few miles north-east of Derby. Leicester City, also based in the East Midlands, come a close second. Fans from the north of Derbyshire often dislike Sheffield Wednesday or Leeds United.
Ipswich Town F.C.
Ipswich Town Football Club (Ipswich Town) is an English football club. It is based in Ipswich, Suffolk county. The club was founded in 1878. The club's home stadium is Portman Road.
Ipswich Town play in League One having been relegated from the Championship in 2019, after 17 years in the division. The club has won the top division once, in 1962 and the FA Cup in 1978. They have also been successful in European football. They won the UEFA Cup in 1981. The chairman of the club is Marcus Evans. Right now, the manager is Paul Lambert. Two of the club's previous managers have gone on to manage the England national football team, and one has gone on to manage the Scotland national football team. A notable previous manager is Roy Keane, a legend for Ireland and Manchester United.
Ipswich Town F.C. was started as an amateur team in 1878 and was called "Ipswich A.F.C." The club played a lot of games in the local area and won several cup competitions. In 1936, they became a professional club and joined a league called the "Southern League" which they won in their first season. In 1938, they were elected to join The Football League and played in "Division Three (South)" until the end of the 1954 season, when they were promoted to "Division Two".