page_title: Brian Clough
section_title: Derby County
hierarchical_section_title: Brian Clough / Management career / Derby County
caption_attribution_description: English: Brian Clough and Peter Taylor statue at Pride Park Stadium, Derby County Football Club, Derby England
context_page_description: Brian Howard Clough, OBE was an English football player and manager. He played as a striker and remains one of the Football League's highest goalscorers, but his career was shortened by a serious injury. As a manager, Clough's name is closely associated with that of Peter Taylor, who served as his assistant manager at various clubs in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. They achieved great successes with Derby County and Nottingham Forest. Clough is also remembered for doing frequent radio and television interviews in which he made controversial remarks about players, other managers, and the overall state of the game.
  During his playing career with Middlesbrough and Sunderland, Clough scored 251 league goals from 274 starts, making him the third most prolific scorer in the league, with a conversion rate of 91.61%. He also won two England caps, both in 1959. Clough retired from playing at the age of 29, after sustaining anterior cruciate ligament damage. In 1965, Clough took the manager's job at Fourth Division Hartlepools United and appointed Peter Taylor as his assistant, the start of an enduring partnership that would bring them success at several clubs over the next two decades.
context_section_description: Derby County had been rooted in the Second Division for a decade before Clough's arrival, and had been outside the top flight for a further five years, their only major trophy being the FA Cup in 1946.
  In Clough's first season, the club finished one place lower than in the previous season, but he had started to lay the foundations for his future success by signing several new players, amongst them Roy McFarland, John O'Hare, John McGovern, Alan Hinton and Les Green. Of the inherited squad, 11 players departed and only four were retained: Kevin Hector, Alan Durban, Ron Webster and Colin Boulton. Clough also sacked the club secretary, the groundsman and the chief scout, along with two tea ladies he caught laughing after a Derby defeat. With the additional signings of Dave Mackay and Willie Carlin in 1968, Clough and Taylor's management led Derby to become champions of Division Two, establishing the club record of 22 matches without defeat on the way.
  Clough was universally seen as a hard but fair manager, who insisted on clean play from his players and brooked no stupid questions from the press. He was famous for insisting on being called 'Mr Clough' and earned great respect from his peers for his ability to turn a game to his and his team's advantage. Derby's first season back in Division One saw them finish fourth, their best league finish for over 20 years, but, due to financial irregularities, the club was banned from Europe the following season and fined £10,000.
  In 1970–71, the club finished ninth. In February 1971, Clough bolstered his squad by signing Colin Todd for a British record £175,000 on the same day Clough had denied that Derby were about to buy Todd. In the 1971–72 season, after tussling with Liverpool, Leeds United and Manchester City for the title, Derby finally topped the league table by one point after playing their final match, a 1–0 win over Liverpool. Manchester City did temporarily top the league after playing their last match, but had no chance of actually winning the title due to outstanding fixtures between the clubs directly below them. Both Liverpool and Leeds United had a chance to overtake Derby by winning their final matches (played a week later due to fixture congestion) but Leeds lost to Wolves and Liverpool drew at Arsenal, meaning Derby were league champions for the first time in their 88-year history. Peter Taylor took the players on holiday to Majorca. Clough was not with the squad at the time, instead holidaying in the Isles of Scilly with his family and elderly parents when he received the news.
caption: Brian Clough and Peter Taylor Statue at Pride Park
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