Derby County
History Established in 1884 by the Derbyshire County Cricket Club as a way to make money in the winter, Derby County FC would soon become a founder member of the Football League in 1888. Derby's first match in the league saw the Rams win 6-3 away to Bolton Wanderers. In 1895, the Rams moved into the Baseball Ground, a ground named for Sir Frances Ley's favourite sport. The Baseball Ground would remain a part of Derby's success for 102 years. The stands of the ground were very close to the pitch and the deafening noise created in the ground was very intimidating to visiting sides. Between the years of 1895 and 1909, Derby found themselves as semifinalists of the FA Cup eight times, three times making the finals only to lose to Nottingham Forest, Sheffield Utd, and Bury. Derby managed to finish as high as second in the league, but the hardware eluded the Rams. Derby legend, Stephen Bloomer, flourished during this period making 525 appearances for the Rams while scoring a club record 332 goals. Several great players pulled on the Derby shirt for the next few decades - the likes of Hughie Gallacher, Jack Barker, and Sammy Crooks to name a few - but the Rams could only manage two Second Division titles, 1912 and 1915. The FA Cup was no better as Derby made it to the semifinals only once between the years of 1909 and 1939. Derby's greatest successes would have to wait until after World War II. The league suspended for the war years and in the first post-war final in 1946, Derby won the FA Cup. The team was led by the likes of Raich Carter, Jack Stamps and Peter Docherty. The final was a 4-1 win over Charlton Athletic in added extra time. Derby finally took home the hardware. The club suffered during the 50's and 60's making a two year stay in the old Third Division North. After pulling themselves out of the Third Division, Derby remained in the Second Division for much of the 60's until a manager by the name of Brian Clough took charge of the team and led them back into the First Division by winning the Second Division in the 1968-1969 season. Within three years time, the 1971-1972 season, Derby finally lifted the First Division trophy by narrowly beating Manchester City, Liverpool, and Leeds United for the title. The race for the title was so close, one point, that it came down to the final day and most of the Derby players found out about their title success while on summer holiday. The team that Clough assembled was so talented that it repeated its 1972 success by winning the 1974-1975 title under former Derby captain turned manager, Dave Mackay. The team from the early 70's was extremely talented and several of the players have gone on to be managers, Colin Todd, Roy McFarland, Francis Lee and Bruce Rioch to name a few. Kevin Hector made a club record 581 appearances for the club scoring 201 times. With the great play of the 70's came places in European competitions. Derby lost to the Italian giants Juventus in the semifinals of the European Cup in 1972-1973. The match is thought to be a scandal-ridden game where the ref was bribed by the Italians, but nothing was ever proved. Derby also recorded a 12-0 win over the Irish side Finn Harps in the 1976-1977 UEFA Cup. As successful as the 70's were, the 80's were almost as unsuccessful. Derby once again found themselves in the Third Division. Financial problems plagued the club until the media tycoon, Robert Maxwell, stepped in and bailed them out. Arthur Cox stepped in to manage the team in '85 and proceeded to lead Derby from the Third Division, to winning the Second Division, to surviving the First Division in just 3 seasons. The team enjoyed a comfortable 5th place finish in only their second season back in the top division, but then the wheels fell off and Derby found themselves back in the Second Division, now the First Division with the creation of the Premier League. After the relegation in 1991, new owner Lionel Pickering pumped £ 12 million into the club in an effort to quickly rejoin the Premier League, but Derby remained in the new First Division for several years. In the summer of 1995, Jim Smith was appointed manager and during his first season several key players were bought, most notably Igor Stimac. A run of 20 games unbeaten commenced shortly after signing the Croatian International defender and Derby found themselves in 1st place. After a few stumbles in the Spring, Derby slipped to 2nd, but managed to hold on and gain automatic promotion into the Premiership. Smith's shrewed business sense brought Derby some key players during the summer of '96 and the Rams survived their first season back in the top division; a 12th place finish at that. The 1996-1997 season not only saw Derby surviving comfortably in the Premiership, it also marked the end of an era. The Baseball Ground closed after 102 years making way for the new 30,000 all-seater stadium, Pride Park Stadium. As in 1895, Derby will open their new ground in the top division, quite fitting for a club that was a founder member of the original Football League. During the 1997-1998 season, Derby solidified their cause in the Premiership eventually finishing in 9th place with 55 pts, narrowly missing Europe. Jim Smith set to bargaining again and managed to land a new record signing, Horacio Carbonari from Rosario Central, and Stefan Schnoor from Hamburg on a free. On a sadder note, Robin van der Laan, signed from Port Vale just before the promotion season, moved on to Barnsley during the summer. Van der Laan will always be remembered for the goal against Crystal Palace that sent Derby back into the Premier League where they belong. Last Season Derby County Football Club re-established itself as one of the top clubs in England this year. A great feat for the East Midlands club that almost disappeared in the 80s. After the rumours of Roberto Baggio playing at Pride Park Stadium died out, the offseason saw Derby bring in Stefano Eranio from AC Milan, Francesco Baiano from Fiorentina, Jonathan Hunt from Birmingham City, and Deon Burton from Portsmouth. Derby were set to open a new stadium, and they had what appeared, at the time, to be no major signings. What was the manager thinking? Well, what everyone forgot was that this was the same manager that brought in Igor Stimac and Aljosa Asanovic, not to mention Paulo Wanchope and Mart Poom. Jim Smith knew what he was doing. He was providing the improvements to the side that would see the club improve 3 places and 9 points over last season's accomplishments and would narrowly miss Europe. Derby would collect wins over Arsenal, Liverpool, and Blackburn, and the club would win for the first time in many years at Hillsborough. Several players said goodbye to Derby including Paul Trollope, Aljosa Asanovic, Ashley Ward, Matt Carbon, and longtime Derby player Paul Simpson. Mid season improvements came in the form of Rory Delap and Lars Bohinen. Francesco Baiano would quickly become a fan favorite and in the end, would take over the title from Chris Powell as Derby's player of the year. Robbie van der Laan would suffer an ankle injury in the October Manchester Utd match and wouldn't return until late spring to help rally the troops to a much needed 4-0 win over soon-to-be-relegated Bolton. Probably the biggest accomplishment of the year, however, was the way in which the Rams quickly made the fortress that they call Pride Park Stadium a place that visiting teams did not want to play. Many feared that the move from the Baseball Ground would be too much to overcome and would cause the club to sink back into the Nationwide Division One. But, Pride Park became a place that Derby could count on a win and tremendous crowd support. Derby finally lost their first league match in the stadium in February on a last minute goal by Dwight Yorke. With the ups, came the downs. A 4-0 loss to Leicester, a 5-0 loss to Leeds Utd. The spring was a rough ride for the squad, but in the end a 2-0 win over Southampton at the Dell and a 1-0 win over Liverpool at Pride Park left the Rams as the Pride of the Midlands.
POSITION :- Goalkeeper
DATE OF BIRTH:- 3.2.72
PLACE OF BIRTH:- Tallin, Estonia
DATE SIGNED:- 26.3.97
FROM:- Portsmouth
HEIGHT :- 6' 4"
WEIGHT:- 13st 6lb



Almost ever present in 1997-98, missing just three games, the current Estonian international goalkeeper, in his second season at Derby, became firmly established in the first team. His height and agility allow him to command the penalty area at set pieces and, despite the odd mistake, he produced a series of exceptional saves, especially in the first half of the campaign when County were looking to climb the Premiership at the expense of the more fancied sides. Kept 15 clean sheets in all, three of them in succession, and looks set to again make it difficult for the club's number two, Russell Hoult, to further his appearances.


Mart Poom

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