It's a funny ole game

Monday was a day we have been waiting for since November last year.
Former Derby County legend Ted McMinn (Tinman) was having a very special Charity Benefit match. You can read all about the game and the charity HERE. We were so excited about. So many fantastic ex-Derby players were booked to play. The most interesting of players I thought were the inclusion of Former FOREST players Nigel Clough and Stuart Pearce.

We met up with my sisters and Zoe at the pub which was quiet when we got there but as time went on, it filled with Rangers fan. To be honest I had got a bit scared walking to the pub as town was just full of Rangers fans everywhere you looked. There was no trouble, they were just having a good time but they were very noisy with it.

The pub got very rowdy. There was lots of singing from the scotsmen. In fact they just didn't stop. How could they possibly have so many football songs...I was beginning to see that they wouldn't be needing any half time entertainment in the ground - The Rangers supporters would be providing that.

I wasn't wrong. The whole of the away end was filled with the blue shirts and they had infiltrated the rest of the stadium too. In fast I was a bit worried as behind us there was a row of Glaswegians in blue shirts and kilts. They didn't stop singing from the minute they got in the ground.
As we got to our seats the legends were on the pitch training. We were desperately trying to identify all the players but from where we were it was very hard see well enough.


Once the game was in full swing, We were still legends spotting. It was definitely Shilts in goal and Deano Saunders up front with Stuart Pearce and Gary Rowett at the back.
However at half time the score was 2-1 to Derby but in a million years who would have thought the goals would be courtesy of the 2 ex-forest players, Nigel Clough scored the first and then Stuart Pearce came up with the second...He even went one step further and kissed the Ram on his shirt...Unfortunately I didn't get a pic of that but I expect it would be worth a lot of money if anyone did get one.

The other bit of entertainment on the pitch apart from the game itself was the linesman nearest to us. He obviously wanted to join in the party atmosphere as he swapped his flag at one point for a Union Jack.



He also put on a Rangers shirt




There were lots of those huge flags being passed around the crowd and lots of Mexican waves. I think either there was a problem in the PA studio or they were trying something different as they kept playing music out at various random times during the game...It was quite fun although not sure if it helped with the game much.

In the build up to the game on the day before Colin Gibson on Radio Derby had interviewed both Igor(IGOD) Stimac and Stefano Eranio. They both said that they would be lucky to play 5 or 10 minutes but it turned out that they played practically the whole game and didn't look tired at all.(In fact Igor did play the whole game)

The game ended 3-3. Ange specualted that maybe Ted would come out and score a pen for the winner but I think it was best finishing at 3-3...all peaceful

As soon as the final whistle went, Fans just ran on the pitch and mobbed the players. It took us a while to get down the stairs as there was a bit of a jam but when we did finally get down everyone wanted to go on the pitch.