Derby County won the English First Division title twice in the 1970s
On a deserted suburban street in Derby on Monday night, May 8, 1972, two men jumped in celebration next to a white Ford Capri.
The car radio crackled with the news that Wolves had beaten Don Revie’s Leeds United in the last game of the season.
With that came confirmation that Brian Cloughs Derby County became champions of the English First Division.
The two men hugging and celebrating wildly, trying to cheer Littleover residents up after a tense and seemingly endless stoppage time at Molineux, were Rams captain Roy McFarland and fellow defender Colin Todd.
“Tell you what, we’ve made enough noise,” McFarland told ` Sport.
“Colin got out of the car, we hugged. We just got excited, jumping up and down and screaming, making as much noise as we could to get people out of their homes.”
No one showed up and the two players marked the moment with their partners before heading to Hendon Hall in London at the Capri to meet Alf Ramsey’s England team.
McFarland, now 74, recalls being crowned a ‘surreal’ champion as he stood in front of a row of houses and paced the street waiting for the result of the Leeds game after Liverpool, another title challenger, already had a draw with Arsenal.
A 1-0 win over Bill Shankly’s Liverpool a week earlier at a crowded Derby baseball field had sent the Rams a single point top of the table.
The Reds and Revies Leeds, two teams with a superior goal difference over the Rams, could both overtake Clough’s side with the one game they each had in hand.
By the time those fateful final games kicked off, the Rams players had been on the Spanish island of Mallorca for days, sunning themselves and enjoying their best season in almost a quarter of a century – albeit missing out on the title.
Clough himself was on a family holiday in the Isles of Scilly. Speaking to ` Radio Derby just moments after the Rams became champions, the late, great manager famously said: “I don’t believe in miracles but one thing happened tonight.”
Brian Clough: “Derby’s league title was a miracle”
Much of the Mallorca side attempted to catch the match with assistant coach Peter Taylor, who arranged for the action to be broadcast over the phone from his room. However, they didn’t find out about their title triumph until the next morning when the line went down.
McFarland and Todd had left their teammates behind during the end-of-season holidays to report for international duty, making sure they tuned in to listen while their fate was being decided for them.
“The bottom line was that we felt like one of those clubs was going to do it and that’s why we weren’t going to win a championship, but it didn’t happen and it went for us,” McFarland said.
“Would you have thought Leeds would lose like they’ve been playing all season? I doubt it. Would you have thought Shankly Liverpool wouldn’t do what it takes to win something? But they haven’t done. This pressure, that’s the way it was.
“We heard this continuous whistle on the car radio and it was incredible.”
Derby County players holidayed in Mallorca in 1972, where most of them learned they were being crowned English champions
When Derby were beaten 2-0 by Manchester City in their penultimate game of the season, there were undeniable doubts that Clough’s little-noticed side – a side who had been promoted from the second tier just three seasons earlier – would register an historic first English title.
But still ringing in McFarland’s ears and those of his team-mates was attacker Alan Durban’s stern message after the Rams were knocked out of the FA Cup by Arsenal, a tie that took three games to decide.
Derby won seven and lost just two of their remaining 11 league games following that Cup elimination. Victories included a 2-0 triumph over Leeds and John McGovern sealed a decisive win over Liverpool in the last of their games to move top of the table.
“We were all down after being eliminated from the FA Cup,” McFarland said. “It was difficult to deal with.
“Alan Durban turned around in the dressing room and said: ‘Well lads, that’s a good omen. Don’t worry because we’re going to go ahead and win the championship’.
“I couldn’t believe it at the time or get it in my head. We all wondered what he was talking about.
“It felt like a lot for us to pull back. There was no wiggle room.
“We probably missed our best chance when we lost to Manchester City, which was a big game for us.
“Lo and behold Leeds and Liverpool couldn’t match what we had done to get the results they wanted in their last game and we ended up champions.”
Derby finished just a point ahead of Leeds, Liverpool and Manchester City
In McFarland’s first season as captain, he helped the Rams keep an amazing 23 clean sheets in the league’s 42-game season.
Goalkeeper Colin Boulton was just one of two players to feature in every game. In total, only 16 players played for Derby this season.
Alan Hinton was the club’s top scorer with 15 goals, while John O’Hare had 13 goals and Kevin Hector was also in double figures with 12.
The title win came at a time when the rivalry between Clough and Leeds boss Revie – two managers with different approaches and football ideologies who shaped a generation in their own way – was simmering.
Clough hailed winning the title as a “miracle”. He would repeat, and perhaps even eclipse, the mesmerizing feat against Derby’s bitter rivals Nottingham Forest by the end of the decade.
Derby won the title in 1971-72 in Roy McFarland’s first season as captain
While back-to-back European Cups at Forest secured Clough and Taylor’s place in football folklore, the pair also guided Derby to the semi-finals of the continent’s biggest competition after Derby won the title in 1972.
“The only thing Brian and Peter emphasized was that ‘that’ Derby County: How Brian Clough’s Rams won the First Division title 50 years ago is not the end, this is the beginning. That’s what it’s about,” McFarland said.
“They said: ‘What we have achieved, we want to achieve and achieve as much as possible’.”
Derby had further moments to enjoy when they beat a Benfica side featuring the great Eusebio in the following year’s European Cup. But her hopes were ended controversially in the semifinals of Juventus.
Derby even clinched a second English title in 1974-75 under Dave Mackay, who took over after Clough’s retirement in 1973.
“Those were magical experiences,” said McFarland.
“Everyone in Derby enjoyed our European nights, it was a great feeling and they were exciting times. That’s what winning the English title meant.”
A special to mark the 50th anniversary of Derby County winning the first English title will be broadcast on ` Radio Derby on Sunday 8 May at 1pm BST.
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