The Diary

Cod Almighty | Diary

Not forgetting Digger Soames

8 August 2017

Transpennine Diary writes: Tonight we face Derby County in the League Cup. I let out a yawn when that was announced, but I'm more enthused now. There might be up to 1,000 Rams fans present, which is good. Aside from our 1-0 defeat last year, we've only faced them once before in this competition, a 1-0 victory in 2005, which we followed by defeating Spurs in the next round.

A more tenuous link to Town, Derby and the League Cup is a game we played at their old ground on 18 December 1979 in a fifth round second replay. We lost 2-0 to Wolves, mainly due to some dubious refereeing. The first replay at Molineux ended 1-1, after a 0-0 draw, which we nearly snatched, in front of 23,115 at Blundell Park. Yes: twenty-three thousand.

The previous rounds were:

  • first round, over two legs, 2-0 on aggregate v Scunthorpe
  • second round, over two legs, 5-1 on aggregate v Huddersfield
  • third round, 3-1 home v Notts County
  • fourth round, 2-1 home v Everton

In the FA Cup that season we defeated Chesterfield and Sheffield United before losing 5-0 at Anfield. Just in case you don't know or can't remember, and thought we might have been distracted by the cup runs, we won the third division title that season.

Sam Kelly is the only injury doubt from those who played on Saturday. He has a dead leg but may be back for the Coventry game. Chris Clements might make the bench tonight; Sean McAllister will not. Zak Mills misses the game through suspension; Ben Davies will replace him.

JJ Hooper spent the day training with us yesterday. He's been offered a deal and he might even sign today. When Matt Dean asked Russ what he might bring to the team, pace, "athleticism and finishing" was the reply.

In his usual open manner – a refreshing change from the last two blokes – Russ also revealed that the club may be looking at extending the 'one plus one' contract with Dembele. On the subject of Ahkeem Rose, there's some sort of legal/contract problem which is being ironed out. I wonder if it's a work permit thing, with Rose being Jamaican?

It'll be a tough one tonight. Gary Rowett took over at Pride Park in March. Their record under him last season was W4 D3 L2 and they drew with Sunderland on Friday evening. Curtis Davies and Tom Huddlestone joined Derby from Hull in July and both featured against the Black Cats. Rowlett said of the game: "I just felt we needed to be braver in the first half – we weren't brave enough and we looked a little nervy. But in the second half we showed a bit more composure." Tom may be out tonight, but thanks anyway to Derby for relieving the Tigers of two of their better players and improving the chances of a Humber derby next season.

In last-minute news, Town's supporter liaison officer has been investigating police reports that pre-match damage to pubs in Chesterfield prompted the managers to close after the match. It appears that these reports were...

And finally just in case you wondered, like me, what Mitch Rose was wearing on Saturday (and I assume every other player); it was one of those trendy heart monitoring vests.