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My one and only trip to the Baseball Ground left a personal indelible impression as recounted in the post on it. It came in a 3rd Round FA Cup tie. We had reached that stage for the first time in 5 years, (and only the second time in 14 seasons), after two away wins at York and Macclesfield. Aftet the previous season’s play-off final defeat form in the League had been inconsistent, and we lay 10th at the time of the trip into Derbyshire.

It was a game played in mist which swirled around the Baseball Ground, and with a crowd just under 18,000 generated a fair bit of atmosphere, particularly amongst the County fans who were shoehorned into one section of the terracing under the Ley Stand. Frankly there were far too many people in there for safety – hence the indelible impression.

The County team had Brian McCord on the bench. he had made his debut a few days earlier against Leyton, and was to have an impression on this game, more of which anon. Sadly his County, and indeed his whole career, was ended only a matter of weeks later by a disgraceful challenge from John Cornforth at Swansea, which led to legal action. On the Derby side were two players with future County connections. Paul Simpson was of course later to have a 4 or 5 months spell in charge at EP, but coming on as a substitute was Ted McMinn, who within 16 months, was to leave an everlasting impression on County fans with his antics in the Wembley play-off final against Burnley.

Craig Short gave Derby a half time lead, and despite exhortations from the County fans it remained that way until the 90th minute. A long ball forward found the head of Kevin Francis and after a bout of head tennis in the Derby area McCord headed home. A replay at EP was the thought.

Sadly deep into injury time a ball into the County area found David Miller trying to intercept and in doing so all he managed to do was to steer it past Neil Edwards. A narrow defeat where we had acquitted ourselves well against the higher Division team.

It made for a sombre trip back – not aided by the fog which had really descended by this time. It was to be the first and last trip to the Baseball Ground, until the move to Pride Park 4 years later. It was another 6 years before it went under the wrecking ball.

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Memories of a trip to the Baseball Ground

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THE GAMES

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Where the date is in bold click for highlights of the game

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	Date	Venue	Ground	Competition		F	A	Att:
Sat	02/01/93	a	Baseball Ground	FA Cup (Round 3)	L	1	2	17,960
Tue	22/08/06	h	Edgeley Park	Carling Cup (Round 1)	L	0	1	3,394

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