The Damned Utd by David Peace (easy readers txt) 📕

be the bloody Brian Clough Stand because it would never have left the fucking drawing board had it not been for you, because it was you who raised the expectations of the town, who raised the demand for tickets in the first place. You who envisioned a new stand to take the capacity of the Baseball Ground to 41,000, who looked at the original plans and saw there wasn’t enough space. You who then went to see the managing director of Ley’s steel factory, who told him you wanted eighteen inches of his property for your new stand. You who promised to build him a new fence and move back his pylons, who told him to fuck off at the mention of compensation; that his compensation would be the name of the new stand and season tickets for life. You who’s still got plans to buy all the houses on the opposite side of the ground, because it’s only you who can see further than 41,000, who can see gates of 50,000, can see gates of 60,000, see the First Division Championship, the FA Cup, the European Cup …

It’s only you who has the stomach for this job, who has the balls –

No one else, not Peter, not Longson either, just you –

You and your stomach. You and your balls.

It’s been sixteen years since Derby were in the First Division and the expectations are such that the demand for tickets still cannot be met. Priority is given to folk willing to buy tickets for not one but two seasons. Behind the scenes there are some changes too –

Jimmy Gordon replaces Jack Burkitt as trainer and coach –

‘It’s a ready-made job,’ says Jimmy. ‘The players are here and the discipline is here. The Boss’s job is to determine the method of playing and my job is then to get it going on the field.’

Time does not stand still. Time changes. Time moves fast –

So Derby changes. Derby moves fast –

You pushing and pulling, pushing and pulling her all the way, all the way up the hill, up the hill to the very top, and you’ll never forget those first few weeks at the top, those first few weeks in the First Division, that first Saturday –

Home to Burnley, Burnley who finished mid-table last season. Home, in front of 29,000 supporters. That’ll change with the results. Soon be gates of 40,000 or more; 40,000 or more to watch your team, your boys:

Green, Webster, Robson, Durban, McFarland, Mackay, McGovern, Carlin, O’Hare, Hector and Hinton.

You’re lucky to draw 0–0 and you would’ve lost had it not been for the quick reflexes of your keeper Les Green, who saves a penalty –

But it’s not luck. Not today. Not ever –

You play good methodical football; on the ground, to feet, passed forward –

You are not out of your depth. You have no vertigo here –

Not today; this first Saturday, these first few weeks, this first month: the first Tuesday away at Ipswich and your first win. Down to Coventry the following Saturday for a draw. Home to Ipswich again and another win. More draws against Stoke and Wolves. Then the 2–0 win away at West Brom –

Next comes the trip back up to Hartlepools in the League Cup –

Time has stood still here. Time has not changed here. Not moved fast:

Still more weeds than grass on the pitch at the Victoria Ground, still as even as a cobbled street, still no floodlights until the eightieth minute. But Hartlepools throw themselves into the match and at half-time it’s only 0–0 –

Second half and McFarland and Carlin score, but Hartlepools pull one back before Hinton finishes things off with a penalty –

This is how far you have come. This is who you are now:

You are named England’s Manager of the Month for August. You are given a £50 cheque and a gallon bottle of Scotch whisky:

‘His Derby County team is probably the first side since Ipswich under Alf Ramsey or Leeds under Don Revie to make such an immediate impact on the First Division,’ says the spokesman for the sponsors of the award. ‘Clough has succeeded in restoring genuine enthusiasm to one of the great traditional strongholds of football and in re-establishing the soccer prestige of Derby County and the Midlands.’

You go on to beat Everton 2–1 in front of the Match of the Day cameras. Then Southampton 3–0 and Newcastle 1–0 away, and you are still unbeaten. Next come Tottenham and the 5–0 win in front of a record gate of just under 42,000 –

Easy. Easy. Easy, they chant. Easy. Easy. Easy –

The Tottenham of Jimmy Greaves and Alan Mullery. Of Bill Nicholson –

‘They humiliated us,’ says Bill Nicholson. ‘They are very talented and they don’t just run, they know where to run and when. Dave Mackay? If I wanted all this to happen for anybody it would be him. Six Dave Mackays and you wouldn’t need anybody else. An inspiration to everybody and a credit to the game. One of the all-time greats.’

‘I am happy for the team because everybody played so well,’ says Dave Mackay. ‘Not because it was Spurs we beat but because you can’t be anything but happy when you are in a team which plays like that. It is the best we have played since I came here.’

And you? The Biggest Mouth in Football? What do you say?

‘You don’t need to say anything after that. I was very proud of the lads.’

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