If there is one book that is guaranteed to be un-put-downable this year by older Derby County fans, and those younger ones who never had the experience of living life with Brian, it is this one.

It evokes the memories of when Clough, and Taylor to a lesser extent, stirred the imagination of all Rams fans by providing a team to love and cherish. And offers an insight of how someone, who was often rude, crass, and boorish to many people, yet still drew adoration in equal measure from many. It is essentially the story of how Clough provoked such an uproar on his resignation with the result that a protest movement was born to try and keep him.

Clough brooked no opposition and was often ruthless to those who tried to stand up to him and he met his match in Sam Longson who was equally obstinate in his own way. What is often forgotten today was just how much football was class driven in those days. Footballers and their managers were often drawn from the working class while directors were either self-made local businessmen or occasionally from a well-to-do background. It is not too strong to say that there was often hatred on both sides for the other and it is in this context that Clough grew up in. Footballing icons like Billy Wright were derided by their peers for being oleaginous and obsequious to their so-called betters and Clough was determined that he would kow-tow to no-one.

The book is a narrative of the time that Clough and Longson increasingly found themselves unable to work together and is indeed gripping. However, it has serious flaws – one is a passage on page 37 where it describes the signing of Archie Gemmill as the one after Hinton. In fact, Carlin arrived first with Gemmill being added to the team at a later stage.

There is also a photo of Clough and Taylor who are apparently watching “Hartlepool in 1965” but the person sitting next to Clough bears an uncanny resemblance to Longson.

There are also some descriptions of episodes that are apparently private – such as the one on page 190: “Longson went to the drinks cabinet…..not for the first time that day, buried his face in his hands. A dry racking sob escaped him. Then another.” With no corroboration, this beggars belief – and one is left questioning the veracity of this episode and, as a consequence, the rest of the book.

If one can ignore those moments of unease, the book is well worth reading as it truly captures a dramatic event in the history of Derby County. A more tumultuous and exciting time has not been had around Derby County for many years and is unlikely to ever reach the same levels of frenzy, much of it whipped up by Clough himself.

Don Shaw is unashamedly in thrall to Clough and he offers no apology for being so, and the book is the better for it because it gives those of us, who never knew him, a real insight into the phenomenon that carried two essentially provincial teams to the pinnacle of Europe.

Photo: Action Images

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