Many of us remember the introduction of all-seater stadia in the top two divisions as a response to the Hillsborough disaster of 1989.
Many at the time would have seen this as a necessary response to the disaster, to prevent such a tragedy happening again. Others have argued that all-seaters are an over reaction and have contributed to a reduction in the enjoyment of the match day experience, while leading to a move of the game away from the working classes who were the game's life blood for the first century or so of the Football League.
So it’s with quite a bit of interest and anticipation that I see moves are being made to re-introduce well regulated standing areas at Football League grounds.
When I think of standing at a League match, of course I always think back to the Baseball Ground in the 1960's and 1970's. In particular, I think of the days of Brian Clough and Peter Taylor when the standing areas at the BBG were full, very full with everyone squeezed in tight.
The ultimate in tightness was achieved on 20th September, 1969. The Rams had achieved promotion at the end of the 1968/69 season, as champions going away. We had made an excellent start to life back in the old first division with six wins and four draws in the first ten games. When Spurs arrived on 20th September, they arrived as one of the big boys of English football, and an opponent to be taken seriously.
Now bear in mind that the Ley Stand (later the Toyota Stand) had just been built. During the promotion season, before the new stand, the Rams had frequently had gates of 34,000 plus. Those crowds packed the old ground; the new stand added - if memory serves - 4,800 seats, but also took away some standing at the back of the Popular side. So we could expect that the ground would be packed by a crowd of 38,000.
That day against Spurs, the crowd was 41,826. It was very likely the largest crowd we'll ever see for a football match in Derby and I can remember to this day how crushed we were.
I was standing towards the Normanton end of the Pop Side, half way back. We had very little control of where we stood or where we went; the crowd carried us along as if it had a will of its own. I soon lost track of the lad I went with as the crowd carried us apart. I remember about half time coming in contact with a friend from school; we talked for a while and then were carried apart.
The Rams won 5-0 that day. The match was simply no contest; nothing like as close as the score suggested. The last goal went in around - I think - the 70th minute. After that, the Rams simply passed the ball around, seemingly uninterested in scoring any more. They may have been unwilling to further embarrass Dave Mackay's old team or they may have been deliberately trying to avoid crowd problems due to how bad it was getting in the stands towards the end.
I distinctly remember that I can't remember what was happening; perhaps the Rams looked like scoring again - with a bloke away to my right shouting "Stand still! Don't move! Don't cheer!" There was real concern growing that people were beginning to suffer with the crush.
That was in the old days, before we realized truly the need to limit and control standing crowds. I believe, like many others, the time has now arrived for a return to some level of carefully designed and controlled standing areas. It will improve the atmosphere at matches, allow for larger crowds, and provide a welcome return towards the game's roots.
As someone once said; "Everything old is new again”.
Returning to the present, we have on Saturday perhaps the Rams' most important match of the season so far. If we are to keep a realistic chance of automatic promotion, I think the Rams need at least a draw from this one. Avoid defeat, and we have a real chance of a top two spot; so everyone has a real incentive to yell for the lads.
But without standing, whether we play at the iPro or at any other ground, there will never be an experience anything like the old BBG.