Thanks chaps Season 2 (2002/2003) Continued
He left a club at the top of the table in the Second Division to join a team stuck in a relegation dogfight in the division above. Having just missed out on promotion to the Premiership last season when they lost 2-0 to
Leicester in the Playoff Final, Derby had slumped to 22nd position and manager Gregory paid the price with his job. But Brig was very excited by the prospects at County. He saw them as a club with great potential – Pride Park was an excellent stadium that could hold over 33,000 fans. There was money in the bank, transfer funds were available and in Brig’s opinion not a bad squad of players. He felt that this season’s problems were the making of the departing manager and was confident that he could quickly turn things around on the pitch.
With just two days to prepare before his first game his main concern was to start to familiarise his players with the
“Calhoun Formation” that we wanted them to adopt. Despite a 2-1 defeat at
Burnley, the new boss wasn’t too unhappy with the overall performance.
Fabrizio Ravanelli scored his first goal of the season and with a little more luck would have added to his total. His next match came a few days later in an FA Cup replay at home to
Norwich and a good performance ended with a 3-0 win. Another good display followed at home to
Cardiff in the league but despite exerting intense pressure Derby failed to score and paid the price when an 85th minute penalty robbed them of a point.
With three games under his belt, Calhoun felt that he was starting to get a handle on some of his players, although with 50 players on the books there was still a lot to learn. Former
West Brom stopper
Russell Hoult was a new arrival at the start of the season and was a player that Brig had considered at Hartlepool before going with Maik Taylor.
Warren Barton was the type of player that Brig liked – versatile, hard working and not in the least flashy – it was a shame that he would be joining
Burnley in the summer. 22-year-old
Chris Riggott was a potential star in the centre of defence and when
Horacio Carbonari recovered from his calf strain then the two could make a good partnership.
Mica Hyde, Craig Burley and
Per Frandsen were all experienced campaigners in midfield but Brig was concerned about the lack of a real goalscorer.
Ravanelli still had class but at 34 he was clearly over the hill and would be allowed to leave at the end of his contract. Venezuelan
Ruberth Moran didn’t appear to offer too much but
Robbie Blake could work out as a withdrawn striker.
Calhoun made a quick move for several ‘Pool players but was rebuffed, although he came close to getting
Ravneng but lost out when
Man United trumped his wage offer. Former England goalkeeper
Tim Flowers was installed as Player/Manager at Brig’s previous club – an interesting choice and he would be watching with curiosity to see how it worked out. Calhoun’s move had triggered a backlash back at Hartlepool as the fans turned on their former manager for, as they saw it at least, deserting them and their team. But Brig was pretty thick skinned and did his best to ignore the vitriol that poured forth. His ruthless streak extended beyond his dealing with his players and into his own career – he was single-minded in his desire for success and had no regrets about leaving Hartlepool as he clearly saw Derby as offering much more potential.
The reward for the FA Cup victory over
Norwich was a 4th round tie at home to
Arsenal and Brig’s team defied all expectations by outplaying the visitors and winning 4-2. He was now starting to imbibe his players with that most elusive and yet powerful of qualities – self-belief. As he would show throughout his career, Brig Calhoun had a knack of bringing out the best in his players and the shock defeat of Arsenal was a prime illustration of this. Still buoyed after the win his team then gained their first league victory since his arrival, a 2-0 win at
Coventry. Their first home win came with a 1-0 defeat of
Portsmouth, a result that lifted them out of the bottom three. A 1-0 defeat at
Blackburn in the FA Cup was followed by three straight league wins, taking them to 17th and Calhoun was recognised as Manager of the Month. Brig also completed his first transfer deal since arriving, signing defender
Luke Young from
Charlton for £1.3M.
March was a productive month in the league with three wins and a draw – the only defeat coming at top of the table
Aston Villa. Now in 16th place Brig was surprised to see that his team were a mere 12 points outside the playoff zone. Certain sections of the local press were running stories that the signing of
Luke Young was a big mistake but Calhoun was quick to defend the player, sentiments echoed by both the fans and the club Chairman. He would be rewarded with a series of powerful performances as the 23-year-old set about repaying his manager’s faith.
April began with an excellent 3-0 defeat of promotion challengers
Southampton with unheralded Finnish midfielder
Simo Valakari particularly impressive. Brig was playing him in the critical position in front of the defence and the 29-year-old international was proving to be a natural in that role. Keeper
Russell Hoult was rewarded for his consistency by being the only Derby player to make the First Division Select. In Derby’s next game
Moran scored all three goals in the defeat of
Stoke as he sought to prove his goalscoring credentials. Two more wins followed before the sequence was broken with a draw at home to
Wimbledon. His team’s wonderful form saw Calhoun receive another managerial award and
Valakari was recognised as Player of the month as Derby had now risen to 10th place.
Brig was saddened to see that
Hartlepool had fared poorly since his departure, slipping to a 10th place finish with a terrible run of form.
Simo Valakari rounded off a fine season by being voted the Supporters Player of the Year
<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">********************************************* ************************************************ English First Division - Monday 26th May 2003********************************************** ***********************************************Pos Team Pld Won Drn Lst For Ag Won Drn Lst For Ag Pts---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1st C Aston Villa 46 18 3 2 46 25 6 9 8 31 35 84 2nd P Watford 46 13 3 7 51 41 12 3 8 36 38 81 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------3rd Southampton 46 14 5 4 43 25 9 4 10 37 36 78 4th Wimbledon 46 13 4 6 42 32 10 5 8 36 40 78 5th Coventry 46 8 8 7 25 25 14 3 6 44 26 77 6th P Birmingham 46 14 6 3 51 31 7 7 9 43 44 76 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------7th Luton 46 16 0 7 47 24 7 6 10 37 38 75 8th Millwall 46 15 2 6 54 30 7 4 12 32 44 72 9th Portsmouth 46 13 6 4 49 31 7 4 12 27 36 70 10th DERBY 46 13 6 4 38 24 7 2 14 32 47 68 11th Walsall 46 15 4 4 52 31 4 6 13 21 41 67 12th Nottm Forest 46 15 2 6 48 26 5 3 15 26 47 65 13th Stoke 46 14 4 5 49 32 5 4 14 30 48 65 14th Cardiff 46 12 5 6 43 35 6 3 14 25 36 62 15th Ipswich 46 13 1 9 56 44 6 4 13 37 60 62 16th Sheff Wed 46 12 4 7 34 21 5 6 12 26 35 61 17th Norwich 46 12 4 7 39 29 5 4 14 28 44 59 18th Preston 46 7 6 10 27 29 8 5 10 36 36 56 19th Burnley 46 9 7 7 35 34 5 7 11 31 44 56 20th Brighton 46 10 7 6 40 28 2 6 15 24 52 49 21st Bradford 46 9 4 10 34 39 5 3 15 26 43 49 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------22nd R Reading 46 9 5 9 37 32 3 6 14 23 45 47 23rd R Grimsby 46 7 9 7 36 42 4 3 16 32 50 45 24th R Wigan 46 6 6 11 40 43 5 4 14 33 51 43</pre>
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