In 2006/2007, Derby County finished third in the English Football League Championship and were promoted to the Premier League after beating West Bromwich Albion in the play-off final at Wembley Stadium. However, in 2007/08, Derby County became, without question, the worst team in the history of the Premier League, repeatedly hitting the headlines for all the wrong reasons and breaking several unenviable records. Not exactly an ‘accomplishment’ you’d want as a club sponsor. Instead of drawing in online casinos uk as advertisers, local plumbers would surely soon become more likely!
The 2007/08 Premier League season started brightly enough, with a 2-2 draw against Portsmouth at Pride Park but, in the next four matches, the Rams conceded 22 goals and scored just one; after the fifth match of the season, a 6-0 defeat away to Liverpool, bookmaker Paddy Power began paying out on relegation bets. Ironically, in the sixth match, Derby County won their only match of the season, against Newcastle at Pride Park, leading manager Billy Davies to declare, ‘We’re up and running’.
Five days later, Derby County were beaten 5-0 away at Arsenal and, in November, with the Rams rooted firmly at the bottom of the Premier League table, Davies left the club ‘by mutual consent’ after eighteen months in charge. His replacement, former Wigan Athletic manager Paul Jewell, later described his decision to take over as ‘the worst move I’ve ever made’.
Jewell failed to improve results and, in late March, 2008, Derby County suffered the ignominy of becoming the first team to be relegated from the Premier League in March, with six games remaining. I’m pretty sure by this stage the players would’ve rather stayed home and played high roller online casinos . By the end of a wretched campaign, the Rams had still only won a single match, but lost 29 and, between September, 2007 and May, 2008, gone 32 consecutive league matches without winning. Derby County scored just 20 goals, but conceded 89, giving them a goal difference of -69 or, in other words, 44 goals worse than any other team in the Premier League, and amassed a paltry 11 points.
The phrase ‘Hand of God’ was coined after Argentinian captain Diego Maradona described his first goal against England in the quarter-final of the 1986 World Cup as being scored ‘a little with the head of Maradona and a little with the hand of God.’
Early in the second half of the match, in the Azteca Stadium, Mexico City, with the scores level at 0-0, England midfielder Steve Hodge sliced a high, looping ball in the direction of his own penalty and what followed became one of the most iconic, and controversial, incidents in football history. As the ball dropped from the heavens, Maradona jumped alongside England goalkeeper Peter Shilton who, at 6′, stood 7″ taller than his dimunitive opponent. However, as Shilton reached forward with his right glove, Maradona raised his left fist, close to his head, and dexterously, but illegally, nudged the ball over the goalkeeper and into the empty net.
Maradona raced away towards the corner flag, pausing briefly to check if the match officials had noticed his infringement. Tunisian referee Ali Bin Nasser allowed the goal but, in the face of protests from the English players, looked in the direction of Bulgarian linesman Bogdan Dochev as he ran back towards the centre circle. Dochev – who later admitted that he had seen Maradona punch the ball over Shilton – gave no indication of handball and the goal stood.
To add insult to injury, just minutes later, Maradona carried the ball from inside half, outpacing English midfielder Peter Reid – who later described his vain pursuit of the Argentinian No. 10 as ‘like a kid chasing his Dad in the garden’ – and beating three defenders before slotting home past Shilton for his second goal. In 2002, the goal was voted ‘FIFA World Cup Goal of the Century’. Argentina won the match 2-1 and went on to win the FIFA World Cup Trophy, beating West Germany 3-2 in the final.
Watch Maradona’s Hand of God