Derby County FC was formed in 1884 and was the youngest of the founder members of the Football League just four years later. The club's controversial birth and four crucial pre-League seasons are chronicled here in detail for the first time. The book includes a remarkable "Who's Who" of ever player from those pioneering days that wore the "chocolate and blue".
Meet the "Flying Bishop", famous international cricketers, an intrepid mountain-climbing cleric, the cider maker whose hat-trick destroyed Forest, two tragic drowning victims, a "Burmese goalie", the disgraced manure salesman, and countless more besides in a colourful line-up of over 100 characters who were "The Men Who Made The Rams".
Famous victories, farcical defeats, bitter rivalries, near oblivion and glorious survival - the "lost years" of Derby County are brought vividly to life in entertaining style, the final "missing pieces" in the unique history of a great football club. All Rams' fans should know and cherish their roots; here within is that magic story.