Derby Midland FC

Derby Midland Football Club

Derby Midland belonged to that fascinating generation of football clubs which emerged from the great industrial organisations of Victorian Britain. Founded in 1881 as the works team of the Midland Railway, the club enjoyed only a decade of serious competitive football, yet during that comparatively brief existence established itself as one of Derbyshire's strongest sides and occasionally proved capable of troubling some of the leading clubs in the country.

There had been an earlier football club using the Derby Midland name. A match against Wirksworth in 1873 was played with fifteen men on each side, reflecting the rather fluid nature of football before the Association code became firmly established. The Derby Midland club which subsequently became prominent, however, was founded in 1881 and was directly associated with the Midland Railway.

Its arrival was anything but inconspicuous.

During the first round of the Birmingham Senior Cup in 1881–82, Midland were drawn against Derby Town. The railway connection immediately created an unusual situation when Evans, the Derby Town captain and himself an employee of the Midland Railway, appeared for the works team against his usual club. If that caused surprise locally, the result caused considerably more: Derby Midland defeated Town 2–0.

It was an indication that the railwaymen intended to be taken seriously.

Midland continued through the competition until reaching the quarter-final, where they faced the holders, Walsall Swifts, at the Aston Lower Grounds. At one stage the Derby side trailed 4–0, but a spirited finish brought two goals and considerably greater respectability before time finally defeated their attempted recovery.

That inaugural campaign remained their deepest progress in the Birmingham Senior Cup, although there were other memorable performances. None was more emphatic than the extraordinary 11–1 victory away to the Nettlefolds works team during the 1885–86 competition.

Success within Derbyshire initially proved frustratingly elusive. Midland reached the final of the first Derbyshire Senior Cup in 1882–83 and returned the following season, only to finish runners-up to Staveley on both occasions. Their persistence would eventually be rewarded, although they had to wait several years.

The FA Cup

Derby Midland first entered the FA Cup in 1883–84 and remained involved in the competition through to their final season in 1890–91.

Their first campaign was immediately respectable. After receiving an opening-round bye, Midland progressed as far as the third round, effectively the last 28 of the competition, before losing narrowly, 1–0, away to Wednesbury Town.

Their finest FA Cup adventure came six years later.

By 1889–90 the structure of English football was changing rapidly and, as a club outside the principal national competitions, Midland had to negotiate the qualifying rounds simply to reach the FA Cup proper. Having done so, they were rewarded with a first-round meeting with Nottingham Forest, members of the Football Alliance.

Midland produced arguably the most impressive result in their history.

After a goalless first half, Thomas Daft, Samuel Mills and Henry Garden found the net as the railwaymen swept Forest aside 3–0. It was a result which demonstrated that, despite operating outside the Football League and Football Alliance, Derby Midland could compete with clubs occupying the higher levels of the developing English game.

The victory carried them into the last sixteen and an away tie at Bootle. Midland's run finally ended there, although only narrowly. Bootle were reduced to ten men during the second half following an injury to Hughes, but held on to record a 2–1 victory.

For Derby Midland, reaching the last sixteen of the FA Cup represented the high point of their participation in the national competition.

A Changing Football World

The creation of the Football League in 1888 transformed the landscape in which clubs such as Derby Midland operated. With the leading clubs increasingly organised into structured league competitions, those left outside needed regular competitive football of their own.

Midland became members of The Combination for the 1888–89 season. The venture proved unsuccessful, however, and collapsed before its programme could be completed. Midland had played seventeen Combination fixtures, winning four, when the competition disintegrated.

Unlike several of their contemporaries, the Mids did not subsequently become members of the Football Alliance. Instead, in 1889, they became founder members of the Midland League.

It proved an excellent move.

During the League's first season, 1889–90, Derby Midland established themselves among its strongest clubs. A victory over Burton Wanderers in their final fixture carried Midland above their opponents into second place. Lincoln City were some distance ahead as champions, but finishing as Midland League runners-up represented another significant achievement for the railway club.

Yet league success formed only part of an exceptional season.

The Triumph of 1889–90

If one season deserves to be remembered above all others in Derby Midland's short history, it is 1889–90.

Alongside their FA Cup run and second-place finish in the Midland League came the trophy which had twice escaped them during the club's early years.

Facing Long Eaton Rangers in the Derbyshire Senior Cup final at Matlock Bridge Cricket Ground, Midland found themselves behind before recovering to win 3–1. The decisive period arrived during the final quarter of an hour when G. W. Smith struck twice within two minutes.

The occasion also demonstrated the relationship between the football club and the railway from which it had grown. The Midland Railway provided special trains from Long Eaton for the final and more than 2,000 supporters reportedly made use of them.

A month later Midland encountered Long Eaton Rangers again, this time in the semi-final of the Derbyshire Charity Cup. What followed was remarkable. The Mids scored five times inside the opening ten minutes. Rangers somehow recovered sufficiently to make the score 5–3 by half-time, but Midland eventually reasserted themselves and won 8–3.

Staveley awaited them in the final at Matlock Bridge. The opponents who had denied Midland the Derbyshire Senior Cup in consecutive seasons earlier in the decade were beaten 4–1, giving the railwaymen another trophy.

Thus 1889–90 became Derby Midland's defining campaign: runners-up in the Midland League, winners of both the Derbyshire Senior Cup and Derbyshire Charity Cup, and participants in the last sixteen of the FA Cup after their celebrated victory over Nottingham Forest.

The End of Derby Midland

Unfortunately, the club had almost reached its peak at precisely the moment when its future was becoming uncertain.

The 1890–91 season was comparatively subdued. Midland finished fourth in the Midland League and their FA Cup campaign ended at the first qualifying stage against Loughborough.

The decisive development came away from the football field.

During May 1891 rumours circulated that the Midland Railway intended to stop employing professional footballers, effectively forcing its works club back towards amateurism. The directors initially denied that such a decision had been made, but within a fortnight the policy was confirmed.

For a club attempting to compete in an increasingly professional football environment, the consequences were profound.

Derby Midland's committee responded by agreeing to combine forces with Derby County. There was initially an intention to preserve the Midland identity and continue competing in the Midland League, but the League was unwilling to accept what would effectively have become Derby County's second team.

The proposed continuation therefore came to nothing.

After ten years, the Derby Midland name disappeared from senior football, with the club becoming absorbed into Derby County in 1891.

Colours and Ground

Derby Midland originally played in dark blue jerseys. In 1885 the club adopted the particularly distinctive black-and-white striped shirts, worn with white shorts and plain black socks, a combination which they retained until around 1890.

By 1890 the appearance had changed again, with contemporary evidence describing the club in black jerseys and white knickers.

The Mids played their home matches on a ground at Midland Station, an appropriately railway-centred home for a club whose identity remained inseparable from the Midland Railway throughout its existence.

A Brief but Important History

Derby Midland existed at senior level for only a decade, but those ten years coincided with one of the most important periods in the development of English football.

When the club was founded in 1881, organised football remained overwhelmingly based around cup competitions, friendly matches and local rivalries. By the time Derby Midland disappeared in 1891, professionalism had taken hold, the Football League had been established and the foundations of the modern league system were already being constructed.

The Mids therefore occupied an intriguing position between those two footballing worlds.

They were a genuine Victorian works club, born from one of Britain's great railway companies, yet they became sufficiently powerful to compete seriously beyond their immediate locality. They reached the latter stages of major cup competitions, became founder members of the Midland League, won two Derbyshire trophies and, at their height, defeated Nottingham Forest 3–0 on their way to the last sixteen of the FA Cup.

Their disappearance in 1891 should not obscure what had been achieved.

For a brief period in the 1880s, Derby Midland Football Club represented the Midland Railway and its workforce on the football fields of Victorian England — and did so with considerable distinction.

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