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Derby County's 1-0 win against Sunderland at the Baseball Ground on
November 27th 1976 marked just the third sucess of their 1976/77 First
Division campaign. In a desperate bid to reverse the clubs fortunes,
manager Colin Murphy persuaded his board of directors to spend £330000
on Charlton Athletic's Derek Hales, a proven lower division striker who
had scored an impressive 72 goals in just 129 league appearances for the
Addicks. Although the twenty-five year old centre foward failed to
impress in his first five games, a goal in the FA Cup victory against
Blackpool followed by two superb strikes in a 4-2 league win over
Newcastle just three days later seemed to suggest the huge fee was
justified and that a reivival was underway.
Unfortunately it proved to
be a false dawn, County continued to struggle and it took Hales another
seventeen appearances to score three more; markers against Colchester,
Bristol City and Aston Villa coming before his season ended prematurely
at Sunderland when he was stretchered off with damaged ankle ligaments.
It was left to Murphy's other major signing Gerry Daly to steer County
to safety, his inspired performances and seven goals lifting them to a
fifteenth place finish. When Derby gained just two points from their
opening five fixtures of the following season Murphy was replaced by
Tommy Docherty. Hales had scored in County's 3-1 League Cup win against
Orient, but failed to impress in the league fixtures. He did not feature
in the new manager's plans and was soon off loaded to West Ham United
for a cut price £110,000.
In all competitions Derek played just thirty
games for County, incuding one as a substitute, netting seven goals.
Although a regular goal scorer outside of the top flight, he found First
Division defences much harder to unlock, albeit in a poor side that was
at the time struggling for its own survival. (Mike Cockayne)
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