#SaveDerbyCounty

David Lane

#SaveDerbyCounty

All images and text © 2022 David Lane Published by: davidlanephotography.co.uk Email:

davidmtlane@b�nternet.com

The rights of David Lane to be iden�fied as the Author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs, and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or u�lised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or herea�er invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any informa�on storage or retrieval system, without the permission in wri�ng from the Author.

Printed in England by digitalprin�ng.co.uk First published 2022

#SaveDerbyCounty by

David Lane LRPS

An extraordinary event took place in Derby on Sunday 30th January 2022.

Over 10,000 fans marched from the city centre to Pride Park Stadium, in support of the club during its latest crisis. The club has an incredibly passionate supporter base and is an important part of the life of the city and the surrounding areas.

I decided to document the march as it assembled in the Market Place and set off on the mile or so route to the Pride Park Stadium, where the Rams were due to play Birmingham City that a�ernoon.

Though good-natured, the feeling of determina�on and love for the Rams among the supporters, was palpable.

Under the inspired leadership of manager Wayne Rooney, the diminishing pool of players is figh�ng hard to survive in the Championship, gradually clawing their way up the table and hoping to escape from the relega�on zone.

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Derby County was one of the 12 founder member clubs of the Football League in 1888. It’s one of only 10 clubs to have played every season in the league and has only been out of the top 2 �ers for 4 seasons.

The club’s compe��ve peak came in the 1970s when it twice won the First Division (now the Premier League) and competed in major European compe��ons on four occasions, reaching the European Cup semi-finals as well as winning several minor trophies.

The club is no stranger to financial crises, having survived several since the late 1980s. A succession of owners and managers has seen the club yo-yo between the Premiership and the Championship. The absolute low point was in September 2021, when the club was put into administra�on. Then, the English Football League docked the club 21 points, and imposed a transfer ban.

From this seemingly impossible posi�on, we have seen an extraordinary ba�le for survival.

I used a Canon EOS 80d camera with a 70-200mm lens for most of these images and shot in RAW. I had already decided I wanted to produce black and white images for this book which would have a gri�y, �meless feel.

Post-processing was done in Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop, with further work in Nix Silver Efex Pro. I created the book using Affinity Publisher, and it is printed by Digital Prin�ng UK.