Rams fans mourn 'death' of club

Derby County supporters again held demonstrations over the future of the club after their 3-0 win over Burnley on Saturday afternoon. Despite the freezing wind and a hint of snow in the air 400 Rams fans gathered outside the main entrance of Pride Park to call for the removal of the current board and the investiture of Peter Gadsby, the head of the local investment group, as Chairman.

The Rams Protest Group (RPG), who have organised the previous demonstrations, had a wreath made of black and white flowers that said on it ‘Derby County Football Club R.I.P.' to show how they thought the club would die in the hands of the current directors. The RPG had also distributed balloons and ‘Board Out' banners before the match, and had ‘goodbye' cards signed by supporters for giving to the current board members.

The vocal crowed formed up almost immediately after the final whistle and were chanting ‘sack the board' and ‘there's only one Peter Gadsby' as well as displaying a range of ‘board out' signs. Founder of the RPG Greg Lake was joined by Katie Richards; standing at the front of the noisy crowd they held the wreath. Whilst press and people in the protest took photographs.

Mr Lake then made a short speech in which he outlined Derby supporters concerns; “The people here at today's protest have invested more money into Derby County than the current board” speaking through a loud hailer he added “(this current board) must allow Peter Gadsby to take charge and give this club back to the fans”

They both then walked through the crowd and laid the wreath in the middle of the island outside Pride Park Stadium, some supporters hummed the death march others sang ‘Derby till I die'. There was then an immaculately observed minutes silence in which supporters bowed their heads and also held up their ‘board out' signs.

Speaking to vitalfootball.co.uk after the protest Mr Lake said “This protest couldn't have gone better, a 3-0 win; the fans supporting the team on the pitch then coming here afterwards to protest, superb” he added “there have been positive signs this week, but the protest is by no means over, the fans deserve more than they are getting” fellow RPG member Gaz Willis added “we need to get local men in who are fans of the club, rather than others like SISU or the current group of directors”

There may well have been progress made on the ownership of Derby County this week, but it seems that we are only at the beginning of the end.

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