Derby Go Up

Derby County sealed their return to the Premier League with a 1-0 win over West Bromwich Albion. The win is said to be worth more than £60 million in revenue for the club and should help strengthen their standing.

Steven Pearson scored the game’s only goal by converting a Giles Barnes’s low cross. Barnes had just come on minutes earlier to replace Canadian Paul Peschisolido, who despite turning 37 recently still had a strong showing. I hope Peschisolido will stick around for one last crack at Premier League football though he is expected to leave the club at the end of the current season when his contract expires.

Derby rejoin the Premier League after a 5 year absence. They were relegated at the end of the 2001-02 season after six successive seasons of top division football. As it happens so frequently, with relegation came a period of financial instability as the club, which forced them to sell many key players and build a team mostly of home-grown youngsters like Tome Huddlestone (since sold to Tottenham).

I’ll be writing a more extensive article on Derby closer to the start of the new season and it will be posted over at EPLTalk.com

I’ll also be writing features on this site about the squads that have won promotion to the Championship this year: League One champs Scunthorpe United, runners-up Bristol City and playoff winners Blackpool.