Derby County 1 Charlton 0 I'm reading The Damned United by David Peace at the moment, a book based on Brian Clough's 45 days in charge of Leeds United in 1974. Running parallel to Cloughie's disastrous time at Elland Road, the book also reflects on his glory years with Derby County. The Rams are a mid-sized, one city club with a wonderful history and a Pride Park crowd of 31,541 yesterday reflects how desperate their fans are for a return to the glory times after one embarrassing season in the Premiership. Derby are now under the guidance of Clough's youngest son, who features a lot in the book as a child, Nigel and I personally hope they do well next season.

Yesterday's game started with Derby legend Dave Mackay being introduced to the crowd before the game followed by Sir Chris Powell, who presented Derby's player of the year award to Rob Hulse. There are very few players in the modern game who are worshipped as much by two sets of fans as Chrissy and I am sure his warm smile would have cheered Addicks probably questioning their sanity of why they had made the journey in the first place.

Reports confirm though the 619 Addicks in attendance enjoyed their day in true old fashioned style. The gallows humour and amusing songs I hope are a precedent for what we can hope to expect on our travels next season.

By the way, if you didn't already know, or hadn't guessed... We lost.

Addicks at Pride Park: Doctor Kish; Charlton Life.  ¶ 09:54