From Great Harwood Town to Olympiakos to scoring against QPR last weekend this player has had an interesting career.
Matt Derbyshire is 28 today and his career started at Great Harwood Town where he was showing a lot of potential and was scouted by a few clubs including Manchester United and Blackburn Rovers. As a Rovers fan it must have been a dream and when they paid £20,000 (unsurprisingly Great Harwood’s record fee received) it must have been an easy decision to join the club. He knew he was not going to get a place in the team straight away and after a loan spell at Plymouth Argyle, he showed what he could do at Wrexham by scoring 10 goals in 16 games.
When he came back to Blackburn he was in and around the first team squad and January 2007 was a great month for him, scoring his first goal for the club against Wigan Athletic and then the opener in the 4-1 victory over Everton. The next week he started his first game against Arsenal and a week later he was on the score sheet again, this time against Manchester City. He finished this season with 9 goals in all competitions in just 14 starts and 16 substitute appearances.
The next season and a half were quieter for him but he did prove to be someone that was good at coming off the bench becoming known as a super sub. He scored winners against Middlesbrough, Newcastle United and Fulham. Although he was successful at this role he wanted to start more games and he joined Greek side Olympiakos on loan. Ironically his first goal for the club was after coming off the bench and it was not long before he became a club hero for his performances from the bench.
It was in the Greek Cup final against rivals AEK Athens that he will never be forgotten. With his team 2-0 at half time Derbyshire was brought on and within three minutes he had reduced the score line but this was only the start. Olympiakos made it 2-2 however AEK scored in stoppage time to put them in the lead once again and surely won them the cup. But with the very last touch of the game Derbyshire still nursing a concussion scored a header in the sixth minute of stoppage time. His team went on to win 15-14 on penalties and Derbyshire was awarded the man of the match award.
Unfortunately a change in manager meant Derbyshire was no longer in their plans and made the move to Birmingham City on loan. However he never really settled at the club and could not establish himself in the first team.
Sam Allardyce said about him on his return to England. “He’s a very good goalscorer, we all know that, and that is why we (Blackburn) got an unbelievably good fee. We let him got there on loan and he became a hero at Olympiakos.”
After leaving Birmingham he moved to Nottingham Forest where he struggled initially and went on loan to Oldham Athletic to resurrect his career and he did just that scoring six times for the club. But this season he has returned to form for his parent club and scored a great header against QPR recently.
The last word can go to the man that brought him back to England Alex McLeish. “Matt has had his journey in Greece and, from speaking to him, he’s keen to get on that Premier League pitch once more. He’s shown he can score a goal and he’s learned new tricks abroad.”
Footballers on this day 