Derby County fans still sing about the time Stan Collymore broke a leg at Pride Park and there’s certainly no love lost from them towards the former Nottingham Forest forward.
But former Forest, Liverpool and England striker Collymore is a huge fan of Midlands football and loves the fact Paul Warne has got the Rams on the charge in League One. And having played lower league football as well as the Premier League game, he knows a team brimming with confidence when he sees one.
Which is why he’s backing Derby to pull off a shock by beating David Moyes’s top-flight strugglers West Ham in the FA Cup fourth round on Monday.
Mirror Sport columnist Collymore said: “Derby are 15 games unbeaten, flying high towards the top of the table, everyone is buzzing and I’ve got Derby to win it.
“All isn’t well at West Ham and if Moyes puts out a full team and loses he’s in a no-win situation but if he puts out a team with a couple of new faces and win then it could freshen things up but it also gives Derby more of a chance.
“When you are 15 games unbeaten, you don’t feel you can lose against anyone. You’ve nothing to lose, you want to play against household names and show what you’ve got.
“It’ll be a full house at Pride Park with a baying crowd knowing they can take a scalp and I honestly think they will win.”
Warne arrived from Rotherham after Liam Rosenior was axed in September and has had a massive impact on the East Midlands club. Collymore added: “Paul Warne is doing a fantastic job.
“From a basket case of a club with Mel Morris at the helm and administration, to Wayne Rooney leaving and going to the United States, they needed to do some self-inventory of, ‘Who have we got left on the staff playing-wise and throughout the club?’
“And I have to say that all the people behind the scenes have done incredibly well.
“Warne came in and said, ‘Let’s not feel sorry for ourselves, what’s gone is gone, if you do well here and we don’t go up then there will be clubs who’ll want to take you, if we do go up then happy days. And from a really dark place, everything all of a sudden is fantastic.
“Sometimes with a good coach you fast-forward a process that looked like it would take four or five years and put on your doorstep quickly. And now the FA Cup is a great opportunity for Derby to say, ‘This is what the coach is doing, this is what the players are doing and I’m very happy for them.
“Any clubs in the Midlands that are on their uppers, I’m all for and a strong Derby can only be very good for Midlands football.”
