May, 1967
Hartlepool finished eighth in the season before Brian and Peter Taylor – on the recommendation of Len Shackleton, a seminal figure in North East football – moved to Derby, then in the Second Division. Derby won the Division Two title in 1969, the League Championship in 1972 and reached the European Cup semi-finals in 1973. Brian resigned in the autumn of 1973 after a row with chairman Sam Longson and the board. Even a players’ revolt – and unequivocal support from the terraces – couldn’t re-instate him. It taught Brian a lesson. ‘Never resign,’ he said. His decision to do so was, he said, the consequence of having ‘too much time to think – and not enough brain to think with.’