The man some regarded as the on-field talisman for the early stages of Derby County's glory years, Willie Carlin, has died

The story we've known over the years, probably true, is that Willie 'ran' a game against Derby playing for sheff U and Cloughie decided even while the game was in progress that he needed to buy him, and he did a few weeks after. Willie seemed to turbocharge our season and the rest is history

Willie to me was a sign of our continuous improvement, I couldn't understand why we sold him (he was upset about it too) but of course along came Archie, while Wille moved on to terrorise bigger blokes elsewhere

Farewell Willie and we thank you