Birmingham City's Lee Carsley recalls the day he met the Queen

Sep 27 2008 By Andy Walker

BIRMINGHAM CITY captain Lee Carsley wants his side to produce a right royal show at Derby on Tuesday after recalling the day he met the Queen at Pride Park.

The veteran midfielder started his career at Derby and spent almost a decade with the Rams, who were one of seven clubs vying for his services during the summer.

Evergreen Carsley, 34, admits that the charm of Alex McLeish and the chance to play for his home city was an urge that he couldn’t resist.

However, struggling Derby still have a place in the former Republic of Ireland international’s heart after helping kickstart his successful football career.

Sheldon-raised Carsley has many happy memories from his time in the East Midlands, including the day he rubbed shoulders with Her Majesty.

He was still a Ram when the club moved from the Baseball Ground to the Pride Park in July 1997 and the ex-Everton man was in attendance at the stadium’s grand opening ceremony led by the Queen – although Carsley admits that he didn’t come across as the most patriotic of royalists.

Opening

“I was at the opening of Pride Park and I met the Queen, so that was a good day,” he said. “I was pretty young at the time, to be honest, so it was something that I didn’t really take on board.

“I’m not going to lie and say that I’m really into the Royal Family because I’m not so I’m sure other people would have felt prouder than me. For me it was just a case of ‘Hello, what’s happening?’. I didn’t speak to her, just gave her a quick high-five and that was it.

“I don’t know why the Queen was invited, maybe she was in the area at some other function. The opening was separate and the first game was a friendly against Sampdoria.

“Our first league game was against Wimbledon but the lights went out after 60 minutes when we were 1-0 up at the time so we had to replay the game and we drew 1-1.

“Derby are a club that mean a lot to me, I signed for them when I was 15 and I had some great years there with some good memories. They’ve come a long way from the Baseball Ground but it’s a fantastic club and a club that I will always hold dear to my heart.”

Like Derby, Blues are still reeling from last season’s relegation from the Premier League although McLeish’s men can hold their heads slightly higher than Tuesday night’s opponents given the manner in which Paul Jewell’s side tumbled out of the top flight.

While Blues got straight into the Championship’s promotion mix-up, Derby had to wait until September 13 to chalk up their first league win for 362 days.

Despite the torrid time that Derby have suffered in the last year, Carsley is convinced that Blues are just as psychologically scarred by last season’s relegation as the Rams: “I think both Derby and ourselves hurt from last season. When you get relegated it takes a lot out of the players, a lot out of the club and out of the fans as well.

“It really is a big kick in the teeth, I’ve been relegated myself a couple of times and I know what it is like.

“Sometimes you do feel sorry for yourself and subconsciously you’re not going into games as confident as you should be and perhaps we’ve found that at times. There will be a lot of players who will be thinking ‘perhaps I should still be playing in the Premier League’ and rightfully so because they are good players.

“Derby were so unlucky because the standard of the Premier League last season was pretty unforgiving and they were going into games not confident. They were meeting a lot of teams in form last season and it was a really strong division.

“I like Paul Jewell a lot, he’s a big football person, his goals and aspirations with Derby are good. He joined the club at a real bad time obviously – they were on the slippery slope when he got there and I don’t think anybody would have kept them up. He’s well thought of in the game and he seems to get the best out of players, just look at what he did at Wigan.”

Blues took four points off Derby last season with a 1-1 draw at St Andrew’s and a 2-1 victory at Pride Park but Tuesday will be a completely different challenge.

Carsley feels that Blues boss McLeish is still moulding his Championship promotion-chasers and insists that fans ain’t seen nothing yet.

“We are still the favourites, we’ve not exactly lit the division up yet but we’re second. So there’s a hell of a lot more to come from us, I don’t think the manager has found his best team or formation but promotion is there for the taking.”

andy.walker@sundaymercury.net