Unofficial Champions of England: Derby County 0-2 Nottingham Forest, 27/04/1994

Colin Cooper lines up a free-kick

English Champions Derby County kept up their promotion push with wins against Stoke City and Charlton Athletic as well as useful draws against former Champions Leicester City, Notts County and Grimsby Town.

Unfortunately, it all came to an end with the visit of bitter rivals Nottingham Forest to the Baseball Ground.

Colin Cooper opened the scoring for Forest with a free-kick the Derby keeper may feel he should have done better with.

Derby didn't go down without a fight but Forest's win was sealed when Derby's former Forest defender Gary Charles attempted a very risky back-pass with the keeper out of position and it deflected off Steve Stone into the unguarded net.

On the plus side for the Rams, despite losing their Championship, they would go on to the Division One play-offs final. Unfortunately, they would lose to Leicester City.

Highlights:

Unofficial Champions of England: Derby County 2-0 Barnsley, 02/04/1994

Tommy Johnson scores Derby's first.

Barnsley didn't have long to enjoy their time as English Champions, as they were soon back on the road in Division One. They arrived at the Baseball Ground to take on promotion-chasing Derby County.

Derby took a first half lead when Tommy Johnson found himself in acres of space before placing the ball past the Barnsley goalkeeper.
In the second half, USA international John Harkes was left the simplest of tap-ins to make the game safe for the Rams.

Derby took another step toward promotion but more importantly, they were now the English Champions.

Goals:

Unofficial Champions of England: Liverpool 2-1 Manchester City, 22/01/1994

Ian Rush equalises for Liverpool

Liverpool may not have won the league since 1990 but that doesn't mean they haven't been champions since then.

Since winning the Unofficial English Championship, Manchester City had managed to retain their title with a 0-0 draw against Arsenal.

Things looked good for City when Carl Griffiths gave them the lead after four minutes. But it was to be Liverpool and in particular, Ian Rush's day. The veteran striker was perhaps past his peak but could still give a reminder of his glory days on occasion.
First, he was the first to react to Jamie Redknapp's rebounded shot and then in the second half he rose above all the City defenders to head the winners.

A great day for Liverpool.

Match highlights:

Unofficial Champions of England: Leicester City 2-1 Sunderland 01/01/1994

Julian Joachim makes it 2-0 to Leicester

Sunderland had barely three days to enjoy their time as Unofficial Champions of England before they were defending their title again.

On New Years day, the Rokerites travelled to promotion-hunting Leicester City at Filbert Street.
Veteran striker David Speedie opened the scoring with a cross-come-shot from the edge of the box.
Highly rated Julian Joachim weaved his way through the Sunderland defence to make it 2-0.

Sunderland did pull one back with a penalty from Phil Gray but it was too little, too late as Leicester took their place as Champions of England.

Match highlights: