Ranking the 8 loudest moments at Derby County's stadium Pride Park | OneFootball

FLW count down the eight loudest moments at Pride Park ever

Pride Park does not do quiet drama. Ever since the Rams swapped the Baseball Ground for their purpose-built home in 1997, the ground has seen - or heard - it all.

Being a Derby County season ticket holder myself, there are loads of small incidents that deserve a mention for me.

Take the minutes before Darren Bent's missed penalty against Reading on the final match-day of 2015 as an example, when the Rams needed just a point to secure playoffs.

In true Derby fashion, Reading ended up winning 3-0 - but the noise when Johnny Russell won the spot-kick, followed by Bent getting ready to take it, was such a very loud moment.

With this in mind as a supposed benchmark, FLW counts down the eight loudest moments at Pride Park ever - please let us know your favourite Pride Park moment in the comments!

8 God Save the Queen - England 4-0 Mexico (2001)

Rams fans can sing - when they want to - but when 33,597 fans merged with travelling England regulars for the first full senior international at Pride Park, the national anthem (1:31), was delivered at a volume the stadium's PA system couldn't match.

Sven-Göran Eriksson's side responded inside three minutes through Paul Scholes, yet the evening's defining audio memory came before kick off, as a wall of patrotic sound reverberated through the steel roof.

East Midlands derbies are traditionally tense, but Steve McClaren's side ripped up the script by racing into a 3-0 lead against Nottingham Forest before half-time and finishing with Craig Bryson's historic hat-trick.

The reason this isn't perhaps higher is that when Johnny Russell thundered in the fourth, the sound morphed from a roar into almost laughter of disbelief - and it was almost like a party atmosphere.

It was Derby's biggest East Midlands derby win in 116 years.

After administration and League One exile, Paul Warne's squad knew that one point against bottom-placed Carlisle United would be enough in the Rams' second attempt at getting out the third-tier.

Max Bird's fifth-minute bullet removed any lingering doubts and detonated Pride Park into a collective release of noise.

James Collins' clincher on the hour provoked a secondary roar, but it was the seconds before the final whistle - when fans were already on the side of the pitch - that choruses of "We are going up" were actually made to be true.

5 Matej Vydra's 24-second strike (2017)

Inside the opening half-minute of another East Midlands derby, Vydra swivelled 25 yards out and arrowed a left-footed shot past Jordan Smith.

The early-morning kick-off, accompanied by club-issued black-and-white flags, had certainly primed the crowd to be able to celebrate that loud almost straight away.

David Nugent's second-half finisher iced the game, and he said in his post-match interview, "It was a fantastic start, a great finish from Vyds (Matej) and that's what derbies are made of really.

"We have to make sure that the atmosphere is like that for every game - not just this one."

4 Derby 2-2 Birmingham City (2022)

Derby's fight for survival under Wayne Rooney was already operating at fever-pitch volume following fan protests against the financial situation at the time.

Trailing 2-0, the Rams pulled one back on 87 minutes, setting up the finale. Then, six minutes into stoppage time, Bielik - making his first appearance after a year-long ACL injury - somehow managed to score an overhead kick.

The noise splintered into ongoing shrieks as everyone came to the realisation that the Pole had not only levelled things but scored an overhead kick. Bielik ended up re-injuring himself immediately after scoring, although supporters were too busy celebrating and giving Blues' fans stick to notice.

Afterwards, Richard Stearman described the Rams' backing as "rare", saying he was "delighted to be a part of this club and perform in front of them."

3 First Premier League win of 'that' season (2007)

Derby had shipped 13 goals in two away games and were favourites for relegation, yet Pride Park descended into bedlam when deadline-day signing Kenny Miller spotted Steve Harper off his line and lobbed home from 35 yards.

The strike arrived half in front of the travelling Geordies, triggering an immediate roar from the rest of the ground.

Newcastle's players stood frozen while every seat around them shook, and it was perhaps sheer relief that Derby had managed to win the game - after getting slumped 6-0 at Anfield by Liverpool the game before.

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With a 2-1 first-leg cushion, Derby still needed a performance, and Will Hughes' back-heel opened the floodgates.

Chris Martin's bundled second raised the volume, George Thorne's 25-yard voley pushed it higher, and then Jeff Hendrick's fourth sent the decibels into the red.

Pride Park rocked on its foundations that day as fans sensed Wembley beckoning - and it was probably the loudest sustained spell of noise Pride Park has ever registered, even though there are no stats to back this up.

Penalty shoot-outs are torture, but rarely do they produce the instantaneous explosion that followed former Rams favourite Inigo Idiakez's skied effort for Southampton.

After 120 minutes of seesaw drama had left the aggregate score at 4-4, Pride Park's nerves were shredded.

Idiakez is listed by FLW as Derby's 20th-greatest player ever, so when he stepped up, the stillness would've been eerie. The ball going over Stephen Bywater's bar triggered arguably the loudest moment at Pride Park ever.

Although you can't really see anything clearly from this grainy fan-footage of the penalty miss, it does capture the sound of fans during that very moment and the subsequent pitch invasion.

In truth, loudness is an imperfect metric which is measured as much by memory than any stats. The list probably features one too many 'modern' moments - but it's fair to say there've been some very deafening times over the past few decades at Pride Park.