VISITS to the Baseball Ground in the early 1970s often reduced Arsenal to a pale shadow of the fine side they were around that time.

Four successive League defeats on Derby County's home patch included a 5-0 drubbing in November 1972, when the skill of Alan Hinton shredded Arsenal's defence.

But the Gunners used defeat at Derby the previous year as a springboard to winning the League and FA Cup Double in 1970-1.

Peter Storey was the hard man and midfield enforcer of the talented Arsenal team.

In his colourful autobiography: "True Storey: My Life and Crimes as a Football Hatchet Man" (Mainstream Publishing), Storey recalls a bad day at Derby, which became a significant turning point in Arsenal's success that season.

"We hit a nasty wobble which threatened to derail our pursuit of Leeds United at the top," said Storey, whose book, written with Will Price, is out this week.

"A useful test of a good team is how you respond in adversity and we let ourselves down badly at Derby in late February.

"I remember one report said we were bustled out of our stride, outwitted, rarely looked like championship calibre and were lucky, in the end, to restrict the margin of defeat to 2-0.

"It was a typically awkward uneven Baseball Ground surface but you'd never have guessed it from the performance of Roy McFarland.

"Derby's England centre-half had been taken to the cleaners once or twice before by Raddy (John Radford) but not this time.

"He not only found the time to score the opening goal but totally dominated too for good measure.

"The other goal came from Kevin Hector.

"He frequently haunted Frank McLintock, who was never quite sure which side the Derby striker would try and pass him.

"Travelling back down the M1, I said to one of the lads through gritted teeth with no great wit or imagination 'this is b******s', and made a mental note to concentrate harder, tackle more fiercely and generally compete with everything I had left in the tank.

"Fortunately, I was far from alone in my determination.

"Coming on the back of defeats in our two previous away matches at Huddersfield and Liverpool, Derby was a significant turning point in our season."

Arsenal won their next nine League games, scored 16 goals and conceded only one.

They clinched the title with a 1-0 victory against north London neighbours Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane in early May before they beat Liverpool in the FA Cup final at Wembley.

Storey played 19 times for England and McFarland was a team-mate in 16 of the games.

"I played with over 30 England colleagues in my two-year stint of national service," said Storey, "and can state, quite categorically, that this 4-4-2 combination with a midfield diamond (myself at the back and Martin Peters to the front) would have been the most effective: Banks; Madeley, McFarland, Moore, Cooper; Storey, Bell, Ball, Peters; Lee, Chivers."

Co-author Price used to live in Allestree and went to Ecclesbourne School.

He later worked for Raymonds News Agency and then the Derbyshire Advertiser.