With EFL fixtures postponed as the football world paid its respects to Her Majesty, The Queen Elizabeth II, manager Paul Simpson spoke about the importance of acknowledging what had been a lifetime of service.
“There’s been a huge amount of respect shown throughout the country for the Queen and I think it’s important for everybody to get to that in the way they feel is best,” he said. “She put in incredible service during her reign.
“I think if we all had the dignity and work ethic she had then we’d all be living in a much better place. She’s been fantastic for our country, and we’ll pay our respects before our next couple of games and then the matches afterwards can be a good spectacle for the supporters who turn up as well.
“My understanding is that we’ll be having a minute’s silence before the game tomorrow night as well as before our home game on Saturday. It’s a case of showing our respects for the Queen in the right way then getting on with the game.”
“Personally I have respect for the Royal Family,” he added. “I know there is divided opinion of them, but I’ve got a lot of respect for them.
“I’ve been really fortunate to meet the Queen and really fortunate when we won the World Cup, I got a personal letter from William, and went to his house to meet him. I’ve been very lucky in my time.
“Yes, I’ve got a huge amount of respect, especially for the work ethic the Queen had. She was obviously a very poorly lady, yet two days before the passed away she’s meeting and greeting with a new Prime Minister.
“She obviously got herself dosed up on some sort of paracetamols and got herself out there. Fair play to her for doing that. We now move on and we’re in a time now where we’re singing God Save The King, which is all very different.”
Speaking more about his meeting with Her Majesty, he explained: “It was very quick. I was stood in a line, she came and shook our hands, her and Prince Philip.
“She just said hello to me and there was a lot of protocol around it, you only speak when you’re spoken to, so she just said hello and that’s all I said.
“Prince Philip passed me and asked where was I from, and I said I’m from Carlisle. He looked at me and went oh, wow, that’s a long way. Which it isn’t really from Derby, but that was his response.
“They were lovely. My eldest son Joe and Igor Stimac’s little boy Luca, Joe would have been about eight at the time, they had to present the Queen with two Derby County kits for the two princes.
“The Queen said to Joe, thank you, is that for me. He looked and went no, it’s for the princes. Not sure how she took that. But they didn’t really know the etiquette when speaking to the Queen.”