The Birmingham match marked the halfway point of the Championship season and all of a sudden things are starting to look a lot more serious for the Rams.

No longer are teams still in the process of working out their best team, plus we are well past the point where the occasional dropped point doesn’t really matter.

Seriousness has crept up on us.

Moreover, the January transfer window is now open; no longer can teams murmur about perhaps we need this or perhaps we need that; it’s time to put the money where the mouth is and make the signings we will all have to live with for the rest of the season.

The Rams begin the New Year in third place on 45 points; three behind Bournemouth and two behind Ipswich. Saturday’s match at Ipswich has had an important look about it for a little while but now it is looking critical.

Defeat for the Rams at Ipswich, and a win for Bournemouth at home to Norwich, and a gap starts to open up between the top two and Derby; even a draw at Ipswich could see us an unhealthy distance behind Bournemouth.

The table takes on a greater significance when you look at some recent history, as I did: looking at the top three teams in the Championship, both at January 1st and at season’s end for the last five completed seasons, makes interesting reading.

For four out of the five seasons, the top two at January 1st were in the same place at season’s end; only in 2011/2012 were the top two on January 1st of Southampton and Middlesbrough, different to the top two at season’s end of Reading and Southampton.

Historical precedent suggests that Bournemouth and Ipswich will get the automatic places. We are only just beyond half way through the season, but the Rams already cannot afford to drop points as we did in the first half. I will be the first to say that the Bournemouth team does not have a real look of quality about it, but after 24 matches they are showing some merit.

As to transfers, the Rams began January with a flurry of activity: The Ryan Shotton loan was made permanent as expected, Darren Bent was brought in on loan for the rest of the season and Leon Best was sent back to Blackburn.

Bent should offer quite a bit more help than Best did, but the squad still has quite a thin look about it; particularly the defence. With Whitbread appearing to be a long term absentee, and Mark O’Brien’s loan at Motherwell being extended to the end of the season, we have very few defenders ready to step up.

It seems likely that we would want to add some bodies to help out at critical times. The midfield and the attack are staffed a bit more adequately; we may not see much incoming activity in those areas in January.

There is no doubt that the Rams have a lot of quality in the squad, but the issue of the size of the squad is beginning to bother me a bit. I have made the point before that the Rams were quite lucky with injuries last season, and we should not plan for a repeat of that this season. We do need more players.

I just took a look at which players are out of contract at the end of this season; the list is surprisingly long. By my reckoning, these players are out of contract in the summer: Shaun Barker, Mark O’Brien, Zak Whitbread, Lee Naylor, Tom Naylor, John Eustace, Paul Coutts and Mason Bennett.

The only ones of these to see significant first team action this year are Eustace and Coutts; I may be sticking my neck out a bit, but it would not be unreasonable to suggest that none of the players on this list are likely to be offered a new contract by the Rams.

If that should be the case, then the first team squad shrinks to an almost dangerous level. Simply taking a long term view, the Rams need to add some squad players to replace those who are almost certainly leaving. So the Rams could certainly use all three points on Saturday, but it won’t be easy.

Ipswich has not lost since October, and their last three league matches have seen good wins against Charlton, Brentford and Middlesbrough. But like Bournemouth, their squad does not look to be packed with quality.

They have been fortunate in that journeyman Daryl Murphy has become a prolific scorer for the first time in his career. But seven goals conceded in twelve home Championship games tells a story; they will be hard to beat.

But beat them we must, and if Steve Mac can then go out and bring in some decent players to bolster the squad, January will be looking promising.

Photo: Action Images

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