Obviously the big story for Rams fans just now is concern surrounding the team’s poor form, devastating injuries and the impact on promotion prospects.

Despite these worries, there is another story I thought I would touch on, since it offers a chance to look at a brighter future: the emergence of some young talent from the development squad.

19 year-old defender Jamie Hanson was called up at a tough time for a youngster, and played defensive midfield in the draw at Norwich and the defeat at Middlesbrough. The player acquitted himself well and can look forward to a bright future at this level.

Perhaps less noticed was the loan move of 18 year-old defender Farrend Rawson to Rotherham in the first week of March. Rawson has started — and finished — three matches at centre back for a struggling Rotherham side, resulting in a win and two defeats.

The Rotherham message board posters were extremely impressed with Rawson’s debut, the Rams youngster earning plaudits for an assured display. Two posts I particularly liked were: “Keep it up Rawson and you will be in the Prem”, and “Best young centre back I've seen here since Dave Watson”.

Finally, striker Kwame Thomas has now made three substitute appearances, and may well be in line for a start by the end of the season. While none of us are thrilled by the circumstances in which the club has been forced to use Thomas and Hanson, these two plus Rawson are lads we may well see more of next year.

On a completely different subject, we are looking forward to a match on Friday against Watford which is now of the utmost importance for the rest of the season.

A Rams win will see us stay in touch with the automatic promotion places, while a defeat could see us drop out of the playoff positions.

Thinking about this the other day, my mind went back to those days exactly forty years ago, in April 1975, when the Rams were in line for their second — and most recent — League title. At that time, the Rams were level on points at the top with Everton and Ipswich, and awaiting a match at Middlesbrough on the 5th.

I feel quite sure that Rams fans were much less nervous waiting for that match against Middlesbrough than we are today waiting for the likes of Watford.

It’s easy to forget that within the lifetime of many Rams fans, we briefly had one of the best club sides in Europe. How does that happen; that we were once so very close to the top of the heap, yet now some see it as over-ambitious to aim even for the playoffs? Perhaps that will be a topic to cover in a future column.

There actually is a bit of a common thread linking these two widely differing topics. I have remarked in a previous RamZone article that the Rams have tended for decades to be a club which relies on the transfer market to supply us with players, rather than producing our own.

Yet the Rams title-winning team of 1974/75 contained several players who had come up through the ranks, and been with the club for years: Colin Boulton, Ron Webster, Peter Daniel and Steve Powell were all Rams products; Roger Davies, Jeff Bourne and even Kevin Hector were all signed for relatively small fees also.

Having players such as those in the squad who had not cost the club a great deal allowed the club the ability to spend on players such as David Nish, Bruce Rioch and Francis Lee.

In the same way, if next season’s Rams team includes not only Will Hughes and Jeff Hendrick, but also Jamie Hanson, Farrend Rawson and Kwame Thomas, then the club will perhaps be in the position to make more big money, glamour signings like George Thorne and Conor Sammon… well perhaps not another Conor, but you get the picture.

So let’s think positively about the Watford match, and remember there were times not so long ago when this match would have seemed like a very small challenge to the Rams.

Perhaps we can hope that in the near future, we will wonder what all the anxiety was about.

Photo: Action Images

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