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RamsWeek 39 - Under Pressure
RamsWeek 39 - Under Pressure
Monday, 27th Sep 2010 01:47 by Paul Mortimer

Derby County recovered from two successive defeats with a draw at Barnsley and were in preparation for back-to-back home games, under pressure for better results.

There was further anticipation of more loanees joining the club ahead of Saturday’s home game with Crystal Palace.

Having had to wait for West Bromwich Albion’s Carling Cup tie before manager Di Matteo sorted out his priorities and the subsequent bill of health of the Hawthorns’ squad, Derby had anticipated that Baggies’ forward Chris Woods could be made available for a loan deal to the Rams.

An agreement was apparently struck between Derby and Albion - but the player went to Barnsley this week instead. Woods had apparently given Tykes’ boss Mark Robins a promise some time ago and his choice of Oakwell over Pride Park Stadium was attributed to his loyalty. Tom Glick later said that Derby’s offer at least matched Barnsley’s offer to WBA and the player.

The Tykes also recently snatched Gary O’Connor from Birmingham City, and Mark Robins is showing his ambition to push on and make progress up the Championship table.

The Rams’ reserves beat Barnsley 1-0 in a totesport.com reserve league game played at Belper Town’s ground, with Conor Doyle scoring the winner. Midfielder Stephen Pearson continued his fitness work by playing 45 minutes in the victory.

Centre forward Shefki Kuqi - withdrawn injured at Barnsley - was expected to be fit ahead of the weekend game with Crystal Palace. Striker Chris Porter’s injury saga continues, though - with further assessment on his unsolved hip problems being scheduled.

Porter continues to feel pain and can’t complete his fitness rehabilitation until medics get to the bottom of the problem, if they ever do. With the sale of Rob Hulse, Porter’s injury has impacted badly on Clough’s team plans. The club will have to look beyond Porter for a reliable long-term centre forward.

The club acted to fill the gap but long-term planning has hardly been facilitated by the 29-day loan of WBA’s Luke Moore. He joined Derby in time to take part in Saturday’s game with Crystal Palace, having failed to make the cut of Albion’s 25-man Premier League squad.

Reports surfaced recently concerning USA finance investigations involving partners linked to the consortium owning Derby County. A shareholder, Jeff Martinovich has a company known as MICG Investments, and is involved in a case of securities’ fraud.

Martinovich is accused of misleading investors and a report said that two ‘key investments’ - one of which is a holding company linked to the ownership of Derby County FC (General Sports Derby Partners).

MICG’s holdings were subject to civil charges from an industry regulator and they may forfeit shares held in the investments. MICG held 500,000 shares in the DCFC holding company. MICG has closed its brokerage business and faces an administrative hearing in the New Year. 

Rams’ President and Chief Executive Tom Glick reacted to suggestions that the developments would influence investment in Derby County when questioned by Radio Derby. Rams fans might be forgiven for receiving any news about fraud, problem partners and civil investigations into finance with a more wary ear, given our experiences.

Mr Glick said that Martinovich was a minor partner and his problems wouldn’t affect the funding of the Rams, that the major partners were committed to DCFC. Let’s hope that the case is a sideshow and that we see proof which levitates our club beyond an emergency loan strategy.

Glick’s view was at odds with the American media report, which said that General Sports had failed to find a buyer for the club. TG said that was untrue and that he was ‘baffled’ by the report.

So, it is given as misreporting; someone is wrong, so one assumes that GSE will make the news site retract the statement. Glick asserted that there would be no effect on the finances of DCFC.

With the Rams resorting to emergency loans and short-term measures (as they did last season), GSE’s reluctance to invest in quality and longevity to give Clough a fighting chance of success is still the key question on supporter’s lips.

Grapevine comments that the Rams’ reluctance to pay small fees even for players from non-league clubs such as Alfreton and Ilkeston Town indicate that money is tight, some say, and that the Ilkeston saga could have been a contributory factor in Town’s recent liquidation, through their debt problems.

Mr Glick declared that Derby were still looking for long-term players, though his declaration that they will continue to play the loan market does betray an unwillingness to enable Clough to build a team that grows together. We’ve seen bit-part temporary squads fail before at Derby. Fans are drifting away, and they won’t wait forever for evidence that the team is competitive and improving.

Regarding the poor start to the season, the President and CEO admitted that everyone was now ‘under pressure’ - board, manager and players - to gain better results on the pitch. Curiously, Mr Glick has an entirely different perception of the team’s prospects than coach Johnny Metgod.

Less than a couple of weeks ago, after defeat at Hull City Metgod’s very words were: “all the supporters have got to be realistic and at the moment...we haven’t got a squad that can end up near the top half of the table, let alone the play-offs”.

On Saturday, Tom tried to suggest that Metgod’s morbidity was a matter of context (but quite simply, it wasn’t!) as TG said just the opposite, telling Colin Gibson that ‘absolutely’ the team can finish in the top six! Quite why he suggested that Metgod’s comments meant something other than stated is odd indeed - Johnny’s words were quite unambiguous.

With the poor results and fans wanting better displays and league points from their team, it certainly felt like the club was under pressure for results as the stadium filled up once again on Saturday afternoon. The pre-match chatter was all about Clough’s selections and purchases, and the consortium’s sincerity and longevity at the football club.

Clough restored captain Robbie Savage to the starting line-up against Crystal Palace at the expense of Ben Pringle. On balance, the manager’s judgement was sound because the team needed the Welshman’s experience in such a high-pressure game where the result was all-important.

The immediacy and up-tempo endeavour that Clough had demanded was in evidence from the outset, as Palace were swept away 5-0. It could have been eight or ten.

Kuqi hit the post, Green missed a sitter, Shaun Barker could have notched a couple from set-pieces, and various other chances were squandered by the Rams or repelled by desperate defending. Derby took an early lead - and never relinquished control of the game.

Palace didn’t help their cause when after only 22 minutes and quite recklessly, striker James Vaughan hurtled into John Brayford and got himself sent off. Vaughan spent a few days on loan at Derby last season before going back to Everton injured, and he didn’t even last half an hour on his return to Pride Park Stadium. Brayford recovered, and had an excellent match.

Everton sent Vaughan to Leicester instead of Derby after Christmas and just recently, on to Palace even though he was in Derby’s sights again. He notched a hat-trick last week but he won’t be helping either Everton or Palace to improve their season if he carries on like he did on Saturday. It was idiotic, dangerous and unwarranted.

The Rams were well in command before that incident, however. Spanish loanee forward Alberto Bueno was a revelation for Derby; after his man-of-the-match performance, he is now looking stronger and quicker for his brief experience in the Championship.

Bueno and Commons plagued the Palace defence and the deployment of the pair in a skilful and hardworking midfield ensured that the team linked well, through from defence to attack.

They took it in turns to link and strike at Palace’s ponderous rearguard and the Eagles’ midfielders were often chasing shadows. Bueno’s balance, vision and skill have added greatly to Derby’s threat and with Kuqi adding the strength in Rob Hulse’s stead, they look an attacking force again.

Bueno slotted in two fine goals and Commons’ clinical strike was sandwiched in between. It was important that Derby underlined their superiority after leading 2-0 at half time and they grabbed three more goals in a 12-minute spell midway through the 2nd half.

Dean Leacock limped off injured and it looks like his frailty has returned to haunt him, with a hamstring problem that could spell another period of treatment on the sidelines. John Brayford had to slot in at centre half when Leacock retired and though Paul Green had to drop to right back, it didn’t stop the Republic of Ireland international from grabbing his first goal of the campaign as he headed in a free kick in front of Palace’s ponderous defence.

Kuqi ran his heart out for the cause and battled against the stretched Palace defence throughout; he looks able to fill the gap temporarily at centre forward. His reward, Derby’s fifth goal, came along to ‘exorcise’ the dreadful pall of our memories of the hapless Claude ‘Clod’ Davies, who was such an abysmal defender for Derby, who took away an expensive pay-off to boot.

James Bailey prodded the ball into the danger area and Clod, thinking his goalie was waiting to clear, went to ground in familiar last-ditch manner  - and only nudged the ball into Kuqi’s path The Finn steered the ball safely into the net. Thanks for that payback, Clod - and well done Shefki!

Stephen Bywater, who made a crucial save just before the interval when Palace might briefly have got back into the game, was largely unemployed and could have been forgiven had he wished he’d brought his various materials along to doodle with another novel garden ornamentation in his spare time. Luke Moore had a late run out as a substitute.

It was the Rams’ first home win and first ‘clean sheet’ of the season. You wondered what they had been piddling about at in most other games this season. A good attendance of over 28,250 enjoyed their matchday, and Derby’s crowd was well over 8,000 more than the Trees’ attendance against Swansea.

After that performance, you can only conclude that all too often, we witness a gap between ability and attitude from our players. It seems that desperation and an ultimatum works wonders - though it shouldn’t! You can’t thrash any Championship side, or give leaders QPR a run-around or win at Leeds, without ability.

The psychology of the Derby squad might still be questionable and confidence fragile, but they did send the fans home happy, for once.

The mentality and motivation of the team has been regularly questioned and this is the most exasperating thing about Derby County 2010-11- and perhaps over the two previous seasons as well. Nevertheless, it was a relentless, skilful and combative performance on Saturday, which has now set the standard for the season.

It’s up to the players to prove Johnny Metgod wrong, or Tom Glick right, whatever the predictions are this week! The win has eased the pressure on all at Pride Park Stadium and it edged Derby up a couple of places in the table.

lthough there is not much of a gap between where the Rams are and the top six, the performance has to be regularly repeated - and points gathered at a far greater rate than one per game on average - for Derby to give firm evidence of tangible progress.

They can continue that process against Middlesbrough at Pride Park Stadium on Tuesday; Boro are hardly the best travelling side and so another ‘up-and-at-them’ performance by Derby - with goals and points to show for it - could propel them higher up the Championship table.

____________________________________________________________________

In RamsWeek 39 last season, it was a case of ‘keep on keepin’ on’, as the Rams ended a losing streak by clinching a late winner in a 1-0 victory over Bristol City.

Winger Gary Teale (who otherwise had been dreadful!) notched the goal with only 5 minutes remaining and it was a reward for persistence, as Derby had a host of chances to break the deadlock and wasted them. New loanees Hendrie and Dickov were as culpable as the others.

The Rams were 16th in the table and also obtained Fulham full back Frederick Stoor for an all-too-brief loan. The club also added another ‘partner’ called ‘Soccerade’, who produce Cristiano Ronaldo’s favourite sports drink, which was pretty exciting!

The publicity claimed that it had sport-enhancing qualities, but the results have not been evident to me, during a full year in use by the Derby County squad!

 

Photo: Action Images



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