With a home win and an away draw behind them from the previous two fixtures, Derby County now had breathing space in their Championship survival battle during the international break.

Ex-Rams defender and man-mountain Darren Moore scooped the Football League Community Player of the Year Award last weekend at their annual ceremony. It is richly-deserved recognition for the community & charity work that Darren has undertaken throughout his long playing career. Here’s to all success for Darren in his bid to help Burton Albion to maintain their League 2 status.

The final ‘emergency loan’ deadline for 2010-11 passed this week and there was unexpected activity from Derby County. Loan keeper Matt Duke was summarily recalled by Hull City and with favoured stopper Frank Fielding’s loan ended and Stephen Bywater out on loan at Cardiff, Derby would not have had a keeper ready for the next Championship fixture at Cardiff City next week.

Brad Jones has come in from Liverpool, so Duke’s spell at Derby was wasted and Jones must get in some training action to gain a little familiarity with his colleagues.

I had said that DCFC’s goalkeeping situation could unravel a couple of RamsWeeks ago, because of goalkeeping injuries at Arsenal and Hull and the current tie-ups between those clubs with respective injured keepers.

Looks like I was right to add that note of caution! Hopefully, Jones will do well for the remainder of the season - but why didn’t Clough just recall Derby’s only experienced keeper, Stephen Bywater? We don’t owe Cardiff or any other Championship clubs any favours; indeed we have suffered during the season with other loans being refused or frustrated by some clubs.

RamZone editor DJ has provided a comprehensive profile of Brad Jones elsewhere on this site.

Midfielder Ben Pringle returned early from his loan spell at Torquay United. He wasn’t selected for the squad in United’s last game and doesn’t want to extend his spell in the English Riviera. Hull City fancied taking Rams defender Dean Leacock on loan then had second thoughts, so he remains on the fringes at Derby.

The Rams’ reserves took top spot in their totesport.com Central League division with a 2-1 win at Bradford City. Derby fielded a strong side, with Chris Porter and Ben Davies (from a free kick!) netting the goals.

There have been goals galore in Academy games recently, with the Rams’ youngsters drawing 2-2 at home to Manchester United then losing 3-5 at Manchester City. Academy prospect Kealan Dillon has figured in both recent R o I Under-17 UEFA Championship qualifying games in the last few days, a 2-2 draw with Demark and then a 1-1 draw with Greece.

Some interesting action was forthcoming off the field (as reported in earlier RamZone features), or at least talk about action, with President and CEO declaring that there will be investment in better players this summertime and that the side will be vying for a top six place in 2011-12.

Jaundiced fans will see the pronouncements as yet more spin but the onus is on the GSE ownership consortium, and Messrs’ Glick and Clough to deliver.

There is finally a realisation that the broken partnership with the fans can only be mended by what goes on out there on the field of play. It is apparent that the season ticket renewal rate has dropped off dramatically from previous seasons because fans have had enough of under-achievement - because the ‘early bird’ renewal deadline has been moved back to May 15th, after the season end.

That is precisely what was proposed by supporters’ group RamsTrust in their meeting with Tom Glick of February 11th, after talks with the club had been requested against the backdrop of dreadful results and after-match stadium protests. We would like to know comparative renewal rates against last season’s uptake, as those figures may have prompted the repair job that Mr Glick has had to undertake this week.

GSE will have to put the money where their mouth is and fulfil the promise to the fans. Things could not go on, with such a potentially large club living on a shoestring in the transfer market.

The spotlight will be on the club from the moment that Championship survival is achieved, to see that another promise becomes reality. If the mention of ‘better players’ coming in to do the job in hand upsets some of the current squad, so be it - that’s for the manager and the board to handle.

Perhaps Clough has made unhappy noises about continuing to work in the financial strait-jacket that has strangles squad development? Perhaps Mr Appleby and the well-heeled consortium partners realised that they could otherwise be invited to leave town within months pronto if the fans’ ire should grow further with a flat start to 2011-12?

A club the size of Derby cannot afford to remain in the doldrums for much longer. There has to be investment and achievement; fans had gone a fair way down the path in thinking only a change of ownership could bring that about. Anger and disaffection was fast replacing loyalty and enthusiasm in a large chunk of the Pride Park Stadium fanbase.

Mr Gadsby is quiet, however, and the incumbent regime appears to have awoken its interest in restoring Derby County to the Premier League, a promise they made over three years ago. There is now a fresh positivity to replace the tired and unconvincing ‘building responsibly’ mantra that has seen a weak and depleted Derby squad remain in the struggle to avoid a bottom three place.

"We'd like people to judge us not on what we say but by our actions - and by the side that we put together," said Mr Glick, "So we're prepared to be held accountable for that.”

"We expect to put a side together that is capable of competing in the top six and we hope that will be self-evident with the moves that we make”.

If it is not self-evident, TG was even prepared to include a money-back guarantee, a refund to season ticket purchasers not satisfied with Derby’s summer transfer activity. That might not be any more than re-stating a legal obligation in a different way, in that it is possible that a refund can be claimed anyway, before a ball is kicked.

There’s a 10-minute Freeview interview with Mr Glick on the official DCFC site:

http://www.dcfc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10270~2323219,00.html

Derby supporters are realistic and do not demand ££ tens of millions of expenditure but they have also seen rivals and modest competitors put together better squads and invest enough in their teams to challenge at the business end of the season.

The message has hopefully got through to the club - supporters are tolerant and don’t want another boom-and-bust scenario but neither will they be hoodwinked into assertions that the squad is any better than results have proven.

 DCFC winning a community award is all very well - but fans want to see Derby players winning promotion, going close, or at least figuring in the Football League’s annual awards. We are tired of playing Cinderella to the whole climax of the Championship campaign, or being beaten by close rivals (or a non-League side) in an unremitting decline, or forever worrying about relegation.

In that context, Derby County does not need (nor can afford) a remote organisation to send a representative to manage its business administration and to pay substantial fees for that facility, if such money could otherwise be used by local or alternative owners to build a proper team.

The club's annual accounts show a decreasing loss with the club in a relatively healthy financial position; the owners have put in £24m on top of the purchase price of the club (albeit on unknown terms) over and above the initial purchase price of the club in 2008.

The noises now are that the club intends to kick on and recruit players 'an exciting team', that can take the club into a challenging position.

GSE must demonstrate a renewed sense of purpose and make their promises happen beyond mere networking and debt management. Only then can they regain any credibility with a patient and loyal but increasingly disaffected fanbase.

If GSE cannot fulfil the promise, another consortium would probably be willing to try - and supporters may well militate for such an event.

With £1m received in transfer fees for the departed Hulse and Commons and their wages saved, then other significant wage-savings expected to come from losing such as Bywater, Leacock, Savage, Porter, and Bueno at first assessment, then I’d say that Derby will have already room to manoeuvre within an £8-10m wage structure.

Signing Fielding and Ayala permanently would be well received by the majority of fans though Derby can’t count their chickens on deals yet to be concluded. Taking Ward, and perhaps Robinson on permanent deals look distinct possibilities but the club must not skimp any longer on quality, experience and depth.

The season-ticket renewal package finally, fatefully plopped through my letterbox at the end of the week and I must admit I still regarded it as another ruddy bill to pay in these expensive times.

The letter cites the amended (May 15th) early-bird renewal deadline and the money-back guarantee, and this year, Mr Glick’s letter is short and to the point.

DCFC’s owners perhaps recognise that fans want football, not a list of corporate discounts on offer as an enhancement to membership deflecting from the paucity of decent football fayre. They must stop overselling the current poor product and make provision for a team to make fans proud again.

Season-ticket renewal is of course only optional, unlike the ever-spiralling domestic bills that arrive, but my jaundiced view of the package sadly represents the diminishing utility of bothering to support the Rams in person - and I know I’m hardly alone in that attitude.

It is as well that the club has deferred the renewal deadline and made new promises of progress, investment in a stronger squad, and better entertainment - but I remain amongst the considerable contingent of Rams fans still seriously considering if renewal is actually worthwhile.

I’ve already booked in advance for a summer music festival at a fraction of the price of a Derby County season ticket, and look forward much more in anticipation of that event than to football season 2011-12.

The international break saw England strengthen their chances of Euro 2012 qualification with a comfortable 2-0 victory over Wales in Cardiff. The Three Lions were 2-up before the Welsh had found their feet and the lack of quality and depth in Gary Speed’s squad was exposed.

Loan defender Daniel Ayala made his Under-21 debut for Spain in their 3-2 defeat by France.

Paul Green wasn’t called upon to take the field for the Republic of Ireland in their 2-1 win over Macedonia, and Brazil had a rudimentary 2-0 win in their showcase friendly vs. the Scots at the Emirates Stadium in London. No goalposts were destroyed, apparently; only the Tartan defence.

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RamsWeek 13 last year saw GSE adding partners to their DCFC ownership consortium, adding registered directors to the DCFC board at Companies House.

These included Bill Luby, Tom Vertin and David Richardson, with Jeff Mallet and Tom Ricketts set to join.

I said then that anything other than their actions to move Derby County into a challenging position would render the changes irrelevant to Rams fans - and that is still the view.

Mr Glick said that they would do it their way and build responsibly, though should a player costing amounts similar to ‘Shaun Barker and beyond’ be wanted by the manager, then it could be done.

This came against a backdrop of ex-owner Peter Gadsby launching a website making specific promises upon takeover of the club to the manager for a significant player budget and to fans for a 10% share gifted to the supporters trust.

A year onwards, we will believe all this from either contingent when we see it; I can hear you chorusing with me…

Nigel Clough took young Polish forward Tomasz Cywka on laon and got rid of waste-of-space contract-hopper Lee Hendrie, sending him out on loan to Brighton.

On the pitch, Derby took a well-earned midweek point from a 1-1 draw at QPR, the excellent Shaun Barker netting the Rams’ equaliser in front of a 12,500 Loftus Road crowd, and then 30,000 watched Derby beat Leicester City 1-0 at Pride Park Stadium to ease their relegation worries.

Foxes’ keeper Chris Weale contrived an hilarious gaffe to gift Derby their goal, allowing a back pass to slide under his foot, as the Pride Park faithful sobbed with mirth. They all count!

Photo: Action Images

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