The Rams took four points in the past week from two clubs that have big-money squads - but are accompanied by big-time management problems to boot.

Last Saturday’s 1-1 draw that saw Derby peg Blackburn Rovers back after a late Rams comeback followed a similar pattern to the Brighton home draw a fortnight earlier.

There wasn’t too much in the way of entertainment or goal chances for Derby fans to enjoy at Pride Park Stadium last Saturday, as an organised and strong Rovers side protected their first-half lead and generally held the initiative.

The Rams perked up in the second half and some tactical and personnel switches caused Rovers more problems - Robinson had been paired up with Sammon and at last, wasn’t battling alone. It made the difference and there was linkage through the Rams’ side.

Right at the death, Theo Robinson snapped up a close-range chance after Craig Bryson’s effort had been pushed away. That brought relief from the 22,000 crowd along with a satisfactory result, given Rovers’ general comfort around the park for a large portion of the game and their good record so far this season.

Talking to Rovers fans before the game, they have many misgivings about the competence and intentions of owners Venky’s, and the club has seemed to be in crisis for around a year. The antipathy towards manager Steve Kean forced the inevitable outcome some time ago - and the remote ownership continues to search for their new chosen one in replacement.

The Blackburn squad has nevertheless buckled down to biding its time ready for new management to take over (it’s almost a month since Kean’s departure) and continues to pick up Championship points on a regular basis. The players seem able to ignore the hostility and recriminations off the pitch.

The Rams are more settled as a club comparatively - but since the Watford annihilation, there has been a premium on outright excitement for the PPS faithful from the team’s displays.

Again, Derby missed Jamie Ward’s buzzing industry but despite some mismatching and lack of fitness apparent in Nigel Clough’s other forward choices, there was enough variety and thrust to muster the crucial late breakthrough that maintained Derby’s 5-game unbeaten run.

There’s not too much to get excited about as Derby potters around in mid-table but it is evident that there is plenty of discipline, determination and spirit amongst Clough’s class of 2012-13.

Adam Legzdins is doing well in goal and it seems unlikely that Frank Fielding will walk straight back into the Derby side. Leggy is a tall and commanding keeper; his reflexes seem quick, his distribution good.

If the choice was to move Fielding on in January in order to invest more in outfield players, I’d take that route. Frank is a good keeper who is young and would realise reasonable transfer value, and through no fault of his own he has also fallen back in the England international pecking order.

There are some good young English ‘keepers in contention and if Fielding is dislodged from the Derby No. 1 berth - having come to Pride Park Stadium from a Premier League club - he may well want to revive his first-team career elsewhere.

That’s all purely my own speculation but Derby now has strength in depth in the goalkeeping department. Legzdins was an astute Clough signing and the manager has spent his meagre budget in giving the squad a more solid and versatile basis.

Derby went to Portman Road Ipswich in the unusual position of being favourites at a stadium where they have seldom come away from recently with any reward. The Tractor Boys are in deep crisis and manager Paul Jewell - the most hapless and hopeless manager in Derby County history - was under severe pressure to deliver a win.

Jewell had received the dreaded ‘vote of confidence’ from the Ipswich board and his latest ‘can’t win’ team - still including several ££million-pound signings and costly loanees from his spending sprees - set off in search of success on Tuesday night to save his job.

Town gained a first-half lead when James O’Connor helped an effort from the offside DJ Campbell into the Derby net but the home side had merited the lead. Adam Legzdins needed to perform some heroics in the Derby goal to keep his team in with a shout - and that concentration and resilience paid off later.

Clough adjusted his tactics and Derby slowly took a grip, with Theo Robinson poaching another close-range goal before the break. The Rams looked stronger and more adventurous after the interval and gave Ipswich a football lesson. Chances were wasted though and it still occasionally looked like the home side could force a breakthrough to salvage Jewell’s pride.

Happily for all Derby fans, that wasn’t to be. Substitutes Jacobs and Tyson were sent on to make an impact and turn the advantage Derby’s favour and that’s just what they did. Another goal during his short cameo substitute appearance won’t do Tyson’s confidence any harm at all - and the 91st minute strike won all three points for Derby.

It was the hardworking Conor Sammon who provided the cross which Tyson struck home in injury time but a Derby winner had been on the cards.

Tyson has hardly been a heavyweight success at Derby so far and is still in the throes of regaining his confidence - but his late, late goal must have knocked the final few feathers of stuffing out of the Ipswich manager. Tyson’s TKO put Town manager Jewell’s job on the line.

The writing was on the wall for the mumbling Scouser, his reign culminating in another dreadful run for the Suffolk club. After Jewell’s grotesquely damaging spell in charge at Derby - which ended when Ipswich beat the Rams in January 2009 - Derby fans might see his fate as something of a payback.

Jewell contrived wasteful follies in signing Stubbs, Carroll and Savage (and a host of other well-rewarded players who contributed little or nothing to Derby’s intended renaissance), which was followed by a further debacle at Ipswich.

With signings like the £35k-a-week Jimmy Bullard and a miscellany of loanees and signings moving through the club, the once-successful Jewell proved as incapable of building a team at Portman Road as he evidently did at Derby.

He has had generous budgets at both clubs; Nigel Clough would snatch GSE's hand off for what PJ managed to waste at Derby, and the next Town boss will no doubt have more limited funding by which to resuscitate the Ipswich squad and stave off relegation.

Virtually every financial move that Nigel Clough made in his first 3 years at Derby was restricted or conditioned by the club’s need to overcome the expensive, negative impact of Messrs. Davies and Jewell’s transfer gambles.

The next Ipswich manager will have the task of starting all over again at Portman Road; good luck with that.

It was a satisfying win for Derby that left Paul Jewell scuttling for cover to avoid the glare of the media. He duly departed from Portman Road ‘by mutual consent’ on Wednesday, having guided Ipswich unerringly to the bottom of the Championship table. Quelle dommage!

Ipswich swapped placed with lowly Peterborough United at the foot of the table when Derby won on Tuesday night - and the Rams will want to sustain their good run by winning at London Road on Saturday, with another vulnerable side in opposition.

COME ON YOU RAMS!

Photo: Action Images

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