Last weekend in a battling display the Rams took the fight right up to Man United and the player who fought harder than any other was Savage.

Until his fabulous performance last weekend, Savage had done nothing to endear himself to fans of the club who had been sceptical from day one of not only his arrival but the fact he was handed the captains armband.

A player that other opposition fans love to hate and I included myself in that number after his famous last minute penalty when the Rams met the foxes many years ago. It so incensed players and supporters that he is probably lucky to be alive to have managed to end up at Derby. If you had told anyone involved with the club on that day he would end up as captain of the club I think they would have had you sedated and committed immediately.

After a less than auspicious beginning to his Rams career that resulted in being dropped for a mixture of bad form and injuries, it may have been unfair to judge Robbie so quickly with his lack of match fitness when he arrived at the club. In fact the best three players last week were Savage, Sterjovski and Jones, all of whom finally have enough football under their belts to no longer be able to use it as an excuse for average performances.

The tenacity and willingness to hunt the opposition that Savage displayed against United was exactly the impact that Paul Jewell would have been hoping for when he signed him in January. It may have taken three months but that type of ability will be needed for the club to have any chance of mounting a successful campaign in the Championship next season.

The major positive that I took from watching last weeks game was the more mature way in which Savage played his football. He still displayed the same in your face style that is part and parcel of his game but gone were the rash tackles and unnecessary meltdown he has often suffered in his career. Only once when issued a yellow card did he let the veneer crack and at that point in the game he just released a frustrated tackle that all Derby County fans had felt building inside them.

Whether or not Robbie has turned the corner will not be decided this week, next week or even by seasons end. It will be decided when he has to lead the club in a league that will require every ounce of his skills and physicality to be the hero that leads the Rams back to the Premiership in their first attempt. If he can do that then and only then will Rams fans believe that taking a chance on such a controversial player was worthwhile.

I have great faith in Paul Jewell and his ability to bring players in that will do the job. A few experiments have not quite worked but no one could deny the likes of Mills, Robert and Ghaly were not worth a shot. If they had produced performances similar to those in their resume then maybe the club would be still in the mix for survival.

This weekend means so much more to manager, players and fans because after such a huge effort against the best opposition in the league, anything less than a victory will be seen as a backward step. The same commitment and fighting spirit would easily add a much needed three points to the clubs tally for the season, a fighting draw could be excused but a loss would be deflating after so many positives were taken from last week.

The team will need to dig deep (or perhaps Boro deep?) and prove last week was not just a blip on the radar but instead beginning to lay the foundations for the success the clubs new owners and manager are striving to deliver for the club and its fans.

C’mon Ewe Rams :0)

Photo: Action Images

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