Pre-season preparations at Derby County continued closer to home after their mini-tour of the southwest, with a final flurry of friendly games against Midlands’ opposition.

Manager Nigel Clough was still trying different formations and combinations of players whilst ensuring that Academy youngsters had a taste of first team action, with niggly injuries to some senior players being carefully monitored.

Clough has elected not to take young Gunner Mark Randall on loan at this time, feeling he has sufficient complement of his type of midfield ability in Green Savage and Pearson but the manager still has a couple of loans under negotiation, with Premiers League players due to be released for Derby’s use - subject to their clubs having no unexpected injury problems during their own pre-season build-up.

It’s not been a riveting week of news at Pride Park Stadium in all honesty and fans are looking beyond the somewhat low-key summer to a fresh start and the big kick-off to 2009-10 against Peterborough United at home on August 8th.

Therefore, my musical title this week - borrowed of course from Bob Dylan - is a tribute to the sad passing of ‘the Geordie Gentleman’, Sir Bobby Robson. He died aged 76 last Friday from cancer but not before he had established a new charity to help fight the disease.

If there were a heaven, then he wouldn’t have had to knock for long to be welcomed in with open arms. If there is a sports committee and a football stadium adjacent to the pearly gates, Sir Bobby will be joining the illustrious management team alongside other greats like Brian Clough and Bill Shankly. All of our departed souls up there would be treated to the most wonderful football possible.

It is not often that people who rise to the top in football or any other walk of life possess a combination of the nicest human attributes - but Bobby Robson was one such man. Dignified, clever, articulate, warm, calm, with infectious humour and great empathy for fans and players…that’s what comes right off the top of my head about Sir Bobby. I’m sure all Rams fans will remember him with great respect and affection.

Of course, his exciting period as England manager and Italia ’90, with ‘Ooooh’ Mark Wright and Peter Shilton starring in the Three Lions’ ranks will probably be the most engaging memory for us Derby folks. His distinguished playing and managerial career, including FA Cup and UEFA Cup triumphs with Ipswich Town, stands comparison with almost all of his peers.

I was delighted to see that he made it to St James Park last Sunday for the televised showcase Germany vs. England charity game as it would have given him one last wonderful football memory.

As for The Toon itself, it is now such a roller coaster time at Newcastle United with relegation, managerial instability and failure to secure a prompt ownership change. That sends them into the Championship fray in a very delicate condition - of course Sir Bobby sadly didn’t live to see them mount a comeback.

R.I.P Sir Bobby - we salute you and thank you for your priceless contribution to ‘the beautiful game’.

Back at Pride Park Stadium, Derby County is remembering another local hero during the 125th Anniversary celebrations. Ex-Chairman Lionel Pickering, who died in 2006, will be especially remembered on kick-off day, August 8th, on what the club had dubbed: ‘Lionel Pickering Day’.

There will be more details of the itinerary soon but a very fitting tribute to the man, who provided the ambition and the backing to bring Derby County into the 21st century, is under construction.

Lionel, the Rams’ Chairman for 15 years from 1994, guided Derby through the completion of Pride Park Stadium and the Moor Farm training complex. Now the Baseball Ground front entrance is apparently being reconstructed from the original brickwork (and situated between the ticket office and Starbucks) to become ‘The Lionel Pickering Entrance’. Local builders Hodgkinson’s, who built the Steve Bloomer’s BBG-based monument next to the home dugout, are undertaking the work on the tribute to Lionel.

It’s a great way to remember one of the last true local benefactors in football and though his latter days were fraught with financial decline which gave rise to worrying instability, the excitement of Derby’s transition to Pride Park Stadium and the stylish entertainment of the Premier League team that Jim Smith and Steve McLaren built in the mid-1990s will remain one of the brightest periods in the club’s entire history.

Bang up to date with 2009-10 again and the new Derby County away kit will be launched in the Darwin section of the Westfield Centre at 14.00 pm on Monday 3rd August, where first team players will do the usual catwalk honours. So now you only need £80 to get up to date with the Adidas merchandise.

Saturday evenings will carry a football festival on the BBC next season, as Championship highlights, which the BBC now has the TV rights to, will follow on from the Premier League Match of the Day programme. There will be live matches too on BBC2 and the Rams will feature there soon - and Robbie Savage will be a member of the BBC TV presentation team.

On Radio Derby, Roger ‘Stretch’ Davies, a Cloughie Snr. capture from non-League Worcester City in the 1970s, will be the guest summariser at Rams games next season alongside commentator Colin Bloomfield. Meanwhile, because of the ongoing fiasco at St James Park Newcastle, it looks like Alan Shearer will still be on Gary Lineker’s MoTD BBC1 pundit panel, instead of nibbling his nails as the manager in the Newcastle dugout.

Transfer news from Pride Park Stadium is still slow though as expected, ex-Burton Albion goalkeeper Saul Deeney signed for Derby. Clough said it was a case of ‘waiting for one or two to go’ with several players poised to leave the club, which will enable more new deals to be progressed. One of the departures looks certain to be Claude ‘Clod’ Davis - on his showing; he’s one of the poorest defenders ever signed by the club. Billy Davies happily shelled out £3m for him.

Clod seems bound for Selhurst Park to join Crystal Palace, which is fine by me. Shelling out approximately half a million quid to get shut of him - as he has 2 years of his Derby contract to settle – does stick in the craw! Let’s hope Billy Davies continues to sign defenders that can’t kick the ball, or head it, or tackle, in his squat down at the City Ground.

Rams fans anticipate that Clod’s replacement, Shaun Barker, (who preferred to join the Rams rather than sign for his home club in Nothingham) will do much better at less than a third of the price. The likes of Jordan Stewart, Martin Albrechtsen and Roy Carroll are also placed at the exit door even though they have participated in pre-season games.

They’ve had short careers at Pride Park Stadium and represent expensive but mediocre acquisitions by Billy’s successor, Paul Jewell and the sooner they leave, the more distance Nigel Clough can put between Derby and the mistakes of his predecessors with incoming players that can perform.

Derby’s pre-season programme continued apace and they won a competitive game 3-2 at Matlock Town on Monday with youngsters Arnoud Mendy and Greg Mills scoring for the Rams, before the Gladiators pegged Derby back. Aleksander Prijovic (who has had a lively pre-season, popping in a few strikes) scored Derby’s winner.

There was a higher profile outing with more first-teamers involved when Derby won by the same 3-2 scoreline on Tuesday at Notts County. The Meadow Lane side have new Middle Eastern backing and Sven in the dugout but though they beat Forest last week, the Rams came out on top this time.

With Chris Porter still troubled by a hip injury and Rob Hulse not ready to play yet, at least Kris Commons was able to shrug off the hamstring injury that has limited his own pre-season involvement. His half-hour substitute appearance was productive as Kris scored the winning goal.

With Shaun Barker rested, Miles Addison and Jay McEveley (who you might have guessed is rated not much higher than Clod Davis by yours truly) made up the central defensive partnership. Jay scored an own goal and presented Notts with another goal but Nigel Clough felt he made a contribution.

Robbie Savage and Steve Davies (who also missed a penalty) scored for the Rams in the first half. Notts. Like Matlock, put up a fight against more illustrious opponents and the workouts will hopefully be good for Derby’s stamina building.

Clough took his squad back to Burton Albion again on Thursday as the Brewers and the Rams contested the Bass Charity Vase. Albion won 1-0 thanks to a first half penalty and so they’ve now won the trophy 4 times on the spin. New goalkeeping recruit Saul Deeney faced his old club and Derby also used trialist Scott Neilson again. Clough added two 20-year-old strikers; Marc Grocott, raised at Stoke City’s academy, and Fraser McLaren of Berwick Rangers. Jason Beardsley captained the Rams side.

They had quiet games though, as Albion generally had the better of things. A plus point was that Kris Commons got another 55 minutes of activity under his belt - and Nigel Clough even found time to give goalkeeper Roy Carroll a cameo spot up front as a second-half substitute!

Derby managed to cram in another friendly on Friday night with a visit to Alfreton Town; a young team including only Roy Carroll and Jordan Stewart of the first team squad were beaten 3-0.

It was the ‘showpiece’ home friendly on Saturday with the Pride Park Stadium curtain raiser against Premier League Stoke City. Tony Pulis’ newly promoted side proved tough and resilient opponents last season and performed way beyond pundit’s expectations by steering well clear of relegation. Derby beat them at their place however; to reach the Carling Cup semi-finals but they were the Rams’ biggest pre-season test.

Rob Hulse, Shaun Barker, Chris Porter and Dean Leacock were among Derby’s injury absentees as Clough aimed to shape his side close to the starting eleven for the big kick-off. The Rams would be facing a near full strength Stoke side including Beattie and Kitson alongside former Derby players Delap and Higginbotham.

Over 23,000 fans turned out to see the Rams claw themselves back onto level terms twice with Stephen Pearson finding the back of the net and academy product Arnaud Mendy saving the day with a last gasp effort that levelled things up at 2-2. From all reports the Rams played some good football with the experiment of playing three midfielders in Pearson, Green and Savage continuing to deliver results.

All in all fans and manager seemed happy with the result as although missing some key players the team showed grit and determination in taking it up to a team who are capable of playing very good football at Premiership level. The major concern out of the game was an injury to Giles Barnes who was stretchered off after coming on as a substitute in the second half. At the time of writing it is unknown how serious the injury is but with attacking options at a premium, fingers will be crossed all over Derbyshire.

It’s down to business next Saturday with the opening game of Derby’s 2009-10 Championship campaign at home to promoted Peterborough United. I’m hoping for a better showing than the dismal Doncaster Rovers opener last season and have a feeling that we will get off on the right foot with a home victory.

COME ON YOU RAMS!

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RamsWeek 31 last year saw us at a similar stage of final preparations but the brief shadow of scandal and division reared its head again as ex-director Peter Gadsby launched an attack on the GSE consortium, due to his doubts over whether they would actually provide Derby with adequate funding.

There seemed to be some bitterness about Gadsby’s recent departure from the Pride Park Stadium boardroom and the strains of ‘The Back Stabbers’ circulated in my mind!

He wanted facts about GSE’s commitment and challenged Rams’ President and Chief Executive Tom Glick to a live radio debate about the state of the club. He got neither as Glick said that significant funding would be available to the club and called Gadsby’s assertions ‘bizarre and inaccurate’.

Adam Pearson suggested that a £50m GSE investment was ‘not far wide of the mark’ and manager Paul Jewell said he was happy with his budget. Peace soon broke out anyway and we all had Derby’s poor start to the season to worry about within days. Derby drew 0-0 against Hull City in a Moor Farm friendly.

Stephen ‘The Rat’ Bywater was mooted to be joining Spurs for £375k with Jewell favouring Roy Carroll How those fortunes have been reversed in just a year!

Derby closed their pre-season programme with a 2-2 home draw with FC Utrecht. Martin Albrechtsen took the captain’s armband; will Robbie Savage win it back in 2009-10? Kris Commons scored with a rare header and Nathan Ellington bagged Derby’s other goal from the penalty spot. Next, it was Doncaster in the Championship…

Photo: Action Images

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