The Rams had to pick themselves up from their opening day home defeat against Doncaster Rovers and prepare for the League Cup 1st Round tie versus Lincoln City.

Against a backdrop of disappointment from Saturday, Derby faced the Red Imps having been dumped out of the competition three times in the last five seasons at the First Round stage and had not progressed past the 2nd Round for Seven seasons.

Skipper Alan Stubbs missed the Cup game, having limped off last Saturday with another knee injury. He had a scan, which is the last news that the manager & fans wanted to hear as the player is unfit and the club await news on how Alan’s injury reacts to injections. Dean Leacock and Claude Davis were candidates to deputise; Welsh international defender Lewin Nyatanga is still recovering from a knee injury.

Claude Davis returned in Stubbs’ berth against Lincoln to pair with Martin Albrechtsen in defence; Robbie Savage started in midfield as captain, with Steve Davies debuting alongside him. Hulse and Ellington continued as the strike partnership; Kaz & Pereplotkins were left on the bench, with 7 substitutes named as the competition rules have now been altered.

Like so many games before, Derby huffed and puffed without much penetration and the first half passed with few real openings and Lincoln holding their ground. 10,091 sufferers awaited a spark from Jewell’s new-look team. Derby hadn’t bounced back from Saturday’s reversal at all and looked more like being bounced out of the competition yet again in humiliating manner.

Secondary sponsors The Greenbank Group had their name emblazoned on the back of the Rams’ new lime green away shirt, which was paraded at a half time launch at the Lincoln game. One suspects that fans just wanted some bright play from their team however, not shirts that glow like cycling safety vests.

Maybe the opposition should wear such brightly coloured shirts to help the dim Derby defenders to recognise the presence of danger? At the start of the second half, the Rams gave away a soft goal (yes, yet another soft goal) when Ben Wright, unmarked, headed home Gall’s cross, the Lincoln player being the latest to benefit from Jay McEveley’s tediously generous, stand-offish approach to the role of full back to create the chance for a free header. It was another shockingly simple, cheap goal to concede.

Lincoln then held the Rams off comfortably enough, despite the tide turning in favour of Derby as the game progressed. It looked all too predictable, until Jewell’s rash of substitutes served to perk up his team, as captain Savage was withdrawn deep into the second half.

Pereplotkins and Villa were soon lively and Kaz was getting involved at last, but Lincoln defended stoutly. Nathan Ellington finally brought some relief to the Pride Park faithful with a splendid late hat trick, the first steered in calmly from a Pereplotkins mis-hit shot to put the Rams level with just 8 minutes to go in normal time, before he hit a crashing shot after 10 minutes of extra time to give Derby a rare and precious lead. The Duke then smacked an emphatic third on the turn just on half time in extra time.

It had taken Derby 120 minutes to beat a team dwelling two leagues lower but the Rams finished strongly and Paul Jewell at last had some reward for months of hard work and endeavour. It could prove a tremendous confidence booster for the player and the team - and it was sweet indeed to see Ellington’s second hat trick at Pride Park Stadium - because this one saw him wearing a Derby shirt! He’d struck three at Derby for Bristol Rovers in 2002 to famously dump the Rams out of the FA Cup.

I had a strange reaction to the win, Derby’s first for 11 months; at first, I thought: “about ruddy time” and shrugged in relief - it was only later that I was really chuffed about Derby actually progressing to the next round in a cup competition and that Jewell at least had one monkey off his back! I think I’d actually forgotten how to celebrate a win; I’ve had to re-learn the glow of pleasure from the experience of victory!

The Rams are away at Preston North End in the 2nd round in an all-Championship clash. Whilst Derby overcame Lincoln, the Nothingham Trees uprooted Morecambe 4-0, Pride Park failure Rob Earnshaw scoring twice. F*rest played in front of just over 4,000 fans and host Sunderland in Round Two.

Ex-Tree Kris Commons has been included in the Scottish squad for the first time; he qualifies through his Dundee-born grandmother and the Scotland boss George Burley selected Kris for the upcoming friendly against Northern Ireland. Commons was delighted to have arrived on the international scene.

Derby’s Olympic adventurers, Ruben Zadkovich and Benny Feilhaber have had their expeditions cut short, as Australia and the USA have been eliminated. Zadkovich can return to the fold at Derby (and is carrying a groin injury) but Feilhaber’s short and ineffectual time at Derby has come to an end as he joined Danish club AGF Aarhus.

Meanwhile, winger Gary Teale has joined Barnsley on a month’s loan and American midfielder Eddie Lewis is set to terminate his contract at Derby County by mutual consent and will return home to the States, where he is likely to join up with on of the Los Angeles soccer teams.

With the loan or imminent departures of Eddie Lewis, Gary Teale, Mo Camara, Andy Todd, Stephen Pearson and Benny Feilhaber plus the waywardness of Robbie Savage and further injury worries over Alan Stubbs, manager Paul Jewell still feels he has room to manoeuvre in the transfer market and may further strengthen his squad very soon.

Adam Pearson has said that the club needs to move on another half a dozen players from the squad and looks to trim the wages bill by £2.5m - and there are several big-earning under-performing players still on the books for which the Rams are still finding transfer instalment money.

The club this week responded to the recent departure of ex-director Peter Gadsby and his accusations of a lack of transparency and delayed investment, with some comprehensive statements about the club’s financial position. They outlined the debts and this year’s plans for reducing the club’s liabilities and also revealed the identities of several of the investors in GSE’s Derby County commitment.

It was also revealed that when GSE took the club over, it was £31m in debt, though the disparities between the figures cited by DCFC and Peter Gadsby’s assertions will probably be down to the respective parties’ preferences in how the figures are arrived at.

GSE have reduced the debt by £6m to £25m since January 2008. They plan to reduce it by a further £10m by this time next year. If so, all that would remain is the £15m mortgage on Pride Park Stadium - with that asset being worth £50m. The £11.5m Premier League parachute payment due to Derby this season is all but spoken for by a £10.4m liability for a loan which brought such as Rob Earnshaw, Kenny Miller and others to the club a year ago. Derby will receive another £11.5m parachute payment next August.

The Derby County board feel that the club is in a good financial position and that, whilst results are the essential ingredient needed to propel the club’s recovery, they are very much where they want to be and are looking forward to a progressive future.

Paul Jewell prepared the team for the teatime away match at Bristol City last Saturday hoping that his prediction - that the Rams would go on a run once an initial victory had been secured - could come true. It would be the 34th time of asking for Jewell to win a League game as Derby manager. Only League wins will show if Derby have turned the corner and lift the pressure from the manager and players.

The manager made only one change to the starting line-up from the Lincoln victory, with Pereplotkins replacing Steve Davies in midfield. Bristol opened the game brightly and there was little productive output from Derby’s midfield and forwards in the first half. £2.25m summer signing Nicky Maynard gave City the lead on 23 minutes.

Derby were poor defensively on the flanks yet again, so Bristol enjoyed their freedom and Carroll was left exposed. The Rams’ goalie parried Brian Wilson’s initial shot after the ball had been put into Derby’s danger area but Maynard was on hand to follow up and score from close range. Kris Commons was Derby’s occasional threat but end product was sparse and City took their lead comfortably into the break.

Steve Davies replaced Pereplotkins straight after the break and Paul Green drilled the Rams level from a Commons cross on 51 minutes, and the Rams had finally picked up their game. Derby were a different proposition for a spell but couldn’t take advantage of their temporary ascendancy.

City worked their way back into the game and won several corners and it seemed that the game could go either way. It ended 1-1 however; at least the Rams had a point on the board and it was the first time that the Rams had avoided defeat since the 2-2 home draw with Fulham on 29th March.

Derby are gradually crawling from the wreckage of last season’s humiliation. The draw at Bristol was also the first time they’d put two results together since two successive Premier League 1-1 draws, with Manchester City and then Birmingham City at the end of January and beginning of February respectively.

The winless sequence in the League is still utterly embarrassing. If the Rams can now win games and add to the promise of the last two results, then that will further enhance their confidence. There are already 3 teams who are 5 points ahead of Derby with 6 points on the board and 100% records from their two initial games. Given the improvement over the last week, Southampton at home next Saturday must be seen as winnable and a stepping-stone to further progress for Jewell’s fledgling squad.

Last year, RamsWeek 33 saw the Rams trying to bridge the gap between Championship and Premier League. The midweek match at Eastlands, Manchester saw Derby beaten 1-0 by Manchester City as their short-lived Sven era got under way.

The Rams were industrious enough but lacked quality and penetration - and Derby were further exposed the following Saturday in tumbling to a 4-0 defeat at Tottenham. The inept defence leaked 3 goals before the first half was halfway through and it was always damage limitation after that.

Billy Davies signed a contract extension to 2010 and David ‘Ned’ Kenny finally penned his own 3-year deal as Billy’s assistant.

The transfer market yielded the £1m American Benny Feilhaber and his veteran compatriot Eddie Lewis on a free transfer. Yes, all that did happen only a year ago!

Derby threatened to fall out with West Ham and report them to the Premier League because of all the “Giles Barnes to the Hammers” stories and quotes emerging from East London, whilst Adie Boothroyd of Watford was whining about Derby’s alleged £6.8m bid for their striker Marlon King! Lucky escape, that.

There was plenty more transfer speculation, as Chairman Gadsby and manager Davies reiterated their intentions to strengthen Derby’s squad.

The excitement and hope of the opening day 2-2 draw against Pompey had all but evaporated and a feeling of resignation to a long hard winter was already growing as the Rams had the quality gap exposed by two defeats.

The Rams' League Cup draw, at home to Blackpool later that month, wasn’t going to offer any comfort either!

Photo: Action Images

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