After securing a win and two draws in the previous week, Derby County could reflect on some steady progress in the Championship as they recover from a poor start to the season.
Putting the winless streak behind them was Base One, as fans looked to more enterprising performances with more goals from the strikers and a more rapid rate of points’ collection. The away game at QPR would give a further test of Derby’s resilience and progress.
Derby County had won the first clash with Rangers over the cost of watching the game at Loftus Road; ticket prices were pegged to the expected level when QPR were not allowed to impose their greedy increases. Derby County had refused to accept QPR’s pricing and declined to put the ticket on sale, then the Football League ruled on the issue.
Protests from DCFC and lobbying from the supporters’ groups from both clubs over QPR’s rip-off ticket policy had won the day. Paul Jewell welcomed the ruling and hoped for a good following for the Rams at Loftus Road. He called QPR’s bid to charge up to £40 per ticket “outrageous”.
The new board of QPR rationalised their expensive home ticket policy and the attempted away fans’ rip-off with their declarations to provide top-class football - but with a combined wealth of £28 billion, everyone else wonders quite why they intend to sting the ordinary fans so comprehensively. Disgusting!
Derby have extended striker Liam Dickinson’s loan at Huddersfield Town for another month. He’s scored goals and played well there, and some Rams fans say he should be back at Pride Park Stadium, given the Rams’ lack of goals, our unconvincing strike partnerships and the £750k price tag that Liam cost. Hopefully, he will return as a better player for the experience and make a contribution at Derby soon.
Another rather invisible youngster, Ruben Zadkovich, signed last April and yet to figure in team plans, is set to resume training after his summer-long adventure with the Australian Under-23 Olympic entourage.
Paul Jewell said last week he’s still looking to bring players in so there may be one or two further loan arrivals and departures soon. The Rams don’t have a weak squad numerically but the mediocre start to the season causes concern. The squad still lacks true quality and depth in terms of genuine first-teamers.
There is some expensive detritus from the Billy Davies regime for Derby to ship out and some of Jewell’s signings are working out just as badly.
Speaking of which, it was revealed that the Rams’ ineffectual veteran midfielder Robbie Savage could go out on loan. The Welsh midfielder threw his toys in pre-season when Jewell omitted him from the squad and relieved him of the captaincy but he has been a very expensive flop so far at Derby County.
Savage’s agent asked if Robbie could go on loan to get first team football; Derby said ‘yes’. The Rams are willing to help with wages, though it would no doubt be galling for them to perhaps have to shell out £10k+ per week or more to temporarily ship out the player.
Savage wants first team football but wasn’t keen enough to agree to a sortie on the south coast, rejecting a loan move to Brighton & Hove Albion. Crewe wanted him as well; Brighton wanted both Savage and Gary Teale on loan.
Brighton & Hove Albion themselves surprisingly dumped Manchester City’s strolling multi-millionaires out of the League Cup in their delayed 2nd Round tie last Wednesday, so the Rams face Brighton in the 3rd Round. City took a 1-0 lead at the Withdean but didn’t bargain for Brighton’s late equaliser, then were held in extra time before flunking the penalty shoot-out to exit the competition.
The 4th Round draw has the Rams or Brighton at home to League One side Leeds United so there is an incentive for Derby to progress further in the competition on Tuesday, November 4th when the Brighton away tie is played.
Saturday’s game against QPR at Loftus Road took place against the backdrop of the ticket dispute but a large Rams following made their way to West London. Kris Commons was again ruled out of the Derby side and Nathan Ellington replaced Tito Villa in attack.
Derby started and continued comfortably if not spectacularly in the first half, chances being few and far between but ex-Ram Dexter Blackstock went closest to scoring, Paul Connolly and Roy Carroll snuffing out his close-range opportunity.
QPR had been mediocre and there was a feeling that they could do little but improve after no doubt receiving a half time blasting from manager Iain Dowie. Derby haven’t often been able to capitalise of their best periods of play this season and the failure to turn possession into chances and chances into goals frequently eludes them.
Rangers were brighter in the second half and showed more attacking intent but Rob Hulse pondered a good chance away for Derby. Belief and decisiveness still need a good topping up in the Derby camp and Dexter Blackstock went straight away to hit the post at the other end in a rapid Rangers raid.
The game evened out and Miles Addison slammed a long-range effort, which shaved QPR’s crossbar bar after the game moved into its final quarter.
Just as everyone hoped that Derby’s attractive but ineffectual football wouldn’t again find them counting the cost at the final whistle, they scored. The Rams’ unexpected goalscoring hero against Cardiff City, Martin Albrechtsen, put the Rams ahead from Barazite’s corner after being given time to crash a firm shot home with ten minutes to go. The Rams had finally produced some reward for their hard work.
Things get better, because Tito Villa stuffed in a close-range header from a Steve Davies cross to make it 2-0 with five minutes to play! QPR, who had suddenly become one of the world’s richest clubs but with one of the most avaricious ticket policies in football, were defeated at home for the first time so it was Derby who profited most from the afternoon!
Paul Jewell was pleased with the stability and success his side was starting to show. The back four is looking tighter, Green and Addison are forging a formidable engine room in midfield and Barazite, Hulse and Villa are beginning to affect the course of games. Even Stephen Pearson was grafting tidily amidst it all! There are several young players growing into significant roles, which bodes well for Derby’s future.
As Derby strode to their first away win of the season, Nothingham Forest went bottom of the League on Saturday with another defeat and they are welcome to their appropriate berth down there, the Rams having started to pull out of the lower reaches of the Championship table!
It was Derby’s first League away win since March 2007, though technically there was the small matter of the Wembley play-off Final victory.
It was their first ‘clean sheet’ of the season too and 8 points have been taken from the last 12 available, If the Rams can continue to build on this and make sure they perform well against the Bluenoses next Tuesday night, September will have been a month of significant improvement.
Birmingham City have bounced back well and with Wolves, are setting the Championship pace. If Derby can upset their progress, it will be another marker of the Rams’ recent steady progress with Jewell at the helm.
RamsWeek 39 last year commenced with Derby County dismissing media talk of a takeover bid by ex-Hull chief Adam Pearson as: “absolute nonsense’, with Pearson himself calling the idea “just ridiculous”.
Just goes to show, it’s true especially in football I’d say, to heed Bob Dylan’s words when he wrote: “Believe half of what you see, and none of what you hear!” Or, was it t’other way around? Either is accurate!
An employment tribunal in was scheduled in Nottingham to hear former Rams finance director’s case against the club after his departure when the disgraced Sleightholme regime was deposed but the case was settled out of court.
Billy Davies and his squad were recovering from the previous week’s battering at the hands of Arsenal as he tried to rally the troops to battle back the next weekend at home to Bolton Wanderers.
Davies’ utterances told us that it would be the second half of the season that would decide whether Derby would survive in the Premier League, after he’d had chance to further strengthen the squad in the January 2007 transfer window. If you say so, Billy….
The Rams did show signs of battling back because they took a point against Bolton in a gritty 1-1 draw. Kenny Miller maintained the bright start to his Derby career and Giles Barnes returned from injury as a late substitute.
Davies had anticipated a significant contribution from Barnes and for Rob Earnshaw’s time to come as he looked to more progress.