After last week’s feisty home game against Swansea City ended in defeat and the attendant controversy, Derby County had a week to prepare for a challenging away game at West Bromwich Albion.

Monday brought the predictable news that the FA has charged Derby County yet again with failing to control their players. The unnecessarily mob-handed reaction from players and management to Gorka Pintado’s ludicrous challenge on Robbie Savage once again puts the club in the dock.

Swansea City will face similar charges from the FA of Wales and Derby’s charges have to be answered on 9th March. So, whilst we still await the FA hearing and verdict on the January incident against Nothingham Forest, another FA charge has been lined up against the club.

Jay McEveley was sent off for after collecting two bookings in the game and having been charged with improper conduct, was fined £2,500 after his wild reaction. He has a 2-match ban to serve.

I’ve never yet seen a referee recall a dismissed player back onto the pitch once a red card has been shown and I don’t believe either that stomping around like a three-year old in protest and trashing a drinks’ carrier ever proved productive.

It all added to Derby being in the spotlight again for a disappointing loss of control, albeit after another incident initiated by our opponents.

Robbie Savage once more set about Radio Derby commentator Colin Gibson, who queried whether the Swansea fracas might be viewed as incitement. Given that players are role models for the next generation of fans and players coupled to the close scrutiny with which the FA choose to view Derby County’s on-field behaviour, Gibson surely had a fair point.

That tipped Savage over the edge again though and he went into another self-important rant. Gibbo, a lifetime Rams fan and commentator and presenter for reporting upon Rams’ affairs for decades was told he didn’t understand the game or the passions involved when players showed their unity and support for one another.

For heaven’s sake, Robbie - there have been much better Derby captains (and far more successful Rams’ teams) in far more important games than the current scenarios, without the tinderbox reactions such as we saw last week.

The captain should get a sense of perspective and stop decrying the right of knowledgeable fans or commentators to point out the wider implications of what we have been seeing all too often recently!

The ref had already dealt with Pintado; there was no need for everyone to pile in like that with all the players squaring up on each in front of the away fans. Cool down your tempers!

The Derby manager felt aggrieved that similar incidents in recent games have not been dealt with as severely as Derby’s flare-ups. He has a good point too as there is gross inconsistency in how the FA are dealing with these matters.

For instance, there was a huge bust-up at the end of WBA’s FA Cup home defeat to Reading last Wednesday; a Reading player was sent off after the final whistle, the spectacle went on for much longer that Derby’s fracas with police and stewards involved in separating players and staff who tangled.

There were even allegations - denied by West Brom - that some of the Hawthorns’ stewards attempted to mount the Reading team bus afterwards to sort the Royals out! Yet, there appears to be no charge against those clubs for failing to control their players. How does that work, then?

Kris Commons, withdrawn early against Swansea with a hamstring pull, had a scan to determine the extent of his injury and will be out for at least a month which is a blow to the team. The Rams have David Martin, Gilles Sunu, Chris Porter and Steve Davies as contenders in attack but Commons is integral to the way that Derby want to play.

The Rams have given a trial to John Rooney, 19-year-old brother of Manchester United and England star Wayne. John is a midfielder, currently with Macclesfield Town but if Nigel Clough finds that he has some of his brother’s footballing talent, he could be a Derby player next season.

Clough wants to see Rooney junior in action with a view to bringing him to Derby next summer; then he would want John (like Ben Pringle and Ryan Connolly), to be “knocking on the door of the first team squad” in 2010-11. The manager’s plans were frustrated though, as Wednesday’s reserves’ game versus Sheffield United at Alfreton was called off due to a frozen pitch.

Johnny Metgod has been appointed to the coaching and scouting team for Holland’s World Cup 2010 entourage this summer. That’s good news and a great honour for the Rams’ coach. It also might remind those that have been busy criticising the ability and experience of Derby’s backroom staff that Metgod is greatly respected and valued for his achievements and standing at club and international level.

The black hole of Premier League finance finally claimed its first victim this week as Portsmouth FC went into administration with £70m debts. They will be docked nine points and look doomed to relegation as they already reside in bottom place in the table with a very poor playing record. The club became unsustainable mainly due to their massive player wage bill.

It cannot be long before a salary cap based on turnover is applied to bring some levity and reality into the equation. With English Premier League clubs carrying more than half of the debt of the entire European football structure - including the vast corporate debts of Liverpool and Manchester United - there has to be change.

Living off so-called ‘leverage debt’ as introduced by remote owners dumping their corporate losses on a club is a risk-based model that has saddled The Red Devils with huge interest liabilities and fuels growing calls from active supporters for removal of the Glazer regime.

The power of the Premier League has to be curbed and some realism introduced into wage expenditure unless more high-profile clubs are to follow the Pompey meltdown.

Premier League supremo Richard Scudamore was strangely silent about the Greedy League’s fall from grace as an EPL club went into administration; perhaps he was busy polishing up revised proposals for “Game 39” to take notice.

It’s likely that EUFA & FIFA will make moves to cap wage and transfer expenditure that cripples clubs and threatens the stability of European leagues.

Supporter groups continue to call for better controls on expenditure, along with stricter governance rules and effective ‘fit and proper persons tests' for owners and directors - and the longer the authorities bury their head in the sand, the more acute the problems may become.

Lower down the pyramid last week, beleaguered AFC Bournemouth were served with a winding-up petition and Chester City (with one of the most dubious ownership regimes in football) were expelled from the Conference. Their fans will view the consequences of possible liquidation as an opportunity for rebirth, to build a club away from the influence of the despised Stephen Vaughan.

Several clubs therefore faced a turning point this week and the overall structure of UK football finances is reaching a crossroads. Soon enough, we will be enveloped in the glamour and excitement of the World Cup at the top level of the international game but whilst we enjoy a festival of football, numerous clubs will be staring into the debt trapdoor through which latest victims, Pompey, the Cherries and Chester have sadly fallen.

Whilst the value for money and entertainment for Derby County supporters hasn’t exactly been satisfactory over the past few seasons, the club has endeavoured to address the dangers of unsustainable debt and financial decline by building towards team reconstruction upon realistic foundations. We are told that Derby County are well placed to avoid the horrors that such as Charlton, Crystal Palace, Southampton, Leeds and others have suffered.

If Nigel Clough can build a squad of honest, competitive and hungry players to make progress in this division, the club may steal a march on many other clubs that still find themselves ensnared in a financial tangle though over-commitment.

Time will tell, as Derby must still win some football matches to consolidate their Championship place before they can look at a brighter horizon.

The Rams had shown great form against the top sides in the Championship recently when beating Forest and Newcastle and had matched Saturday’s opponents West Bromwich Albion in an exciting 2-2 draw at Pride Park Stadium in December. The ‘Barmy Army’ travelled to the Hawthorns with justifiable optimism that their team could upset another of the leading sides.

However, after running up against the buffers when 4th placed Swansea won 1-0 at Derby last week, Derby lost again in disappointing fashion after taking a second half lead. Albion then scored three times in the space of 17 minutes as the Rams’ defence collapsed, reverting to the slack play and generosity that we all hoped was a thing of the past.

Nigel Clough had to replace the injured Rob Hulse with Chris Porter and he was partnered by Gilles Sunu with Kris Commons ruled out for a month; Dean Moxey was at left back to stake his claim after Jay McEveley was unavailable through suspension. Leacock and Davies re-joined the squad as substitutes after their latest injuries.

After a rather uneventful first half in which Derby matched the Baggies, the game became a topsy-turvy affair. The Rams scored straight after the break, looked comfortable but then collapsed to allow Albion to turn the table and go on to win comfortably.

Derby started the second half brightly and took control. Paul Green burst through on goal and when his effort was blocked, Chris Porter followed up to score. ‘Same score as Wembley’, chanted the Rams’ 2,500-strong away contingent - and if they had been informed that Derby would lose the game 3-1 at that point, they would have scoffed noisily in disbelief.

The turning point came when Gilles Sunu fluffed a great chance to make it 2-0 and kill off Albion out he missed badly when an open goal confronted him. The chance invited him to make a similar impact to an earlier loanee - DJ Campbell - in scoring his crucial first goal for Derby against the Baggies last December. DJ had then grabbed a last minute equaliser, but Sunu missed and Albion took full advantage. Attacking substitutes, especially Simon Cox, pepped up their attack

Disastrous defending let West Brom back into the game soon afterward. First, Buxton and Barker left it to each other to guard Chris Brunt as he dribbled towards the penalty area - and when no challenge came, he simply stuffed the ball past Bywater.  Soon after, Derby failed to clear Dorrans’ corner as Albion pressed further, and Brunt was there to scramble the ball in from close range.

Neither the Derby team nor their fans could quite believe they were behind in the game but just for good measure with seven minutes to go, substitute Simon Cox was allowed to streak through and score in a canter with Derby’s offside trap looking quite daft.

Had they taken the chance to go 2-0 ahead and then defended competently, Derby would have won and should have had at least a draw from the Hawthorns. By failing to protect the lead then missing the chance to double it meant that instead of recording a hat-trick of wins against top three sides and pulling up into mid-table, they are still just five points above the relegation zone.

Without Hulse and Commons and with the only midfield goal threat being Paul Green, Albion’s power tipped the scales when Derby let them back into the game. Manager Nigel Clough was understandably unimpressed by his team’s second half lapses and reiterated that at least five more wins were required before any degree of safety could be assured.

The more realistic supporters have become resigned to watch Derby’s quest for the minimum number of points to secure Championship survival and the Rams have a busy March schedule of seven games, starting with Watford’s visit to Pride Park Stadium next Saturday.

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RamsWeek 9 last year saw Derby County knocked ‘back to the start’ after their great win over Nothingham Forest at the City Ground the previous week was followed by a disappointing 1-2 defeat at Doncaster Rovers.

Though Robbie Savage gave Derby the lead with a spectacular free-kick strike and debutant Chris Porter hit the bar, Donny clawed their way back into the game and took the points with a typically determined showing.

A financial report on football club’s expenditure on player agent fees between July and December 2008 saw Derby top the Football League table, having spent £717,000 on 38 transactions. It was money spent by Paul Jewell and Adam Pearson in their endeavours to ‘bounce back’ from relegation from the Premier League.

Certainly, they spent plenty on transactions to employ Robbie Savage, Martin Albrechtsen and Nathan Ellington - and any number of other more marginal players which the club collected during that year. It just shows how crucial good management is when the purse strings are loosened, so that skilled and judicious recruitment occurs in picking the right players.

Photo: Action Images

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