Before the Rams match at Preston I wrote that it was the most important fixture for the Rams since the playoff final of May, 2014. The match was duly won, as was the following match at Reading, and Monday saw us draw at home to highly placed Burnley, results that have seen us climb up the table.
For me, there was good and there was not-so-good in the Burnley match. The Burnley midfield of Boyd, Jones, Arfield and Kightly is full of experience and talent; they will stop other teams from playing, and provide plenty of chances for Vokes and Gray up front. Yet the Rams looked the stronger side for much of the match.
The Burnley midfield was certainly not better than ours, and struggled to keep Burnley competitive at times. The problem for the Rams was the accuracy of that final ball; most of our attacks came down the right through Christie - who I thought played really well - and Russell. Unfortunately the delivery into the box by both of them was generally poor, as were Russell’s free kicks and corners.
On the other wing, Forsyth and Weimann produced very little threat all afternoon, and as the game wore on, it was hard to understand why Darren Bent was not brought on for Weimann.
I think Jacob Butterfield and Bradley Johnson have added a great deal of quality to the Rams’ midfield but I also think we will be better for the return of Craig Bryson. Bryson may add that spark of creativeness that is needed against the better teams in the division, while the return of Tom Ince will also be most welcome.
Despite the Rams taking seven points from nine in the last three games, a look at the table is still a stark reflection of the Rams slow start to the season.
We are in eleventh place, nine points behind leaders Brighton and six behind second place Middlesbrough. This is a gap that will not just disappear overnight but the Rams have a good chance to quickly make things look quite a lot brighter. We have six Championship matches by the end of October and none are against clubs currently placed higher than thirteenth.
The six matches I refer to are at MK Dons (currently 20th) on Saturday, Brentford (currently 17th) at home on the 3rd, Wolves (currently 18th) at home on the 18th, at Blackburn (currently 19th) on the 21st, at Huddersfield (currently 13th) on the 24th and Rotherham (currently 24th) at home on the 31st.
How many points should we realistically hope for out of those eighteen? It seems to me that fourteen, or four wins and two draws would not be too much to expect, would it?
Saturday’s match at MK Dons will provide the Rams with the opportunity to make a strong start to those important next six matches. The Dons look like a team that is full of experience, but perhaps lacks a bit of quality at Championship level.
The players who scored most of their goals during last season’s promotion run have now moved on, a realization that may have been behind them signing Nicky Maynard and Jake Caskey this week.
The Dons will be needing Maynard to recapture the form of his time at Bristol City a few years ago as this is a match where we will certainly expect the Rams’ quality to bring a result.
All in all, things are looking up from a couple of weeks ago.
And before much longer, things should be looking a lot better still.