After the encouraging home win over promotion-chasing Swansea City, Derby County had a week to prepare for an important away game at struggling Crystal Palace.

The first news of the week was rather surprising, with Coventry City manager Aidy Boothroyd getting the sack after the Sky Blues’ slump in form. City’s decline has almost mirrored that of Derby County, tumbling down the table from a promising top 6 position before Christmas and then finding wins very hard to come by.

Boothroyd had been in charge for only 10 months and came with a pedigree of success at Colchester United and with Watford, with whom he achieved promotion to the Premier League in 2006. City remained below Derby in the Championship table and they visit Pride Park Stadium on 9th April.

Boothroyd won only 1 of his last 16 games; he paid the price after Coventry lost 0-1 at home to Hull City last weekend in front of a crowd of less than 14,500. That’s 11,000 less than Derby’s average gate - itself falling somewhat this season after poor results.

That contrast shows just how impressively the Rams’ support has held up despite another poor season - and is a salient factor in the argument that Derby’s investment partners should back the manager with adequate squad funding to give Rams fans a team that their loyalty deserves. 

Typically, the managerless Sky Blues pulled off a good result in midweek with a 2-2 draw at Burnley but the more relevant result for Derby County was Preston’s welcome 3-0 victory at Scunthorpe, which maintained the nine-point gap between the Rams and the Championship bottom three.

The Iron played to a crowd of less than 4,200 and the team was booed off the park. Scunthorpe boss Ian Baraclough also got the chop after the defeat - he’d been in charge at Glanford Park for an even shorter time than Boothroyd at Coventry, dismissal coming after just 6 months in charge.

Derby-born ex-Rams keeper Lee Camp has earned a call-up for Northern Ireland after declaring his interest earlier this year and his subsequent qualification through an Irish grandparent. Birmingham’s Maik Taylor is the current N.I. No 1.

Derby midfielder Paul Green, an established Republic of Ireland international, is in their squad to play Macedonia and Uruguay later this month. Young American Conor Doyle has been selected in his nation’s CONCACAF Under-20 squad at the end of the month; he’ll be unavailable for Derby’s trip to Cardiff City. The Rams’ Liverpool loanee, Daniel Ayala, impressive at the heart of Derby’s defence, has been selected for his first call-up to the Spanish Under-21 squad.

News from Pride Park Stadium was otherwise at a premium during the week. Manager Nigel Clough had been looking forwards optimistically and conveying his plans for squad strengthening during the summertime.  He wants half-a-dozen players but still maintains that bargain signings of players with perhaps something to prove like Theo Robinson will fit the bill.

Clough knows that it will be vital to build a strong spine as the basis of a better Derby team - goalkeeper, centre-half and centre-forward are the axes on which a side is built - but the manager still has to fill some of those positions on a permanent basis.

Assuming Sean Barker remains at Derby and is captain, that’s one building block; Frank Fielding is the first-choice elect goalkeeper; we have yet to secure his services and do not have a centre forward in the squad. A midfield fulcrum to replace the retiring Robbie Savage is critical too so that the team has a focus to play off.

Loan strikers Theo Robinson and Jamie Ward will not represent ‘signature’ signings, though with Clough still cutting the cloth according to the cut-price GSE tailoring department, which looks to be their favoured route in the goal-getting department. Robinson has pace but not much guile or composure; Ward looks like (when fully fit) he could be a nuisance to defences and could get some goals.

The club would be kidding themselves, however (but won’t kid the fans for long) if they consider that they can go through another campaign without the physical prescence of a centre forward to lead the attack. I hope we will build the (permanent) spine to the team and also make sure there is enough muscle around up front to unsettle defenders and make space for the strikers.

It’s a long time until May 8th (and hopefully Championship safety) and a much longer time until mid-August when season 2011-12 kicks off. Supporters have had the ‘talk-up’ before, with Paul Jewell and Adam Pearson’s ‘bounce back’ promises (after 6 months of preparation, while residing in bottom place of the Premier League), as well as expectations of progress every season since.

One thing’s for certain; fans will not be happy to watch a makeshift patched-up side limp along again in 2011-12 and they will anticipate investment on some proven players. You do get what you pay for and for Derby to challenge at the top of the league as promised by Tom Glick, then some quality, and more experience will be a prerequisite.

The Rams’ reserves had a midweek victory over Port Vale at Belper’s Christchurch Meadow, with second-half goals from Le Croft (remember him?) and then Ben Davies sealing a 2-1 win. The game gave loan-goalie-in-waiting Matt Duke some match practice for when he takes over from Frank Fielding. Defender Russell Anderson continued his comeback, while James Bailey and Dean Leacock made appearances after their recent injuries.

Derby’s visit to Selhurst Park to play Crystal Palace on Saturday was another important ‘basement battle. The Eagles are one of the few teams below Derby in the table and they have kept themselves above the bottom three on the strength of a good home record.

Dean Moxey, sold to Palace in January, would face his old club and Claude “Clod” Davies, a so-called defender that Billy Davies saw fit to pay £3m for when at Derby, was included in the Eagles’ line up. Derby had thrashed Palace 5-0 at Pride Park Stadium in November and Clod had obligingly helped Shefki Kuqi to score one of Derby’s goals.

Goalkeeper Frank Fielding played his final game for the Rams with his maximum loan spell having elapsed; the England Under-21 keeper was due to be away with the national party but expected to be back training with Derby for the remainder of the season with a view to joining the club during the summertime. Clough kept the same team that beat Swansea City last week.

Derby stole a lead in a great start when Bueno held the ball up, before giving Stephen Pearson an invitation that even he didn’t refuse, netting from 10 yards. The Scot’s first goal of the season stunned Palace - but they came back as expected and ex-Ram Dean Moxey crashed in a 20-yard equaliser.

Derby held their own until the break and soaked up what Palace could throw at them. Then the Rams then took the lead halfway through the second period with a superb strike from Jamie Ward. Savage swept a pass out to the loan striker and the overlapping Gareth Roberts drew out a defender and made space for Ward to drill it home emphatically from 25 yards.

It was a spectacular goal and a ‘birthday special’ for manager Nigel Clough, who was celebrating his 45th birthday. At that time, Nigel could have reasonably anticipated an even nicer present – three precious Championship points from a crucial away win.

Jamie’s goal looked enough to seal a splendid victory for the Rams. Things are never so straightforward with the Rams, though, are they? Substitute Theo Robinson soon squandered a chance to put the match beyond the home side then alas, Derby’s self-destructive streak let the Eagles back into the game.

Paul Green gave away an 88th-minute penalty (no doubt Danns made the most of his opportunity to collapse over Green’s outstretched leg) as Derby let Palace off the hook. Darren Ambrose struck home the equaliser from the spot kick.

Another late goal conceded, at least it was not as disastrous as the goal that Middlesbrough notched up at the same stage of the game at the Riverside recently to grab all three points. Palace has one of the best home records in the Championship so a 2-2 draw there was a good result.

Some fans felt that the substitutions that Clough made inhibited Derby’s game late on in the contest but at least they avoided the disasters of some late, late defeats we have seen too often.

BBC commentator and ex-Rams’ legend Roger Davies said during the match commentary that “43 points could keep you up.” That’s a good stretch (geddit?) of anyone’s imagination in all honesty. For me, 50 points is Base One and Nigel Clough knows that Derby must continue to grind out results.

Safety is not assured, by any means. Sheffield United finally started to win games and even Preston have perked up recently. North End may well fail to catch up anyone outside the bottom three. It’s tight above the bottom three - but Derby has the best goal difference in the bottom 9.

Derby edged up to 17th in the table on 44 points, and the club stands 9 clear of the drop zone. At least (at last!) they are picking up points and improving their position as the games run out.

Eight matches to go; the Rams can take a break and prepare for that tough away game at Cardiff City in a fortnight.

Meanwhile, we have an international break with all the thrills and spills of the Euro qualifiers to occupy us. Wales clash with England, with captain and role-model John Terry reinstated. It’s OK JT; it seems that team-mates’ ladies (allegedly) aren’t out of bounds... You still get the biggest rewards in the end. Kind of says it all about football, doesn’t it?

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In RamsWeek 12 last year, Derby made ‘step by step’ progress towards Championship safety, needing points urgently to ensure survival.

They had a see-saw match at Middlesbrough which ended in a 2-2 draw, played in front of a crowd more than twice the size of the attendance at Boro’s 2-1 win over Derby in March 2011.

Chris Porter and Michael Tonge netted for Derby at the Riverside but Derby had to be content with a scoreless draw at fellow strugglers Sheffield Wednesday the following Saturday.

Last season too, we were watching the Rams edge to safety and hoping for better things in the next campaign.

Photo: Action Images

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