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RamsWeek 15 - In The Middle of Nowhere
RamsWeek 15 - In The Middle of Nowhere
Sunday, 8th Apr 2012 21:03 by Paul Mortimer

Derby County prepared for their Easter programme of Championship games as the 2011-12 season ran into its final month.

The Rams, in 13th place on 56 points at the start of the week, had 6 games left to establish their biggest points total and highest Championship table placing since Nigel Clough became manager.

Clough hoped that the team would sustain their momentum until the end of the season so that the confidence would carry over into the next campaign. Stand-in captain Jason Shackell said ‘we don’t want to take our foot off the gas,’ adding that the team aimed to finish as high as possible.

With Shaun Barker’s injuries more serious than first thought, the club captain will be missing for the whole of next season and probably beyond. It’s a blow for player and club and will alter manager Clough’s summer shopping priorities, as he looks to build on the progress made in 2011-12 and point his team towards the top six places as promised long ago to fans by Mr Glick.

The Rams’ reserves maintained their top place in their table with a 1-1 draw at Walsall; Mason Bennett gave Derby a lead just after the interval but the Saddlers snatched a late equaliser.

It was announced that Republic of Ireland international Paul Green is to be offered a new contract by Derby County. Manager Nigel Clough is reported to be keen to retain Green; this news will no doubt be well received by many fans.

Green is a dynamic, versatile and consistent member of the squad; as a remnant of the disastrous Paul Jewell era he is of the few players recruited pre-Clough to remain and give the club value-for-money service. He has been in excellent form since his return from injury last November and is still eyeing a place in the R o I squad for this summer’s European Championships.

It remains to be seen if Paul stays, or receives better offers from elsewhere, both in terms of remuneration and club ambitions - perhaps not that difficult to envisage, given Derby’s lack of achievement, stunted ambition and budget restrictions.

Apart from contract progress with Paul Green, aimed at confirming either way if he will stay or go by the end of this month, Forward Jamie Ward is in negotiation regarding a contract extension and defenders Gareth Roberts and Jake Buxton are discussing new terms.

Another player whose future is questioned is striker Chris Maguire. After being chased by Derby and signing on at PPS last summer for almost half a £million, his impact was minimal, except in the reserves. He drew some public criticism from the manager...but then, who hasn’t?

Maguire is having a successful spell on loan at troubled Pompey; his loan has been extended until the season-end but he will be ineligible to play when Derby visit Fratton Park in Derby’s final away game of 2011-12 on 21st April. It remains to be seen, after a ‘fanfare arrival’ at Derby last summer, if he will figure in Nigel Clough’s future plans.

The Rams were knocked down a place in the Championship table on Good Friday because Burnley beat Brighton 1-0 to leapfrog Derby, on the same points but with a vastly superior goal difference. Monday’s opponents DirtyLeeds suffered defeat at Reading and had a man sent off.

Coach Johnny Metgod, who occasionally steps in with an intriguing comment or two when interviewed, said that a mid-table finish for the Rams would be ‘realistic’ - but not a top-six finish, alluding to Derby’s financial restrictions.

He said that for the wage budget provided at Derby - which he called ‘a bottom-six budget’ - this season will have been ‘magnificent’. Perhaps he was ghosting his manager’s thoughts and giving Tom Glick a nudge to remind the investors that more players and better quality signings were still needed at Pride Park Stadium.

As the season reaches its climax, Derby are off the pace; safety achieved early is satisfying (for a change) but treading water and watching smaller clubs fight it out for the glory and rewards of Premier League status seems to be the permanent repose for Derby County and the fans.

The Rams are ‘in the middle of nowhere’ and will have over-performed relative to their budget but under-performed considering the scale of their infrastructure and size of their fanbase. Derby’s average crowd exceeds that of more ambitious outfits like Southampton, Cardiff, Brighton, Leeds and Leicester and we are second only to West Ham United in the attendance stakes.

If GSE was recording bottom-six crowds at Pride Park Stadium, alarm bells would certainly be ringing and the club would have fallen into even deeper anonymity. Gates at bottom-six clubs are in stark contrast: Doncaster, Bristol City, and Millwall are half that enjoyed by Derby.

Derby enjoy comfortably higher gates than the bottom-five Premier League clubs - Bolton, QPR, Blackburn, Wigan and Wolves and even recording substantially better figures like those at the other strugglers in our division (Pompey, Coventry and Nothingham Forest) would still be seen as a huge fall from grace.

Gates can follow the level of entertainment on offer and expectation levels surrounding a club. Derby must provide more entertainment and higher achievement to arrest the downward trend - even if the financial situation can be cited as a contributory factor to the year-on-year gate decline.

Derby had a chance to jump a place or two at home to Paul Jewell’s Ipswich Town. If Nigel Clough had access to half the money for players that Jewell wasted at Derby, then the Rams might well be solidly placed in the top six of the Championship instead of forever treading water.

The Tractor Boys were expected to make an impact at the business end of the table this season but Jewell has guided them to an anonymous mid-table berth just below Derby County. Ipswich squeaked home 1-0 against Derby at Portman Road in December and now both clubs wanted to avoid an ‘end of season’ feeling to the Easter fixture.

Nigel Clough was without Steve Davies for the return game on Saturday, who went down with sickness again. Jamie Ward made a surprise return in the only team change from last weekend’s draw with Bristol City.

The Rams did nevertheless commence proceedings in an end-of-season style, being slower out of the blocks than Ipswich, who enjoyed the brighter moments of an unexceptional first half. Frank Fielding was called upon to make telling saves, whilst the Rams’ misfiring attack failed to disturb an efficient Ipswich back line.

Derby brightened up after the interval, even though Town still threatened in their regular attacking forays. The Rams forced a rash of corners as they managed to apply some pressure around the hour mark, but they failed to fashion a breakthrough.

Theo Robinson, praised by the manager and given Derby’s Man of the Match award, was as enigmatic as ever with a piece of quick skill one moment then sloppy play or a poor decision the next. He flashed a scissor-kick just wide but dithered twice in good positions when the chance to shoot or find a better-placed colleague had the crowd moaning as the opportunities evaporated.

Ben Davies struck a post and Jason Shackell had an effort desperately cleared off the line. Fielding had to tip a Jay Emanuel-Thomas drive onto a post but the Rams perhaps had the better of the second period. Nathan Tyson came on as a late run-around substitute again.

It ended 0-0, in a game that never reached fever pitch. Nigel Clough was happy with the clean sheet and an improved second-half performance - but he might have liked to have in-form Chris Maguire on call at Derby. The on-loan Scot rammed in another goal for Pompey as they took a creditable point in the 2-2 South Coast ‘derby’ draw against table-topping Southampton.

A 24,200 holiday crowd shrugged off the rather inconsequential event at Pride Park Stadium and yawned their way home. The point lifted Derby back up to 12th place ahead of theie Easter Monday trip to Elland Road, Leeds. The Yorkshire side are above Derby on goal difference only.

It’s the last week of the ‘early-bird’ season-ticket renewal deadline period next week; if you’re going to sign up for another glittering DCFC Championship campaign at the lowest price increase level, you need to do it by 15th April! The 2012-13 fixtures are released on 18th June 2012 - and the Championship season kicks off on 18th August 2012. Happy Easter!

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RamsWeek 15 last season, Derby County faced ‘The Battle of Evermore’ as they struggled to cross the Championship safety line and amass enough points to ensure their fight against relegation was won. The club seemed to be forever battling to keep players fit from injury too.

Manager Nigel Clough lost Gareth Roberts and Paul Green to serious injuries, Shaun was awaiting knee surgery and other centre-halves - Anderson and Leacock - were in and out of the squad with only intermittent fitness.

The Rams faced Coventry City needing points badly - but found themselves 0-2 down before 40 minutes had elapsed. To everyone’s surprise, Derby went into half-time level at 2-2, after a Steve Davies header and a Robbie Savage penalty.

Derby scrapped for a point and succeeded; they were 19th in the table, eight points clear of the bottom three. They next faced play-off hopefuls DirtyLeeds at Pride Park Stadium, hoping to ‘do the double’ over their old Yorkshire foes.

The Football League signed away television rights to Sky Sports for £195m in a deal running from 2012 to 2015.

 

Photo: Action Images



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