Tickle Tackle - Dead Cat Bounce
Tuesday, 18th Mar 2008 17:06 by Steve Tickle

Last weekend - just for a change – the Rams made the headlines for all the right reasons... but will it last?

For once this season, we Rams fans could be proud of the way the team performed and we could read the match reports without having to hide behind a cushion. For once this season, we took the game to the opposition and didn't let them settle.

Sure, we rode our luck but to an extent, the old adage that you make your own luck is true. Sure, Man Utd thought they only had to turn up to get the three points but on far too many occasions this season, that's pretty much all the opposition did have to do.

The big question now is can the team replicate that performance against Middlesbrough at the weekend or was it just the “Dead Cat Bounce” of a team plummeting into the CCC? We're not going to know the answer until around 5pm on Saturday.

Middlesbrough of course, are one of the Premier League's more enigmatic teams. When they're on form they're a match for any team but all too often, they can turn out some pretty dire performances of their own. We'll have to see on Saturday which versions of the two teams turn up.

Some people suggested that the turn around in performance on Saturday was because Andy Appleby and the club's investors were present at the game and people were thinking about renewed contracts but I don't go with that. For one thing, I'm not sure footballers think that deeply and for another, Appleby and the VIPs aren't going to have any practical say in the composition of the retained list.

Some people also think maybe the team raised their game because of who they were playing against but the previous performance at Stamford Bridge surely blows a hole in that argument? No, I think maybe for once they took on board what Paul Jewell has been preaching since he arrived at Pride Park.

As I say, the performance at the Riverside will tell us a lot about whether we can look forward to a bit of fight and application in the season's last few games or if Saturday's showing was just that Dead Cat Bounce.