Well, we're three games into the new season and it's been a mixed bag so far.
Solid performance and deserved point against Portsmouth, narrow defeat [with some positives] at Man City and abject surrender at Spurs, where our lads just seemed to freeze - the travelling fans, who urged the team to win 4-3 after we'd gone three down, deserved much better. Billy Davies reflected that we didn't compete in the first twenty minutes, when the damage was done. Before the game, we heard that the players were 'relishing' a trip to Tottenham, but they didn't show much of this, going three goals down in the first quarter of an hour.
It doesn't seem that long ago that the Rams managed to hold their own in the Premier League, but times have changed and everyone agrees that it will take an extraordinary amount of organisation, determination, pluck and luck to survive our first season back. It's like moving away from an area and coming back to find it gentrified, with the house prices gone through the roof and the pubs replaced by tapas bars.
It is the same place, but seems less welcoming, more foreboding than before. The Spurs match, against a side that has aspirations to break the monopoly [or is it quadropoly?] of the top four, that has invested heavily, brought home just how difficult our task is [can anyone remember when we put eight past Tottenham, a time when we would regularly finish well above them in the old First Division?]. Can we make ourselves at home again in the top tier?
There's been much debate on whether we a chance of staying up this season. Opinions seem split three ways:
As an avowed member of the latter group, I expect plenty of ups and downs before we host Reading on 11 May, but we will need to play more to the strengths we do possess if we are to have much of a chance. We know we can't measure up to most of the other teams in terms of talent, squad depth or cash. What we do have [judging from last season] is organisation and that much-mentioned quality 'grit': cussedness, solidarity and attitude; the kind of quality that took us past an on-paper better side in West Brom at Wembley. This seemed to desert us at White Hart Lane.
The press have [of course] already written us off. Saturday's debacle inspired the usual dismissive prose: "...effervescent demolition of a feeble Derby County..." [Sunday Times]; "Tottenham make light work of sheepish Rams who face a long, hard struggle to survive at the top level." [Independent]. We are already familiar with the arrogant opinions of Mark Lawrenson and other TV pundits. We will hear much more of this over the next few months, but has the team got the chops to make the media eat their words?
Davies has repeatedly said that we need more quality and that strikers are his priority. The Rams have now been linked with Plymouth forward Sylvan Ebanks-Blake; we have already signed American midfielder Benny Feilhaber and [it seems] his compatriot Eddie Lewis. None of these are likely to send fans into paroxysms of frenzied delight, but unlike Spurs we can't come up with £16 million for a Darren Bent. More signings are, of course, a must, but we must rediscover our hard-to-beat mentality if we are to get anywhere this season.
Billy will play his part in giving the players a [metaphorical] kick up the backside and we can hope that Spurs was a blip and see a return to the confident performance of the Pompey game. Inexperience and acclimatisation to the giddy heights of the top tier are always likely to lead to some jitters and losing to a club who could end up in a Champions' league spot is not unexpected.
We now face what should be a highly winnable game against Birmingham at Pride Park [a chance for revenge for their fluke winning goal here last season]; it's a little early to talk about must-win matches, but this one comes close, with a visit to Liverpool next up in the league.