Pre season teams

At Matlock Town W1-0 scorer Forsyth

First Half

Roos, Freeman, Forsyth, Bryson, Buxton, O'Brien, Coutts, Allan, Martin, Ward, Russell.

Second Half

Mitchell, T Naylor, L Naylor, Hanson, Rawson, Whitbread, Sharriff, Lowe, Sammon, Bunjaku, Bennett.

At Ilkeston FC D0-0

First Half

Roos, Freeman, O'Brien, Buxton, Forsyth, Allan, Hanson, Bunjaku, Russell, Martin, Ward.

Second Half

Etheridge, Medaglia, L Naylor, T Naylor, Rawson, Whitbread, Sharriff, Lowe, Sammon, Santos, Bennett

Subs McDonald, Calero, Uade

Play Offs -Away from the Action

We have made for appearances in the championship play offs with mixed success.

When I look back to them games it always brings up a memory or too!

When our George Burley managed Rams met Preston in the end of season knockout for a place in the final, I couldn't make the away leg. I was working at Scunthorpe Speedway at the time and had to rely on watching the match in a local pub.

I did have tickets for the return at Pride Park, however that week we wee holidaying in Fleetwood, which is just up the road from Preston.

On the Monday of the holiday we actually visited Deepdale and saw the players in practice.

Back then, the National Footballl museum was also located at the ground. There's a great statue of Tom Finney outside too.

The home leg took place on the Wednesday night. Myself and my son Aron drove down from Fleetwood to Derby in the early afternoon. We got there about an hour before kick off.

The match itself is history, but our journey back up North was quite a laugh. Preston fans travelling back blowing the horns in their cars as they passed us on the journey back.

Billy v Burley part two in 2007 was memorable for something else other than the great result.

Just towards the end of the game the heavens opened and my walk back to the car with my son and daughter saw us all get soaked to the skin. We park near my nephews house in Chaddesdon. 

We all had to remove our jeans and ride home in our underwear whilst our clothes dried out on the car heaters. Fortunately I had a travel rug to spare the blushes of the son and daughter, however I hate to think what the police would have made of me driving home in my boxers! 

From Mid-Table to Play Offs.

There has been a little debate recently amongst tweeters as to would we have finished in third place had Steve McClaren not been appointed as Head Coach.

I myself was engaged in quite a long debate with a fellow Rams fan a few weeks ago that opposed the sacking of Nigel Clough and believes the season would have ended pretty much the same had he not been removed.

Don't get me wrong! I like Nigel Clough! I think he did an excellent job in clearing up the mess he inherited from Billy Davies and Paul Jewell. His team played far better football than theirs and cost a fraction of them too.

However, I feel the time was right for him to move on to a new challenge.

When Steve McClaren was initially appointed I was to be honest a little underwhelmed. I wasn't judging him on his tenure as England boss as only one man has won any silverware whilst in charge of the National team. Nor was I basing it on his short stay at our rivals Nottingham Forest where he took over from Billy Davies who has the knack of getting teams to over perform.

When he was dismissed by Twente I thought that his time as a number one had come to an end. Twente sacked him despite being only six points off the top.

He had been coaching QPR prior to his return to Derby and when he was appointed both Harry Redknapp and Joey Barton stated quite clearly that they were sad to see him go.

I decided after listening to a special phone in on Radio Derby, that maybe just maybe it might work.

The rest is history, but just how did he turn things around?

He brought in Derby people to start with! Paul Simpson was brought in as first team coach and was a fans favourite as a player.

Former goalkeeper Eric Steele joined the line up after finding himself surplus to David Moyes requirements at Manchester United. It's clear for all to see the improvement in Lee Grant since Steele came back as goalkeeping coach.

The Right Back position had been giving us problems. Keiron Freeman had been dropped and publicly lambasted by Nigel Clough after one game and replaced by Adam Smith on loan from Spurs.

Smith looked useful in attack, but lacked a bit in defensive qualities.

Andre Wisdom, a centre half by trade was brought in on a season loan from Liverpool and made the jib his own.

Simon Dawkins was brought in initially on loan from Spurs, but was signed full time in January and has had many good games and brings something different to the table. 

Patrick Bamford has been a useful loanee from Chelsea and George Thorne has impressed Rams fans with his displays.

Craig Forsyth has looked a different player since the return of the Mac too!

All in all a good job has been done!

Obviously time will tell if the positives will remain and if we can move forward from here, but the indications so far are very good.

Play Off Lottery Ahead!

Derby brought the curtain down on the 2013/14 season with a point at Leeds and finished with. Club record points tally of 85 points.

Despite Steve McClaren making six changes to the side we came away with a point and are in good form going into the end of season play offs.

I've never been a fan of the play offs. I enjoy watching them, however they are one of the things I'd scrap from the game.

We finished 13 points ahead of Brighton and Hove Albion who we face on Thursday and 5 ahead of QPR who finished in fourth place and one below us. In my opinion third place teams who miss out in this end of season lottery suffer a travesty of justice!

Of course it's a good way to go up. Winning at Wembley in front of a live TV audience, but there's only one winner! 

We have a mixed record in the play offs too.

Arthur Cox's Derby went out to Blackburn many years ago. We went to Ewood Park and despite getting a two goal lead we lost 4-2 and could a Only manage a 2-1 in the return at the Baseball Ground.

Roy McFarland took us to Wembley where despite dominating a game, we went down 2-1 to Leicester in controversial circumstances.

George Burley managed to get us into them during the reign of the 'Three Amigos' but we went down to a Billy Davies led Preston.

It was Billy Davies leading us to glory seven years ago. First a dramatic semi final against George Burley's Southampton and then on to Wembley where despite being outplayed we snatched a win against West Bromich. 

It was a great feeling to win that final and Derby finished third in the Division too!  However I feel that the play off system defeats the object of a league. 

The League Table doesn't lie and we were the third best side in the Championship and it would be a tragedy if we were denied promotion due to this lottery.

Whatever happens, all Rams fans will, I'm sure, salute Steve McClaren, Paul Simpson and Eric Steele on a job well done and treating us to some of the most exciting football we have seen in years.

Billy from Hero to Zero!

I prefer to talk about Derby on this blog site. However after the last weekend in which we demolished Nottingham Forest 5-0 and Billy Davies paying the price by losing his job, I'd like to comment on my thoughts of 'King Billy'.

I took a dislike to him when he was Preston manager. After our George Burley side went down 2-0 at Deepdale in the first leg of a play off against them he had his players banging on the walls and shouting as if it was job done. No class in victory at all!

The following season against Leeds he was up to his old tricks again. Kicking a ball onto the pitch and then pointing out to the officials that two balls were on the pitch in a deliberate attempt to stop the game.

He arrived by helicopter at Moor Farm appointed by Peter Gadsby and the consortium that had saved us from the clutches of SISU whom Jeremy Keith had tried to bring in to take over the club.

After half a dozen games or so we picked up and eventually made it into the higher echelons of the division. He signed some good players like Matt Oakley, Steve Howard, David Jones etc. he signed some dross too! Bob Malcolm, Mo Camara etc we had two decent keepers in Lee Grant and Lee Camp, but Billy decided to sign Stephen Bywater. It's interesting to see which two are currently playing regular first team football. 

We made the play offs and ironically beating George Burley's Southampton on our way to Wembley.

In which has proven to be his finest hour, Billy Davies started his shenanigans telling the press that he didn't know if he was staying on at the club! 

Of course he was the main architect of our disastrous season in the top flight. He spent £3.5m on Robert Earnshaw who he then continually left out of the side. Over three million for Claude Davis who must be ranked amongst the worst centre halves to wear the white of Derby. Another two million plus went on Kenny Miller. Billy was caught out! Out of his depth! 

Rams fans were on the receiving end of countless jokes! Thank goodness twitter wasn't used then!

He got his much wanted contract extension, but within weeks was gone!

After a home 0-2 loss to Chelsea, a game in which we actually performed quite well, he was interviewed post match by BBC Radio Derby. Throughout the interview was calling for more investment in the playing staff. That's a fair request, but he stated that he hadn't seen the then Chairman Adam Pearson for six weeks, saying the chairman is a busy man.

Them accusations were refuted by Pearson and Billy got the boot!

He eventually found his way back into the game with our local rivals Nottingham Forest. However, he continually referred back to Derby and snipe after snipe about how he was treated by our club.

He did achieve getting our red rivals into two play off semi finals, but following a disagreement with the Late Nigel Doughty, a man who pumped in excess of £110m plus over many years into the club was sacked again.

He spent a long time away before finding work again. Nearly joining Blackpool, he opted for a return to Forest. Boosted by the new owner Fawaz Al-Hasawi he began spending and put together a very strong squad.

The circus then started. Billy stopped talking to the media and created problems for himself. Respected journalists like John Percy were ignored! In fact there's a sense of relief from Forest journalists like Daniel Taylor that he's gone!

His press conference after beating us was quite bizarre! Instead of talking about a good victory more digs at the media came from his mouth.

This Saturday sealed his fate and one will wonder if another club will employ him.

There's no doubting he does have a talent, but his ego and his confrontational style will not put him top of anyone's list to lead there club. Sure enough he had injuries galore on Saturday, but that starting eleven included more than one million pound player and had enough talent to make more of a game of it than they did. It's the managers job to choose and lift the team and it looked like he had lost the dressing room to me.

There's only one result in that case and it's the sack!

The typical snipes we endured like him saying that it should have been Preston that won that play off final are unforgivable! No respect for our club! Forest fans prepare yourself if he does land another job! Preston fans warned us!

It's ironic that his greatest moment was with the club he's derided ever since leaving!

Sponsorship

With financial fair play penalties due in January next, many teams have been busy brining in extra revenue by sponsorship deals.

All sponsorships have to be of marketable rate.

Prior to the home game with Bolton I walked round the IPro stadium to look at various sponsorship signs and also the parts of the ground hired out to third party companies.

Mind How We Go!

Well most of us Derby fans will be feeling a little frustrated to say the least after Saturdays game with Millwall.

Yes they did appear to be taking time wasting to another level, but it's games like these that we need to win and overcoming these negative tactics is what's often required to separate teams chasing the top six and the pack below.

Struggling sides who are fighting relegation will be every bit as difficult opponents as those rivalling us for a play off spot.

Bolton are next up tomorrow night and believe me they will pose a threat. They have under performed for the majority of the season, but blew away Leeds 5-1 at Elland Road on Saturday.

Saturday we travel to Reading which has never been a happy hunting ground for us and this is followed by the visit of Forest in what could turn out to be the most important East Midlands Derby in decades. 

We need to be totally on top of our game or we could be looking at a run of five successive defeats by the time we travel to Ipswich! 

Now is not the time to lose form and it could prove costly at the end of the season.

We need our back four to hold tight, the midfield to step up and our strikers to take every chance. Play offs seem to be the realistic goal, but they are still a target rather than a formality!