Twenty is plenty!

Whilst Derby County fans have been treated to some more attractive stylish football this season, the crowds still remain disappointing.

On Saturday 22nd September, little more than 25,000 fans attended the game against top six side Brentford., Why?

Last season the reason given by many is that Gary Rowett’s side played dull negative football that wasn’t pleasing to the connoisseur  of the game, but Frank Lampard’s style has been anything but dull! So why aren’t the fans turning up? 

Usually when riding high in the division you are looking at around the 30,000 mark, we have now dropped to 23,000 against Blackburn.

Last season was the first in many that we even failed to sell out the East Midlands Derby against our local rivals Nottingham Forest. Why?

We have sold around 21,000 season tickets so when you take them into account and travelling support it’s plain to see that the pay as you go customers are staying away in great numbers.

Now it’s fair to say that wages in real terms are no greater than 10 years ago, but is it just that? Or is it ticket prices?

Historically Derby have had better attendances than Nottingham Forest more often than not, yet our rivals are currently averaging 2,000 more fans a game than us.

We both have around 21,000 season ticket holders. Ours slightly down and theirs up to record levels! Their owner slashing prices and getting bums on seats.

Let’s have a look at pricing - these are for comparable seats at Derby and Forest both for a fixture against Norwich City.

Derby                       Nottingham Forest

Adults £29.00.        Adults £25.00

Seniors £21.00.       Seniors £18.00

13-17’s £16.50.       18-23 £12.00

2-12’s £9.50.           12-17 £10.00

                                   2-12 £5.00

What is evident is the fact that our rivals have a much fairer pricing plan in place and they are making the match day experience more affordable for families. A 17 year old at Forest paying just 50p more than a 2 year old at Derby!! I find that incredible! A 13 year old at Derby paying £4.50 more than a 23 year old at Forest! I have to give our rivals due credit here! They are giving their club back to the fans!

There’s more money within football now than there ever has been! Millions is paid by television companies and yet ticket prices are still increasing! Surely its morally wrong to keep ripping off the fan! 

As for Derby County, it’s time to take a lesson from our rivals and have a fairer pricing policy for match day tickets. Also, the above are for advance sales. To buy the day increases the cost by around £3.00 a ticket! Why? Some people do not know until last minute as to whether they can get to a game. Why punish those people?

There’s simply no justification for the continual ripping off of fans! I appreciate that clubs have to comply with Financial Fair Play Regulations, but enough is enough! Championship Football tickets should be £20.00 Maximum! TWENTY IS PLENTY!What is noticeable that apart from cheaper tickets, Nottingham Forest offer more age categories and are making the game more affordable to thousands.

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Down to Earth

Well after a good win over our local rivals, a harsh reality check has been delivered to our Rams!

We have over the last few games discovered that we are still far from promotion material without adding some much needed firepower up front.

Scraping a 1-0 victory over Birmingham City via a Darren Bent penalty followed by a dull goalless draw against Wigan brought back the question, "Where are the goals?"

We are still struggling to find the net despite some heavy investment in the squad. Matej Vydra looks lost as a lone striker and Darren Bent isn't the force of a few years ago!

Up to yesterday, our defence had looked almost unbreachable, but we were forved to wake up and smell the coffee after a dreadful performance at Norwich where we suffered a 3-0 spanking and it could have been more!

There has been activity on the transfer front though the two names linked with us are at this stage looking unlikely to be joining us.

Chris Martin has stated a desire to return from his loan spell from Fulham, but his team manager is understandably reluctant to oblige. His refusal to play for Fulham will hardly make matters any better either.

Henri Lansbury is a target and a very good one too! He would certainly add bite to our attack, however Forest are unlikely to allow their captain and arguably their best player to join us at any price.

Steve McClaren needs to be thinking not just of upgrading our pool of players to mount a challenge for a top six lace this season, but he needs to develop a strategy to add some versatility to the squad.

We saw how the players struggled to adapt to a 4-4-2 formation under Nigel Pearson and it was obvious that Mac would return the team to his favoured 4-3-3, but when teams successfully set up to nullify that attacking formation, a plan b really is a must. How many times over the past few seasons have we struggled when teams have "Parked the bus?"

Also in this transfer window, we need to be looking at some players that evidently are not going to feature in the team. There's a hand ful of players who, in my own opinion, do not have a future at the club. There's players who are simply not good enough!

You could argue that our current starting line up isn't as strong as the one that got to Wembley under McClaren last time.

I am not meaning to sound too negative as we have gone on a long unbeaten run, but there are obvious holes within the team and to make progress they need filling asap.

I was against reappointing Steve McClaren and he has made some good strides in proving the doubters wrong, but there is still a lot to do to win us over totally. In my own opinion promotion is a must to achieve that. Nothing less!

Bragging Rights Retained

The latest installment in the Brian Clough Trophy saw the bragging rights retained by The Rams in an East Midlands Derby that they won easily on Sunday.

The first half was actually quite even with neither side looking very sharp in front of goal. An own goal by Nikolas Bendtner separating the two sides at the break. I for one was very cautious at half time as we were in the same position a couple of years ago and went on to lose 2-1.

The second half saw our team take complete control and Forest who had star men Assombalonga and Lansbury missing weren't at the races. Their lack of depth in their squad being cruelly exposed as their starting eleven failed to compete.

Every single one of the Derby side could go away at the final whistle without receiving criticism for their performance. Even the much maligned Chris Baird has now started to win fans over. His superb pass for Tom Ince's brilliant goal to put us 2-0 up will be talked about for quite some time.

It may have finished 3-0, but in reality it coul have been more.

There were a few talking points in the game. Darren Bent should have had a second yellow card earlier in the game according to our visiting fans and indeed on another day he might have done. However, it appears that the referee gave him the benefit of the doubt as to whether it was an intended foul or a slip when he brought down Eric Lichaj. To be honest if every bookable offence was applied in this fixture over the years, some of the games may well have ended with 9 or 10 a side. My opinion is that had we been reduced to10 men on Sunday, a familiar chant from the home fans may have made a comeback as I'm sure we may well have won the game with one player less.  Lichaj himself did more than enough to pick up two yellow cards in the game, but only received the one.

Some are complaining that Derby didn't return the ball when Stojkovic kicked it out to enable Olsson to receive treatment. Well, to be honest quite a few also didn't realise that, that was his intent. Ben Osborn in fact tried to prevent the ball from going out and that for me validates our claim to retain the ball from the throw in. Some may disagree, but the goal wasn't actually scored from the restart in play either. It was two plays and the own goal came after some shocking defending.

This game always brings up the odd talking point and this time the amateur dramatics by Ben Osborn was one. His clash with Bradley Johnson saw the most pathetic put on by a visiting player I have seen in a good few years.The lad was a hero for Forest a couple of seasons ago, but Sunday he let himself down.

Our defence had been described as shaky by Kenny Burns pre game. This was surely a pure wind up as it has set a new club record for clean sheets. Not wanting to temp fate, but its as good as any in the division at the moment.

Tonight we head to Shepherds Bush and a match at struggling QPR. They are now managed by Ian Holloway who had given us quite a bit of stick during our poor spell under Nigel Pearson. I'm sure our players will be eager to remind him how form has improved since a change of manger.

Holloway though will have done his homework and I for one am expecting a tough game with his game killing, time wasting, negative tactics.

Fingers crossed for another three points.

On a Roll Leading to the Big One

It's that time  of the season again! Yes! The East Midlands Derby is this Sunday and both Derby and Nottingham Forest have hit form.

Derby are on a run of five straight wins, Forest too have picked up their form of late.

Both rode their luck a little at the weekend too!

Forest scraped past nine man Newcastle in a game that had fans divided over some of the refereeing decisions.

Derby took a lead away at Wigan, but for long periods in the second half were having to defend their one goal advantage. The defence came away with yet another clean sheet.

The run of wins has certainly changed the mood amongst paying supporters at Pride Park! Wins against Leeds and Norwich are not to be scoffed at. Both sides are up there and should be in the mix at the end of the season.

There is no room for complacency though. Forest are a team that know where the net is and haven't been in short supply of goals with or without Britt Assombalonga. Their star striker has had a few niggly injuries since coming back from a long lay off.

Henri Lansbury has scored a few including a hat trick from midfield recently. a powerful performer in midfield and a player we need to boss from the word go.

What is important to us Rams is that Darren Bent is fit. Both he and Ince have looked different players since McClaren's return as manager.

A leaky forest defence may well be their downfall. One thing I am certain about is that this won't be a goalless draw.

An attacking display will be needed and the midfield will be vital. Bradley Johnson who is in my opinion our most improved player this season will have his work cut out protecting the back four.

The much used cliche of form goes out of the window and on the day the team that want it more will win.

Hopefully that team is Derby County and bragging rights remain this side of Brian Clough Way.

Improvements Evident

The defeat at Huddersfield was frustrating and perhaps the less said abou it the better, especially after a much improved showing against Sheffield Wednesday.

It's true that we were fortunate in the opening minutes with Richard Keogh handling the ball on the line. No penalty or red card and this time we did take advantage of having some luck.

In my opinion this was the best performance by the team in a very long time. We were in the end deserved winners. Every single player put a shift in and it showed!

We looked more dangerous on the attack and although we had to soak up some pressure in the second half, we stood up to it and dug  in deep.

A big shout out is due to Scott Carson who was simply dominant in the penalty area and made some great saves. Both Cyrus Christie and Alex Pearce had great games too! We worked together as a team and although there is still room for more improvement, a real step forwards has been taken.

It made a nice change to see all of the positive comments on twitter and nice to be able to watch the highlights programme on tv without having to endure more pain.

A consistent topic for discussion on social media has been Chris Martin. Martin has started to score goals for Fulham and many fans are still upset at his exit from the club.

He has joined them on a season loan with an option to purchase. Unless he fails to impress Fulham, which is looking very unlikely at the moment, he isn't coming back. We need to move on now and hopefully the club will make another striker a priority during the January transfer window. That's not to say that Matej Vydra won't turn out to be a good signing in the long term.

We travel to Wolves on Saturday and like Derby they have been under performing this season and have recently parted with Walter Zenga. he task ahead of us will be no easier than in recent seasons.

Molineux is never an easy place to go get a win at, but a result will surely show that we are are turning things round. Its a tough schedule ahead but results are needed sooner rather than later to climb out of the bottom half of the division.