Ramballs

As usual Ramballs has scoured the internet for the match reports and coverage of the weekends game. Having seen the highlights on The Football League Show, I now think Connolly’s reaction to Tyson’s run for the third goal were poor. He steps up with his arm in the air when Tyson was already on the ball. Also, I still have no idea what Hulse’s goal was disallowed for given the ease with which Morgan (I think) went down.

If you missed it, check out Bywater laughing amongst the post-match nonsense. It’s on the Iplayer around the 15m 16s mark and it’s just another reason to love Bywater.

If you haven’t done so already, check out the RamBalls report here.

Here are the match reports from around the net.

Daily Telegraph

Daily Mirror

The Times Online

The Independent

The Guardian

Daily Star

Sky Sports

Derby Evening Telegraph

Nottingham Evening Post

Football.co.uk

ESPN

RamZone.net

DCFC.co.uk

NFFC Official Site

Football 365

Zimtownship News. A Zimbabwe newspaper which is the obvious location for an East Midlands derby match report

4TheGame.com

Team Talk

Vital Football

The City Ground was the scene of yet another exciting, but ultimately disappointing, East Midlands derby game which saw the red dogs collect the Brian Clough trophy for the first time. The Rams learnt today that you can’t win them all, especially when you concede three goals in the first half.

Within one minute of kick off, 58 seconds to be precise, Derby were one goal down through an excellent strike from Radoslaw Majewski which left Bywater with no chance. This was not the start that the Rams had anticipated and things weren’t going to be getting better in a hurry.

The referee put his mark on the game very early on by dishing out three yellow cards within the first 12 minutes. For a game which is clearly going to be a tough, physical contest, this was disappointing as it prevented the game from flowing as you might expect in these circumstances.

The Rams still looked dangerous going forward and the ball managed to find its way to Gary Teale who has demonstrated a cool finishing ability this season. Not so today. He received the ball on the edge of the area and struck a shot wide of the left post.

The reds second goal came from a set piece after Kris Commons conceded a free kick. The ball was played in deep and Dexter Blackstock managed to squeeze himself in between Rob Hulse and Miles Addison to put the ball beyond Stephen Bywater.

Rob Hulse looked to have pulled us back into the game only for the referee to disallow the goal for no apparent reason. Would this be a repeat of the Atwell show last season? It would appear so.

The referee can’t be blamed for the goals conceded though and the third goal was a good example of pace beating our defence. Kris Commons lost possession and Forest burst forward. Dexter Blackstock played a good ball to Nathan Tyson ran behind the defence and slotted beneath the oncoming Bywater.

The half time whistle blew and Derby left the pitch with a mountain to climb in the second half.

If the Rams had to climb a mountain, they must have had some Kendal Mint cake at half time as they came flying out of the traps. Kris Commons was replaced by Lee Croft which gave the Rams more balance as Crofty on the right caused problems for Forest for the rest of the afternoon.

The Rams soon clawed their way back into the game through Miles Addison. His overhead kick came off Cohen and Lee Camp was staring at the ball as it rolled into the bottom corner of the net. Game on!
It was clear that the lads believed they could still get something from this game as the passing became more precise, the movement was better and the tempo increased and on 61 minutes, Jake Livermore found the back of the net from just outside the area.

The rest of the game was frantic with several opportunities for the Rams, the best of which fell to Rob Hulse. Hulse came close to getting on the end of a Teale cross which would certainly have pulled the Rams level if only he’d got just the slightest of touches.

Lee Croft continued to cause problems down the right but he failed to put the ball into the dangerous areas when he got into good positions.

As the final moments of the game drew close, the action became more frenetic and tempers began fray. Savage was involved in an exchange of verbals with one of the Forest unknowns and Stephen Pearson picked up a booking late in the game despite not doing anything other than walk away from a heated situation. This was just one of many moments of poor refereeing in this game.

The final whistle blew and the scum scored their first victory of the Rams for six and half years. You might have thought this would be satisfaction enough for the red dogs but that wasn’t true for Nathan Tyson who plucked the corner flag out of the ground and started waving it around right in front of the 4000+ Derby fans. Before long all the players had come together for a round of handbags at dawn which included the coaching staff of both sides. No doubt the FA will be looking into this matter but I doubt they have the power to enforce a full frontal lobotomy on Tyson which may well be the only thing to cure his supreme idiocy.

Check out this footage from after the game.

Pride Park was bathed in sunshine today for the Rams match against Plymouth Argyle. Paul Sturrock’s side came to Derby looking for their first win of the season but it wasn’t to be as the Green Army couldn’t match the Rams in the second half.

The starting eleven featured Steve Davies as the lone striker with support from Spurs loanee Jake Livermore and Stephen Pearson in midfield with Croft and Teale playing out on the flanks. Once again, Nigel Clough saw fit to stick with Jake Buxton and Miles Addison in the heart of defence with Shaun Barker warming the bench alongside Kris Commons and Rob Hulse.

From a Rams fans perspective the first half was poor up until the 30 minute mark. The lads were wasteful in possession and the movement just wasn’t there, nor were many simple passes to feet. Bywater nearly landed himself in trouble when his pass fell well short of the target and Dean Moxey played a fantastic ball, from inside the Plymouth half, out to the other side of the pitch for the Argyle wide man to run onto. Composed football this wasn’t.

Argyle went close on ten minutes when Derby failed to clear the ball and Karl Duguid hit a first time shot that deflected wide. The Greens didn’t have to wait too long for the lead though, as Jamie Mackie ran onto a long ball and struck the ball against the post. Alan Judge followed up and tried to take the ball past Jake Buxton who brought Judge down and conceded a penalty in the process. It was Judge who was fouled and Judge who handed out the punishment as he slotted home a powerful penalty. I didn’t see the replay at half time but someone who sits near me did and he said the foul was committed a yard outside the penalty area. I can’t comment because from where I sat it looked like a nailed on penalty but we’ll soon find out on tonight’s Football League show.

Plymouth continued to press and spent much of the next ten minutes camped inside the Derby half but failed to make any serious inroads. It wasn’t until the 35 minute mark that the Rams started playing with a sense of urgency and incisiveness that had been missing until that point. The Rams started to get bodies forward and they got their reward five minutes before half time.

A deep free kick was cleared to Robbie Savage, the new Rams captain, who was just outside the box and hit a low ball back into the area which found Jake Buxton who slotted home from 6 yards.

Half Time 1 - 1

The second half was a different game completely as the Rams found their stride but once again struggled to find the net. Stephen Pearson came close to giving the Rams the lead but the ball travelled wide of the left hand post. What followed shortly after will no doubt cause problems for Nigel Clough in the coming weeks.

Steve Davies was fighting for the ball and then went down on the deck in a lot of pain. The stretchers came on and took the young striker off and now we have to wait to find out what the damage is. It’s a real shame for Steve as his Derby career has been blighted by injury so far and you just feel that if he had a decent run in the team he could really give opposition defenders a problem. Fingers crossed that it is not as serious as it first seemed.

Rob Hulse replaced the injured Davies and his height gave the wide men something to aim for in the middle. Around the 70 minute mark he headed wide and it’s just a matter of time before we get Rob Hulse returning to the starting eleven and firing on all cylinders.

Kris Commons entered the fray shortly after 70 minutes replacing Lee Croft. Croft’s performance today caused the Argyle full back a lot of problems and won the Rams a number of free kicks. With Croft off the pitch, Gary Teale moved onto the right hand side and Kris Commons took up left wing duties.

Derby eventually took the lead in the final minute of the match after a string of corners finally resulted in the ball finding Miles Addison who is proving to be a real handful for the opposition during set pieces. Miles rose highest and put the ball in the net giving Derby a late winner.

Possession
Derby 43% Plymouth 57%

Shots on target
Derby 9 Plymouth 2

Shots off target
Derby 4 Plymouth 6

Corners
Derby 13 Plymouth 5

Fouls
Derby 6 Plymouth 23

Attendence: 26,186

RamBalls Additional Comments

The first half was not pretty viewing and we made hard work of getting the win against a Plymouth side who didn’t really threaten us all that much. The attendence at today’s game was also disappointing as Pride Park was home to just over 26,000 fans for the afternoon which, quite frankly, is poor. I recognise the low number of away fans meant we were unlikely to break the 30k mark but 26k is low by our excellent standards. Kids under 8 were free but that still didn’t help. I’d also question the logic of chanting “is that all you take away?” to Plymouth fans who faced a 500 mile round trip to see a team which is struggling to perform under Paul Sturrock.

Jake Livermore had a good debut. He has bags of energy (although he did appear to cramp up a little towards the end) and is comfortable playing a passing game, especially in close quarters. When he was subbed off I heard one “supporter” shout “fuck off back to spurs, you’re shit!” which is not only wrong but also a really strange way to get behind the team. Hopefully our lads get more support from the rest of our fans in future.

Finally, the match day announcer did a better job today than the guy who did it against Peterborough but that wasn’t hard. Simply announcing the right team coming onto the pitch was better than the last game although announcing the attendance without the away fans included was a little strange but it didn’t make that much difference to the total.

Bring on the Forest!

In the past week or so you may have noticed the new adverts down the side of the blog featuring the new DCFC strip and leisurewear. That is because I have launched the RamBalls Amazon store.

The RamBalls Amazon store feature loads of the new Derby County 09/10 replica kit and the latest leisurewear as designed by Adidas. The latest range of leisurewear really is quite smart and it’s reasonably priced so you won’t feel ripped off.

The benefits of shopping through the RamBalls Amazon store include getting to shop safe in the knowledge that your transactions are being processed by the biggest and most trusted online retailer in the world, Amazon, as well as offering a good deals on delivery and service guarantees. It also features a massive selection of Derby County products that you can find in one place without the hassle of searching for it all yourself.

As well as having the latest in DCFC fashion, you can order from a wide range of books about your beloved football club. We’ve got Brian Clough biographies, the little book of Derby County, the complete record of Derby County and plenty more. If you need a DCFC book, you can find it here.

It isn’t all books and jumpers though. The RamBalls Store has a whole host of fantastic gift ideas ranging from DVD, scarves and even a Derby County dog coat, for the dog loving Derby fans.

Take a look around and buy in confidence from the worlds largest e-retailer.

Cheers

Martin RamBalls

This Friday afternoon around 2pm, in the newly opened Jurys Inn hotel, RamBalls was sat in the bar waiting to interview the Rams midfielder and former Wales international Robbie Savage. That’s not entirely true. I was here for the opening of the hotel…and had expected to get some pictures and a few quotes from the likes of Tom Glick and a few other local business people regarding the official opening of the hotel and the beginning of the new partnership between The Rams and Jurys Inn Derby.

The lobby of the hotel is heaving as journalists and representatives from local organisations do their networking. Tom Glick, Derby County CEO, is stood by reception speaking to local businessmen and women. I find myself being ushered towards the bar area (not before I had a canapé or two) where some local journalists and a couple of guys from Sunday national papers are sitting. They alI looked professional and serious and were talking sport. I looked like an extra from Mall Rats and was talking to no one.

I was sat in the corner, faffing around on my BlackBerry, when Robbie Savage walked in. The guy looked smart. I doubt there was a single piece of Primark clothing on him. He strolls towards the journos and says “Hello losers”. They laugh and exchange witticisms; one of them says the transfer window has not been too kind to us this summer. Savage laughs and tells them they look like they should be in Dads Army before sitting on the new hotel sofas to do an interview with East Midlands Today.
After Robbie completed his interviews with EMT and the local press pack, it dawned on me that I might be interviewing Robbie and as such, I had better prepare some questions but before I had even started, it was too late. He said hello, I explained briefly what the blog is about and that was it, we were off.

I chose probably the most inappropriate opening question for an interview ever.

Robbie has always been a player that opposition fans love to hate and Derby fans were no exception. Did he realise the strength of feeling towards him before he arrived at Pride Park?

I knew vaguely. I’ll be honest with you, I didn’t think it was as bad as it was and I thought I would win them over within three or four games because of the way I play but it didn’t happen. I had a nightmare start; I was low on confidence playing in a very, very poor team, the worst team I have ever played for. Usually I can drag people up with me but I couldn’t do anything. I was, you know, basically told I was crap by everybody, felt that way and I couldn’t win them over. I came in on big wages and they expected more and I couldn’t deliver so, in a way, they were right.

One thing I do dislike is booing you. You know, booing your own player. As a player you don’t intentionally play badly, you try your best, whatever happens, you try your best. Booing your own player is wrong, completely wrong. I had it, Gary Teale had it, and Claude had it. Irrespective of what happens, no matter what they feel about that person, you shouldn’t boo your own player. It’s completely and utterly disgraceful in my opinion.

When did he begin to realise that he was winning the fans over?

Probably the Forest game was the main one, if I’m honest with you, when I started waving the scarf. That was the one really, at home. Obviously the gaffer came in and it took a few games to get in the team then I got in the team. I know it was a local Derby but they appreciate what I do now. I’m not going to run around anymore like Greeny [Paul Green] can, or Stephen Pearson. I get on the ball and make us play.

I explain to Robbie that I am surprised. I remember the game against Manchester United at home in the Premier League season where he had a cracking game and I thought that might have been the one.

No, that wasn’t really. They sung my name that game, I remember it, but then again it was one game in twenty. It’s not good enough, it should be every game.

He doesn’t have the legs of old Robbie Savage who chased everything but he can still play. I ask him how he’s finding the change and whether he’s enjoys playing in a midfield three alongside Paul Green and Stephen Pearson as he did against Notts County.

4-4-2 or 5-3-2, whatever the gaffer decides to play, suits me both ways. In a three I think it’s worked well in pre-season. I think it suits the people at the minute. You know we have a few injuries and at the minute it suits the people we have available. Obviously if Hulsey’s fit, Porter’s fit and Kris Commons had a fully fit pre-season it might be different but with Green and Pearson I think I can bring the best of them two and they can bring the best out of me. You’ve got Crofty and Tealey out wide or Commons- whoever the gaffer decides to play- it suits us. It suits us really well.

The thing in that formation, you need the centre backs to have the ball more- you know your football [I smile and nod but inside I think “do I?”]- But because I’m the one lying deep, you need your centre backs to come out with the ball. If I mark and they continue going forward I can just fill in so it’s perfect really. It allows Pearo and Greeny to make the runs forward to support Steven Davies who I thought was exceptional against Notts County and for me, that’s his role, a centre forward; he’s big, strong- that’s his position. I think he’s got a great career.

I concur. Steven Davies is a good centre forward, with a lot of quality and he can beat a man.

Yeah, he can beat a man. He’s quick, for me, probably one of the quickest at the club along with Crofty and Tealey.
I think our best player is Kris Commons. I’m not the manager, luckily enough I’m not the one faced with having to pick people, but that’s why he’s the manager. Kris Commons is a top player, so what position does the manager put him in at the minute. It’s a tough one because people are holding the positions they are in at the minute. We’ve got Crofty and Tealey but Kris Commons is a player you’ve got to have in your team. I’m just glad I’m not the manager.

With talk of Crofty, I wonder how are the new boys are fitting in?

Brilliant. Jake Buxton, from Burton, looks good. Ben Pringle in training looks good, very good- wants to do well. Moxey looks ok.

Croft?

Croft, yeah. Everyone looks ok. They’re young and enthusiastic and want to do well. The gaffer has given them the chance and they want to grasp that with both hands, all of them. It’s looking good. I’m not going to sit here and say we’re going to win the league by thirty points. You know, if we can finish in the top ten then we can build, which the gaffer wants to do. I’m sure we can do that.

I jokingly ask Robbie about the goal against Notts County, describing it as “cracking”.

Fluke. It was a fluke. I’m 35 now and I’ve got a lot of experience and, what you realise is, in certain situations you put the ball in the right area.

You’ll see certain times on a Saturday when I’ll just put the ball into the channel. It looks like it’s going to nobody but it’s a great ball because what happens is the defender will have to put it out for a throw in and you’re thirty or forty yards further up the pitch. The thing I think we’ll have a problem with the home crowd is if we play in a five we keep the ball quite a lot and we’ll pass it back and back and back and to the side. Sometimes the Derby fans can get impatient with that but you’re doing it methodically and for the right reasons, waiting for the opportunity to open up. I just hope they appreciate what we’re trying to do. We’re trying to play football. The gaffer wants us to play but, obviously, not going back for the sake of going back; take every opportunity to go forward and get it in the right area. It’s, erm, it’s looking good.

I ask about the pre-season which has seen the lads do all sorts of activities. How has he found it?

It’s been great. We’ve done all sorts of activities. Swimming, running. It’s been very good, very enjoyable. The lads have bonded well together. We’ve got a smaller group than last year, that’s not hard. The gaffers got his own group now. The thing with the gaffer is, if you do it right, you’ll get a chance with him. If you don’t take the Mick, don’t take the piss, do it right, you respect him, you come into work and do things they want doing, he’ll respect you. That’s what you want from a manager. I respect him greatly. He saved my career. End of story. You know, I did a bit of that myself but he saved me. Simple.

Again, I agree with Robbie. Since Nigel came in he’s been a completely new player.

Yeah. It’s been the greatest turn around since Lazarus.

It’s time to take the conversation a different direction (basically I forgot my questions, panicked and ended up asking this). What was going through his mind when in the 90th minute at Pride Park Stadium he had Craig Burley in your face after he’d just won a penalty? Craig’s a big fella. How’d he feel?

Oh, you know. I wasn’t bothered about it. Shrugged it off. I won a penalty for my team, and it was a penalty. Danny Higginbotham was silly enough to go in for the challenge and if you’re a Leicester City fan, you love me. If I did that for Derby against Leicester, if I won a penalty against Leicester, am I bothered about what the Leicester fans are gonna sing? Couldn’t give a toss, really.

Predictions for the season? He mentioned top ten earlier. Maybe play offs?

Realistically we stayed up by the skin of our teeth last year so we’re not going to win the league by thirty points; we’re not going to win every game. What we are going to do, and I can guarantee the fans, we are going to be the fittest team in the league but the first three or four games are difficult.

You can have all the fitness in the world but, you know the first game of the season, the adrenaline; you’re knackered, you feel knackered. It’s unbelievable. You’ve worked all week, all six weeks, working towards the first game. Physically you’ll be as fit as you ever have been but mentally you’ll be drained. It’s weird. It’s a weird feeling; I can’t explain it to you. We’ll all probably look shattered in the first game, not because we’ve not been doing anything, but because you’ve built it up so much and you’re knackered. It’s amazing. That happens for the first two or three games and then you start kicking in but we need a good start. It’s two tough games with the two promoted teams and everyone thinking “oh they should win them” but look at last year. Doncaster battered us and then Southampton’s kids battered us. So it’s going to be a tough start.

I ask Robbie if he’s ready for the first game of the season and the media talk regarding Clough Jr vs Ferguson Jr. Is he already up for it?

Sure, you’ve got to be up for every game. You’ve got to be up for the cup game on the Tuesday or Wednesday or whenever it is. Every game you’ve got to be up for. If you’re not, you’ll get beat. What you don’t intentionally do is go out there and play bad. Nobody goes onto the pitch and intentionally plays bad. Simple as that. What the gaffer won’t accept is if you don’t run for a ball, if you don’t shut somebody down or you don’t make a tackle. You can’t accept them things. If you play bad, but don’t mean to play bad, you can accept that.

Last year’s cup run was brilliant. Are we going to see the same this year?

Hopefully. It was great. That’s when I came back into the team. It was great, you know. The Carling Cup really got me back on the map. Every game I want to play in, it could be my last season. Who knows? I just want to play in every game.

I’m sure it won’t be his final year given his new role not requiring you to do so much running about, box-to-box.

No, it’s great. I still feel like I could play in the Premiership because you get more time in the Premiership. In this league you don’t get much time. Tomorrow, when we play Stoke or when you play Arsenal or Man Utd, you get more time than you would do against Peterborough. It’s amazing but we’re not playing against Arsenal, but I could do. Look at Graham Alexander, he’s 37. I feel I’ve been a better player over the years than Graham and he’s done exceptionally well at Burnley; brilliant, absolutely fantastic. He’s 37 so why can’t I go on for that long.

I ask him Sav if he’ll be featuring against Stoke on Saturday.

I hope so. The gaffer doesn’t tell us the team until an hour before kickoff. I’ll be playing the masters this time next year though. (Sav laughs)

It’s time for one last question. So Robbie, what have been your careers highlights?

Well, obviously all my moves. Playing for my idol, Mark Hughes, at Blackburn was a great experience. But the greatest achievement was coming back from the dead here. Simple. Coming back and having an influence on the team like I have done is the best part of my career. Winning the league cup at Leicester was good, playing in Europe for Blackburn was good but this now is the best time because people wrote me off. People thought I was finished and were calling me all the names under the Sun. There is nothing better than enjoying what you’re doing, in any walk of life, and proving people wrong, prove 32,000 people wrong. There are always going to be a few hundred who hate me still, I don’t care really, I don’t really give two…hoots. The majority of people who know football will know that I’ve done well.

————————————————————————————————

And with those words, the interview ends. To say that my interview technique needs refining a little is an understatement but Robbie made the whole thing really easy. He’s a very personable bloke and when I had mental blanks, because I hadn’t prepped at all, he was laid back and didn’t bat an eyelid. He’s also completely right about in what he says regarding singling players out for booing. It is unacceptable and Derby fans have been prone to doing it over the few years. Yes, we have seen some awful football but no player tries to play badly. In future, we should just get behind the team even more and make Pride Park a hot bed of noise. Lets make it uncomfortable for the opposition rather than our own squad.

For me, it’s time to go. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of interviewing Sav (it wasn’t too dreadful for a first attempt) and I hope to bring you more interviews in future. Who knows? Next time I might have done some preparation work.

As I left my apartment to head towards Nottingham, the heavens opened. It was a Tuesday evening and here I was, driving down the A52 towards Nottingham in the pouring rain to watch a pre-season friendly against league 2 opposition. Does life get any better than this? Yes. Yes it most certainly does.

By the time I arrived in Nottingham the pitter-patter of the rain had at least stopped. In it’s place was the sound of gun shots and stab victims screaming for dear life. Welcome to Shottingham: Gun capital of the Midlands.

I made my way over to the Wheeler bar at Meadow Lane, ordered a pint and prepared for the big match. Having checked the starting eleven online, I was expecting Varney to play as the lone striker and Davies to be out on the right but I was wrong; the roles were reversed. Teale was on the left, Varney on the right with Green, Pearson and Savage in the middle. The back saw Addison and McEveley play in the centre, Moxey on the left and Conners on the right. Shaun “Reggie” Barker was left out of the squad due to picking up a knock earlier this week.

The battle between Lee “the hit man” Hughes and Jay McEveley was one the watch. Jay battled well with the former Oldham front man but it was clear that he was playing out of position as Hughes got past him on more than one occasion. Based on last nights display, Hughes will do very well in league two. He’s still got a lot of quality and likes to pass and move, or as he knows it, hit and run. It was Hughes who made the first goal. He crossed from the left hand side and McEveley could do nothing except turn it into his net. 1-0 to County.

Six minutes later and the Rams were level. The Notts defence and goalkeeper got it all wrong as a dreadful back pass was pounced on by Steve Davies who calmly slotted the ball home. Davies put in an excellent display up front. He held the ball well, battled hard and he isn’t afraid to have a crack at goal. After the game, Nigel Clough said he was “very, very pleased” with Steve’s display. The one negative for Davies would be his failure to get himself on the score sheet again despite his penalty effort. The Rams were awarded a penalty after a handball in the box but Davies could only clip the top of the bar from the spot.

On 35 minutes we took the lead in superb style. Savage, being the old pro that he is, saw an opportunity to shoot from distance. Using all his experience he craftily disguised his shot as a miss-hit cross and it worked a treat as the Notts keeper flapped his arms around to no avail. The ball found it’s way into the net and the Rams were 2-1 up thanks to the ever cunning Robbie Savage.

The magpies continued to look dangerous and should be pushing for promotion this season. The Rams largely dealt with the pressure but the movement of the County forward line certainly caused problems during the first half.

In the second half, Derby began to show their quality as they kept possession, passed the ball well and looked the better team. Some things still confuse me though:

1) Why do we sometime do short corners? I don’t remember a time when they’ve been successful for us (feel free to list the dozens of goals we have scored from short corners in the past few years)

2) Why did Teale, when presented with a perfect opportunity to cross, play the ball back along the floor to Savage who was only just inside the Notts half. Maybe, given his earlier most-certainly-deliberate strike, he assumed Savage would shoot?

3) What does Luke Varney bring to the side?

I don’t like moaning about individual players on, and I’ll try to avoid it throughout the coming season, but Varney doesn’t do enough for me. I hope he turns in on during the season but, so far, I’m not entirely convinced.

Poor defending seemed to bring about the Notts County second goal. A failure to clear the ball enabled County to slot the ball home with ease.

The final goal came from the substitute Kris Commons who was a late addition to the squad. He was clearly off the pace but even a half fit Commons was a handful for the league two outfit. He ran the left hand side well and put balls into the box with little end result. So, clearly inspired by Robbie Savage earlier goal, Commons followed his lead. He fooled everyone into thinking he was crossing the ball towards the back post when in actual fact he scored by lobbing Russell Hoult. Sublime stuff.

And that was that. The Rams beat Notts County in front of Sven, which is more that Forest managed. Ultimately though, this game doesn’t matter as pre-season games aren’t important, although it’s still nice to see a Derby win, whatever the circumstances.

It’s only been one week since the last people to steal from Derby County were locked up yet we’re hearing shocking news of yet more crimes carried out against the black and white army.

An unspecified number of Derby County shorts, of the sort modelled by the squad on the left, have been stolen from an embroidery firm in Scotland. The shorts, said to have been in “a pile”, were stolen on Saturday.

There are no known leads at the moment although RamBalls believes Murdo Mackay, Jeremy Keith and Andrew Mackenzie are not under investigation for this particular incident.

For the full story, click here

Yesterday we all breathed a sigh of relief as Shaun Barker was officially unveiled as a Derby County player. The weeks of speculation as to whether he would sign for us or the red dogs had been doing the blood pressure of some fans no favours at all. Browsing the forums didn’t help either as they produced new updates every twenty minutes confirming he’d signed for us, or them, or us, or them. I even saw one dreamer declaring it’s was a done deal for Forest: they outbid us and were paying wages of £30k per week.

Capturing Barker was a always going to be a significant move for which ever club secured his signature; the Rams had made it pretty clear for a long while that he was a key target and it was no secret that Forest were in for him also so the following bidding war, ending with a Derby victory, was sweet. It’s nice to beat Forest at everything; on the pitch, on attendances and now to signing players. We should just be glad that Stuart Atwell wasn’t brokering the deal.

Across the forums you can almost feel the shift in confidence now that we have the man who describes himself as an “old fashioned defender”. I’ve seen messageboard contributors who had all but written us off suddenly believing the club are pushing forward and are heading in the right direction. Others are just glad that we’ve spent some money. Popside.com’s DSBean Leacock announced that this signature had “alleviated some of his fears” and appeared to be glad that we’d paid a fee, going on to say “I might have a choc ice later to celebrate”.

Some fans are never satisfied though. While browsing Come On You Rams, I noticed an distinct air of discontent coming from New England Ram who said “Wow so Nigel had noticed the need for a centre back after all. I just want to know why this was not his first signing. This signing should have been made weeks ago.” I’m no expert but I’d guess the hold up in the transfer probably had something to do with the the reluctance of Blackpool to just let their better players leave without a fight, the fact that we weren’t the only club intereted and the negotiation of personal terms. After all, this is real life, not sensible world of soccer.

Over at dcfcfans.co.uk there were reminders of what people thought of Barker when he played for Blackpool against Derby. JoeMadRam reminds us that many people had sour grapes and said Barker was a dirty player but those same people are now delighted that he’s our dirty player.

David, a dcfcfans administrator, agreed, saying ” when we play the likes of Forest which will be a dirty game you want Barker in your team to bully the forwards”, going on to say “every one loves a dirty bugger and thats why I’m still with the missus”. Ok David, there is no need to rub it in.

Over at ramzone.net there was talk of the rams having a more solid defence this season. Hemingway thinks that if the Rams signs Patrick Kisnorbo, things will be looking good for the coming year.

I agree. Against Burton, Kisnorbo put in a solid showing. He looked mobile, strong and he did well from set pieces, so a few goals throughout the season could probably be expected. Genuine competition for places is what Cloughie will be after and having filled his squad with hungry players with a point to prove, he’ll have competition in abundance.

One final thing before I go. If you haven’t checked out this article on Wee Billy down the A52, I recommend you have a gander. It may bring back some memories.

One of the most difficult things for any business is preparing for the future. Sure, businesses can make plans and try to position themselves as best they can for future changes in the marketplace but they can never be certain that their plans will pay off. We’ve seen it a thousand times over; Microsoft backed hd-dvd for the 360 instead of blu-ray, but blu-ray won the format war,; banks thought they could lend to people who didn’t have the means to pay them back and still make a profit but they got that wrong too.

The “normal” world of business makes investment decisions based on a number of factors such as demand, marginal costs and, of course, the amount of risk involved. Increased productivity and efficiency can save businesses huge sums which results in more profit but in the world of football productivity is a useless measure of success.

For football chairmen, there are no guarantees that a huge investment will bring about the results they desire. Where as a new machine in a manufacturing plant can bring greater economies of scale, the same can’t really be said for a new striker. Andrei Shevchenko cost Chelsea £30m and his form at AC Milan suggested he would be worth every penny. They were wrong. He was shite.

For a club like Chelsea, with Romans billions keeping them afloat, it’s easy to spend £30m on rubbish players because they just move onto the next one. Even with Romans billions, Chelsea still haven’t dominated the way many expected they might. Yes, they’ve had more silverware since Roman arrived but they haven’t won the Champions League and didn’t look much like winning the premier league last season either. Add Many City and their oil billions to the title race and Chelsea face even greater competition in spite of Abramovichs estimated £700 million investment into the club.

Clubs that aren’t in the top four, or don’t have billions in oil dollars backing them, face difficult investment decisions. Pumping extra funds into the squad, particularly in the lower leagues, can see a club rise up through the leagues. Doncaster have climbed from non-league to the championship under the ownership of John Ryan but that has cost him £5 million. That’s a remarkable success but for other clubs, the story hasn’t been so pretty.

The Premier League, with all it’s lovely branding, pots of television cash and international exposure, has driven some chairman to the brink of insanity as they chase down a Champions League place. While he was chairman at Leeds United, Peter Ridsdale went for broke as he pushed for a place at Europes top table. They failed. They had huge debts and couldn’t pay them back resulting in administration, a player exodus and two relegations. Years of turmoil have since followed as they dropped to league 1 where they remain for a third successive season.

Newcastle are the next club to find themselves teetering precariously on the edge. The media portrays the barcode army as some sort of super club when the reality is they have big support but haven’t won a trophy for fifty years or more. If league titles were settled by the number of messiahs a club can have, Newcastle would has walked the league last season. Had someone told Mike Ashley that he’d have both Kevin Keegan and Alan Shearer on his management team during the season he’d probably thought they’d do the double, he’d get the freedom of city and god himself (or herself) would concede defeat as the chief deity of the north east.

The experience of clubs like Leeds and Newcastle should act a warning to others, especially those chasing the Champions League spots. The board at Derby County certainly appear to have taken notice and are working hard to reduce the clubs debt. Under the ownership of General Sports and Entertainment (GSE) the club will be seeing a small profit this season and while this is due to a certain amount of belt tightening, it is also down to the new approach to sponsorship that Tom Glick and the team have taken. Last season our sponsorship revenues were double what they were where the previous season in the premier league. While I understand sponsorship revenue and “a small profit” aren’t likely to get fans jumping out of their seats, they are indications that the team is in the hands of professionals.

Browsing the message boards and reading some of the negativity can be seriously depressing at the moment. There appears to be a lot of criticism of the current owners for their apparent lack of investment within the squad which, according to some fans, must mean they aren’t serious and they are just here to turn a “small profit” and skim off the cream for themselves. Transfer activity is often seen by fans as being an indicator of a boards genuine hunger to bring success to club but a belief that high wages and high transfer fees are a recipe for success is terribly misguided, as the example of Leeds and Newcastle, to name but two, points out. GSE reduced the debts of Derby County rather significantly, spent approximately £9m on transfers in their first year and have doubled sponsorship revenue while freezing season ticket prices for those wishing to renew. These are not decisions of a board looking to make a quick buck and run.

Given the recent history of the three amigos it is easy to understand some fans cynicism, although I believe their is no reason to be so sceptical. The current crop of investors in Derby County are already wealthy beyond most peoples dreams and have been very succesful in their own field of work. Having the likes of Jeff Mallet, former president of Yahoo! Inc, in the investment team is a major deal. This guy isn’t concerned with playing with a train set and getting wrapped up in a false accounting scandal; he’s a serious investor with an interest in the sports business.

These guys want the club to succeed and I’ve seen little evidence to suggest that they want anything but the best for the club. What they have brought to the club is a level of professionalism that has been missing with Derby County for years. Despite Peter Gadsbys protestations, when he owned the club we weren’t great on the pitch and were terrible off the pitch. Now though, if you speak to anyone that deals with the new management team, they only have high praise for the staff. This works well behind the scenes and with Adam Pearson and Nigel Clough running the football side of the business, we appear to have a highly talented team working pitch side also.

Unless Kris Commons and Rob Hulse are sold from under our noses and the money is not put back into the squad, I’d recommend having some faith in this board. They haven’t yet done anything wrong and they have allowed both managers to buy new players. The fact remains that Nigel Clough buys the players he wants and the lower league players he has signed have been identified by him, not an American sitting in Detroit trying to balance the books. As Derby County fans we know what makes our club great and we recognise it’s potential. As such, it should come as no surprise to us that our potential is recognised and we are able to bring investment from around the world into our wonderful club.