Archive for the ‘coca-cola championship’ tag
Forest Vs Derby Media Round-Up
We love him because he's mental
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.
Red Dogs 3 - 2 Derby County
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.
Derby County 2 - 1 Plymouth Argyle: Media round-Up
I thought I would save you the bother of trawling the internet to find some Derby vs Plymouth match reports and I have added the ones I can find to this page. Happy browsing!
TheRams.co.uk
DCFC Official Site
BBC Online
Sky Sports Online
Daily Telegraph Championship Round up
Daily Mirror Report
The Sun CCC Round-Up
Daily Star Match Report
ITV Match Report
ESPN Match Report
Western Morning News Online Report
Sporting Preview Match report
Plymouth Argyle Official Site
Plymouth Argyle Mad
Derby COunty Mad
Football365 Report
Derby County 2 - 1 Plymouth Argyle
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!
Blackpool 0 - 0 Derby County
Another point is in the bag as The Rams drew with Blackpool in a no score draw at Bloomfield road. That makes it four points from a possible nine which is a decent return for the first three games.
Defensive frailties have been the biggest worry for Derby as six goals conceded in the first week of the season demonstrates. Nigel Clough stuck with the back four from the weekends game with Scunthorpe and his faith was repaid as the lads provided the seasons first clean sheet.
Kris Commons partnered Rob Hulse up front as Clough opted for a 4-4-2 formation. Both strikers made the starting eleven for the first time of this campaign but neither were successful in their attempts to get a goal.
I don’t think this was a game for the purists as the quality appeared to be lacking in both sides. Whilst the performance may not have been the best, a point away from home is always welcome.
Read the official match report here
DCFC Fans Matchday Discussion Board
Derby Evening Telegraph Match Report
Comment: Investment in Football.
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.
Let this photo act as a warning against wreckless spending. Let us also laugh at Leeds...HA HA HA HA!
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.
Nigel Clough And Rammie To Launch 5 Park Ride + Free Stoke Tickets
This year sees the club turning the grand old age of 125 years old and as part of their celebrations they have teamed up with some local organisations.
Cycle Derby, Derbys cycle demonstration town project, are one of the clubs official 125 year anniversary partner organisations. Cycle Derbys aim is to get more kids out on their bikes more often while making sure they do so in a safe manner. This involves visiting schools and teaching children to ride bikes through Cycling Englands Bikeabilty scheme: cycling proficiency for the 21st century.
Each year Cycle Derby hosts a cycling festival called The Big Cycle Weekend at Markeaton Park and the 2009 event is this coming weekend (July 11th & 12th).
On Sunday there will be a five parks ride that is open to all and, as part of Cycle Derby and Derby Countys ongoing partnership, Nigel Clough & Rammie will be opening the event. The ride follows local cycle routes and paths for 6 circular miles around the green heart of Derby. It’s a short and easy ride that takes you through many of the city’s parks, open spaces, along the river and through the city centre.
Not only will the you get to see Rammie and Cloughie but you can also get a free pair tickets to the Rams pre-season friendly against Premier league Stoke City when you complete the ride!
The first forty kids on both the Saturday and Sunday to complete five of the various activities and hand in a completed activity form will also get a pair of tickets to the Stoke friendly.
Transfer Target: Shaun Barker
So the Rams have landed their main target of the closed season. Shaun Barker has signed a three year deal with the club. RamBalls has provided you with a short profile of the former Blackpool defender.
Shaun Barker challenges Krissy Commons. Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images
Shaun Barker, 27, (DOB: 19/09/1981) began his professional career at Rotherham where he started out as in the youth team back in 2000. Shaun broke into the Rotherham first team in March 2003 and collected the young player of the year award at the end of the season. Throughout his time at Rotherham, Shaun played at right back, a position he is comfortable playing, but his preferred position is in central defence. Barker played 140 games for the Millers before moving on a free transfer to Blackpool in 2006.
Barkers first season with the tangerines was a successful one as they clinched promotion to the Coca-Cola Championship after beating Yeovil 2-0 in the play off final at Wembley. In the following season Barker missed only one game for the seasiders (due to suspension) as the tangerines maintained their Championship status. This season also saw Barker given the vice-captaincy.
The 2008/09 season saw Reggie, as he is known by the Blackpool faithful, promoted to club captain as well as retaining the on-field vice captain status. Reggie also moved from the right back position, where he had been playing for Blackpool until this time, into the centre of defence. After another successful season, which saw him start 42 league games, Barker won the accolade of players’ player of the year.
Sunday Round Up: The news, the forums and more.
How time flies? Ramballs was born one week ago today and already I’ve had some fanastic feedback, plus an amazing number of hits, so first of all I’d like to say thank you for reading the blog. It’s pretty time consuming, even though I haven’t added any huge articles or created a stunning design, but it’s good to see you guys coming back to check my updates. We even made it into the top 100 wordpress blogs of the day on July 4th.
DCFC News
This week saw the completion of two outgoings from Pride Park as Tito Villa and Tyrone Mears finally said goodbye.
After a season on the bench at Marseille, Tye struggled to assume any other position.
News had been circulating for a number of weeks regarding Mears’ move away from the East Midlands. Portsmouth, Marseilles and Burnley were all touted as possible destinations for the right-back with the Turf Moor outfit finally sealing the deal on Wednesday. Derby fans were not surprised by the sale given the previous allegations made against Tye regarding his dash through a window to escape to France during Paul Jewells ill-fated reign. Burnley are reported to have paid £500,000 plus add-ons for the energetic defender.
Tito Villa has been sold to Cruz Azul, a Mexican club, for £1.7m. This represents a loss of £300,000 on the striker but most fans think this is a fantastic piece of business by Adam Pearson and the club. While Tito may have been a fan favourite, it was clear that he was not going to feature regularly for the rams and it was in the interests of both parties for him to move on.
Regarding his time at Derby County, Tito said “The most beautiful thing I’ll take with me is the love of the fans, I’ll remember how wonderful they have been to me and how well they treated me all the time.” I’m sure you’ll join Ramballs in wishing Villa the best of luck in the future.
The first batch of Coca-Cola Championship television dates were announced by Sky and BBC. You can find the details here and here. Derby County V QPR on October 24th will be shown live on BBC 2 at 5:30pm. Newcastle, on the other hand, have six of their first nine games being screened on either Sky or the Beeb.
The official DCFC site this week announced the continuation of the black and white half season ticket scheme. All tickets include 12 home league fixtures including a guaranteed ticket for the home tie against Forest. Prices start from £220 for adults and £84 for juveniles.
The 2009/10 home strip has been launchd. Ramballs was at the event in Derby market place and managed to bring you a exclusive photos along with some pictures from the event being held in Quad afterwards. The day was glorious, the entertainment was good, Rammie has had a revamp and the kit is, well, the kit is exactly the same design as most other Adidas strips for this coming season.Find Ramballs coverage here.
From the forums…
www.dcfcfans.co.uk has had a lot of discussion regarding the kit launch. DerbyDan seemed to enjoy one picture in particular, so much so that he made it his avatar. The picture in question was the model from the kit launch. In case you missed it, I’ve stuck her in again.
www.popside.com have been discussing their drinking habits on the “I’m so p*ssed I can’t actually speak” thread which has clocked up a rather impressive 1800 posts. DSB this week announced “I got utterly utterly tw*tmonged last night had a cracking time, was GREAT”. Keep up the good work DSB.
Ramzone featured news this week that Martin Albrechtsen has been told he can find a new club. The forum also discussed the recent closure by Sky of the rivals.net website which came out of the blue after the huge corporation realised that it wasn’t likely to turn a profit unless they paid it some attention and listened to it’s member.
And finally, there was much deliberation on the TheRams.co.uk forum about the design of the latest kit. The best mock up that I saw was from Cliffy who clearly put a lot of effort into his designs and managed to churn out quite a number of them, including the one below, my favourite.
Cliffys mock up of the latest kit.
If he hadn’t put the collar on it he’d have had it pretty much nailed on. Well done Cliffy.
Derby County Launch New Kit
The sun shone down on Derby market place this Friday afternoon as crowds gathered to see the rams launch their new home strip.
At 5:30pm the event officially kicked off with Ram FM DJs Dino and Pete introducing the evening entertainment. First up were the derby based trinity dancers. The Trinity ladies (sorry, i forgot their group name) did a short dance routine followed by the Trinity warriors. After an excellent display of break dancing there was a five minute interval before players, along with Nigel Clough, emerged. Ramballs has also been told that the away strip will be the same as the home kit with the black and white inverted.
The DCFC ladies team were next, accompanied by a local Derby model (Melony? Melody? Melissa? Melinda? I’ve no idea), and Dino (or Pete) asked them banal questions such as “are ladies as good as men at football?”
Modelling the new training gear were the academy lads.
View all of Ramballs pictures from the event here.
Feel free to use these images on your websites, message boards or where ever. It’d be nice if you linked this blog at the same time but there is no obligation by any means.