Archive for the ‘Derby’ tag
Rob Hulse STAYS!

Rob Hulse: Staying put.
Do you remember when we had a tall polish striker called Gregorz Rasiak? Do you remember how influential he was in the team back in 2005? Do you remember what happened on 31 August 2005? That’s right. We sold him at the eleventh hour for a tiny fee and no hope of signing a replacement. This summer, many Rams fans were expecting history to repeat itself.
This time it was a tall lad from Crewe who was the potential departee, and the date was 1st September 2009, but many fans had the outcome down as a bad result for the Rams from the off. Middlesbrough, the smaller of the two North East clubs to be relegated from the premier league last season, were long known fanciers of Rob Hulse, Derby County player of the year 2008/09. He scored 19 goals in his first full season back from injury and caused opposition defenders plenty of problems all year round, so the fact that he was attracting attention came as no surprise.
The Rams had been knocking back speculation all summer regarding ‘Boro’s interested in the Derby talisman. Back in July, Adam Pearson said “Rob is our player of the year, an important player for us and not one we are looking to sell” while also denying that Middlesborough had even made a bid for the player. Speculation continued to mount as the Rams carried on with their pre-season which, ironically, didn’t include Rob Hulse due to injury.
Rob missed the opening games of the year and only made his first start in the new Derby strip in the 3-2 defeat against the red dog scum bags this previous Saturday. During this game he managed to score what appeared to be a perfectly good goal but the referee decided he’d seen something he didn’t like and disallowed the goal. Having nearly seen Hulse open his account for the year at the weekend, Rams fans would have been devastated to lose him knowing just how dangerous he is.
It looked as if he was staying put as the transfer window was closing in. Then, on the final day of business, the Derby Evening Telegraph runs the story that Rob Hulse was the target of a big money bid from Middlesbrough. Word on the internet suggested the bid was as anywhere between £3.5 - £4.5 million pounds. That’s enough to buy three Luke Varneys!
That was it for many Rams fans as they took to the inter-radiotelewaves to tell everyone how we were being sold up the swanny. Forums were awash with doom merchants passing on their wares to all that would listen. It was a like walking though speakers corner only in small font and the occasional bit of txt spk, lolz.
Whenever someone sensible said something like “FFS - it hasn’t happened yet!!” they were immediately shot down by gun fire that sounded like a manic depressive listening to Radiohead while trying to think of reasons not to die. “It’s just a matter of time……………….” they’d say as they plunged their scalpels into their limp, scarred wrists.
By 3pm the tension was downright scary. I genuinely thought some Rams fans were going to throw themselves from the top floor of the internet, splattering the Derby County forums with blood coloured pixels spelling “DCFC 4 LIFE” across the TFT monitors of Rams fans worldwide.
Sky Sports decided to re-run the bid from Boro story for a second time late in the day, which only served to compound people’s woes. There was no news on the official site and no news on Radio Derby; the silence was deafening. This, according to the non-believers, could only mean one thing- Goodbye Rob Hulse.
That’s what they all thought.
Oh yee of little faith. News came in over the official website that Rob Hulse was staying! ROB HULSE WAS STAYING!
We cheered, we celebrated, and we punched the air with glee. This was great news…or was it.
Yes, it definitely was great news but still some people moaned. Why? Because it’s what they do. Radio Derby’s Monday moan-in is full of these people and so, it would seem, are internet message boards. Rob Hulse stopping at Derby only served to prove the conspiracy theories are true if you believe what you read on t’internet.
You see, the official version of events (which I have no reason to doubt) goes like this: club receive bid for Rob Hulse, club tell Hulse about the bid, Hulse sits down with Nigel Clough to discuss options and Rob decides he wants to stay. The end.
But to some people this means that the club had accepted the bid and were quite happy to sell one of our better players without having a suitable replacement lined up. They say this is all nonsense and shows our club is being run by fools. How so, I hear you ask? Surely this proves that the club is run by people who respect other people’s right to be informed. Surely the first person who should be updated of interested in a player is the player himself because if he doesn’t want to leave, the deal is dead in the water. Offer as much as you like but if the man won’t leave, you can’t pull him through the door to your club.
In this instance, Rob Hulse decided that he was happy where he is. He weighed up the pros and cons of playing for Middlesbrough under Gareth Southgate or staying at Derby with Nigel Clough and he rightly concluded that he was better off in the Midlands than the North East. You really cannot fault the man for that.
In a world of Manchester City’s millions and Christiano Ronaldo’s ridiculous face, it’s refreshing to see a player make a decision based on his own desire to succeed rather than false promises and the lure of more money. While Derby are big spenders in the Championship, it’s probably a safe bet to assume Middlesbrough would have paid Hulse more wages and they definitely wouldn’t have made him give up his win bonus. For every Rob Hulse there are ten Mark “greedy bastard” Pembridges or Paul Kitsons , so it’s rare that a club like ours can find a player with even an ounce of loyalty when the money is on the table. Let’s hope Rob has many great years at Derby and can get up there with the Derby greats of yesterday year. At 29 years old, he still has plenty to offer the Rams.
Transfer Deadline Day
Transfer deadline day is here!
The action starts now as new faces join The Rams and old faces say good bye. The bank holiday weekend saw two familiar faces exit Moor Farm for the final time as Martin Albrechtson and Clause Davis had their contracts ended. This will have cost the club a fair sum of money as both players had considerable lengths left on their deals but it’d beneficial for all parties to just part ways at this stage.
Next up it seems that Jordan Stewart is on his way out of Derby. BBC Radio Sheffield were this morning reporting a swap deal had been agreed with the Rams that would see Jordan move to the Blades while Lee Hendrie, 32, would join the Rams.
It’s also been reported that Boro have bid £3.5m for Rob Hulse. It’s long been speculated that the north east club were interested and it now appears to have a more substance as the Derby Evening Telegraph are running the story.
More details later as the day heads towards the 5pm deadline.
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
Blackpool Vs Derby County: View from the forums
It would be unfair of me to give a full opinion of the draw at Blackpool when I wasn’t there. I’m quite happy with the result because every point away from home is valuable but it’s the game on Saturday that will tell us if it was a decent point or not. There are a lot of fans around the messageboards who still appear to need 24hr suicide watch despite is picking up four points from the possible nine.
I’ve been browsing some of the messageboards and I’d like to share some of the more considered write-ups from yesterdays game.
First off, Milton_Keynes Ram from popside.com shared their post-match thoughts. MKR knows football and I think if you want a decent report of the rams performance, head over to popside.com and read MKRs comments after each match.
A clean sheet is always welcome but god that was a boring and crap game of football. In patches on Saturday at Scunthorpe we played better than we did last night, but the difference was a lot more solid against what was admittedly a very very poor Blackpool team who will probably struggle all season.
The first ten minutes we looked the more controlled and composed team and look to me like we would assert control and dominate the game but a few almost casual moments at the back, players trying to do too much on the ball, or no conviction when passing itl got the crowd into it for them and seemed to give their players the boost they needed and after that we never seemed in total control.
Addison and Buxton in particular looked more solid than at the weekend…..though given the type of forward Buxton was up against I’m not surprised. Moxey and Connolly on numerous occassions played their entire attack onside when they should be able to look across the line or/and take the lead from the centre backs and a better attack would have taken advantage. Savage too played them onside a few times when tracking back. To me I think the individual awareness of a number of players in these instances was poor, couple with poor communication from Addison/Buxton almost caused us problems that should never have occurred.
Green was missed tonight. Pearson started reasonably well in the first 5-10 minutes but rapidly faded out of the game and Savage never really took control of the midfield. Croft was exceptionally poor and should have been dragged off plenty earlier whilst Teale seemed frightened to take the full back on either side on. For the majority of the game Teale was up against Eardley the ex-Oldham right back we were linked with over the summer - looked a very good player albeit the first time I’d seen him.
Commons started well but then drifted more and more out of the game as it went on; surprised reading Clough’s comments about him post-match whilst Hulse was clearly not match fit. Although only on briefly Varney probably contributed more in the time he was on the pitch than in any other game for us besides the second half of his debut at Burnley last season.
Whilst we had problems with the offside rule whilst defending the amount of times Croft, teale and Hulse managed to get themselves offside at innocuous times was criminal.
Very poor and flat atmosphere from the travelling fans although the home fans made up for it. Did well to keep the noise in the ground given one temporary uncovered stand and one half built one. Never intimidating as some grounds can be but full marks for getting behind their team.
Finally if the rumours were to be believed about us being in for Charlie Adam over the summer I’m glad they weren’t true. Rotten rotten footballer.
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Over on the DET forums, ratpackramwrote:
Bywater 6 - nothing to do , one save in second half , dodgy ball control nearly let in their forward
Connolly 6 - poor first half , improved a lot in the second
Moxey 9 - outstanding , class class class , great buy
Addison 8 - never gave them a sniff
Buxton 9 - won every header, small but so is cannavaro, another great buy
Croft 5 - unfit , poor crossing, might do better if he lost a few pounds
Teale 6 - tried but no end product
Savage 6 - did what he does , kept it simple
Pearson 7 - just shaded Sav, had a
bit more going forward
Commons 8 - involved in anything we created which was not a lot to be fair but has our x factor
Hulse 7 - no service , kept battling away trying to flick ball on to himself as no one gambled for the flick on
Might get slaughtered for this but I was impressed with Varney when he came on for Hulse
what about playing him in home games alongside Hulse with Commons on the left linking with Moxey , push Teale on the right , get Croft on a diet and bring Barker in for Connolly.
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
Rotherham vs Derby County: League Cup Preview

After a defeating the newly promoted Peterborough United by two goals to one on Saturday, The Rams now head to the Don Valley Stadium to take on league two side Rotherham. Rotherham, having started last season with -17 point deduction, ended the season in 14th place with a respectable 58 points. Had the millers not had the point deduction, they would have in 5th place, well inside the play-off places, so the Millers are a force to be reckoned with in League two.
Rotherham got off to a winning start this season as they grabbed a 1 – 0 win over Accrington at the weekend. Paul Warne, 36, returning to the club this summer after a four year absence from Rotherham, scored the late winner. An old head on the field was exactly what they needed as manager Mark Robins said “Paul coming on shook people up a bit and we certainly needed it. It was good to see him back in a Rotherham shirt in a competitive game because that is how I remember him and he has always worked his socks off,”

Tom Pope: The Millers record signing.
Ryan Taylor, another of Rotherham’s young strikers, hasn’t found his feet just yet but his 6′2″ frame should be his biggest asset. He’s a big striker who should be capable of bullying defenders off the ball but so far has failed to live up to expectations. Last year he made 18 starts and scored just four goals for the Yorkshire team but, having just secured a new two year deal with the club, he managed to bag a goal in Rotherham’s pre-season victory over a Man City XI.
The Rams strikers will be facing a veteran goalie in the form of Andy Warrington who has been playing professionally since 1994. Warrington is said to have played well at the weekend and managed to keep a clean sheet against Accrington, a result he’ll be keen to replicate on Tuesday night.
Pablo Mills, the former Rams defender who made over 50 appearances for The Rams, now makes a living playing as a centre mid. He signed for the residents of the Don Valley stadium back in July 2006 and has since made over 100 appearances for the club.
Rotherham are genuine contenders for promotion from League 2 this season but, given The Rams performance against Peterborough, beating us will be a tall order indeed. Kris Commons is away on international duty and Paul Green looks likely to miss this game after picking up a knock against Peterborough. Luke Varney may have recovered enough from illness to find himself a place in the squad or Nigel Clough may even choose to field some of our younger players with the likes of Prijovic, Mendy and Pringle all having performed well in pre-season.
The Rams have a good record against the league 2 outfit having won four of the last six competitive meetings between the sides, although when playing at Rotherham the last three games read one won, one lost and one drawn. This is the first time the clubs have ever met in in a cup competition and The Rams have only won one of their last seven games away from Pride Park.
Derby had a great run in this competition last season, reaching the quarter finals before eventually being knocked out by Manchester United 4-3 on aggregate. Kris Commons scored a stunning goal against the Red Devils in the semi-final home leg and Tito Villa, now of Cruz Azul, prevously scored a hat trick against Brighton & Hove Albion to send The Rams through to the fourth round.
Can Derby County repeat last seasons success? Hopefully, but before they can think of the second round, they have win at the Don Valley Stadium.
RamBalls Launches Online Store
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
Derby County 2 - 1 Peterborough
It was being billed as Clough jr vs Ferguson jr as the media constantly reminded us of both Nigel and Darren’s fathers achievements. Our Nigel had beaten Ferguson Snr last season and was now looking to complete the Ferguson set. Darren Ferguson has high hopes for his Peterborough team as he talks of reaching the Premier League but before he can do that he had to take his Posh side to Pride Park. It’s ok though because they’d done their homework, as he told the BBC “We are going there to win as in any other game, we know their strengths and we know their weaknesses,” he said. “At the end of the day it’s all about us and we can go there and give a good account of ourselves”
To be fair to Peterborough, they did give a decent account of themselves but the first half was dominated by The Rams as the five man midfield chased everything, passed well and always wanted the ball. The defence weren’t troubled too much and the first 45 minutes were satisfying for Derby fans.
The first goal came from a badly cleared corner as Miles Addison threw himself at the ball to head it in at the far post. This was a brave move as he collided with a Peterborough player and injured himself along the way. This minor knock was unlikely to keep Miles down for long though; he picked himself up and carried on with the match, playing a blinder if I do say so myself.
The Posh followed up The Rams goal with a goal of their own after new boy Tommy Rowe crossed low into the six yard box to George Boyd who slotted home with ease. Seconds of joy for The Posh fans were soon replaced by disaapointment as they realised the flag was up; offside!
Derby were better in possession and I can honestly say that I didn’t feel too concerned when Peterborough attacked. They did have a few efforts, notably Aaron Mcleans shot which went wide from ten yards.
The start of the second half saw Paul Green replaced by Kris Commons and The Rams appeared to shift to a 4-4-2 formation, with Commons playing alongside Steve Davies. The game seemed pretty even at times; only poor execution in the final third seemed to prevent either team from scoring. The exception to this was Dean Moxeys last ditch tackle which was sublime. Craig Mackail-Smith was clean through on goal and, in my mind, the only possible outcomes from the situation were a goal conceded or penalty awarded. Moxey proved me wrong in stunning style as he timed him sliding challenge to perfection and pulled the ball away from CMS.
The Posh were awarded a penalty though. Bywater came running out of his goal and was left stranded in a moment of madness. Shaun Batt ran onto the ball, knocked it past the keeper and went down under the challenge of the Derby goalie. From where I was sat, it seemed harsh. He got a touch but he kicked it out of play and would never have caught the ball had he not be brought down. That was irrelevent though, the penatly stood and now Bywater was the only man who can save the day.
He didn’t. George Boyd scored, sending Stephen Bywater the wrong way in the process.

Photo by Steve @ forum.therams.co.uk
Kris Commons played the ball into the box from a corner and the following goal mouth scramble resulted in the ball landing at Gary Teales feet and he tapped the ball in from a few yards.
Full Time: Derby 2 - 1 Peterborough
I make no apologies for being Derby biased. If you want impartial reporting, don’t visit a Derby County blog written by a Derby County fan
Check out the some unbiased (and a couple of biased) match reports from around the web.
DCFC Official Site
Peterborough Official Site
Sky Sports
Derby Evening Telegraph
Guardian
Daily Telegraph
Daily Mail
Daily Express
Daily Star
The Times
BBC
Ramzone
Derby County Mad
Football.co.uk
Derby County vs Peterborough: Match Preview
I hate waiting for things; Christmas, holidays, buses, 5pm Monday to Friday etc. That’s why I am so excited about tomorrows Championship opener at Pride Park against Peterborough. At the end of last season I was relieved when safety was confirmed and the season was finally brought to an end because my ticker couldn’t cope with the pressure. Now, after a couple of months off from it, I can’t wait for it to kick off again. It’s as if I am suffering from amnesia as the memories of last years battle for survival has been entirely replaced by giddy excitement as I wait for Saturday 3pm.
As fun as pre-season has been, we haven’t come out of it unscathed as the injury worries continue to mount up: we’ve collected more injuries than an A&E department on a Saturday night during the same weekend as a narcoleptic sufferers superbike championship and “free Stella Artois” event at Zanzibar.
Having beaten Svens men, failed to win the Bass vase, drawn to Dirty Stoke and toured the South West, all eyes now turn to the visit of Championship news boys, Peterborough United, for the 2009/10 season opener.
With Darren Ferguson at the helm, the Posh have won back to back promotions having secured second place in League 1 last season. As they begin a stint in the second tier of English football for only the second time, you can guarantee Darren Ferguson will have his boys fired up for this one as his new look squad takes shape. Back in May, Ferguson announced he was making 12 players available to transfer, including Sergio Torres, a winger signed from Wycombe for £150,000 only 12 months before.
It has been a case of out with the old & in with the new as Ferguson has brought in fresh faces to the London Road residents. Tommy Rowe, 20, signed from Stockport after the club were put into Administration at the end of last season. During Stockports 2007/08 promotion season, Rowe won the accolade of young player of the year and could well be one to watch this coming season.
Another of Peterborough’s new boys is Toumani Diagouraga who signed a four year deal with the club having moved from Hereford Town. The French 22 year old plays in central midfield and had long been admired by Darren Ferguson who unsuccessfully tried to sign him last season. Diagouraga says he joined Peterborough because of Darren Ferguson’s ambition which, if previous seasons are anything to go by, are sky high.
Of course, it isn’t all new faces at London Road. Last seasons stars are still there too as they look to prove themselves as Championship quality players.

Craig Mackail-Smith: A proper posh un'
Aaron Mclean is the other Posh striker who the Rams defence need to be careful of. He scored 18 goals last season and, along with Mackail-Smith, is believed to have been a target of Celtics. In fact, back in January Celtic were said to be interested in both Posh strikers and George Boyd, although they could not afford the £15m asking price demanded by Peterborough.
George Boyd scored a brace in the recent friendly against Fulham and, at the time of signing for Posh, he was the most expensive player brought from a non-league team (£260,000) back in 2007.
The Rams go into the game with a heavily depleted strike force as Rob Hulse has missed most of the pre-season, Chris Porter may be out until Christmas with hip problems, Kris Commons has missed a bit of pre-season and has been looking to build match fitness recently in the games against Stoke, Burton Albion and Solihull, and Luke Varney is recovering from illness which leaves us with Steve Davies as the lone striker meaning we are reliant on Green and Pearson pushing up and supporting the attacks.
Derby will be looking for a good start but so will The Posh. Ferguson’s boys will be looking to pick up where they left off where as Derby will be hoping to forget last seasons showing and start afresh. Derby lost four of their final five league games last term. The Posh lost only three of their 23 league matches away from home last season.
It’s worth nothing that Derby have only won once in their last four league encounters with the Posh. However, in all competitions, Peterborough have only managed to win two of their previous six meetings.
I predict a tough game. Some people might think The Rams should easily turn the new boys over but as Savage said in his interview with RamBalls, we got battered by Doncaster on the opening day last season and battered against Southampton’s kids. We can’t take anything for granted, Ferguson’s lads will be looking to make an immediate impact at Pride Park and show they are competitive in the CCC. One area where they won’t be competing with The Rams is match day attendances; last season Peterborough’s highest attendance was 14,000 against Leicester and 4000 of those were foxes fans.
So after weeks of training and transfer activity, it’s now up The Rams to show some working class resolve against The Posh young upstarts.
RamBalls Prediction: 2 - 1 to the Rams
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Solihull vs Derby County XI
Following last Tuesday’s slightly damp outing to Meadow Lane, RamBalls decided to have another soggy evening out of the house watching The Rams. Peter Kay would say the rain was “that fine rain that soaks you through”.
Finding the ground was a bit of a mystery; google maps sent us to a housing estate and the sat nav parked us at a chip shop. Eventually we found the ground, paid the £5 admission and found a seat amongst the few other Derby fans (around 25 of us) who were strange enough to make the 40 mile journey.
The match kicked off with former Stoke striker, Mark Grocutt, playing as a lone striker. Kris Commons played down the right with Ben Pringle on the opposite flank. Arnaud Mendy, the last minute goalscorer against Stoke, played in midfield alongside the trialist David Toukam, a young Cameroonian who plays for the Juventus youth team.
Kris Commons was the creative outlet for much of the first half and the Scottish international danced past a the Solihull defence on the right and shot just wide from outside the box on 20 minutes.
Arnaud Mendy used his power well in the middle and showed some neat control and some good exchanges with Toukam. Toukam also looked lively, showing for the ball and generally looking composed when on the ball.
The next attack came as Jordan Stewart picked up a loose ball, brought it out towards the left and crossed low to Commons who set himself up for a volley. He struck the ball on the turn and it was always going wide.
Minutes later and Commons was beating the Solihull defence again. He skirted across the 18yrd box, took a shot which was parried by the keeper back to Commons who then tried to chip the keeper only to see the ball cleared off the line.
The Rams took the lead through a penalty on 33 minutes. Mark Grocutt had the ball in the box only to be fouled and brought to the deck, right in front of the ref. Kris Commons was the man to step up to the plate and he slotted the ball away with ease, sending the keeper the wrong way in the process.
That was the first half. The second half was less eventful.
I could probably write more about the strange odours that my nose kept on being introduced to than I could the second 45 minutes. Honestly, whoever it was that kept on producing those less than delightful aromas should seek urgent medical advice.
I can’t remember us troubling the keeper in the second half. Commons was frequently on the ball although he didn’t have much to aim for in the middle. Pringle was subbed off for Ojamaa early in the half but his first half performance was good.
The closest Derby came to scoring in the second half was when Solihull defender and ex-ram, Theo Streete, nearly put the ball in his own net from a low cross.
The home side managed to grab a goal around 75 and a good one it was too. The ball found it’s way to John Pugh around the penalty spot and he struck it with a sweet volley beyond the helpless Atkins.
Full time score 1 - 1
RamBalls little camera struggled to get any decent pictures but you can see the gallery here.
Have you seen the latest range of Rams leisurewear? Check it out now.