Ramballs

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!

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.

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.

The top news today is that Derby have rejected bids for striker Liam Dickinson from Norwich and Blackpool. Norwich have had “two small bids” rejected which are likely to have fallen short of the £500,000 that Ramballs reported on Wednesday. Blackpool are likely to be the preferred choice for Dickinson as he is familiar with the Bloomfield Road outfit having spent time on loan there last season and they would provide him with the chance to show what he can do in the Coca-Cola Championship.

Tito Villas move to Cruz Azul has been completed. The hard working striker, who cost Derby £2m back in January 2008, has returned to Central America in a deal reportedly worth £1.7m which represents good business by Adam Pearson.

And finally, it would appear that Derby County have once again changed their logo by dropping the gold from the club crest. The badge, which appears to be plain black and white, can be seen on the new training tops worn at the first day back in training and in the banner across the top of the official site. Already there has been discussion on the message boards about this and it seems to be a 50/50 split as to whether fans like this or not.

Today sees the launch of the new kit in Derby Market place at 5:30pm. I noticed last night, as I walked past the market place, a huge inflatable Adidas tent thing (sorry I can’t be more descriptive) as well as black and white bunting up Irongate. As long as it stops raining, it should be a good evening. I will be at the launch and will be reporting back this evening with photos and a write up of the event.

This being what it is, the first blog of the series during the middle of the closed season, I figured most of you will already be aware of Mile Sterjovskis and Andy Todds departure to Perth Glory, as well as the signing of Jake Buxton and Ben Pringle from Burton Albion and Ilkeston Town respectively. Yes, that’s right, we’ve signed a two previously semi-professional players. Woohoo!

I jest. There have been many grumblings across the messageboards regarding the signing of two unknowns, especially after a pretty poor season spent trying to avoid relegation. A few have voiced concerns that Nigel Clough is out of his depth with regard to playing the transfer market at a professional level and doubt the ability of our first two signings and, while it would be easy to knock these unknowns, I shall refrain from doing so.  I’m quite happy with these additions. Jake Buxton, a former Mansfield Town defender, received high praise from many in the Blue Square Premier after his fantastic performances throughout Burton Albions promotion season last year; he’s young, hungry and Nigel Clough knows his well. Likewise, Ben Pringle is a talented young midfielder who will be joining Derby as part of the clubs new development squad (or reserves as most people call them). Neither of them has cost the Earth and both will be wanting to show exactly what they are capable of in the CCC. With any luck, they’ll be prove to be excellent additions to the squad and I look forward to seeing them play.

Back to this weeks news.

The Rams have snapped up Lee Croft (above) from Norwich City on a free transfer (although i am reliably informed that there is no such thing as a free transfer.) Derby were forced to wait to until Croft turned 24 before they could sign the winger as he arrived on a Bosman and, as such, they would have had to pay compensation if he was still 23. The official site describes Croft as a “flying winger” but we’ll have to wait until August to see if he can soar to new heights (sorry).

Dean Moxey, 23, has agreed personal terms with the club. Moxey, who can play at down the left side of midfield or in defense, arrives from Exeter City for fee believed to be around £300,000. He’s an Exeter lad who worked on the turnstiles for the Grecians on the day they got relegated in 2003. I’m sure that’s a happy memory for him. Here’s a link to the Exeter City website listing their top 5 Moxey moments.

This week sees the launch of the clubs new home kit with a “kit parade” scheduled in for Friday 3rd July in the Market Place. This is the clubs fifth new strip in as many seasons, something has angered some irrational fans who believe that when the club launches a new kit they must buy it and these new kits are costing them a fortune. I heard one guy on the radio saying his kids would pester him for YET ANOTHER new strip and it’s more expense during these hard economic times. My advice: JUST SAY NO! The kid will deal with it in time and if they don’t, you could always put them up for adoption. Here are the kit launch details.

Burnley look set to sign Tyrone “quick, through that window” Mears. Mears played in important role in the promotion season under Silly Billy Davies and was later accused of fleeing through a window to catch a flight to Marseilles by former boss Paul Jewell. Burnley have reportedly had a £500,000 bid accepted by the rams leaving Tye free to agree personal terms with the newly promoted premier league side.

Finally, because I really should wrap this up, the court case involving former Derby County directors Jeremy Keith, Murdo MacKay and Andrew Mackenzie has ended with them all being found guilty. MacKay and Mackenzine were convicted of conspiracy to defraud the club while Keith (you know, the fat one who looks a like Hermes from Futurama) has been found guilty of false accounting. Some previously unknown goon called David Lowe was found guilty of money laundering while a fifth man, we’ll call him Mr Innocent, walked away from the charge of false accounting. For full coverage of the story check out the DET coverage here.

Back soon, I promise.