Ramballs

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,”

Rotherham have also signed 23 year old Tom Pope from Crewe for a club record fee of £150,000. The 6′3″ striker has found himself in a spot of bother as he was recently found guilty of affray for an incident at a Hanley nightclub. He’s a confident young striker and has set himself the target of 20 goals this year and, after banging in plenty of goals in pre-season, Pope is expected to do well for the millers this season. Tom said; “I work hard and try and get myself in the box. I don’t keep running all over the pitch. I stay down the middle because I want to get on the end of chances.”

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.

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 has attracted attention from some of the bigger clubs, such as Birmingham and Celtic but Peterborough are looking to hold onto their better assets. Mackail-Smith has played for the England “C” team and is known for his hard working style. He is an industrious striker who makes defenders earn their money. His movement is good, he chases everything, knows where the goal is and he looks to play the early ball wherever possible.

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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