So Near, But Now a Million Miles Away

I have deliberately not posted here during the Christmas matches, so as to do a summary of all of them together. As the games panned out, this ended up being a great call as they all pretty much went the same way.

We played well in patches of all of the games, could easily have had between 7-9 points but a combination of bad luck, low self esteem and rank bad defending means we ended up with a solitary point for our efforts. I don't suppose anyone will give me a cigar for suggesting this is not our season!

One thing that has definitely changed under Paul Jewell is that Derby do now carry a goal threat. This was shown up at Newcastle with two cracking strikes from Barnes and Miller. but with the Rams minutes from an unlikely double over the Cartoon army, a calamitous attempted clearance dropped onto the laces of Mark Viduka and it was 2-2.

Next up we had Liverpool at home. After a poor first half showing, we somehow stayed in the game. In the second half we played our best 45 minutes of the season, deservedly drew level and would have gone in front but for Giles Barnes inexplicable miss. Yet just when it seemed we'd rode the storm of Liverpool's last ten minute barrage, Stevie G's fluke injury time winner killed us.

Finally we have yesterdays catastrophe against Blackburn. 1-0 up, we miss a pen and you can almost feel the belief drain from Rams fans and players alike as Blackburn promptly score twice in the next five minutes.

With a few minutes to go and only one goal in it, Derby were pressing on and won a couple of corners. Rather than urging on the equaliser, Rams fans were streaming out of the ground. We didn't play particularly bad but levels of expectation seem as low as ever- the Liverpool and Newcastle games have taught us that we can play well but good things just don't happen to us.

Further notes on our Xmas games -

Newcastle are rubbish and Sam Allerdyce will do well to see this season out.
If Liverpool are the best fans in th world, I'd hate to see the worst. Their support at Pride Park was pathetic (until they scored the winner of course!).
Blackburn are a great example of the classic Premiership side - 7/8 average Joe's, with 2 or 3 top  quality players (Santa Cruz, Bentley, Pederson) who raise the bar for everyone else.    

So there it is, into the much touted transfer window ten points adrift, scoring more goals but still losing all the same. Paul Jewell is right to say the fans deserve better - 30,000+ for Blackburn at home when we'd had a home game 2 days before, is phenomenal for a team in our position.

Happy New Year

C Spaceram
www.ramspace.co.uk