Two World's Collide

Another Saturday another Premier League defeat for Derby County. Still, only 3 games to go now so this season from hell is nearly finished.

One thing that was a bit strange about Saturday's defeat, apart from the fact that we didn't actually deserve to lose, was the comparative attitude and mood of the two sets of fans.

Can anyone in the history of English football have suffered a more public humiliation than Derby this season? We are playing in the best and most publicised league in the world and are shortly to be crowned the worst team in the competitions history. We have only won once all season and have suffered innumerable pummellings, including a 0-6 home defeat only last week.

The fans were sold woefully short by our previous administration and manager and have paid the price big time. We've effectively had no football season - imagine how that feels?

Now lets look at West Ham. To say they narrowly avoided relegation last season would be an understatement. Regardless of what you think of the Tevez affair, Curbs performed more than a minor miracle keeping them in the top flight.

This season, despite a never ending list of injuries, they have consolidated nicely in mid table and have never been anywhere near the relegation places. A sound platform to push on next year with a fully fit squad.

Derby sold out their allocation on Saturday weeks in advance. The support for the team, as always, was noisy and unrelenting. When Tyrone Mears equalised, you may have been forgiven for thinking we had just qualified for the Champions league!

The West Ham fans booed the team off at full time (they won by the way) and sang "you don't know what you're doing" to their manager. Bizarre.

Lets hope if we return to the Premiership in a years time, we can really give some of these opposition fans something to moan about.

C Spaceram
www.ramspace.co.uk