A new low, now a new dawn.

This miserable Derby County season is littered with games where the ever optimistic fans have genuinely thought we could pull off a win, only to be let down by our hapless team.

Yesterday was such a game. Everyone thought we could turn a very poor Reading side over and at least end the season on a positive. Perhaps a bit of good old end of season madness 3-3 or a 4-3? However to say the team let the Rams fans down yesterday would be like saying the invasion of Iraq has dragged on a bit.

The protocol of the Times fanzone prevents me from releasing the four letter explosion you might find on our own website or our own forum. Suffice to say this was the most inept, lifeless, pathetic and disinterested display I have ever seen from a Rams side.

You can handle getting beat, you can even handle getting outclassed if your team is giving 100%. However we were playing a poor Reading side who actually got relegated with us. The ease with which they beat us was beyond embarrassing and the only highlight of the day was drinking in the misery of Readings part time supporters as the news of Fulham's goal filtered through.

So what next? Well on the basis we've been preparing for the Championship since January, you'd like to think that we will be significantly better prepared than Birmingham or Reading. Also they'll be no danger or worry of losing the crown jewels with us, more like sorting out a skip hire company to remove the abnormal amount of rubbish we have to get rid of!

Paul Jewell said yesterday that he thinks the majority of the current squad (including his own signings!) will never wear a Derby shirt again. Word on the street is also that we have 5 or 6 new signings "in the bag" and our President says we will be at the top of the spend/budget league in the Championship next year. What is a definite fact is that we have ridiculously already sold 20,000 season tickets.

Lets hope we can reshape the side to something we can be proud of again and get off to a flier. If we don't, then surely the fans goodwill will finally run out

C Spaceram
www.ramspace.co.uk.