Injury worries after the Fulham game left Davies crossing his fingers about the central defensive options available for the game against Everton.

Claude Davis & Dean Leacock were both injured and substituted at Fulham, Jay McEveley was doubtful with a neck strain and Andy Todd has niggling back and hamstring problems which have kept him out of contention.

Tony Hibbert and Phil Neville would be missing from Everton’s squad after being sent off last weekend against Liverpool.

Davies expressed surprise that the Rams were not given enough credit by some for 0-0 draw at Fulham. People can make their own mind up as to whether this comment was aimed at disappointed Rams fans.

Perhaps they are entitled to be disappointed when the team carve out a bundle of good chances yet fail to nail any of them and let two available points get away. Supporters were certainly pleased to get off the mark with a point away from home but are hardly reacting rapturously if Derby don’t capitalise in the position we are in this hard League!

Yes, Fulham keeper Antti Niemi did have an excellent game but at this level if strikers are clinical even the best of goalies should be left with no chance of making a save.

As Davies said, Derby did create ‘lots of chances’ and faced an inspired keeper; they also suffered the ‘ten-man’ factor where the opposing side battled on spiritedly having had a player sent off.

Billy was steadfastly taking stock of the season so far however and said ‘we are where we are’, opining that it was also where he expected the Rams to be at this stage of the season. It could have been better, though, Billy!

Rounding up some other events and the Rams Reserves lost 2-3 at Birmingham City, having surrendered to a 3-0 deficit by half time, and back home, the club issued a warning to ‘selfish standing’ fans that they would be ejected and suffer a short ban if behaviour in some sections of the stadium didn’t improve.

Ex-Hull chief Adam Pearson was again linked with the club. He was reported in the media to have proposed a £4.5m stake in Derby County. Pearson doesn’t personally have the kind of money the Rams require to move up the financial ladder though of course he could be deployed to marshall the Plaza funding or secure other investment.

The gap left by the sudden and unexplained departure of Derby CEO Trevor Birch does leave an executive gap to be filled in Peter Gadsby’s team. We can only speculate and wait for the latest rumours or designer franchise add-on!

Seems to me that DCFC behind the scenes is like a swan on the water; all calm and quiet on the surface but paddling madly beneath the water line! I doubt it will change much; it’s our prime characteristic over the decades and communications have again taken on the familiar siege mentality in some respects.

Elsewhere, it emerged that that the funding house behind Jeremy Keith’s failed bid to add another debt layer to Derby County, the hedge fund SISU, were behind a bid for troubled Southampton. Ex-Rams manager George Burley must have been highly delighted to learn of this!

And so to the main event - the sell-out home match with Everton on Sunday. Other Premier League results were mixed regarding the Rams’ fortunes – Reading and Birmingham won (beating struggling Wigan), Sunderland were held by Fulham.

Defenders Davis and McEveley came through and played, Leacock reverted to the bench and Giles Barnes made his long-awaited first full Premier League home appearance. Everton’s midfield buzzbox Leon Osman, such a crucial loan player in the Rams’ Championship relegation battle three seasons back, received deserved warm applause from the home fans.

Rams fans rueing the escaped points against Bolton, Reading and especially Fulham had their misery compounded when a not unexpected 0-2 home defeat was inflicted by the stronger, quicker, more ruthless and experienced Toffees in front of a 33,000 crowd.

True, soft defending by Derby helped to pave the way for an Everton goal in each half but one felt that Everton could win however they pleased. Derby created very little and failed to even win a single corner.

Derby reverted to bottom place in the League table and could only draw some comfort from Spurs’ continuing plight and some other bottom six residents not getting three points further away from us through their own frailties.

It was another reminder of the quality gap that Derby County are trying to bridge and on a day with so little comfort and a reversal in our survival quest, it’s fair to say that everybody hurts. I’m sure Michael Stipe, however, means ‘sometimes’ in his song, and not most of the time!

Not enough Rams players showed up to the mark on the day and though it was a bonus to see Giles Barnes sustain his effort for the whole game, he was asked to play four different roles as Davies sought in vain to pose Everton sufficient problems to earn something from the game.

Billy Davies was philosophical afterwards and offered no excuses, acknowledging Everton’s superior resources, capabilities and experience at Premiership level. Derby certainly need some of their strength, snap and purpose if they are to make a fist of consolidating their place in the Premier League.

The promise of ‘plenty of new faces’ in the January transfer window, which was served again in post-match interviews, only serves to underline impatience and loss of confidence in the current squad and of course there’s no guarantee that prospective players will deem Pride Park Stadium their choice of place to be, unless they buy into Derby’s longer-term plans of building for the future regardless of our status in May 2008.

We have to dust ourselves down and battle on for two months before that scenario acts itself out, so it’s off to Villa Park next weekend to see if the improvements on the road at Craven Cottage last time out were more of a consequence of Fulham’s ineptitude than the Rams’ capabilities at this level.

In late October 2006, RamsWeek 43 recognised Derby’s never-say-die spirit. Cardiff, impressive early season Championship pacemakers (who faded so steeply and didn’t even make the play-offs) were pegged back to 2-2 by Derby as Giles Barnes confirmed his ability with an unstoppable world-class volley to equalise in injury time. Results were improving as the Rams moved up through the top half of the table.

The Rams were looking very resilient and had developed the knack of scoring late goals and wearing down the opposition to save or turn games in the last quarter. It was that spirit and strength that was to carry the Rams all the way to the Premier League!

Photo: Action Images

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