Paul Jewell acknowledged that his team didn’t show enough quality to topple Middlesbrough in the narrow home defeat last week.

The Rams’ board met and approved Adam Pearson’s initiative to progress talks with proposed American backers on behalf of the football club.

During the week, Pearson declared that talks were ‘progressing nicely’ and that things would come to a head over the New Year period, which is one way of saying he hoped that the new investment would very soon be available for Paul Jewell to add to the squad.

There are apparently five equity funds involved in the American sports management company that Derby are negotiating with, which has interests in American football, baseball and basketball.

Manager Paul Jewell had further squad injury worries ahead of the Rams’ away game at Newcastle United on Sunday 23rd December. Matt Oakley, Andy Griffin and Claude Davis were doubtful; Andy Todd was lined up for more specialist visits to remedy his back troubles and there were also slight concerns about the fitness of Earnshaw & Pearson.

The game was a chance for Derby County not only to break their losing sequence but also to gain a League ‘double’ over the only Premier League opponents that they have beaten this season. With Derby’s stretched squad it already looked like a tall order.

Defeat would see the Rams equalling their worst-ever sequence of 8 defeats in a row, a statistic that the club have registered on more than one prior occasion.

Of local and national interest was the declaration that the mothballed national football centre for player coaching, training, development and medical resource at Burton was back on the agenda as the FA had now finally approved development of such facilities for the England national team and youth teams. Remarkable.

Our football authorities and the various associated bodies wasted several years and multiplied the costs and delays in building the ‘new’ Wembley Stadium through procrastination and internecine strife.

Typically, the announcement over finalising the proposed centre situated at Burton is now subject to various bodies making a ‘business case’ for situating the centre at the existing site at Burton or choosing another location. Remarkable.

Here’s a suggestion: stop wasting time and money in making the game so London-centric, get on with completing the Burton centre and give the money you might waste starting over again to funding more grass roots work, i.e. in making donations to club youth academy facilities all over the nation, OK?

Fulham FC sacked Manager Laurie Sanchez this week – the south London relegation candidates had amassed more than twice as many points as Derby County but remain in the ‘relegation pack’ and now face the immediate task of selecting new management for the New Year.

There was a little local conflict reported when a handful of motley messageboard warriors were taken to task by former Rams’ Chairman Peter Gadsby. Retractions and apologies had to be made for lies and insults written about Gadsby, in order for them to avoid serious legal action for their tiresome efforts.

The stories of players being linked with Derby multiply daily as the media ratchet up the pre-window transfer speculation - you can catch the names listed on all the news sites. Dyskobolia sounds like a nasty groin strain inflicted from excessive partying & clubbing but they are a Polish side whose 24 year-old Macedonian defender Vlade Lazarevski has been on trial with Derby County.

It is expected that Derby will bring in some players from abroad with positive noises coming from both manager and Chairman and no doubt we will be in for an interesting January once the transfer window opens.

Jewell declared that he wanted young Wales’ defender Lewin Nyatanga back in his squad and that he’d recently had ‘heart-to-hearts’ with Rob Earnshaw, to encourage busier performances from him, and with Giles Barnes, to ensure that the starlet puts the consistency and discipline alongside his lavish skills in order to maximise his contribution to the team.

In the pre-match interviews ahead of the Newcastle clash, Steve Howard was relishing meeting the Toon in the return match at St Jams Park on Sunday. The battling Geordie hoped for a place in the team after sitting out the home defeat against Middlesbrough.

He was recalled to the team as the depleted Rams – without skipper Matt Oakley and Claude Davis, who limped out of the kick-in – set about Newcastle with a positive 4-4-2 formation.

Howard certainly played his part as Derby put on a display of skill, spirit and purpose, belying their lowly League position and muting the 51,000 crowd. The Rams certainly put a fog on the Tyne, which has clouded the beleaguered Magpies boss Sam Allardyce’s Christmas!

It was a tremendous team performance in which the Rams twice took the lead - first through Giles Barnes’ 20-yard strike and then again in a very bright second-half performance through Kenny Miller - until Mark Viduka struck back both times to deny Derby a deserved victory.

Derby reserved their two best performances this season for the Newcastle games – and it looked like that the Rams had a last-minute penalty shout denied when Mears was felled as Derby attacked to the very last.
 
The victory over the Geordies at Pride Park Stadium in September had proved a false dawn as Billy Davies failed to sustain any form from his squad but this attractive and productive away performance gives club and fans a glimmer of hope that The Great Escape might actually get under way. 

It was a measure of Paul Jewell’s raised expectations that he expressed disappointment not to have won the game and there is no doubt that all the points were well within Derby’s grasp until loose defending cost them Viduka’s 2nd equaliser.

Nevertheless, the Rams came out of the encounter in good heart for the demanding Christmas Premier League programme that will see the Rams take on Liverpool and Blackburn Rovers at home and Bolton away, before they take on lower league opposition in the banana skin that is a Derby County FA Cup 3rd Round tie, this time against Championship Sheffield Wednesday in early January 2008!

Last year on the eve of Christmas in RamsWeek 51, the Rams ground out a point at Burnley in a scruffy 0-0 draw.

It was the kind of game that promotion teams need to endure and bring something back from and Derby duly kept their third clean sheet in a row as they challenged at the top of the Championship table

As we approach the conclusion of a year of contrasts for Derby County, here’s to a Cool Yule and a Great 2008 for all Rams fans and everyone at the club. Have a great holiday and let’s look forward to better fortune in the coming months.

Photo: Action Images

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