Derby County had a brace of Championship fixtures in front of them in which to dispel worries about a carry over of their inconsistent form and poor defending from 2008-09.

A midweek away game at Blackpool was followed by a home game versus Plymouth Argyle and manager Nigel Clough anticipated more involvement from fit-again key players like Rob Hulse and Kris Commons.

Before the Tuesday night fixture at Blackpool, the Rams released goalkeeper Roy Carroll - still having two years of his Derby County contract to run - so that he could join Dutch club Odense.

Although Carroll had proved a good stopper during his career though he hasn’t been an important signing for Derby. With good goalkeepers like Stephen Bywater and Lewis Price at his disposal, Paul Jewell felt the need to bring Carroll in during the January 2008 transfer window. Perhaps he felt that Bywater’s confidence was short due to the drubbings his Derby team endured and deemed Lewis Price inexperienced.

With Stephen Bywater revitalised and established back in the first team, Roy’s another one we’ve had to pay off well before his contract was due up. Clough offloaded another player, striker Luke Varney, who went out on loan to Sheffield Wednesday for the remainder of 2009 - though he pointed out it didn’t spell the end of his chances at Derby County. Clough does have Jake Livermore in his midfield/attacking options though it would not be a surprise to see a squad addition or two before the August 31st transfer deadline.

Chris Porter has undergone a hip operation and is expected to be out until late December; Giles Barnes of course is a seemingly permanent resident in the treatment room and Paul Green’s foot injury is more persistent than expected which is preventing Clough from throwing his energetic dynamo into every game for the full 90 minutes at the moment.

Blackpool represents the kind of side that Derby should master if they have aspirations of progress, but then we said that about Scunthorpe last week. The encounter at Bloomfield Road was a 0-0 stalemate, with not a lot to write home about in terms of excitement. Nigel Clough at least saw his players address the notion of defending as a team and denying the opposition space and chances so abundant in the previous two away games,

Stephen Bywater marked his 100th Derby County appearance with a clean sheet and Clough was happy with the improved defensive showing, noting that it was at a sacrifice to Derby’s own attacking ambitions, even though the manager was able to ease Rob Hulse and Kris Commons back into the starting line-up after their pre-season injuries.

Significantly, Nigel named Robbie Savage as captain at Blackpool, which Clough justified by declaring that he preferred a captain was in the middle of the park and at the centre of the action, whilst wishing to allow Paul Connolly to work on his form, without the burden of the captaincy.

Savage gave a captain’s display and says he feels a totally different player to the one that started dreadfully under Paul Jewell - who presumably brought him to lead a struggling team but ended up falling out with Sav amongst many players before completely wasting him.

As for Connolly, he works hard and can turn in good solid displays but he maybe lacks ultimate quality. It will be interesting to see if Clough improves him as a player to make him an essential cog in the machine or ultimately discards him for a better right back. The other flank, in contrast, has shown definite improvement where newcomer Dean Moxey is coming on in leaps and bounds; I can almost bear to watch again when an opposing team dashes down their right flank, as we’re not such a soft touch there any more.

Derby consolidated a mid-table position with that point at Blackpool and the stage was set for the team to make it ‘fortress Pride Park ‘ with back-to back home wins when the took on winless Plymouth Argyle on Saturday. The Rams had played three tough away games without great distinction - exiting the Carling Cup at Rotherham United then getting needlessly beaten at promoted Scunthorpe in the Championship.

The Blackpool game thankfully yielded a point in a determined draw and that had put Derby back on track. They were looking forward to ‘bringing it all back home’ after those gruelling excursions to show the large home following that they were growing together as a team. I’ve also used that title - prematurely, I feel - in deference to the England cricket team as well, because they nicked the Ashes off their arch-rivals Australia by stuffing them by 197 runs this afternoon in the Test series at The Oval!

The Rams managed to claim their back-to-back home wins but not before a stiff battle with a physical and defiant Plymouth side. Clough gave Jake Livermore his first start in midfield and the newcomer acquitted himself well; He along with Croft and Teale enjoyed plenty of possession in the first half but Derby lacked a cutting edge early on. It was nothing like the tearaway start that left Peterborough flat on their heels a fortnight ago.

They made it difficult for themselves when Argyle grabbed the lead from a penalty shortly after a quarter of an hour. Jamie Mackie outran the Ram’s defence and his shot slapped the post: Jake Buxton felled Alan Judge. The Argyle player got up to slot home the penalty and confound the expectations of the 26,000 attendance.

Derby equalised close to the interval when Buxton made amends in the opposing penalty area as the Rams turned up the heat. Steve Davies had an effort saved, before Jake bashed in a loose ball for 1-1 to relieve the Pride Park Stadium nerves. Miles Addison had a header cleared off the line as Derby finished the first period on top.

Clough had saved Hulse and Commons on the bench and their introduction as the game wore on helped to tip the balance. Robust defending and mediocre, lenient refereeing conspired to frustrate Derby; Savage even had to produce a brilliant saving tackle near the end as Mackie got away from Moxey and it seemed that Argyle would smuggle a point back to Devon.

Captain Savage later declared however that Derby will never give up these days and they had made Plymouth walk the plank with three late, pressurising corners. Finally, Plymouth were all awash as the colossal Miles Addison rose to power Teale’s superb corner into the net to make it 2-1 and claim a late winner, close to the end of normal time, as he had done against Peterborough.

Derby hadn’t been convincing in either defence or attack against Plymouth but teams that win when not playing to full capacity become successful sides. Clough declared that Derby were worth the victory and it put Derby into the top ten of the Championship table.

There should be plenty more to come as the team grows together but there is still a nagging worry about strength in depth, what with the unlucky Steve Davies being stretchered off with another unwanted injury. It’s a further setback for him and Clough, given the promise he shows. We don’t yet know the extent of Steve’s injury.

Chairman Andy Appleby this week declared that the Rams are on the mend financially, notwithstanding unfortunate injuries to such as Davies, Barnes and Porter on the field. Last year, the board made the declaration that they wanted to reduce Derby’s debt further by August 2009 and now announced that this has duly been achieved. Having taken on the Rams with a £31m debt at the start of 2008, the GSE consortium managed to cut the debt to £23m last year.

A further £8m has been shaved off the debt, leaving the £15, mortgage on Pride Park Stadium as the outstanding debt. Derby had an horrendous wage bill after relegation; whilst £26m is not a large cost for a Premier League squad, it is for a Championship one!

In any case, quite a few of the players that rode along on Derby’s debt proved that they weren’t even worth Championship wages or a place in the team that Paul Jewell failed to revive and Nigel Clough is now having to remodel without disrupting the club’s financial plans. Appleby declared that Derby lowered their debt entirely via financial input from the investment group (not from bank loans) and that a short-term return for investors was not an expectation.

The disclosures also come a year after ex-chairman Peter Gadsby went heads-on with the new board to declare that Mr Glick & Co’s words ‘did not indicate that so much as a single dollar of new money has been put into the club since the (GSE) takeover”. Today it’s difficult to draw that conclusion if the debts have been conquered as stated.

More commercial and sponsorship income and some player sales have helped but on the other hand, we are still paying big money severances to failed, unwanted players. The sprawling coaching, training and scouting regimes amassed by Billy Davies and Paul Jewell have also had to be paid off. Paying less to player agents over the past 6 months is a healthy sign - Derby paid £325,000 to them between January and July 2009, half as much as in the previous period.

Derby fans have had more than their fair share of being bamboozled by boards of directors and whilst it is clear that there has been cost-cutting regarding player wages and more modest budgeting applied to the latest rebuild under Nigel Clough, the board shows more realism and a prudent philosophy that is correct for the Championship status we currently occupy.

It therefore appears to be a good performance so far by the GSE consortium and the commercial strength of the club has been improved with solid local business and sponsorship links being forged. I do wonder however to what extent a club like Derby can be further ‘milked’. We do have an already very healthy support but a quite limited regional financial business base into which they can tap the commercial interest.

That’s in contrast to some of the American sports clubs that they’ve resuscitated on and off the field in bigger cities across the Atlantic, as well as the foreboding financial demands of funding as proper Premier League team. It’s a different League, in every meaning of the phrase.

So there’ll come a time - hopefully soon - when Derby will need demonstrably large-scale financial backing to build a team capable of playing (and staying) in the Premier League. That can’t be achieved with non-league improvers and lower league diamonds, even if a few starlets could emerge from Academy and modest sources.

We will have to acquire proven quality and experience or it will be another shambolic embarrassment with hopes trounced all over again.

Speaking of trouncings, it seems that little Billy down the road isn’t having the best of times in Nothingham, whilst that city awaits with baited breath a Davies team storm on to better things and cram a proposed 50,000-seat stadium. Or am I confusing them with Notts County across the other bank of the Trent, under Svengali Sven?

Anyroadup, Derby have handed the Tricky Trees two satisfying beatings in League and FA Cup meetings at the City Ground last season and it’s to Nottingham that Mr Clough takes his merry men next Saturday!

Let’s hope that the only ‘stink’ that Billy sniffs next Saturday afternoon (given his vacuous but provocative comments in The League Paper this week) is the pungent smell of defeat at the hands of Derby County, an aroma with which he should be more than familiar by now.

Go Rams!

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RamsWeek 34 last year asked readers ‘am I expecting too much?’ after a poor start to the 2008-09 season and apparent dissent among the ranks at Pride Park Stadium. Had Paul Jewell fallen out with director of football operations Adam Pearson?

The team battled to a colourless draw at Bristol City but Alan Stubbs declared time on his career because of his continuing injury problems. Jewell was still collecting players, blooding Arsenal loanee Nacer Barazite and trialling Lens midfielder Julien Sable in a Moor Farm friendly in which Tito Villa scored all three goals against the furry Foxes.

Meanwhile, Jewell shipped out expensive non-playing striker Liam Dickinson on loan to Huddersfield Town and lost £250k on shipping out Benny Feilhaber after severing his short-lived and remarkably pointless Derby County career.

The boss strove on in an attempt to bring us much more colourful performances (instead of just evoking colourful language from us all), from the broad but dull palette he had bought for the club.

Photo: Action Images

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