 Sunday, 20th Dec 2009 19:05 by Paul Mortimer Derby County could look to their pre-Christmas home fixtures with improving confidence on the back of a four-game unbeaten run, having taken four points from their two recent away games. Manager Nigel Clough kept the positivity bubbling by declaring that ever-present Stephen ‘Rat Man’ Bywater was among the top dozen English goalkeepers. Bywater has been doing well; Clough moved to sign him on a new contract to 2012 last February and it seems a long time since he displaced the wayward Roy Carroll, now departed. Keep brushing up on your clearance kicking, though Steve - and then you might make the top half-dozen! Rams’ outcast Giles Barnes is attempting to pick up the threads of his stalled career at Birmingham City. He is now training at St Andrews where his ex-mentor Terry Westley - formerly the Rams’ Academy chief - works. Westley had commented that he was sure that Barnes could pull though and return to his best form, so he has the chance to impress the Premier League club. The FA made their choices of city venues and stadia for England’s World Cup 2018 bid on Wednesday - and all in Derby were shocked to find that we were not included, despite a bid that was ‘fully compliant’ with the FA’s requirements. Bids from Leicester and Hull also missed out. The FA made mention of wanting to spread the representation geographically across the whole nation and the East Midlands will be represented by Nothingham. FIFA will finally choose which country stages the 2018 tournament in December 2010. Nothingham do not have any firm go-ahead between authorities or agreed venue or funding for their mooted 50,000-capacity stadium; the City Ground is inadequate. No doubt they have been chosen as a larger ‘central’ city - but Nothingham does not have the recent established international legacy that Derby and Pride Park Stadium possesses. Derby has staged several sell-out England Under-21 games, Premier League football and a full England international, as well as the Ladies FA Cup Final (which we took over from Nothingham as the FA’s choice). By 2018, Little Billy will be long gone and Doughty will have spent up! Their stadium plans are still in abeyance, if not disarray. Rams’ legend Roy McFarland called the choice of Nothingham over Derby ‘bewildering’. That it was - but perhaps not as bewildering as the FA’s selection of the township of Milton Keynes. The FA’s choices will boost areas like the West Country should England ultimately stage the World Cup but that region is bereft of top flight football and expectations that Plymouth Argyle and the Bristol clubs could sustain 40,000+ capacity stadia or assemble high-flying teams are just fanciful. It is wholly exasperating to see Milton Keynes chosen - the Bedfordshire club defines the distasteful encroachment of football franchising and now the FA has condoned such club-pirating, by selecting them above bids like Derby. I know that the term ‘franchise’ has a different, benign and purely business ‘branding’ meaning to such as Derby’s American owners. For many English fans, MK simply disenfranchised Wimbledon FC and relocated their League status to Bedfordshire. Currently, MK Dons (a misnomer in itself, as they even thieved Wimbledon FC’s nickname) sometimes enjoy gates approaching 10,000. Perhaps there was the assumption that so-called ‘lesser’ bids from the West County and Milton Keynes could not take precedence over Derby’s undoubted football heritage? It is not so much being ‘beaten’ by Nothingham - they are admittedly a larger city with plenty of amenities even if their football facilities are imaginary. Progress upon their bid and stadium construction puts plenty of pressure upon those involved to actually deliver their proposal; we can watch with interest. It is being defeated in the bidding by other (presumed marginal?) tenders that surprised DCFC, the city council and the rest of us. Other bidders obviously ensured more involvement from the fan bases, general population and also courted the relevant media; they were more ‘connected’ as an overall effort. Fans are a resource too - and it must be said that seeing nothing apart from encouragement to sign up support for Derby’s bid on the FA website or wherever hardly qualified for participation in my book. Whatever, Derby must dust itself down; the club needs to seize its own future and re-establish the Rams among the football elite over the next few years. I hope to see the current owners fulfil their mission statement now they no longer have the distractions and demands of facilitating the bid or ultimately being responsible for staging part of the 2018 festival of football. Back in the Championship, Watford’s FC’s board collapsed, with the Hornets going close to administration after a public fight over debts and loans; Ex-Hornets and England boss Graham Taylor has temporarily taken the board hot seat. Sheffield Wednesday relieved manager Brian Laws of his duties last weekend, whilst Paul Mariner is building a new management team at Plymouth Argyle with Paul Sturrock having been sacked earlier this month. Under-performing Reading showed the door to manager Brendan Rogers; QPR fell out with Jim Magilton and replaced him with well-travelled ex-Tree Paul Hart. Derby’s relative stability, recent on-field improvement and growing spirit should be an invitation to capitalise on other clubs’ misfortunes and pull away from the lower reaches of the table. Winger Gary Teale and defender Jay McEveley are to hold contract talks as their current deals expire next summer. Both have flourished (relatively) under Clough where Paul Jewell could not get the best from these Billy Davies signings. Both players can leave fans rather ambivalent though, with some shockers being interspersed amongst more recent, welcome better performances. They were both atrocious for Derby in the Premier League under Davies or Jewell (who wasn’t?) and absent from any recovery until Clough arrived. I think McEveley is good cover but better at centre half; the inconsistent Teale is now ageing. I don’t see either as part of a successful Derby side. The Rams have gained another commercial pardner, as local auto tyre and fast-fit retailers Eden Tyre Sales joined their portfolio. They sponsor jackets for the Pride Park Stadium stewards and...errmm...the substitution announcements, and Rams fans can benefit from a 10% discount from ETS branches with production of their season ticket and DCFC Christmas letter voucher. Chris Porter was seen endorsing the link and apparently had a couple of tyres fitted to his Audi - though I was shocked that a footballer actually retained his car long enough to have to bother with buying new tyres! Surely, most of them would just buy a new car, well before that eventuality? Doncaster Rovers were Saturday’s visitors to Pride Park Stadium in the last fixture before Christmas. Donny got the double over Derby last season so the Rams had a point to prove and it was important for Clough’s men to sustain their recent improvement. It was a few degrees below zero at chilly Pride Park Stadium on Saturday afternoon - and as the RZ match report says, the Rams were several degrees below their best. Click the link to read: Almost 29,000 witnessed a meandering, misdirected performance from the Rams which saw Donny win every battle, play neat, productive football when able and most importantly, nick the points. Rovers were presented with simple chances after 20 minutes and then in injury time as Derby defenders and goalkeeper committed amateurish errors to throw away their recent run in a 0-2 home defeat. It was a performance harking back to the frustrations of the last few seasons and only confirmed why Derby County have spent most of that time paddling in the bottom half of the Championship table. Again there was a lack of quality, poor teamwork, dreadful passing and decision making, crass individual errors and lack of concentration. Derby flattered to deceive, despite periods of domination and enjoying plenty of territorial advantage, especially in the 2nd half. Savage had an off-day and looked like a headless chicken until substituted; former Doncaster idol Paul Green was wasted playing wider and is most effective in his central role. Although Stephen Pearson has won himself a new contract, there is no contest for me in terms of who is most productive, courageous and important to the team when on song between him and Green - who can also shoot and finish, claiming his quota of goals. Gary Teale was at his most frustratingly ponderous and inaccurate and if he is to win a new contract, that display was hardly going to have NC and TG rushing at him with pen and paper. I for one don’t think I can stand to watch such baffling, wasteful efforts much longer - and with due respect to Kris Commons (who might solve such problems if fit and on form) I exhort Derby to find the resources to go out and get a younger, better wide player to feed our frustrated strikers. Even in-form Jay McEveley lapsed back into bad old habits, implicated in both goals and setting Donny up nicely with a stupidly careless piece of play to invite them to simply intercept the ball, feed their striker Sharp promptly and score the first goal of the game against the run of play. It is now back to basics all round yet again. It is a wonder that Nigel has not gone grey in the past year, or hoarse, repeating the same old instructions and demands on players that can’t seem to make the bridge back to the teamwork, belief, attitude and application that can bring success back to Derby County. It has been a difficult year and there is still a lot of work for the boss to do. Too many of the Rams’ players on show flatter to deceive and cannot sustain form (or fitness). January 2010 beckons but the only noises coming from Pride Park Stadium are concerning the extension or renewal of loan deals and one or two unnamed possibles - alongside quashing the rumours about Rob Hulse joining Wolves, Ipswich, Boro or whoever. Clough also declared that he had not shown any interest in - or even watched - Bournemouth striker Brett Pittman and perhaps we should be looking beyond collecting yet more ‘young improvers’ for the time being and add some proven quality. Fairy on the Christmas tree, wave your magic wand! It’s been a cold snap weather-wise this week and the wintry weather was reflected in the week’s events. Derby caught a cold off-field with their failed World Cup bid and Derby County were handed yet another chilly lesson by a competent but unspectacular Doncaster Rovers side, as so-called minnows again hoodwinked us on the field. The cold hard facts are that the current crop of Derby players still tease and torture us by turn far more than they please us - consistency and success seem as far away as ever. Christmas is now upon us and so we look to family gatherings and festivities to provide us all with some deserved fun and pleasure. The Boxing Day home clash with Blackpool is important to get the Rams back on track - now just don’t spoil it for us, you players! See you there and have a happy Christmas in the meantime! RamsWeek 51 last year saw the Rams arrive late due to traffic problems for their Monday evening fixture at Charlton Athletics’ Valley. Loanee Darren Powell’s defensive mistake allowed the Addicks to take the lead but Nathan Ellington equalised for Derby from the penalty spot after a handball. Manager Paul Jewell regarded it as a fortunate point won given the poor performance. Zadkovich (who?) missed an open goal and was taken off at half time; Charlton regained the lead after the break but Ellington equalised right at the death. Loanee James Tomkins had replaced Powell and Giles Barnes (who?) came off the bench for his first action of the 2008-09 season. Paul Jewell was stressing patience and time for rebuilding as the year ended, in contrast to the bullish declarations from him and Adam Pearson that the painful, lingering relegation from the Premier League at the end of the previous season gave Derby County “6 months extra preparation for our assault on the Championship”. More bull than Fray Bentos! Derby improved the following weekend to beat Watford 1-0 at home, through a late Rob Hulse strike. Miles Addison was handed the captain’s armband; James Tomkins, Nacer Barazite and Giles Barnes contributed well as the young guns provided more pep to the Derby side. Pride Park Stadium was awarded the Ladies FA Cup Final to be staged in May 2009 and it was more recognition for club and stadium, as we harboured hopes of being part of a successful England 2018 World Cup bid. Photo: Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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