The Premiership is now so close for QPR we can reach out and touch the overpriced season tickets. Three results are required this weekend for the R’s to make it certain against Derby County.
How strange that after spending all season mocking Nottingham Forest manager Billy Davies for his constant whining about lack of squad investment and support from the board, we’re now actually hoping he might get a result tonight and do us a favour. If Forest do manage a point or more at Norwich this evening then QPR can all but tie up promotion on Monday night against Forest’s big rivals Derby – if Swansea fail to win at Burnley on Saturday as well then a win would make it official, but the goal difference between us and them is such that it’s pretty academic. While the idea of supporting Davies and his “wonderful staff” this evening doesn’t exactly sit comfortably I can think of few better opponents for us to clinch promotion against than the Rams.
Derby was where it all began for me, back in August. We’d beaten Barnsley 4-0 on day one but relied on several large dollops of good fortune along the way, then won at Sheffield United in fine style but again there were extenuating circumstances – the Blades are now bottom of the league, and any points won against a team managed by Kevin Blackwell should only count half anyway in my opinion. In the third game we’d beaten Scunthorpe at home which, despite last week’s massacre at Glanford Park, is nothing to really write home about either. We went to Pride Park in decent numbers eager to discover whether this promising start to the season was the beginning of some glorious new dawn, or just the usual QPR posturing prior to a winter collapse and change of manager.
For the most part it looked like the latter. Barnsley, Scunthorpe, Leeds, Watford and Millwall fans probably wonder what all the fuss is about with our team based on our performances against them this season, and as it stands Derby are probably on that list as well. QPR never got going at Pride Park and deservedly trailed 2-0 going into stoppage time. “Same old Rangers,” I thought to myself as I ambled out of the away end and across the commercial estate surrounding the Derby ground back towards the pub.
And then the phone rang, and everything changed. I didn’t believe what I was hearing at first, but through the screams and cheers I could make out my friend Steve shouting “it’s 2-2, it’s 2-2.” I told him to piss off and hung up, four minutes of stoppage time had been added and I’d stayed for a minute and 30 seconds of it so I simply didn’t believe it was possible to score, get kicked off and score again in the time remaining. As I discovered, sheepishly watching the video later, not only was it possible to cram two goals into that time but Derby went through one on one with Paddy Kenny and should have scored again too. Where was I while all this was going on? Walking across the bloody forecourt of a Nissan garage that’s where.
That Derby result has been so important to us this season for so many reasons – so much more than simply a point won against the odds. Firstly it preserved an unbeaten start to the season which actually continued for the first 19 matches, protecting that record became a quest for our squad and they fought hard against heavy odds to preserve it at times when, had it been lost at Pride Park, we may have been less inclined to do so. Secondly scoring two stoppage time goals made the players willing to continue chasing what seemed like lost causes – at Portsmouth they overcame a mediocre performance and poor refereeing to snatch a late point and the R’s have scored 18 goals in the last quarter hour of games this season. The equalising goal was scored by Jamie Mackie, boosting his confidence and setting him on a fine scoring run that was sadly stopped at ten by a broken leg in January.
The belief it gave the whole club coursed through the team’s performances in the first half of the season and in my opinion turned what may have been a play off push into this procession towards the title we’re currently enjoying. Hell, even last Saturday at Scunthorpe I was still thinking we might come back and snatch something despite being 4-1 down in injury time and I get the impression the players think the same after what happened against the Rams. How apt it would be to put the seal on promotion with a win against the same opposition on Monday evening.
The fact that three of the four players mentioned as men to watch in the preview for our game at Pride Park in August are no longer with the Rams – Rob Hulse was sold to QPR, Kris Commons went to Celtic with his contract almost up and the Rams showing no appetite to renew it on its existing terms and Dean Moxey was sold to Crystal Palace in January – tells you everything you need to know.
Manager Nigel Clough has taken some grief from supporters this season - the Rams labour under the misapprehension that 25,000 home attendances should act as some sort of guarantee for success and make their feelings very plain when that doesn’t happen – but since the very beginning of his reign here job one has been to balance the books, not build a successful team. Consequently we find a club in a very similar situation to my old friends at Coventry who are trying to stem huge cash losses while competing in the Championship – it’s a difficult trick to pull off and one that neither the Rams nor the Sky Blues are doing with any great degree of success.
Derby continue to suffer the hangover of their ill-fated one season in the Premiership in 2007/08 where they won just a solitary game at home to Newcastle and were relegated breaking all manner of unwanted points, goals and defeats records. They’d been promoted one year into manager Billy Davies’ three year plan, far too soon basically, and in an attempt to make up for that they embarked on footballing financial suicide. They backed Davies (he likes it when boards do that) in the January transfer window in 2007 when he added six new faces to a squad already competing for promotion, then he added another layer of Robert Earnshaw/Kenny Miller types after winning promotion, then when he was sacked his replacement Paul Jewell was allowed to make half a dozen signings in January 2008 and when that didn’t work out and they were relegated he caked another layer of ten new faces on ready for the Championship.
By the time Clough took over the Rams, ailing in the Championship by this stage, he had a squad in excess of 40 players brought to the club by five of his predecessors. It was a massively overinflated squad of players bought by different managers with different ideas for different things and jobs on the pitch. Clough had to split them into two groups and hold double training sessions just to make coaching them more manageable and has spent his time since cutting costs and the wage bill.
When you’re allowing players like Commons to leave, while shopping around the lower divisions for the likes of Jake Buxton, your chances of success on the field are limited. It took Clough ten years to build Burton Albion into a club capable of winning promotion into the Football League and it may take him that long to make Derby competitive at this level. His board of American owners has backed him in the face of mounting criticism, but it’s clear from comments made by his coach Johnny Metgod in recent days that patience is wearing thin with the board both from supporters and the management staff. Tom Glick, the club’s chairman, says supporters unhappy with their transfer activity this summer can have their season ticket money refunded ahead of next season but unless they’re planning on thrusting several million into the team it’s hard to see how Derby will do anything other than struggle at this level next season, and for a good few seasons after that too.
The Manager: In Nigel Clough the Derby board appointed a long term planner for a long term job. It took Clough ten years of progress at Burton Albion to prepare them for the Football League – a decade of tiny steps forward on and off the pitch until the Brewers were topping the Conference in a ground fit for League One at least.
Football managers don’t tend to get ten years in the Football League, although Clough could quite reasonably and justifiably argue that the mess he inherited at Derby could well take that long to correct. It used to be said of Gerry Francis that he spent transfer fees as if it was his own money and Clough is the same. He's much preferred to pick up the likes of Dean Moxey and Jake Buxton from the Conference and lower leagues than follow in the footsteps of his predecessors who spent big money on players like Rob Earnshaw.
Clough has in many ways done the hard bit at Derby, hacking into the grossly over inflated and over paid squad. Now he has to inject some quality and commitment into his side as part of the rebuild. Money is tight and he is working with his hands tied to some extent but Derby cannot find themselves in a position again in September whereby they are scratching around for cast offs and loan signings to make up their numbers otherwise patience will run out.
Clough will always be able to trade off his family name after his father’s miraculous success in this part of the world. But if he thinks he’ll get a decade to turn Derby around as he did at Burton he’s very much mistaken.
Three to Watch: One decent bit of business Derby have been able to do just recently is bring in Jamie Ward on loan from Sheffield United. Ward is a player I like very much having seen him emerge onto the scene at Chesterfield, where he had a penchant for goals from long range, and then earn his move to Sheffield United who should never in a million years be loaning him out while they are bottom of the table and badly lacking in quality. The Blades spent £330,000 to bring him up two divisions from the Spirerites for whom he scored 31 times in 74 appearances after graduating from the academy at Aston Villa. Still, as he only measures about 5ft 5ins in height I suppose he doesn’t fit in with Mickey Adams’ terribly successful “ethos” on the game.
Ward, a striker or attacking midfielder ideally suited to playing as a partner to a bigger point man in attack, has scored three times for the Rams so far including one in the impressive home win against Leeds at the weekend. He says he’s not thinking about where he will be playing his football next season, but if I was Derby I’d be making moves to secure him permanently. To be honest I was always a little grumpy that QPR didn’t try and pick him up from Saltergate themselves.
Their other scorer against Leeds was midfielder Ben Davies - a January transfer window signing from Notts County. Davies is an odd one really, he’s spent his entire career in the lower divisions with Walsall, Kidderminster, Chester, Shrewsbury and then County and at 29 he’s hardly boasting a great deal of potential. And yet Clough pursued him for months on end, having one bid after another turned down by the Magpies until the player himself forced the move through at the turn of the year. Clough was even seen to leave a game against Coventry back in August before the final whistle to race up the M1 to Meadow Lane and watch Davies in action. For once, this is a Championship player I haven’t seen a lot of so I’m including him here more because I’m interested to know what all the fuss was about than any knowledge I have of the way he plays.
And finally, Robbie Savage. This is the final time QPR fans will have the chance to taunt everybody’s favourite pantomime villain as he is hanging up his boots in the summer to concentrate (dear God save us) on his media work. Having seen him play for Derby a few times this season I’m of the opinion that the decision has probably come 12 months too late.
Savage has always been one of those players opposition fans love to hate. His flaxen mane makes him stand out from the rest of the players before the game has even kicked off and his propensity to wind up opponents, dive around, constantly moan to referees and give a bit back to crowds who perhaps aren’t being appreciative of the job he’s doing out there makes him a clear target. He freely admits to not being the best player in the world, although having played in the top two divisions in this country for so long he’s clearly been no mug, and has played within his limitations. Last season for Derby I thought he did a fine job, captaining the side during this difficult cost cutting period at Pride Park and holding it together when injuries decimated the starting 11. At Loftus Road last season he told his Twitter followers that he had marked Adel Taarabt out of the game, this despite Taarabt running 30 yards with the ball at feet and setting up Lee Cook for the QPR goal. This year in August he did a reasonable job on him again, although the Moroccan wriggled free and should have scored inside five minutes, and it will be interesting to see if he is detailed to the role for a third time on Monday evening.
As the season has gone on Savage has appeared increasingly off the pace to me. Clough has brought him off early in games, resulting in much anger and throwing of boots in the dug out when removed from the local derby defeat by Forest, and his retirement is overdue. The problem is now ESPN, the BBC and others have all decided he is some kind of expert pundit on the game – he claims to have two television deals and a host of radio offers already on the table for next season. This is a classic mistake broadcasters make - believing that getting a controversial, outspoken figure that people will disagree with (and therefore get in touch) is a better idea than somebody who can actually provide some tactical insight into what is happening in a game. Savage is to punditry what he was to playing football – an irritation who likes to stir people up. This is not what I want from my punditry – I want less of this Steve Claridge, Talk Sport style where a ridiculous opinion is adopted to try and drum up some callers and then when the argument falls down any counter debate is simple met with “I’ve played the game so I know more than you.” I want somebody to tell me something I might not have noticed about the pattern of play, or the systems, or the technique of one of the players. Sigh. It seems that just when we all thought we were rid of the irritating git, we’re actually going to be stuck with him for years to come.
Links >>> Derby Official Website >>> Derby Message Board >>> Travel Guide
Derby: Bywater 6, Brayford 6, Leacock 6, Barker 5, Roberts 6, Doyle 7 (Martin 57, 7), Green 7, Savage 8, Bailey 7, Commons 8 (Cywka 45, 8), Moxey 7 (Ball 90, -)
Subs Not Used: Deeney, Buxton, Pringle, O'Brien
Booked: Moxey (foul)
Goals: Commons 40 (assisted Moxey), Bailey 59 (assisted Cywka)
QPR: Kenny 7, Orr 6, Gorkss 6, Connolly 5, Hill 6, Derry 6 (Buzsaky 61, 6), Faurlin 5, Ephraim 6, Mackie 7, Helguson 5 (Agyemang 62, 6), Taarabt 6 (Clarke 69, 5)
Subs Not Used: Cerny, Leigertwood, Ramage, German
Booked: Hill (foul), Mackie (over celebrating)
Goals: Agyemang 90 +1 (assisted Clarke), Mackie 90+5 (unassisted)
QPR and Derby shared the spoils in a dire encounter towards the end of last season at Loftus Road. Both sides were just about safe in the league, while still casting nervous glances over their respective shoulders, and in the end a draw was a more than fair result after a dour spectacle. QPR took the lead in first half injury time when Adel Taarabt escaped the clutches of his man marker Robbie Savage to set up Lee Cook for his one and only goal of last season. QPR were well below par though and Derby deserved their equaliser which came in the form of a fine individual goal by defender Shaun Barker just over 20 minutes from time.
QPR: Ikeme 7, Ramage 7, Stewart 7, Gorkss 8, Connolly 8 (Hill 33, 6), Faurlin 5, Leigertwood 5, Cook 6 (German 59, 7), Taarabt 7, Vine 6, Simpson 6 (Ephraim 78, -)
Subs Not Used: Cerny, Buzsaky, Balanta, Priskin
Booked: Faurlin (foul)
Goals: Cook 45+2 (assisted Taarabt)
Derby: Bywater, Anderson, Barker, Hunt (Davies 61), McEveley,Tonge, Pearson, Savage, Green, Sunu (Leacock 46),Porter (Hulse 82)
Subs Not Used: David Martin, Teale, Moxey, Dave Martin
Booked: Leacock (time wasting)
Goals: Barker 67 (unassisted)
Head to Head >>> QPR wins 12 >>> Draws 17 >>> Derby wins 16
Previous Results:
2010/11 Derby 2 QPR 2 (Agyemang, Mackie)
2009/10 QPR 1 Derby 1 (Cook)
2009/10 Derby 2 QPR 4 (Taarabt, Mahon, Simpson, Buzsaky pen)
2008/09 Derby 0 QPR 2 (Routledge, Leigertwood)
2008/09 QPR 0 Derby 2
2006/07 Derby 1 QPR 1 (Rowlands)
2006/07 QPR 1 Derby 2 (Smith)
2005/06 QPR 1 Derby 1 (Nygaard)
2005/06 Derby 1 QPR 2 (Ainsworth, Gallen)
2004/05 Derby 0 QPR 0
2004/05 QPR 0 Derby 2
1990/91 Derby 1 QPR 1 (Wegerle)
1990/91 QPR 1 Derby 1 (Wegerle)
1989/90 Derby 2 QPR 0
1989/90 QPR 0 Derby 1
1988/89 QPR 0 Derby 1
1988/89 Derby 0 QPR 1 (Stein)
1987/88 Derby 0 QPR 2 (Allen, Fereday)
1987/88 QPR 1 Derby 1 (Bannister)
1982/83 Derby 2 QPR 0
1982/83 QPR 4 Derby 1 (Stainrod 2 Gregory, Fenwick pen)
1981/82 QPR 3 Derby 0 (Hazell, Fenwick, Flanagan)
1981/82 Derby 3 QPR 1 (Gregory)
Played for both clubs: Dean Sturridge
Derby County 1991-2001 >>> QPR 2005-2006
Ian Holloway did many good things as manager of QPR but the signing of Dean Sturridge will not go down as one of his finest moments.
Born in Birmingham, Sturridge signed pro forms at Derby County in 1991 and made his debut a year later in a 1-0 defeat to Southend United. Still only a young man Sturridge had to bide his time to get a run in the County team, so spent time on loan at Torquay in 1994 - scoring five goals in just ten outings for the Gulls. Back at Derby he looked a more confident player and became the Rams first choice striker for the 1995-96 season. His twenty goals that year helped Derby to second place in the First Division and promotion to the Premier League for the first time. Sturridge and Derby made a strong Premier League debut the following campaign, with the Ram’s finishing a creditable twelfth and Sturridge netting 11 goals and impressing so much he was linked with a big money move to Arsenal. He stayed with the Rams in the top-flight for another five seasons, scoring 53 goals in all for Derby before manger Jim Smith left in 2001 and Dean found himself out of the first-team picture.
He joined Leicester City in a £350,000 deal however he couldn’t capture the same kind of goal scoring form at Filbert Street , dropping behind heavyweights Trevor Benjamin and Ade Akinbyi in the pecking order. Injuries meant he left after just ten months to join Wolves on initial loan deal. His four goals in just two outings led to a permanent move on Christmas Eve 2001.
Two successful seasons followed, where his goals helped the club to reach the play-offs in both campaigns, wining promotion the second time around with a 3-0 win over Sheffield United. The striker didn’t enjoy much of Wolves’ season in the top-flight though as injury and new signings limited him to just five appearances and he spent time on loan at Sheffield United. Sturridge never regained his place at Molineux and in March 2005 joined QPR on a free transfer.
Despite these years of injury problems Rangers manager Ian Holloway believed he had picked up a bargain who, if he got fit, could be a secret weapon in his team’s Championship campaign when he signed him in 2006. Rangers had been warned against giving him more than a six month contract, but offered 18 months just the same and paid a heavy price as Sturridge took the best part of £200,000 from the club in wages, signing on fees and relocation allowances for no return whatsoever. He spent more time in the treatment room than any other player in the history of the club. He played just 11 games for the club without scoring before his contact was terminated – not before time. A subsequent interview by LFW with Gianni Paladini revealed that the medical tests done when Sturridge first joined the club were less than strenuous.
A short spell at Kidderminster followed before he retired to become a pundit on BBC Radio. Now working on his coaching badges, with hopefully a physio on stand by.
Links >>> Derby 2 QPR 2 Match Report >>> QPR 1 Derby 1 Match Report >>> Derby 2 QPR 4 Match Report >>> >>> Connections and Memories
To follow.
Elsewhere: The Championship action starts tonight with Nottingham Forest going to Norwich live on Sky Sports. The Canaries have injury doubts over influential pair Grant Holt and Wes Hoolahan for a game they must win if they have any hope of catching QPR at the top of the league. Waiting with interest Cardiff host Portsmouth on Saturday while Swansea go to Burnley. Reading have quickly opened up a six point cushion between them and the chasing pack in the play offs – Leeds are currently the team in possession of sixth and they play Watford at home while Reading host Leicester. Down at the bottom the loser of Preston v Sheff Utd is all but relegated, and Scunthorpe are likely to go with them if they lose a Crystal Palace on a weekend where the bottom four play each other.
Referee: QPR have only lost once at home this season, but if Derby fans are looking for omens to cheer them on the journey down to the capital then they need look no further than the referee. Darren Deadman, from Cheshunt, was the man in the middle for our home defeat by Watford in December – allowing two blatantly offside goals and turning down a clear QPR penalty in the process. Prior to that he sent off Peter Ramage in a home match with Newcastle at the end of last season. Those hoping for some refereeing respite after the farce on Tuesday up at Barnsley are set to be disappointed I fear. Click here for his full case file.
Derby: The Rams have won just two of their last 13 away matches and lost 4-1 at promotion chasing Cardiff in their last road trip – although they have taken four points from two home games since that. A run of eight league wins through October had lifted them as high as fourth at one stage but that was followed with a run of one win from 15 games that had threatened to drop them into the relegation battle until recent wins at Sheffield United and against Leeds at home. They need just four more points to be absolutely sure of survival.
Prediction: While Derby have been something of a bogey side for us at Loftus Road in recent years I honestly cannot see anything other than a QPR win in this game. I expect a similar sort of game to the Sheffield United Sky match we had last week and I’d certainly take the same result if offered it.
QPR 2-0, 13/2 with William Hill