A hard luck story resulting from poor refereeing and needless defeat at Bristol City left Derby County determined to rediscover their previous strong form, after three successive losses.

The Rams now faced the prospect of five games in sixteen days, including a visit to Nothingham Forest in the Championship and an FA Cup 3rd Round date at non-league Crawley Town, in a programme that will test their resilience and strength in depth.

Derby commence their programme with two home games against Reading and Doncaster Rovers but lost two players from the squad immediately, with goalkeeper Frank Fielding returning to Blackburn Rovers and striker Shefki Kuqi going back to Swansea City.

There are still murmurings of Rams star Kris Commons being wanted by SPL champions Glasgow Rangers and Derby fans hoped to see clarity on the outcome of Scottish international forward’s contract negotiations at Pride Park Stadium.

That seemed unlikely after the disclosure that Commons isn’t in any hurry to refuse other options by re-signing for Derby; he will be able to talk to other clubs on a pre-contract basis in January 2011.

It could even tie in with ex-Ram Kenny Miller’s own contract talks at Ibrox; he has been in great scoring form at Ibrox, the club he wanted to join as soon as signing for Derby County three years ago. If Miller departs from the Glasgow club, Rangers will be looking to recruit another striker.

Surely, Kris would prefer Derby to the barren SPL? Maybe not; the prospects of more money, European football and high visibility in the SPL scoring charts leading to regular international selection would be significant factors in decisions that Commons has to make.

Nigel Clough was coy in his assessment of where player and club were in the negotiations, the manager even suggesting that talks might not be concluded until the end of the season. One player with no such delays in mind was vice captain Shaun Barker, with the defender and Player of the Year penning an extension to his Derby contract which ties him to the club until 2014.

Barker is keen to stay at Derby and is enjoying his football; his loyalty is to be commended when it is probable that well-placed clubs would covet his services. Barker’s new deal might encourage Kris Commons to look at his Derby situation more positively. If another star player has already committed his future to the Rams, it indicates that the club has ambitions to keep its best players -and in reality, other clubs will always covet your best players.

Commons signing a new Derby contract sooner rather than later doesn’t preclude the possibility (probability?) of another club luring him away - especially a Premier League outfit or one of the Old Firm in Scotland. Re-signing for the Rams now would (I expect) give the player better terms; it would also give DCFC some insurance that they would receive big money if a club was determined to get him sooner rather than later.

Indirectly, perhaps, the huge wages paid to such as Robbie Savage from the legacy of idiotic and wasteful previous management could be a factor shaping the motivation of DCFC’s board to hold fire. They may be reluctant to lash out a big-money deal which might break the wage structure.

Unlike Savage, however, Kris is a match winner - and losing him to replace him with bit-part loanees or lower-league improvers could prove a stadium-emptier. Derby’s fanbase might simply get tired of waiting for success, we need to keep the best players and build around them. That will take more investment; it’s difficult to get promoted from the Championship - but not impossible and other teams are showing more progress on a shorter time scale.

Clough’s been here almost two years now - so if the DCFC board have got the right man, they should back him much more substantially to build a team; most of the old chaff has been jettisoned and player wage outlay has been slashed. It is time to take it to the next stage, with conviction from the club - or this season’s promise will be dissipated, the opportunity wasted.

At the moment, we can only anticipate seeing Commons at Derby for another six months (if that) and then losing him next summer without even receiving a fee to spend on replacing him. Commons can’t lose out - but Derby and their fans might do so. Put pen to paper now, Kris!

Meanwhile, Nigel Clough considered giving young Polish forward Tomasz Cywka a breather, after his form dipped recently. That makes sense, as Tomasz could then be fresh for the Christmas games, including the City Ground clash with Nothingham Forest on December 29th, when the Polish international team manager is due to cast his eye over Cywka once again.

The Rams have already sold out their allocation of tickets for the City ground clash, which means that almost 4,300 Derby fans will be in attendance at the big East Midlands’ Derby ‘derby’!

On the international front, Sheffield United’s manager of only four months has been appointed the manager of the Welsh international team. No doubt Robbie Savage will be calling and tweeting his friend to see if he can add to his 39 Wales caps, or being involved in some capacity. Wales are bottom of their Euro 2012 qualifying group and face England at the end of March 2011.

Steve Davies was given the all-clear by his specialist to rejoin training, and that could mean a New Year comeback for the promising but injury-blighted forward. The fitness level of Steve Davies and Chris Porter will be important to the club at Christmas and beyond, when player availability from the ranks of the injured will influence Nigel Clough’s plans in the loan and transfer market to strengthen his squad.

Media talk suggests Clough wants to sign Burnley striker Martin Paterson. Due to injuries, he has managed only 26 appearances and 6 goals for the Clarets during 2009-10 and 2010-11 so far. The Northern Ireland international signed for Burnley from Scunthorpe for £1m+ in 2008 and hit 20 goals in his first season, having come to prominence at Grimsby Town.

Clough said that the speculation about Paterson was news to him! If so, I’m happy; Derby needs a central striker with more physical presence. Paterson is hardly a target man, at less than 6ft tall and under 10.5 stones; our forwards buzzed better when playing off the formidable presence of Shefki Kuqi. Rams fans could name half a dozen wanted centre forwards that could make our forwards buzz again....but whether investment will be forthcoming is a moot point.

Paterson’s current Turf Moor deal does not expire until 2013 and the Rams would have to pay a substantial fee to land the Irishman. Another source links Derby with the Bohemians R o I Under-19 forward, Paddy Madden.

Nigel Clough received a dreadfully inadequate refereeing explanation about the Kris Commons penalty incident in the first half of last week’s game at Bristol City. Referee Mr Sheldrake, who refused to view the video evidence with Rams manager Nigel Clough, later giving the Rams boss three supposed reasons for not red-carding City goalie David James.

Sheldrake stated he thought Commons was going away from goal; that he’d pushed the ball ‘considerably’ away in front of himself; that retreating defenders would have cleared the ball. It was a shockingly incorrect judgement, conveniently endorsed by other officials on duty at Ashton Gate.

Referees remain publicly unaccountable to manager’s players and spectators after games. They retreat to hide in the isolation of their dressing room and concoct their alibi - sorry, their shared version of reality. Everyone in the game - except for referees (and the over-protective commission that organises matchday officialdom) - wants this to change.

Commons was clear of the goalkeeper and the defenders - and most players would push the ball a few paces in front of them, so as to sprint on and get their body shape right for a direct, true shot on goal; dribbling would be slower and unnecessary. Commons was poised to reach the ball first and simply clip it into an empty net, as he had outpaced the defenders and feinted past the keeper.

Last season, Rams’ keeper Saul Deeney was red-carded for a far less clear cut incident, where the player was not placed to lose a clear goal-scoring opportunity. Refereeing consistency is a major concern to Nigel Clough and Rams fans - unless you adjudge their sheer inconsistency to be in itself a measure of consistency! All Sheldrake (and his cronies) have proved is that they know nothing of correct player technique and are unable to judge the likelihood of a goal being scored.

With three (possibly avoidable) defeats behind them, the Rams embarked upon their Christmas programme, with a home game against Reading the first date on the festive calendar. Manager Clough anticipated that his team would be more ruthless up front whilst not allowing their defensive concentration to slip and let them down at crucial moments.

Reading FC has become the draw specialists of the Championship, recovering steadily after a slow start to their season. Saturday’s home game against the Royals was a chance for Derby to send the fans home happy to reflect upon the team’s recovery in the last half of 2010 and also to put an end a frustrating run of defeats.

Clough made only one change, with Dean Moxey in for left back Gareth Roberts; because of injury and illness he refrained from restoring the midfield fulcrum of Savage and Bailey in his starting line-up, and Tomasz Cywka was played and not rested, as had been suggested during the week.

After a day’s reflection, my primary comment is ‘what a waste!’ Derby lost the game 2-1 but might easily have run out comfortable winners, showing the same failings that have been evident since their purple patch ended in November. The PPS pitch was frosty and uneven and in sub-zero temperatures both sets of players strived to put on an interesting and entertaining match.

Derby wasted many good goalscoring chances; in addition to being denied several times through a brilliant goalkeeping display from the Royals’ Adam Federici, they slacked off at crucial moments with bad defending (and non-existent goalkeeping) to allow the visitors to grab all three points.

Derby had over 20 goal attempts but less than half of them on target - and when facing an opposing goalkeeper having one of those great days like  Adam Federici between the stick for the Royals, it added up to a wasteful afternoon of what might have been.

In so doing, Derby have seen their rapid autumn progress gone to waste as well - they have slipped from the top four with a handsome goal difference, to a place ‘in the pack’, in the top 10 with several clubs (who have games in hand) well placed to climb above them or pull further away.

It seemed from the opening that Derby had rediscovered their muse as Moore, Commons and Bueno began to link up enterprisingly and create worry among Reading’s defenders, with Bueno turning sweetly and crashing a shot onto the foot of the right post after only 3 minutes.

Derby didn’t take the lead though, despite several openings; Stephen Pearson, that softest of finishers, rammed in a hard shot from eight yards out that Federici was able to block...had Pearson showed the composure to place it into the net, that would have been that. Moore was denied too, and several good situations came to nothing, as Reading recovered to make a game of it.

Both defences had to work hard to deny good attacks and both Bywater and Federici saved their side on more than one occasion. Reading won a first-half penalty when Barker manhandled Shane Long’s arm, as he shaped to strike. It was hardly a violent assault but the Royals’ forward knew that all he had to do was collapse to win a spot kick, from which he gave Reading an interval lead.

Derby reappeared after the break with Bailey and Savage restored to midfield in place of Pearson and Leacock (both seemingly injured again) and they looked a more purposeful outfit. There were more attacking balls for Commons and Moore to run onto (the WBA man is *not* a target man, many Rams fans maintain!) and as Derby redoubled their onslaught, Kris Commons headed an equaliser from an excellent Paul Green centre.

Either side could have won it - Derby certainly should have completed their recovery. Instead they capitulated when a long cross from the right travelled about 45 yards for Long to comfortable head past an inept Bywater with only 3 minutes left. His failure to come out and (at least) smash the ball away left home fans furious and Pride Park emptied rapidly in none too festive a mood.

Man-of-the-match Kris Commons clipped the bar with a free kick at the death but the writing was on the wall yet again. Four defeats in a row, 5 losses out of 6, two goals conceded in each of the last six games. The Rams slipped another couple of places down the Championship table.

They have lost 10 games already this season and with less than half the season gone, that’s nowhere near good enough to contemplate a promotion campaign. At the current rate, Derby will score about 70 goals this season but concede closer to 90 - so their defending has got to improve!

Clough was left to repeat his assertions that his team had played well and created enough chances to win, or at least avoid defeat, in all of those games. He again had to bemoan inaccurate finishing and a lack of ruthlessness up front and the same sloppy loss of defensive concentration to allow the opposition the conclusive strikes.

He was (to me and other fans) also somewhat too fulsome in his praise for Luke Moore, a loanee who is miscast as a target man and happier running onto the ball. How we have missed the awkward physical presence of Rob Hulse and latterly Shefki Kuqi! Moore has ability but is neither a battering ram nor a natural finisher. He’s not been cast aside by WBA without reason and I cannot see him as the focal point for our type of attacking formation. A centre forward is needed!

Kuqi’s superior ability to make the ball ‘stick’ and battle it out more effectively with defenders is one reason why we had scored freely and overwhelmed teams. Our creative players had a second or two more to join in and make opportunities count.

We’re not as convincing and ruthless as a team as we need to be, though. For all the promise and enterprise shown recently, bad defending and wasteful forward play could soon see our promotion chances go down the drain.

Whatever, Clough seemed determined (or resolved) to pursue Luke Moore for a further period for him at Derby in January, when pressed about the possibilities of adding to his squad in the transfer window. We do still need a couple more players to match the best in this league.

The Boxing Day clash with Doncaster Rovers is Derby’s next chance to repair the damage; a recovery from the Rams to winning ways versus The Vikings will set Derby up nicely for the big clash at the City Ground that brings 2010 to a climax.

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RamsWeek 51 last year saw a ‘cold snap’, but it was nothing like this year’s freeze-up.  Derby County were frozen out of the World Cup limelight, with the city of Nothingham chosen in preference as an East Midlands’ venue for England’s 2018 bid.

We moaned at the inclusion of such as Milton Keynes, famous only for stealing and franchising another football club, and Plymouth in preference to the internationally-ready Pride Park Stadium and our own city. Little did we know what FIFA had in store for all of us a year later!

The Rams had managed a 4-game unbeaten run and the club had collected a car tyre company as another partner. This season’s story sounds like a retread, because Derby threw away their home game versus Donny with crass defending, losing 0-2!

Clough was turning his thoughts to strengthening the squad in the New Year, hoping for his injury rehabs to recover and the team to play more consistently from back to front. Then, as now, I noted that the squad did not seem strong enough to grow together and take the club to the heights envisaged by fans and board alike.

It’s the last RamsWeek of the year next time round and it’s officially time to eat and drink far too much - let Yuletide begin!

Happy Christmas to all RamZoners and here’s to a happy holiday and a successful 2011 for the Rams!

Photo: Action Images

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