The above quote is taken from ‘The Little Book of Derby County’ by Peter Seddon and once again, it appears to be true. For where else would a notable victory against all odds at Norwich suddenly be clouded by a FA investigation into match fixing?

Long suffering fans with a decent grasp of the history of Derby County will recognise that money (as in bad) and Derby County are never far apart for long.  Even in Cloughie’s time, we were banned from entering into Europe for financial irregularities, while the infamous sale of £3 to the three amigos is surely unsurpassed in the annals of football history.

Further back, one of our most successful managers of all time, George Jobey was suspended for the surreptitious activity of stuffing pound notes down players’ stockings which may have accounted for the ease by which the Rams were able to attract some of the biggest names to the club.

Little wonder that Maxwell was drawn to the club as in a moth attracted by a flame, and the final story will need to wait for when Stuart Webb, if ever, decides to write his book on the definitive story of all the goings on.

It would not surprise me if someone nerdy enough trawled through Hansard to find that Derby County were the subject of MP questions more often than any other club in the UK.

Whatever the outcome of the FA investigation – and I have little doubt that it will all prove to be a storm in a teacup – one thing is certain, Derby County will be in the papers for events unrelated to football again in the not too distant future.

So it was with great relief that I switched on my TV to find that we had won and not only that, won after conceding a goal early on in the game.  It surely bears out my hypothesis last week that we are becoming hard to beat but this is going to be tested to the limit in the coming weeks. 

This coming period with its frantic fixture list will also surely indicate who will stay for the rest of the season – for my money, I do hope that the imports will start to prove their worth.  If one or two don’t make any kind of appearance, then we can take it as read that Jewell feels that he’s made a mistake and that they will be offloaded as speedily as possible. 

A recent precedent would be Feilhaber, who despite all his silky skills, never made it into the team on a regular basis whether under Davies or Jewell and was shuffled off to sunnier climes.

This is why I have long believed in the need for a reserve team, or at least, regular reserve fixtures.  It enables those on the fringes of the first team to have some match practice and those in the academy starting to emerge to get some exposure to higher level demands.  I am not convinced that the alternative of arranging fixtures plus using the loan system is adequate for the needs of a such a large squad as we have.

I for one am hoping that the next few weeks will see us blooding in some of our imports and giving them some real match-play for experience and for us to savour those squad players that we have yet to really see the best of.  That would be far more to my liking than reading about money irregularities or sexual peccadilloes.

Before I end this column, I have to say that I was vastly amused by the titbit that I gleaned from the “little book” that Steve Bloomer was fined not once but four times for his fondness for refuelling, and I’m left wondering if his statue should have a couple of beer crates at his feet.

Photo: Action Images

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