Derby County had a whole week to prepare for their glamour tie in the 5th Round of the FA Cup at home to Manchester United.

After three straight wins, with League victories over Coventry City and the thrilling FA Cup replay win over Nothingham Forest, the squad had the chance to displace their worries over League placings and look to make further FA Cup progress at the expense of The Champions of Everything, Manchester United.

The match was a virtual sell out and would be worth around £500,000 to the club; Derby had also snapped up 500 extra tickets for the Championship clash at the City Ground next Saturday.

In the meantime, several Rams’ squad members were away with their countries for World Cup or friendly match duties. Mile Sterjovski was with Australia for their Group One clash with Japan; Lewin Nyatanga was on duty with Wales for a friendly against Poland; players out on loan Claude Davis and Tyrone Mears (who?) were with Jamaica, who played Nigeria in a friendly at Millwall.

Liam Dickinson seems fated never to appear in a Derby shirt, as his loan to Leeds United looks imminent and would see the striker away until the end of this season.

One player in favour is goalkeeper Stephen Bywater. He’s back in the team and performing well at the expense of Roy Carroll and has signed a new three-year deal with Derby County and the Manchester United FA Cup game was his sixth consecutive appearance after being preferred by Nigel Clough.

Ahead of the big Cup game, the club announced a price freeze on season ticket prices for season 2009-10, so that ‘early-bird’ renewals up until the April 11th deadline will pay last season’s prices. Club President and Chief Executive Tom Glick said that they wanted to reward Derby’s ‘phenomenal supporter base’ and several new benefits were built into the new package.

These benefits include the option of a free season ticket for a child under 7 years of age with each adult ticket, admission to the first home League Cup Tie and a pre-season friendly free of charge and an unused ticket exchange enabling a season ticket holder to use an unused ticket for a game they missed to bring a friend along to a future game.

With the season’s run-in looking more appealing now that Nigel Clough has got the players performing, there would seem to be a virtually guaranteed reaffirmation of faith in ticket renewals. Club and fans will expect to top the Championship attendance tables again next season whilst being closer to the business end of the table, instead of languishing in the lower reaches, as has been the case for much of this campaign.

There was another crackling Cup game in store on Sunday and over 32,000 saw the latest clash with mighty Manchester United. Nigel Clough changed only Jordan Stewart for the suspended Jay McEveley whilst United fielded a stronger side than in the Carling Cup games with Rio Ferdinand and Patrice Evra reinstated in defence.

It was a mark of respect to Derby after the shock the Red Devils received when Derby inflicted their only recent defeat through the Kris Commons’ strike in the semi-final first leg.

United certainly meant business and though derby were tight and bright in their challenges and general play, it was United that were most dangerous early on with Bywater making excellent saves. Apart from a Commons shot over the bar, Derby were kept at arms length and it was no surprise when United took the lead, Nani evading Connolly’s challenges to smash in a fierce 20-yard strike on 29 minutes.

Ronaldo was denied a goal when offside soon after, with the referees and assistant on some sort of satellite delay in telling the rest of the world. The killer second United goal just before half time was allowed  - despite a clear offside - as Darron Gibson buried a loose ball that ricocheted to him from as Ronaldo free kick and Derby went into the break knowing they had a mountain to climb.

The Portuguese poser had his goal just a few minutes into the second half, however, when he was first to a Giggs corner to head firmly home. It was a deflating goal for the Rams but to their credit they rallied and gave United plenty to think about during their best spell in the game. Kris Commons crossed for Miles Addison to head joyously home and United had to grit their teeth.

A further recovery was just out of reach despite a spirited rally by the Rams and United made the game safe with less than ten minutes to go when Danny Welbeck placed a fine shot across Bywater to make it 4-1 to the Premier League Champions and League leaders.

It could be said that the scoreline was a little harsh though it could also be judged that United in this mood could tear apart any side put before them and had outclassed the Rams with a powerful performance. Again, players wore their shirts with pride and there were fine performances from Teale and Savage among many committed efforts from Clough’s rejuvenated squad.

It was no disgrace for Derby to lose to a side bristling with class and confidence and it would not be a surprise on this form to see Manchester United make a clean sweep of all the trophies tha they are currently chasing.

So, an enjoyable Cup season came to an end for Derby and there has been much change and improvement since they had to overcome Lincoln City with the help of extra time in the First Round of the Carling Cup back in August. 

Nigel Clough wanted to take the positives from the game and looked ahead to the Championship clashes with Blackpool at home next Wednesday and then the City Ground rematch at Forest next Saturday.

Bring ‘em on!

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RamsWeek 7 last year saw new club President & Chief Executive Tom Glick arrive in Derby to head up the GSE consortium that now controlled Derby County. He declared that he was ‘pledging my time’ to make the Rams great again.

Mr Glick wanted the season’s momentum to be improved and Paul Jewell’s ambition was to get beyond Sunderland’s all-time Premier League low points tally of 15 points. Way to go, Paul.

Derby were out of the FA Cup and so had a blank weekend in their fixture list. With the visit to Jewell’s old stamping ground of the JJB Stadium in Wigan as their next port of call.

Photo: Action Images

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