May 31st

A note of congratulations from a mate:

"Congratulations on re-entering the Premiership in much the same way as one would re-enter a really fit ex-girlfriend after a long time overseas doing a crap job in an inhospitable and backward country with ugly natives."

May 29th

The story of Wembley:

We set off from Derby at about half eight in the morning, after half an hour of "Is it too early yet?", "Is it too early yet?", "Is it too early yet?", the first bottles were cracked open somewhere between Loughborough and Leicester.

By the time we reached Toddington Services, we were ready for a stop. The number of Derby fans at the services was unbelievable with the queue for the gents almost filling the atrium. We thought we might as well go somewhere discreet outside and I was pointed to a good spot between some skips. When I glanced up mid-flow, I was being overlooked by one of many Roadriders- so much for privacy. I half expected someone to waiting with some hand-soap and a splash of Brut when I emerged from the other side.

We reached Wembley, no problem, and had already decided that we'd get in an eaterie. The original plan of "a pickle tray and 8 pints please" was abandoned as we were genuinely hungry and ready for the "Gurka Valley's" finest by half eleven. This seemed an especially good call as queue's for the pub next door snaked down the road and even had stewards (and it was raining). The food was good and even though the Gurkha curry wasn't as good as the pre-QPR one (are Gurkha's out of season?), you couldn't put a price on having waiter service rather than a scrum for a warm pint in a plastic pot.

As I mentioned in previous Journals, two of us were in the Club Wembley seating. It was escalators up and resembled an airport down the back. After the earlier meal, I never did discover what the "hospitality" entitlement was but that was as much to do with the number of people queuing brandishing tickets (bearing in mind the section was about a third full, a busy game could be trouble).

There's been a lot of complaints about the empty Club Wembley seats not being redistributed but to be fair most of the 7,000 scattered around were either Derby or West Brom fans (apart from someone behind me who asked "are you supporting Derby or West Ham?" oops!). Splitting the remaining 10,000 probably would have caused segregation problems. You need a lot of tolerance if trouble is to be avoided. We had to bite our tongue whilst West Brom fans behind us draped flags on neutrals and muttered "Dirty Rams" every time we made a tackle. On the other hand, they had to watch me and the Jackal having a lengthy man-tangle a yard away when Pearo scored (and at the final whistle of course).  By the time the Fratelli's came on they were gone. (Avid readers will recall me recommending the Fratelli's Chelsea Dagger months ago for a goal celebration. I don't even particularly like the Fratelli's but it's the most obvious chant along ever

Everyone was in buoyant mood for the journey home all until Billy Davies gave an unbelievable negative interview, moaning about the David Kelly situation, sniping at the fans for being impatient with players and generally putting the mockers on things. We slammed The View album on and cracked open our remaining supplies.

As my domestic situation had changed dramatically in the past couple of weeks, it was back home for me but within half an hour I'd received a text from my brother saying "Me and Boab in a man tangle to Chelsea Dagger already" (you can guess what the phrase of the day was). What better way to celebrate?

May 26th

I wish the media would drop the word "loyal" from stories about fans not getting tickets for the Play-Off's. Now, there are loyal fans amongst those without a season ticket or membership of any kind (I would class myself as one) but for each one there is probably twenty bandwaggon jumpers, arm chair fans and those busy stuffing their Man U scarf under their armchair ("I've always had a soft spot for Derby, me"). The type who think Stevie Howard is the bloke from Up Pompeii. It may sound harsh but the fact is that we'd have to play at Old Trafford if everyone who wanted a ticket turned up now and again.

An example of this is a bloke at work who was apparently "gutted" after "queuing for hours". I'm well known as "a big Derby fan" at work (and I'm under six foot- boom! boom!) yet not once has this chap outed himself despite numerous cross office conversations on a Friday or Monday. Just an anecdotal example but no doubt a common one.

May 26th

An interesting footnote to Iain Dowie's dispute with Crystal Palace (that he had lined up the Charlton job before leaving). Dowie's laptop was examined and a document entitled "Advancing the Addicks" was found, written three days before his resignation was found. Also found was a document entitled "Reinvigorating the Rams".

Note to Russell Hoult- don't get into a situation where someone's going to examine your laptop.

May 24th

The new official club website really looks a dogs dèjeuner. It's fair enough to make it pay its way but its actually difficult to find what your looking for amongst the barrage of adverts. I clicked on a news story and thought it made no sense at all, only to find the rest of the story after a big box advert. Funnily enough, the site looks a bit like Ramspace- if we threw 50 adverts at it.

May 24th

I'm interested to see where the Telegraph are going with their Wembley Wonders poster series. It looks to be concentrating on the players that got us through the play-off's and I presume it will run for 6 days (Mon-Sat), therefore featuring 12 players (for those outside the catchment area there's two A3 posters per day). The question is, who will miss out from Macken, Barnes and Jones? (According to the law of averages, Macken has every chance of being a Wembley Wonder despite a current strike rate rivalling Danny Graham).

May 23rd

I'm not quite sure what the moral of this story is but the Steve Sidwell situation has been interesting. Last summer he was desperate to leave Reading with Charlton, Man City and Middlesbrough all queuing up. Reading insisted that he see out his contract and now after one season in the Premiership he has signed for Chelsea. He will probably look at Charlton's results next season with the kind of shudder felt when recalling a near car crash.

May 22nd

You've got to have some sympathy for Marc Edworthy. I think he would have been in most people's top 3 for Player of the Year and was ever present during our winning streaks, right until things started to fall apart in the run-in. (A coincidence? Not looking at the goals scored  by Cov, Ipswich and Palace). Now in his early 30's, recent team selections suggest he could miss what could be his only chance to play at the new Wembley. Just to rub salt into the wounds, yesterday the Derby Telegraph had their first in a series of "Wembley Wonders"- an A3 colour picture of Tyrone Mears. 

(Added later- yes Eddy did play against Cov and Ipswich but at centre back; the accident prone Mears took the right back slot. If he handles Koumas well on Monday, I'll stick to just "Mears" in future.)

May 21st

Some nice Forest photo's just added to the myspace, my pictures area.

May 19th

Even I was a neutral, I would say that Forest's result against Yeovil last night was one of the biggest debacles ever known to footballing mankind. It caused almost as much excitement on my phone as the Southampton game.

The only slight disappointment was that I had a few gags lined up that I can no longer use, along the lines of "After staging the Under 21 international before the FA Cup final, Wembley have arranged for another event of less importance, significance and interest to warm up for the Championship play-off final. Lower division clubs Nottingham Forest and Blackpool will take the stage 24 hours earlier". I was then going to change to a "top of the league and you fucked it up" joke.. but remembered the proverb about people in glass houses.

I mentioned about a month ago about how a managers reputation can fall dramatically in no time at all (based on a comment from Mike Newell) and gave Stuart Pearce as an example as facing the sack after being tipped for England a year ago. Apparently his name was being sung at the ground of a lower division club proven to be worse than Scunthorpe and Yeovil. Now that would be a comedown.

May 18th

Just as Sheff Utd fans thought things couldn't get any worse, Sky Sports report that the leading candidates for the manager's vacancy are Peter Reid, Dave Bassett and Bryan Robson. Something tells me the chairman prefers his managers from the old school.

May 17th

Wembley mania may be sweeping the city but I thought it was a bit much that season ticket holders were camping out for tickets, bearing in mind that with 33,500 tickets and 18,500 season ticket holders they were guaranteed a ticket. However, when my dad sauntered down at lunch hoping to have missed the crowds, he still had to wait 6 hours! Suddenly, turning up at the crack of dawn seemed a good idea.

Personally, I got the jitters and took the option of buying a Club Wembley ticket via a friend of the Jackals in the smoke. Initially I thought it was good value at £99 with hospitality included. On closer inspection, the "hospitality" is unlimited visits to Club Wembley kiosks so it'll probably take 15 pies and 20 coffee's to get my money's worth. Keep your eyes peeled for 2 blokes; completely wired with heavy indigestion. (I didn't want a prawn sandwich anyway).

May 16th

Text received from the Jackal following the defeat/victory against Southampton:

"Definition of middle aged. Ran on the pitch in jubilation...ran straight off when I realised it was pissing down"

May 16th

Welcome to our Belgian reader (or reader from Belgium who may or may not be Belgian). This season we have also had readers from: Norway, Denmark, the US, Egypt, Korea, India, and Ireland.

May 16th

Congratulations to Mart Poom for going the best part of three years without conceding a Premiership goal at Arsenal. Ok, he might only have made his belated debut in Sunday's 0-0 draw at Portsmouth but you can only work with what you've got.

May 13th

The end of season "fans verdict" in the Observer always provides a few amusing snipes, as well as unveiling some bizarre feuds. Here's a few:

A Villa fan: "Bolton are a joke. I'd love it if they followed the Charlton model next season".

A Sheff Utd. fan on their top hate figure: "Everyone at Reading- management players, staff, supporters...[list goes on]...people who work near and people who regularly drive past"

Everton fan on their biggest flop: "James Beattie with his Tony Cottee ankles style and Biffa Bacon style just isn't Everton".

and my personal favourite:

Newcastle fan: "Duff and Dyer lived up to their names"

Talking about Newcastle, another story about Schalke 04 compared the Germans to Newcastle because of their large loyal following and relative lack of on field success. They had a fan exchange in 1999 when a Schalke fan told Freddie Shepherd that the cheapest ticket at Schalke was about £3. "Oh, you won't win anything charging that " said Shepherd. "We won the Uefa Cup two years ago, what have you won?" came the reply.

May 13th

A brilliant result yesterday. Credit to Billy for seemingly consigning the last 10 games to history and starting from scratch: playing a rare 4-4-2; ditching the ineffective half strikers; everyone playing in their right position; Seth in the starting 11. We also had the kind of match deciding incident in our favour, which overrides form and tactics (as mentioned in May 7th Journals), when Pele inexplicably fouled Pearo for the penalty.

It will take a hell of a result from Southampton on Tuesday. On this occasion I'll be ecstatic with a dour 0-0.

One interesting footnote to the Observer report was Davies' "We'll see what happens" answer to a question about his future and relationship with the Board.

May 10th

My son arrived in the early hours of Tuesday morning, so entries could become more sporadic over the next couple of weeks. Either that or there could be some long heavily sentimental rambles about generations of Rams fans within the family!

I haven't particularly been following the press for obvious reasons other than seeing a headline in the Hospital with Jay McEvely proclaiming something like "We should be up by now".  Yes Jay, we should.

May 7th

I thought the Leeds match might at least have been an opportunity to enjoy our opponents misery, even if the result was of little consequence. I was quite shocked at how far they had fallen though and even felt some pangs of sympathy towards the end. The fans could barely be heard and the players (generally kids and has-beens) were utterly defeated from the first minute. It struck me that the fans who had turned up must have been expecting 90 minutes of abuse and a definite defeat, yet still came- unlike the 20,000+ deserters who were probably the first to mouth at work whilst the going was good.

I've had a fair few swipes at Leeds this season, and thoroughly enjoyed their decline but now I feel the debt for Harry Kewell's dive has finally been repaid.

May 7th

There's no end of theories about who is likely to succeed in the play-off's: the team who has a late surge; the team in form at the time; the team who is head and shoulders above everyone else as the third of a breakaway top three.

For what it's worth, my theory is that everyone has exactly a 25% chance, rising to 50% in the final. This may sound too simplistic but in our experience games are decided by split second incidents: Camp's one mistake of the whole season at Preston; Jossie's slip at Wembley against Leicester. So, I'm going to be optimistic for a change. We may have had a poor run-in; we may still not know our best team but none of that matters now.

May 4th

Just added a couple of Chelsea gags to the photo's on myspace. Hope you can enlarge and see the writing.

May 4th

Without wanting to pre-empt a full Ramspace article, a quick fire "are you an optimist or a pessimist?"

In an interview printed yesterday, David Jones was enthusing about Billy Davies and came out with the statement "We had a small-sided game in training the other day and it finished goalless".

Are we a watertight defensive unit or do we just find it really, really difficult to score goals?

Hopefully the latter won't be the case against Leeds on Sunday. Let's please put them to the sword.

Talking about Leeds, I distinctly remember Kevin Blackwell saying earlier in the season that Leeds had been through the pain barrier and would be debt free "this time next year" i.e. August 2007. It was probably the same bloke who told him his job was safe.

May 2nd

This week's Ramstrust column begins "It was perfect that the announcement of a £20m investment into improving Pride Park should come on the first anniversary weekend of the takeover by a group of local DCFC fans."

Cynics might have written "It was perfect that the announcement...should come on the weekend that it would be confirmed that the Rams would not get automatic promotion, thus dominating the "sports" pages with a "good news story".

or

"It was perfect that the announcement...should come months before a planning application has been made, whipping up enthusiasm via the obliging local press whilst also getting the people of Derby and potential investors on board. No pressure Council planning department".

Don't get me wrong, it all looks great and all that but all this sycophantic backslapping is making me feel a bit nauseous!

May 2nd

I forgot to mention- if you thought Steve Claridge finally had a winning coupon- he didn't. He had also predicted that we would get a draw against Palace. (See April 26th journals)

April 30th

So now we know. A sadly disappointing end to the automatic promotion challenge with the Rams showing relegation form in the last five games (5 from 5, Leeds will be relegated with the same ratio). Promotion is still possible though and now Billy has a couple of weeks to decide exactly what our best team and formation is.

Talking to other fans, one of the worst thing about the play-off's is the sheer inconvenience of it. A few weeks ago a couple of people at work were nervously saying "I'm on holiday that week, I didn't even consider it" or "I've got a wedding that weekend, they better not do [fall into the play-offs]". For other it's the mental and/or financial fatigue of the football season and just wanting to enjoy the summer.

For me personally I've got a child due anytime in the next fortnight and in-laws arriving on Wednesday for a months stay. If I get to do the home leg it will be a miracle.

April 30th

Sympathetic coverage of Leeds' impending relegation from the Observer:

"The ugly pitch invasion that followed Ipswich's equalizer reminded neutrals exactly why they are so delighted that Leeds United will be playing lower division football for the first time in their history next season".

April 28th

If you want to see a brochure of the new developments planned for Pride Park, just get hold of a copy of Friday's Derby Telegraph. The amazing "puff piece" (to use the media phrase) includes such lines as "Designs of the two-storey or three-storey individual buildings will not block views of the main entrance to the stadium" on the front page! It all continues inside by introducing all the Directors and even Billy Davies posing with plans. On one of the season's most important footballing weekends, the backpage (and todays also I notice) are devoted to the choice of statues in the development.

It all looks promising though and shows just why Peter Gadsby was so keen on reclaiming ownership of the ground during the takeover. The "developmental expertise" on the board has already been alluded to and I'm sure its a "win-win" situation for all involved: fans, workers on Pride Park, the local community, the club...and anyone who happens to be in the property development and building trade connected with the club. Business is business though and that's why Gadsby owns his favourite football club and I can barely afford a season ticket!

Apparently (I didn't hear it) Radio Derby reported rumours of some tension amongst the board last week. I'm sure there is no truth whatsoever in theories that this was over the inclusion of a Don Amott caravan outlet next to the Continental Bistro.

(Talking about Continental Bistro's, the Telegraph included an artists impression of people in football shirts at a pavement cafe outside the ground. After years of news stories, I can't detach a scene like that from images of plastic chairs flying through the air, followed by foreign police with water cannons).

April 26th

Steve Claridge has predicted wins for both Sunderland and Birmingham at the weekend. Bearing in mind this is the same bloke who predicted Southampton and West Brom would finish top 3 (not so long ago either, even at the time I thought "surely not"?) this could bode well for us. (If Steve Claridge was any good at predictions he would be retired in Spain by now. The fact that he's still dragging himself around the football pitch on week by week contracts at his age whilst taking any media gig going shows how gambling have left his finances).

Still on the promotion race: a work mates brother saw Sheff Wednesday's Steve MacLean at Sheffield dogs last night. Word is that the Owls are brimming with confidence and going all out for the win. I just hope if they're drawing with ten to go it's not 8 up front for the winner!

April 25th

Sad news about Alan Ball today. I have to admit, a few months ago I wouldn't really have given it much thought. However, a mate spend some time with him over Christmas in Australia (mutual friends, ended up staying in the same place) and was full of praise for Alan, saying he was one of the friendliest, kindest people he'd met with no ego whatsoever. "He was a top man and it was a pleasure to have known him" was my friends comment today.

April 23rd

It seems an odd situation with Bisgaard's contract, with him apparently being offered an extension whether we go up or not. I like Morten as a player and he seems like a good bloke but he's hasn't started a game since New Years day and is more often than not left out the matchday 16. It's fair to say that there's been times this season (generally between 3pm and quarter to five) when we've lacked a bit of the craft and creativity that Morten is capable of. If he's not called upon now, surely he'd be even further down the pecking order in the Premeirship? If he does enough to get us up, I'm happily give him a two year deal!

April 22nd

A gutting end to the Birmingham game today spoiled what could have been a decent weekend results wise.

If you're looking for some crumbs of comfort: at least the play-off race could affect Birmingham in exactly the way I feared it wouldn't a few days ago (April 18th). Sheff Wednesday are now on the cusp of the play-off's and need something at St. Andrews whilst Preston can still be caught by 6 teams- so will have plenty to play for on the last day of the season.

April 20th

Story of the Luton match:

Bumped into a "club source" en route to the ground and got the most accurate insider story ever- "Luton have sold 148 tickets". (as well as some chitter chatter that I can't really share).

Arrive at pre-match boozer and handed a compilation CD entitled "Don't let the play-off's get you down".

I moaned a few weeks ago about the pre-match announcer wearing a scruffy traggy top and jeans. I'm sure no-one at the club reads this but- he now wears a suit.

About ten minutes into the game someone shouts "get Fagan on!" with pre match booze clouding my judgement I ask the Jackal "is he joking?". With a is-the-pope-Catholic look he replies "yeah".

I spent those thrilling final moments receiving and sending texts about a surplus Arctic Monkeys ticket...and was duly chastised by the Jackal (the person who was on the other end was a season ticket holder of many years who had decided to go away for the weekend- disillusionment or bad planning?).

Most interesting thing to talk about post match in the toilets (by several old gents)- "it's code int'it?" (that's "cold" southern readers).

But....we are back in the top two! Read the papers, we won. Automatic promotion is still possible.

April 19th

Arsenal's Juilo Baptista moaning about English football:

"The moment you stop to think, someone has taken the ball off you and knocked you to the ground."

If it wasn't for those pesky defenders eh? I wouldn't recommend taking up rugby Jules.

April 19th

A couple of days ago I wondered what the first new Wembley FA Cup final was supposed to be competing against (competitive pricing etc.), now the sports minister has added that the FA should remember that they are in a "marketplace". Well, after some extensive research (a conversation with a woman of a (un)certain age at work) I may have the answer- Lionel Ritchie at Notts Ice Arena, like the FA Cup final prices start at £35, both guaranteed at least 90 minutes with a chance of extra time. Now then punters, make your choice.

April 18th

Some factors that might affect the promotion race:

• In the build up to the Sheff Wednesday v. West Brom match last weekend, Brian Laws said he'd like to try a few kids out but would wait until it was mathematically impossible to get in the play-off's. This is likely to be the Birmingham game.
• Bearing in mind Simon Jordon's intense hatred of Birmingham, will he do a "take it easy lads" team talk before we play Palace?
• If Preston are confirmed in the play-off's before they play Birmingham, what kind of team will they field? Would you risk Nugent? (remember how they rolled over when we played them last game a couple of years ago?)

April 16th

No one really expects the Derby Telegraph to be hard hitting or controversial but reading Steve Nicholson's report of the Ipswich game, one might easily think that, we had a bit of an off day but otherwise everything's hunky dory.

Giving as positive a spin as possible ( "you can count on one hand the number of times things have gone pear shaped" [this season]) the defeat is put along side away defeats at Stoke, Colchester and Plymouth. I'd use the other hand to add Stoke, Hull, QPR and Coventry at home to the fruit bowl Steve.

Ironically, the attempted upbeat intro of "a season of surprising and welcome progress" sounds more like an epithet than a rallying cry for promotion.

Just for the record, I can assure those outside the city that the prevailing mood amongst the fans is somewhere between depression and devastation. Not helped by hoping Leicester will do us a favour!

April 15th

I'm all for cheap ticket prices but demands by the Football Supporters Federation for tickets for the Man U v. Chelsea FA Cup final to start at £15-20 instead of £35 seems a bit much. The argument "the two clubs could afford it" is probably true but don't forget FA Cup money goes three ways and the FA have a bill that won't be paid off with friends for fiver deals!

(The FA have said the price is "competitive". Competitive with what? I don't think they'll be many people thinking "shall I go to the cinema or shall I go to the FA cup final?" I suppose it compares quite well with Derby v. Stoke at £31 though).

April 14th

"Tactics and full backs simple as that"

The Jackals analysis of the Ipswich match. The follow up uncharacteristically included a lot of text jargon (2, u, r, etc.) but the gist of it was that we can't afford to invite teams on to us when our current full backs are guaranteed to give something away each game.

(For regular readers, he was in the away end for the first in three and actually bought the last two tickets).

April 12th

Big Dave and Danny Tiattio's potential suspension is a typical example of F.A. penpushers using technology in all the wrong ways. It would have been great for us to have played half a game against 10 men but are we really that bothered a week after the event? Unless it's a Paul Davis style assault* I think it's all part and parcel. Where will it end, a Duckworth-Lewis scoring system to take into account trial by T.V.? "If Tiattio had been sent off Derby's possession would have gone up 10% x (shots on goal / shots on target) if ≥ (Leicester % possession / tackles made) = Derby win 2-1".

*For the benefit of younger readers, Paul Davis was a mild mannered Arsenal midfielder in the 80's who inexplicably broke the jaw of Soton's Glenn Cockerill with an off the ball uppercut.

April 11th

One unexpected beneficiary of the promotion race has been Barnsley; us, Sunderland and Birmingham took over 21,000 thousand fans to Oakwell between us. At £20 a ticket it would have swollen their coffers by over £400,000, enough to buy a couple more Hungarians. If they sold booze at the ground they could have topped half a mill in no time!

(The obvious downside to this is having to play the top three at home when you're trying to stay up).

April 8th

Easter Bank Holiday is notorious for freak results and Birmingham's home defeat to Burnley was definitely a welcome one. The funniest thing is that a lot of Birmingham fans bothered to turn up for a change with a crowd of over 28,000. I'm sure they won't be back in a hurry.

Let's hope everything goes to form at Pride Park tomorrow as we welcome the Ugly Face of Football - Iain Dowie.

April 8th

A commentator on Radio 5 yesterday:

"If Forfar lose today they will be relegated. That's a big if when you're 8-0 down away from home with ten minutes to go!"

They eventually lost 9-1.

April 6th

Some texts sent and received during the Leicester match:

"Look out for windmill arms with someone in a red white and blue top flicking the v's. I'm in Varsity if you fancy meeting up"

"I'm in [pub name removed for personal safety] surrounded ..shit I've missed the goal...scumbags" (topics of conversation included the possibility of two days labour next week, getting the phone re-connected, cashing cheques and a female friend on a ABH charge for fighting in town)

"Did that look as good a goal on tele as it did here?"

"Don't know, I was texting Bob"

"Jackal is in the Leicester end!" (in the home end two weeks running, is this a new form of extreme sports for the self-proclaimed pipe and slippers man?)

"Fagan's mega" (this followed an earlier exchanged which included Fagan in the same sentence as Danielle Dichio and Preston era Marcus Stewart)

"Don't want to tempt fate but Leicester look like Barnsley in a bigger ground"

Alas, I had tempted fate.

April 3rd

A few highlights from the Barnsley trip:

• A pre-match boozer, full of Rams fans, no bother and easy to get served.
• Seth Johnson coming into the crowd to check on a young lad he'd hit flush in the face with a wayward pre-match shot.
• An absence of pre-match music allowed Rams fans to sing from warm-up to kick-off, building the atmosphere nicely (although I thought not even reading out the Rams line up was a bit inhospitable!).
• A lad appearing from nowhere during injury time to speak to the idiots in front of me (further details on myspace), bragging non-stop about his 2-0 correct score bet, waving his coupon around and planning his night out- some consolation for the blow to the goal difference anyway.

April 1st

A couple of things from the papers:

David Jones talking about Michael Johnson's dress sense:

"He's tried to go all old-fashioned gentlemen sort of style. He thinks he's suave, but when he opens his mouth you know he has no class". Charming!

It sounds like the streets of London truly are paved with gold: West Ham's new owner Eggert Magnusson says he won't reduce ticket prices next season even if West Ham are relegated as he reckons the average salary of a West Ham fan to be £60,000 a year! Eggert, I hope you're not counting the bunch who turn up in tracksuits every week and sit behind the dug-out, it might distort your figures a bit.

February to March Journals

December to January Journals

October to November Journals

August to September Journals